Who Is Actually Afraid, Jittery In Abia?

By Godwin Adindu

I am wired to be curious and interested in feedback. Following the recent gatherings in select locations in Abia State, I read statements and comments from the ceremonies’ organisers and supporters, alleging that their events instilled fear and anxiety and caused jitters within government quarters. They characterise the government’s response to the gatherings, which was primarily concerned with public order, as uneasiness, apprehension, and jittery.

But, I dare to ask: who is actually jittery? We were told that the former actors in power have moved on and are pursuing their personal interests. I have read statements accusing Governor Otti of being bitter with the former actors and harbouring open hostility towards them. I have read statements claiming that the Governor has spent his two years in office fighting his predecessor and criticising the previous administration. I have seen heated debates in which the Governor is portrayed as a vendetta agent. These accusers were kind enough to advise the Governor to “face governance, focus on his own programs, and leave the former actors alone.”

However, all of the speeches at the GATHERINGS focused on Governor Otti’s actions and inactions. All of the speeches were innuendos about the Governor’s excesses, his denials of what he saw on the ground, and his claims of victory and glory for all projects without crediting the former actors in power. Who is actually afraid when all speeches were invectives against Governor Otti’s imaginary Messiah claim. Have they truly moved on, despite their inability to overcome the fear of being haunted by their past? When a supposedly Committee of Aides assembly turned out to be a political instigating outreach in which votes were canvassed with statements like “Deliver your booth and leave the rest for us,” is not that a clear statement about a people suffering from a specific type of phobia?

Who is actually afraid when there is no independent agenda or points of discussion, and all speeches focus on accusations against Governor Otti, failing to recognise that government is a continuation of what the former actors of power have already started? When you convene a gathering without an agenda and end up throwing stones at another, I wonder who is afraid.

Ironically, instead of focussing on their own future and having an agenda, the meeting’s discussions were all about Otti and his government. All of the discussions punctured the Governor’s alleged claims. So, who is jittery and afraid in Abia? Is it not those who, two years later, are still reeling from their defeat? Are not those who packaged an escapist comedy making the statement: “We are here after all; we are not dead”? How else can we explain the disguised arrogant posturing besides the gimmicks of those who are afraid of their shadow?

I once read a book titled The Guilty is Afraid.

*Adindu writes from Umuahia