We have read the pedestrian press statement credited to Onyebuchi Ememanka, the former Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, where he laboured in vain to attack the rising popularity of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its Governorship candidate, Chief Eric Opah.
Ordinarily, we would have ignored Ememanka, whose tenure as CPS is remembered only for the army of media aides and the historic looting and non-payment of salaries that defined that administration. But for the sake of posterity, we must set the records straight.
Ememanka’s entire argument is built on a faulty foundation: that Eric Opah’s call for unity in Ngwaland and for a united Abia is “ethnic chauvinism”. How does a call that no LGA will be sidelined amount to chauvinism? How does preaching love for Ngwa brothers and sisters amount to ethnic politics? It is only a divisive mind like Ememanka that will see unity as a threat.
The truth is simple. The APC campaign under Eric Opah is causing sleepless nights in the Otti camp. While they have no message beyond “Otti has done this road”, Eric Opah is traversing the 17 LGAs with a clear blueprint for industrialization, job creation, and human capital development. They have no answer to his message, hence the resort to insults.
Ememanka talks about vision. What vision did his principal have for 8 years? Ngwaland, despite producing the Governor for 8 years, was left in ruins, with unpaid workers, decayed infrastructure, and a mountain of debt. Today, the same Ngwa people are being asked to clap for a government that has brought heavy taxation, demolition of shops in Aba without compensation, and zero empowerment.
He mocks those speaking for Ngwa unity, asking if we are lacking men who can speak for us. The question should be: where were these men when Ngwa roads were death traps for 8 years? Where was Ememanka when his principal owed Ngwa workers months of salaries? A true Ngwa son speaks truth to power, not stomach infrastructure politics.
The 2027 election will indeed be a referendum, but not on Ememanka’s Facebook graphics. It will be a referendum on the high cost of living, on multiple taxation in Ariaria and Ahia Ohuru, on youth unemployment, and on a government that believes governance is about media propaganda.
Eric Opah is not desperate to be Governor. He is a successful businessman, an employer of labour, a man with no baggage of failure. He is offering himself to serve and to unite Abia State — Old Bende, Isuikwuato, Umuahia, Ukwa/Ngwa — as one.
Ememanka should know that no amount of name-calling will stop an idea whose time has come. The Ngwa people are wise. They know those who love them and those who use them only during elections.
Enough of the insults. Abia deserves better.
Signed:
Okechukwu Nkemakolam
Chairman
Ndubuisi Nwosu
Secretary, Ngwa Unity Forum
