By Udo F. Uruakpa
The relative peace existing in Abia state now that the elections, politicking and legal tussles are over should be allowed to be.
This write up is a plea to all Abians. It is an appeal coming on the heels of constant, rampant, disrespectful and distracting calls and write ups in the dailies over our elected leaders. Most of them are coming from our brothers (Abians) who unfortunately failed to be in any elected position either in the state or at the national level after the elections.
For me, it is better that when elections, politics are over, governance comes in. In democracy there is room for constructive opposition (aka constructive criticism). If you water down the hues and cries in the newspapers and online publications by our brothers who did not make it in the last elections, you will discover that they are not critical opposition for Abia politics and stability but people who are disgruntled because they are bad losers. In every race there are winners and losers. Even the scriptures acknowledge this in 1st Corinthians 9:24,”know ye not that they which run a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?”
In a critical and constructive democratic field of play, if the losers wish to form opposition after elections, they are free to do so, so that they can critically analyse certain policies of the government in order to balance democracy and make the people (the led) benefit. The attacks on Senators, the Governor and others do not in any way tell any right thinking person that the disgruntled pool who wage wars on the pages of the newspapers mean well for Abians.
Come to think of it, these people are telling us that had they won, those things that make them to criticise with hate now could not have been there or are they saying that no criticism could have come their way? My answer is NO! All these callings and hates are malicious. It is because they are disappointed. Let me tell them that things which are not fixed now did not start with the present regime. Since a new administration is on board, we should give them a breathing space and see if they can do some fixtures as effectively possible.
The current cries and bickering by our brothers on the pages of newspaper calling for the imperatives of peace and the EFCC to arraign elected leaders and discrediting the achievement of the Governor is not for the good of Abians. It is at worst, creating an atmosphere of cat and dog life in the state.
For obvious reasons, the cat and dog cannot live together. But they are animals while we are human beings. The bible injunction that we live peaceably with all men (Romans 12:18) in our God’s own State, Abia, is more appropriate now.
In the Nigerian setting, elections come every four years. Another one comes in the next three years, 2019 to be precise if our Christ tarries. It therefore behoves on any ambitious Abian who means well, who believes in the stability of the state to be warming up and in the meantime oppose perceived misdirected policies for goodness sake and with a mind-set to help the present leadership to steer the ship of the state to a safer destination.
I make reference to a publication in the Daily Sun Newspaper of Wednesday, 10th February, 2016 in an interview granted Chief B.B. Apugo. Chief B.B. Apugo who attempted to advise Governor Okezie Ikpeazu as a father left that way to attack Sen. T.A. Orji. That is wrong, father Apugo. As if that and other malicious write- ups in the papers by other disgruntled critics are not enough, one Obinna Igwe in the Daily Sun of June 8, 2016 was insulting the incumbent Governor in order to discredit his achievements in one year in office.
I call on the Apugos, Wabaras, Ottis, Obinnas and their supporters (not cohorts) to give peace a chance and let the sleeping dog lie. I am an Abian from Osisioma Ngwa LGA. We are all bonafide owners and stakeholders of the Abia project. To tear the state apart and distract the incumbent Governor and his team amounts to an attack on our prayers for God to kindle peace in the state. In truth it is an attack on Abians. It deviates the goodies that may come our way. The whole thing looks more worrisome and disturbing when you read papers and discover that these our brothers who are spending their money on National dailies are hired for hatchet jobs.
Let us give peace a chance.
*Udo Uruakpa writes from Abuja