The Learned Senior Advocate, Life Bencher and Immediate past Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Abia State,

Kaa Sir,

A RESPONSE TO AN ILL-MOTIVATED POLEMIC

I have, as you advised, “devoted a little time to read and comprehend” your open letter to the Governor of Abia State, Governor Victor Okezie Ikpeazu (PHD). As you are no doubt aware, a popular saying in Ohafia is that the only man that will not speak out on an issue in discourse is the one stretched out in his burial mat.

Arising from the fact that I am alive, awake and enthusiastic about developments in Abia State, I am proceeding to interrogate your open letter to the Governor.

There is yet another reason for my interrogation. While your letter was still being digested your present day ally in APC, former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Johnson Nsiegbe Uzor Kalu, fired his own salvo of lies in self-glorification of a past that only resides in his imagination of what he claimed to have achieved fourteen years ago as Governor.

An understanding of political shadow-boxing shows that your open letter and the cocktail of lies of the former Governor, are choreographed political interventions directed at modulating the 2023 Governorship election in Abia State. I am able to make this connection because in your said letter you made twenty one negative references to the predecessor of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu (PHD), His Excellency, Senator T.A. Orji. As we shall demonstrate hereunder the primary target of your diatribe is the present Deputy Governor of Abia State, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu. However, to get at him you chose the circuitous route of casting a slur on the administration of Governor T. A. Orji in a letter in which you pretended to be doing a critique of the present administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu (PHD).

The climax of your unholy aim is a reference to an un-named and impossible-to-name “… subservient, opportunistic and self-serving politician” whom you alleged has held down the political ambition of young and vibrant politicians of Abiriba and Nkporo communities.

It is well known that in 2015 you strained yourself to become the Deputy to Dr. Victor Okezie Ikpeazu (PHD). You failed! Your desperation assumed a ludicrous dimension in 2019 when, out of the blues, you surreptitiously bought the PDP nomination form for House of Representative, Arochukwu-Ohafia Federal Constituency. Interestingly, you did not resign your position as Attorney General when you bought the form, which meant that you were not qualified to scale the screening exercise. From my corner, I observed to a group of inquisitive politician that you have made history as the first Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a Life Bencher that picked the nomination form of a major political party for a House of Representative seat.

On the day for the screening of aspirants you did not show up but you continued to run from pillar to post to edge out the Deputy Governor until it became clear to you that you had no chances at all for which reason you quietly dropped from the scene. But from that moment your hatred and distaste for the present Deputy Governor was magnified. Not surprisingly, you, in the true character of a Faustian, chose the weekend the Deputy Governor was being honoured by the Ohafia Local Government Council of Traditional Rulers, to launch your ineffective poisoned dart. For those who might not know, the Deputy Governor was honoured on 4th December, 2021 by the traditional rulers of Ohafia of Local. In anticipation of the momentous event, the first of its kind, the missile was dispatched from Abuja, because the Learned Silk and his minders had surmised that the event was a message for 2023 political engagements. Of course, it was well known that the efforts by the negative squad of detractors to ensure that the event did not hold had yielded no result. So, consistent with the style of the former Attorney General, if you cannot get the ball just hit the leg.

For several people who are not close to the details of the political engagements and interactions in Abia State the accursed letter will be largely misunderstood as the work of a concerned Abian because so many will not know that you manufactured a monumental lie in your uncanny voyage of attempting to destroy an innocent man whose only sin is that he trumped you to become the Deputy Governor. What is that lie? Your observation on the Nkporo Road is a manifest lie. It is difficult for me to imagine that you, a native of Okagwe-Ohafia, have not visited Ohafia Local Government since that significant monument of democracy dividend was commissioned. Sadly, your wounded ego led you to manufacture a lie. This is sad.

For me, the deployment of the Machiavellian tactics highlighted above is a sore point and quickly takes away any value from your wake up call. It is, against the above background that I view your attack on the predecessor of the present Governor. Without doubt, it is well known that your obsession to occupy the office of the Deputy Governor, in your view was truncated by the former Governor and or his son, the present Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, Eng. Chinedum Orji to the benefit of the present occupant of the office. This is the reason for the twenty one negative references to a Government you served as Attorney General for six years or more. It is, thus, the height of hypocrisy for you to attempt to clothe yourself like a knight in a shining armor.

Those who are outside Abia State will, no doubt, place value on your wake up call. However, you failed to mention that you are now a member of APC, or at least no longer a member of PDP. When, therefore, you penned the letter it was convenient to pretend that you are an altruistic intervener, while, in fact you are hand-in-glove with your new-found political Godfather of APC, Chief Orji Uzor Johnson Nsiegbe Kalu, to derail the Abia renaissance.

Accordingly, when you deployed the violent words of “idiotic sycophancy” it became another confirmation to me that men attribute to others motives they parade. This is because you are c-in-c of sycophancy. This attribute is made manifest in your claim that you resorted to an open letter because you heard that the Governor does not read sealed letters. It is obvious that those who regaled you with such tales are the multitude of sycophants that feed you with false information to massage your ego. In your desperation to appear real you relied on your crowd of “idiotic sycophants” because it is clear that you did not attempt to verify the information by taking some tentative steps to prove or disprove your source. For a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, a Life Bencher and a-ten-year-in-office-as-Attorney General to rely on “dem say” to act in the manner you have done casts a dark cloud on your capacity to respect the ethical principles that should guide civilized discourse.

Your approach is, therefore, highly deceptive. I am a member of PDP and hold the position of South East Zonal Adviser. Today, the PDP is the only national political party with a robust claim to practicing liberal democracy. That is why I am there and that is a flag I hold unto because with the myriads of problems plaguing Nigerian the PDP remains a veritable platform to make progress in clear contrast to the APC which is taking Nigeria on the path of Fascism.

Finally, it is likely that some will ask questions as to my response to the issues raised by you. My answer will be: from a vile motive no good can be found. Without doubt, I have demonstrated that your letter was ill-motivated. All the issues raised therein have been in public discourse. The letter, therefore, did not take the debate any notch higher. However, for an opportunistic politician with the foul motive of manipulating political discourse for electoral advantage in 2023 all that is foul is fair. Accordingly, my duty is to continue to press for further developmental strides. I will continue to do so without hate, ill-will and in accordance with standards compatible with democratic practices.

Ukpai O. Ukairo Esq.
South East Legal Adviser, PDP