By Ferdinand Ekeoma
Hypocrisy is the homage Vice pays to Virtue-Francoid de Rochefacaould.
Just five months ago PDP was in power; Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu was Governor and Johh Okiyi Kalu was Commissioner for Information and Later Commissioner for Trade and Investment
As Commissioner, Okiyi was at the forefront of defending the most indefensible atrocities of the PDP govenment. He bullied innocent workers with lies and disinformation while Ikpeazu owed several months of salary and pension arrears accross all government institutions.
The Core and non Core Civil Servant slogan of subjugation was Okiyi Kalu’s creation. It gave him so much joy as long as it denied the workers what was due to them while he lived large.
While Governor Otti battles to clear the humongous mess left behind by the government Okiyi Kalu served, Governor Otti will never attempt to describe Abia workers as non core civil servants neither will he ever treat them with disdain. Governor Otti will fulfil every single promise he made to Abia workers.
As Commissioner for Information, Johh Okiyi Kalu defended the cruelty of the Ikpeazu government when they destroyed hundreds of houses belonging to innocent citizens at Port Harcourt road Aba without paying a dime in compensation. The same government also failed to build the road in question. When residents of the area, especially those whose houses were no where near the road cried out and protested, Okiyi Kalu mocked, bullied and shut them up with lies and media propaganda.
Many of the victims of that unjust action are not alive today to witness the commencement of construction work on Port Harcourt road today by Governor Alex Otti, but they would certainly be happy in their graves and proud of the Governor they voted for in the past.
Okiyi Kalu and his masters know who would be hunted by the blood of those innocent people forced to their untimely graves.
The same Johh Okiyi Kalu is alive to witness the payment of Compensation even to those who owned shanties at Ossah Road Umuahia by the Alex Otti led-government.
I’m sure Okiyi Kalu has seen the difference between honest engagement and dishonest disengagement.
Could it be that Hypocrisy means something else in the dictionary of these destroyers of Abia?
As Commissioner, Okiyi Kalu witnessed and supported the destruction and illegal take over of many shops at Ariaria Market belonging to innocent people who were dribbled, deceived and given the false impression that they would regain their shops on completion.
Many of these shop owners waited to see this project come to fruition, unfortunately the construction was done at a snail speed and two years after, some of the shop oweners passed on because of economic hardship and frustration. It was discovered just three months ago that the very few structures they managed to raise were handed over to their cronies leaving the real owners to cry and protest. It took the intervention of Governor Alex Otti through the Honourable Commissioner for Trade and Commerce for a relief to come to the victims.
If the government Okiyi Kalu served and defended didn’t turn the Local Government system into an enclave of corruption where the most heinous heists took place, Governor Otti would have found a decent and organised Local Government system to deal with, sadly Okiyi Kalu expected the Governor to have hurriedly started dumping the LGA allocations without sanitising the place so that their cronies would continue to use the tainted template of fraud left behind by the previous government to receive and divert funds while the LGAs suffer underdevelopment.
One of the grounds for Johh Okiyi Kalu’s infantile attacks on Governor Otti was that his government doesn’t come on air and social media to announce and publish the amount of money received as monthly allocation.
This is one of the most naive, shildish and unintelligent demands coming from a former Commissioner who got so addicted to propaganda to the point of using it to replace practical governance.
In case Okiyi Kalu has lost his sense of reasoning and comprehension, let me remind him that monthly allocation is statutory and is published by the Federal Government which shows what every state receives. So which other publication is he talking about?
Dishonest men in governance have a way of packaging their activities to appear transparent and genuine in the eyes of the people while indulging in destructive theft behind the scenes.
What Abians expect from the state government is to use what is due to the state to work for Abians and not to dramatise on social media and on the pages of news papers in the name of publications, since we didn’t see the economic and developmental impacts of such fake and deceitful publications since 1999.
What the government is under obligation to publish is budget implementations of various MDAS through the appropriate channels in line with extant laws and rules.
I didn’t need any funny publications from Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu and Joh Okiyi Kalu to know that Ohafia Local Government where John Okiyi Kalu comes from received over 18 Billion Naira (Eighteen Billion Naira) in LGA monthly allocations during Ikpeazu’s eight years as governor, yet you cannot see a project of 200 Million Naira in the entire LGA.
Out of this money, Abiriba Kingdom where Okiyi Kalu hails from was supposed to receive at least N1.6 billion for the three wards. Note: I’m talking about local government allocations and not funds from the state..
What if the revered and accomplished people of Abiriba decide to sue Ikpeazu and John Okiyi Kalu today for alleged diversion of their funds? Abiriba people are known for detesting internal sabotage so i think they should bring their son to justice for being an accomplice in the betrayal of the Kingdom.
Let me restate that while Governor Alex Otti was elected to serve all Abians accross political, sectional and religious lines, it’s an insulting audacity for the morally debased undertakers of yesterday to think that their feeding bottle induced fury and nihilistic tantrums can diminish the Governor or erase the visible signature of inspiring progressive and people oriented governance being carried out by his government.
