By Chuks Omesie
Today I want to talk about Ikuku. Ha ha!! you said talk about who? Yes, I want to talk about Ikuku, and what Ikuku has been silent about for a period of 8 years., Nawooo!!! Anyway let’s read what you’re trying to say….
Is Ikuku a victim, victim of what? presumptuous sin I guess. Maybe this article will give you an idea why this question is being asked and then you can make your judgement.
By the way, who is ikuku? Okay, don’t let me bother you with speculations. His real name is Rt. Hon.Chinedum Enyinnaya Orji, the son of the former Governor TA Orji of Abia State, he was also the former Speaker of the Abia House of Assembly and was once one of the most interested actors in the PDP in Abia.
Do you know that Rt. Honorable Chinedu Orji Alias Ikuku Ochendo may not be guilty of everything he was accused of during the Ikpeazu government. Anyway, keep reading and reflect, let’s solve it now, so that we know if you will continue to cling to the absurd (c*ck and bull) stories of the Ikpeazu government..
Ikuku was somewhat misunderstood and mispressented, although he should blame himself for that. He kept silent at that time when he would have voiced out. There is a popular saying that he who remains silent on an issue has accepted it, in Igbo dialect it is said that onye gbara nkiti ekwerela. Maybe he felt good about it, I wouldn’t know, as if it was a way of praising him, and since it looked like he felt good about it without holding back and correcting the impression, the narrative continues. He exposed himself too much, fighting necessary and unnecessary fights to protect the government he fought to win, thus allowing Ikpeazu’s “food is ready” brothers to take advantage of him.
That was how the gossip and label that Ikuku was fully behind Ikpeazu’s poor performance in government was put on him and then it spread throughout the state. And Gov. Ikpeazu and his other cliques, being cunning, used that intentional gossip as leverage to plunder the soul, body and spirit of Abia’s treasury, portraying Ikuku as the cause of their underperformance.
The consequences would later turn into hatred from many people and justification for the loss he suffered during the last election. Something he misread, he thought that it would have portrayed him as the strongest and most fearsome politician in Abia at the time, later hurt him badly.
Although in the last few minutes to the 2023 election, Ikuku was between the opinions of speaking out to correct the wrong impression about him, in order to remove the bad label that had been given to him, but those who worked with him at that time and the help he requested were not enough to save the situation.
Any lessons on this: Yes, the same lesson that a mosquito mother taught her children, that some of those who you ignorantly believe or said clapping for you, actually do not. Also, “ozokwa” silence is not always golden at all times.
Anyway, can you tighten your seatbelts? let me for the first time pilot you further to another perspective of Ikuku, an open Ikuku story that some of his allies have pretended to ignore. Ikuku, the man who many Abians thought was completely an antagonist of good governance in Abia and also believed to be behind Ikpeazu’s poor performance in government.
I do not claim to know all the profound things that happened during Ikpeazu’s rule, but I think sometimes people need to speak up when they see something that seems to have judged someone almost incorrectly. This forensic audit released by Governor Otti is an eye opener, it reveals a lot of things and at the same time refutes some of the beliefs that many have had in the past about someone like Ikuku who many people criminalized in their minds.
Can I digress a little? If yes, as always, let me quote this scripture to put more emphasis on where I am heading; Psalm 19:13 “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me: Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression”.
What is a presumptuous sin? This is a sin that every indiscernible mind can easily commit, believing everything bad about someone when in reality it is not so.
Presumptuous sin comes from the word presume and is a situation where in your mind you are thinking that a particular person is committing a crime or has already committed a crime when the person is not actually committing the entire crime that was imposed on him.
In a situation where you have the wrong impression about someone. You may have it in your mind that someone is a criminal when that person may not be. When you are making a completely wrong judgment against someone, whether in your mind or your words, or by your actions or relationship with the person, being negative about someone, due to your wrong assumptions or rumors when the person is somewhat innocent.
Ikuku was a victim of this during the 8 years of Ikpeazu rule.
What was the cause? Ikuku somehow misunderstood the nature of some typical Abia politicians and their camouflages, perhaps he was thinking that everyone who praised him to his face and told him made-up stories and gossip could be considered friends or allies, without being smart enough to to understand that he was being used to achieve some individual evil motives. That is the situation of the man called Ikuku Ochendo in Abia from May 2015 to May 2023.
There was a day I pinched myself and screamed chai! so somewhat wrong stories were sold about this man. It was the day that some of the assembly members were cornered to impeach Ikuku who was the honourable speaker of the house at that time but Ikuku resisted and frustrated the impeachment attempts.
Within that time, there were chats allegedly between Governor Okezie and one of his special assistant supposedly Hon. Uchenna Erondu that were leaked. It may be that Ikpeazu released it intentionally to show that he was not part of the impeachment game plan. Of course we understood he was not telling the truth, because you can read in those chats where Erondu himself tried to justify the attempted impeachment as something the governor earlier permitted, telling the governor that he had done thousands of tasks for him, trying to question why the governor did not want to own up the assignment he gave them.
Also, part of that chat conversation read; you don’t want to consider my own image in this matter, have you not made more money than me in my government. (Maybe on the line, Governor Ikpeazu understands himself) I was just a few days away from leaving the office, and you want me to be in the negative news by starting a fresh fight. What will people say: that his father helped me become governor and I impeached his son. You and the CO should not come to see me because I won’t recognize your own speaker. These and much more were contained in the chat.
I shouted chai again and wondered, asking myself this question; does it mean that Gov. Ikpeazu believed leadership was about making money for himself? And for Erondu, it was about bringing down Ikuku to give them space to continue squeezing the state and at the same time making the people of Abia feel that Ikuku was entirely the cause of Ikpeazu’s poor performance in government. Your guess will be as good as mine anyway.
After the failed impeachment and chats were leaked, some people were saying; imagine, Erondu was working with the APC gubernatorial candidate in 2015 and was recruited during the rerun of some of the electoral units in that 2015 election in Abia. They wondered why he allegedly benefited so much in a government he did not campaign for from the beginning. Anyway, I also join them in the question, but I’m not one of those who believed the rumors that “do as I say juju-charms” was used to manipulate the governor.
Come on guys and dear readers, sorry for taking so long, I know you can’t wait for me to summarize this article, well let’s get there. With all my mumbo-jumbo, you can now judge whether Ikuku is a victim of a presumptuous sin or not. Gov. Ikpeazu and his cliques were busy looting the state treasury, failing to provide vital facilities for the development of the state, but they used Ikuku as an excuse, presenting him as the cause of their poor performance.
You can imagine how they presented the construction of an airport for the state and used it to loot the sum of N10 billion Naira, you can imagine the names of the construction companies and their directors to whom Ikpeazu awarded the contracts, I think, until now, you would have expected Ikuku to have a stake in the companies that were awarded the contracts, but that’s not the case.
Actually, I am not defending Ikuku or saying that he doesn’t have his own deficiencies, but based on the latest audit report released by Governor Alex, it will be difficult not to conclude that it was like Okezie looted the state with his friends and brothers, but they used Ikuku’s name as a scapegoat.
Imagine that audit report again, did you see that people whose names you barely hear and their companies in public spaces are the main beneficiaries, they are given billions of naira contracts and used to siphon off funds while some almost innocent people are demonized? If that’s not what happened, please refute me with broader facts. They sold Ikuku to the public as a bad man, while in the real sense they are the ones who committed most of the embezzlement of state resources.
This goes a long way to defining Ikpeazu as a silent betrayer who deserves to take all the blame and face the law if found guilty. However, he is not ashamed, instead of staying calm, you saw him running to the media to defend 10 billion that they just looted yesterday as if it was just the only fund managed by his government. Many thanks to Governor Otti for this audit report which exposed alot, today, as the composer sang; Adam say, our eyes don clear, Adam say our eyes don open. Indeed, our eyes don open..
Let me stop here to continue with further exposition on Ikuku in politics in the second part of this article. I know you can’t wait to read the part 2.
Thanks for reading
My name is Chuks Omesie
Alias Chuks Digits
I am an Abia who likes to analyze local political activities in my own way.
