I read with dismay and utter disgust an article by a blogger named John Nwigwe on the 9th of June, 2023 in a blog known as easterntruth.com in which the writer concocted all manner of innuendoes, lies, falsehoods and propaganda purportedly in an attempt to cast the young, energetic, amiable and hard-working deputy governor of Abia State Engr Ikechukwu Emetu in bad light and create a discord and bad blood in the harmonious relationship that exists between him and the executive governor.

In the said write-up he referenced the deputy governor and likened him to the infamous king Herod who killed little infants of two years and below for the fear of a king being born among them that will challenge his throne. He purported that if unchecked Engr Emetu will become more powerful and popular than the executive governor. He caressed the emotions of the governor but berated him for brewing a King Herod in the person of his deputy. He called the deputy governor all manner of names, including “an educated illiterate”, “agbero” (tout), “a Warri Boy”, etc.

He accused the deputy governor of weilding autocratic powers by alluding to the arrest of Chief Chijioke Amaku, the Chairman of one of the market associations in Aba. He also accused the deputy governor of meddling in the affairs of some of the agencies in the state. Specifically, he mentioned Abia State College of Education (Technical) and the School of Health Technology in Aba, in both of which he accused the deputy governor of trying to hijack the leadership of the institutions and install his own stooges. He went further to accuse the deputy governor of granting an unknown and unnamed individual called Abacha authority to bring back street traders to Isigate and collect tolls from them without any form of receipts or documentations.  

Ordinarily I would not have bothered to respond to these puerile outbursts by an infantile blogger who is obviously seeking popularity and is probably acting as a paid agent for some disenchanted and disgruntled individuals or groups. But as a concerned Abian who has been disoriented with the way and manner this beautiful state has been grossly mismanaged in the past two and a half decades and who has been a very vocal champion for change for the past ten years or so and who has now seen a ray of light, a beacon of hope and the beautiful signs of sun shining at the end of the tunnel I cannot sit back and watch while the laudable efforts and very visible and pragmatic steps that this new government is making is rubbished by naysayers and agents of distabilisation. It is worthy of note to state that the office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Governor has responded appropriately. Nevertheless, I am obliged to add an independent, unbiased and dispassionate voice.

There is a popular saying that evil persists in the land when good people keep quiet. We the good citizens of Abia will no longer keep quiet and watch the agents of darkness and destabilisation wreck havock on this *God’s Own State* – Never again!!!. We will counter every evil and negative move they make and set the records straight with facts and figures. We are in a hurry to reclaim and rebuild Abia.

As far as ndi Abia are concerned there is absolutely no truth in the venoms secreted by John Nwigwe in his blog. We are very pleased and proud of the harmonious relationship that exists between the executive governor and his deputy. This is a very young government of just three weeks old and so far they are doing extremely well. Never have ndiabia witnessed this pace of pragmatic approach to governance, except maybe during the regime of the first executive governor of the state Dr Ogbonnaya Onu which was unfortunately short-lived due to a military coup. For starters the highly cerebral, experienced and astute technocrat like Dr Alex Otti OFR would not have chosen a young man in the person of Engr Ikechukwu Emetu to be his deputy if he has not seen virtue and value in him.

Engr Ikechukwu Emetu is an alumnus of the Government Secondary School, Ketu, Lagos and a Petroleum engineer from the prestigious Federal University of Technology, Owerri. He is a thorough bred professional and a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. He was working as the only Well Engineer at the Nigerian Westminster Dredging and Marine Ltd, Delta State before Dr Otti headhunted him to be his deputy. He is only 38 years of age. Engr Ikechukwu Emetu is the son of Sir and Lady Martins Emetu of Amaekpu, Ohafia. His father is a successful professional and businessman and a member of the distinguished and honoured Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba Nigeria. Incidentally, he is the Grand Knight of the Ohafia Sub Council. This buttresses the fact of the kind of home Engr Emetu was born into and his humble background. He is well educated, had a high flying job and a prosperous career and comes from a well brought up and deeply religious home. They are Catholics to the core. He cannot under any circumstances whatsoever be referred to as an “educated illiterate” or an “agbero”. If anything these titles totally befits the person calling him those names because obviously he did not do his research. He does not know who he was talking about. He does not know where he comes from and definitely does not know where he is headed.

John Nwigwe betrayed his little or no knowledge at all about the workings of government. In our democracy the executive governor wields enormous powers. He merely delegates powers, duties and responsibilities to his deputy and his deputy cannot do anything without the knowledge and approval of his Principal. Engr Emetu, in all the instances mentioned by the attention seeking blogger was directed by the governor to carry out those assignments and indeed he carried them out with surgical precision. I am quite certain that Dr Otti will be very proud that he chose Engr Emetu as his deputy.

Before now we were all witnesses to the ineptitude, arrogance, brigandage and impunity with which several market Unions officials operated in the state. To make matters worse all the monies, levies and tolls they collect from the market never make it into government coffers as they are all appropriated into the personal pockets of the union leaders yet they expect government to fix and maintain the roads and all the amenities and infrastructures within their environment. It is this rascality, thugry, decadence and malfeasance that the government of Dr Alex Otti sought to dismantle. The government issued directives to all market Unions in the state to stop forthwith the collection of tolls from the citizens which the so called Chief Chijioke Amaku refused to heed, hence the directive that he should be arrested. No responsible government will sit bye and allow non state actors to take laws into their own hands. We are not in a banana republic.

The governor dissolved all boards of the MDAs in the state as is customary for every new government and directed the Chief Executives to handover to the most senior officers. This is exactly what the deputy governor was enforcing. There is no way he could have singled out any particular individual to takeover the helm of affairs in the agencies mentioned.

The city centre in Umuahia popularly called Isigate is a huge shame and an eyesore and does not befit the status of a state capital. Unfortunately, this is part of the rot of the past 24 years which this new government inherited. To give it a face-lift with concomitant redesign and reconstruction that will follow the government directed all street traders and urchins to leave the area. Umuahia has to be remodelled into a Central Business District (CBD) to bring it to the status of a modern capital city in the same way that Aba has to be remodelled into an iconic commercial nerve centre and Japan of Africa. This major upgrades will definitely come with some measure of discomfort to the citizens in the short term.

The deputy governor himself was at Isigate personally informing and asking the traders to relocate to other places. How could he now turn around to ask an unknown individual to go to the same place and bring back the street traders and collect tolls from them? At best this mechination is coming from the weird mind of a deranged person.

On behalf of the millions of the long suffering and good people of Abia I am hereby advising John Nwigwe and his sponsors to desist from their inglorious sojourn of attempting to put a discord between our hard-working and performing governor and his able and amiable deputy. They do not need any form of distractions whatsoever from any quarters. The job of fixing the disjointed, decapitulated and dilapidated state of Abia is quite enormous. We need them to be astutely focused to fix Abia. Vox populi vox dei, so says a Latin Maxim – the voice of the people is the voice of God. If they refuse to listen to the voice of reason then we the good citizens of Abia will descend on them with the forceful eruption of a volcanic vengeance. We are in a hurry to reclaim Abia.

He who has ears let him hear. A word is enough for the wise. 

I am the Oracle, I have spoken.

Prince Ikenna Charles Oham KSM

#TheOracle

ikennaoham@gmail.com