The aphorism that ‘when an egg breaks the palm kernel, the stone feels inferior’ cannot be more appropriate than in the context of this article where the patriotic services of a rare public servant in Obinna Oriaku was saddistically misunderstood by illiputians and vampires as they traded on lies, innuendoes, half-truths and falsehood to justify a bad image they tried to create of his person . But as we already know, lies and propaganda can only last for a while, as truth remains everlasting. And the pillars of their lies and propaganda is crashing as participants in that charade are falling out and in shame.
It is indeed on record that before the emergence of this patriot in the last administration where he diligently served as the Commissioner for Finance, the state was in a great condition of financial comatose considering the recession; a lumbering behemoth with a lot of financial possibilities that have been circumvented by unspeakable greed and avarice.
As he assumed office, knowing fully well about the strategic importance of the finance ministry where he held sway,
series of initiatives were undertaken to ensure high level of financial prudence and accountability in all MDAs, understanding that our then wage obligations were almost same with our receipts from Federal allocation. This was indeed after a high powered visitation of the Governor, himself, Mr Emeka Ononiwu and Dr. Chukwuma Agu for the world Bank and other multilateral agencies to review their position on Abia, since none of their presence were seen in the state then.
Essentially, the outcome of these initiatives were the biometric capture/verification of the entire civil servants and automation of salary/pension payment and realignment of Parastatals payments. Added to the above was the review and audit of all the Parstarals identifying their challenges for more efficiency and effectivity. There was also the review of abuse of restoration policy of by civil servant (Teachers). More so was the review of the overtime payment and other related frauds in civil service. We also saw the review report of Judiciary workers reform ,finally was the disarticulation of Asubeb to its original Local government position.
Indeed, these efforts were not exercises in futility as the enormous benefits brought about by these initiatives and reforms were there for all to see even though most of the recommendations of these reports are yet to be fully implemented.
However, against the above stated background, these illiputians and vampires that held the State down decided to peddle such lies inter alia; that since Mr. Obinna left office, their salaries and subventions are now promptly being paid; that the innocent servant only paid his contractor friends and such was the reason their salaries were not being paid initially on time.They may not know that the state was laid back because we were running on a monthly recycling TOD of 3.7b which made it practically impossible for salaries to be paid within same month as they had to wait for a new month for the bank to renew the TOD..I understand the processes last upto 4th of a new month They were not told that its same Obinna Oriaku that supervised and concluded the repayment/ restructuring of the N3.7b in the month of June which freed the State accounts coupled with the change of FAAC meeting date from 27th of every month to 17th of every month by the Federal govt…This means that on 20th of every month allocation hit our accounts. This change of date affected the other 36 States … But the million dollar question to the vampires..’What has changed now’?… Why are there strike threats etc from every union in the State.
Moreover, have all the arrears then and now been fully paid since Obinna was the problem or are we growing their numbers? Such were the regrettable propaganda sold from the pit of hell but it has come crashing today. Even as a pensioner, I am disappointed more than ever before because I thought that my pension arrears would have been cleared by now as we were told after the unceremonious ouster of Obinna Oriaku from Abia but today, the matter is even worse as we have many distortions even among the months being counted as paid…
The rhetoric continued; Mr. Obinna was not paying every “manufactured” cheque because he was prioritizing those that have common benefits. Today, how many contractors are on site? This is the very first time in dry season almost all sites are dry and vacant. They had thought the then Finance Commissioner was the problem but regrettably he was only moving against the tide just to ensure things change for better.
On payment of vouchers they thundered that he withheld approved payment from the Governor……..Really …How can he stand down an instruction from a Governor and held sway for four years .. But today have all those outstandings he allegedly refused to pay been paid or have they decidedly gone silent because he is no longer the incumbent? Lies indeed don’t last; but truth everlastingly prevails.
To make matter worse, they fabricated that he amassed provocative wealth as a Commissioner but with all your searchlight and effort to silence him after 4 years they couldn’t pin down one fraud against him to substantiate such claims till date.
The truth remains that Obinna oriaku was only a reformer and must make enemies which he wasn’t afraid of about because no well meaning reformer can succeed without these enemies. He was genuinely concerned and focused and made enemies just to ensure his Boss succeeds where others failed. Even in the Scripture when the temple was to be rebuilt by Nehemiah, the scandalous works of Sanbalat and Tobiah didn’t hamper such task. Rather the more they manipulated, the higher the temple was raised.
Today its clear to us that his efforts were towards addressing the structural/ fundamental problems of governance in the State instead of the normal cosmetic approach which has always failed the State over time.
Today we are now aware that issues or non payment of salaries are fundamental and goes beyond the whoever is the Commissioner of Finance..What will guarantee prompt payment of salaries and pension are embedded in rejigging/ realignment of the template of governance in Abia as stated in that controversial interview which tried for the first time to open the hidden facts about our dilemma as a State…
Regrettably, the unpleasant outcome for liars and propagandists is that as they keep advancing their gospel of lies to cover up initial lies and eventually the Pandora’s box of truth is finally opened, they dramatically loose their importance and fame around their pay masters. While the innocent they try to lie against or demarket will rather keep advancing in fame, status, position and affluence. What a right judgement of divinity?
Above all, Obinna Oriaku has since moved on to engage with other salient businesses of his life and mutatis mutandis shall reemerge into the political scene more victorious than we expect …Breeze has blown open the anus of the chicken…We now know the shape and size…..God will reclaim Abia State
Elder Akwarandu, a pensioner in Abia writes.
