Your Excellency, Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State. The news of your birthday billed to be hosted in Aba, Abia State, on October 12, 2013, but was apparently cancelled by Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji of the state, only came to me as a shock, but not as a surprise.
My not being surprised is owing to the governor?s behavioural antecedents against those he has had political frictions with, which you happen to be one of the persons.
Some of us who have been following events as they unfold in the ill-fated government of Gov. Orji, know that the man will end at nothing to illustrate childish beahviour against his rivals, even when such persons have grown-up or posed such event as birthday to expose the man, because he fights things worth fighting for and those worthless to fight for.
For instance, Gov. T.A Orji previously went to the National Chairman of the People?s Democratic Party (PDP), with his bunch of yesmen in Abia State, to stop Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu (the finger that fed him he has continued to bite mindlessly), when Kalu wanted to rejoin the party.
Gov. Orji also spearheaded the Abia State University?s senate, to withdraw Kalu?s degree and many animosities he has shown to Kalu. But in all these, Kalu continues to have his way without all the plans of the enemy working against him as planned, while Gov. Orji continues to be-unsuccessful woefully, in his unfriendly strategies against his political foes.
Cancelling your birthday by Gov. T.A Orji has further proved me right that the man is unrepentant. Yet, he poses as a Christian.
This is why I have always asked the federal government to disabuse a section in its Constitution, which regulates Nigerians to either, be Muslim or Christian, to enable us understand where persons like Gov. T.A Orji belong to.
Gov. Orji?s unforgiving habit portrays him as somebody, who is far from being a Christian, or an Igbo Traditionalist. His behavior is far from holding unto Justice and Equity, which are the symbols of Igbo Traditionalists. This man is something else. So, you don?t have to pay an impious person in his or her own coin.
In ?All Men are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections?, Mahatma Gandhi said: ?The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.? Gandhi, perhaps, was writing about Gov. Orji, as the weak, who can never forgive and you, the strong, who has forgiven him, by proposing to use his state as a place to celebrate your birthday, but he cancelled it.
It is because of this habit of his that our state has remained abysmally shambled in his administration, because in ?Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience?, Steve Maraboli wrote that ?The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.? And our state under Gov. Orji is not moving forward.
But my happiness is that we have democracy, because I would not have known what Governor Orji could have become, if he were in the military. This is a man who has caused Ndi-Abia immeasurable damage, by chasing out other Igbo brethrens, who are not from Abia State, from the state?s Civil Service and never blinks, upon the pitiably cry and admonishment from different quarters that his action was unbecoming of the Live and Lets Live belief known of Ndigbo. But he wants to live alone. So be it for him.?Haaam!
Your Excellency, perhaps, you would like to know what Joel Osteen wrote in ?Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential?. Whenever I read this portion from Osteen, my mind goes to Gov. Orji, because his behaviours depict what the author wrote thus: ?Keep in mind, hurting people often hurt other people as a result of their own pain. If somebody is rude and inconsiderate, you can almost be certain that they have some unresolved issues inside. They have some major problems, anger, resentment, or some heartache they are trying to cope with or overcome. The last thing they need is for you to make matters worse by responding angrily.?
Gov. Orji?s action against you has shown that he does the negative with impunity. If he could do this to you, imagine the fate of the ?common man? in the streets of Abia State.
I have always told the world that his government is just different from that of the military only in the civilian garb that Gov. Orji wears. He has further shown that he cannot guaranty the residents of Abia State their constitutionally fundamental rights. He has shown how he denies our people their fundamental human rights and freedom to assemble and associate.
Hinging his crass point for cancelling your birthday on the lies that you want to launch APC in Abia State, he forgot that the party is a legally registered political party that has the right of admittance to any state in the country and has the right to admit any person from any state in the country.
Gov. Orji would not stop to abuse power odorously. He has been a disciple of a ?do or die? politics. He sees those that tell him the truth as enemies, but those that tell him lies, as friends. He does not see other Igbo people not from Abia State as one people with the Igbo in his state.
Because of his iniquitous behaviours against Ndi-Abia, he was nearly stoned to death during the festival of the death of Dim Odumegwu Ojukwu, at Aba. After that incident and he escaped unhurt, he resorted to using the military to disgrace the residents, with multiple taxes he always imposes on them to pay. But as providence had it, the same soldiers purportedly beat his son, Chinedu Orji (a.k.a Ikuku) to pulp, in Capital Supermarket, Umuahia, because of his known crudity.
Dear Governor Okorocha, I?m just having headache writing you about your fellow governor called T.A Orji. He thought that he would buy the heart of President Goodluck Jonathan by not allowing you from the APC to celebrate in his state. The same Gov. Orji has not paid Abia poly staffs for 5 months now. I?m not talking about the N3, 000.00 tax his government has imposed on every Keke riders. I am not talking about those of the buildings and co. in our state. The so-called Umuahia Market is for 500,000.00 for each trader. Do you know?
Governor Okorocha, it is my firm belief that you have forgiven Gov. Orji, because he operates like a hypnotized person. I?ve told you of how he is quarreling with everybody he has had political or social differences with. I have told you of how he is imposing levies here and there in our state. I have told you of how he is using the security operatives to intimidate our people, and many more. With all these, I think you have no right not to forgive a man who is behaving like this. Please, forgive. Thanks.
Odimegwu Onwumere?is a Poet/Writer, writes from Rivers State.
