Politics is in the air. Gladiators have presented themselves for consideration as candidates for election into various offices and they are traversing the state campaigning for the offices they have set their sights on.

As is normal in political contests, some of the rhetoric have come with a foreboding of impending crisis should the gladiators not emerge after the process. A student of politics will tell you that it is all part of the game but a note of caution, care must be taken not to rupture the prevailing political and social peace in Abia State.

A background will suffice at this juncture. In the not too distant past, a pall of crisis hung over Abia State. The state government and her officials were locked in a perpetual war of attrition with indigenes of the state mostly resident in Abuja who were at loggerheads with the governor over the control of the political structure. Invariably, because the state government was at loggerheads with the Presidency, the Abuja gladiators had the overt and tacit backing of the Presidency and they deployed that backing to maximum effect by leveraging on Federal agencies to work with them in undermining the state government and thus, having an upper hand in the battle for supremacy in Abia State.

While this state of affairs subsisted, a large swath of influential sons and daughters of Abia State did not see eye to eye with the governor and the effect was that they did not participate in governance at the state level and Abia was robbed of the opportunity to have all their sons and daughters of influence pulling in the same direction for the ultimate good of the state.

This was the state of affairs almost throughout the 8-year tenure of Governor Orji Uzor Kalu and for a better part of the first 4 years of incumbent Governor Theodore Orji’s tenure.

Then came a significant paradigm shift in the year 2010 when Governor Theodore Orji chose to align with the mainstream Peoples Democratic Party and by so doing, coalesce virtually all known influential politicians in Abia State under one political family. By that political masterstroke, a new lease was introduced into Abia State and for the first time, all her sons and daughters with varying influences were travelling in the same direction. Abians who hitherto were not coming home or when they did, always in an atmosphere of tension were now free to come and go as they pleased.

Regular consultative sessions with these influential stakeholders were introduced and they are being carried along in the governance of Abia State. Indeed, whenever there is a need to speak for Abia state or pursue matters beneficial to Abia State, everybody who should speak always speak with one voice.

It is doubtful if any other state enjoys the kind of political unity prevalent in Abia State.

This rapprochement came with the added advantage of a cordial relationship with the President and the entire Presidency by extension such that where hitherto, developments that concerned Abia State were spitefully relegated or killed on arrival in Abuja, they are now enjoying prompt attention. Abians have since benefited from important federal appointments and key federal initiatives and projects and the possibilities are now endless because those who would have hitherto blocked such developments on account of their political disagreement with the state governor are now on the same page with him. It wasn’t always so.

Usually, when people praise the performance of Governor Theodore Orji, they point at the tangibles such as roads and other infrastructures but it can be argued that Governor Orji’s most important achievement has been to create an atmosphere of political peace and unity in the state.

The other intangible but very important achievement would be in the area of restoring security to Abia State after the dark days of kidnapping and sundry violent crimes.

This second achievement is easily traceable to the first. Because of the rapport between the Governor and the Presidency, it was easy to get the President to authorise the deployment of soldiers to Abia State to restore order and it was those soldiers who effectively routed the criminals who held the state hostage. Again, because of that cordial relationship, a son of Abia State in the person of Lt. Gen. Azubuike Ihejirika was appointed Chief of Army Staff and it was thus easy for him to carry out the Presidential mandate of chasing kidnappers out of Abia State. Indeed, it is on record that General Ihejirika personally led some of the onslaughts against the strongholds of the kidnappers and spent his Christmas holidays in the bushes of Abia State with the soldiers who were on the frontline. It is doubtful if a non-Abian would have done that and if we would have recorded the successes we did within the time frame.

On the basis of the foregoing, it has thus become imperative to appeal to politicians in Abia State to ensure that we do not go back to the unproductive days of quarrels and disagreements. While all of the gladiators are eminently qualified to aspire to the offices they seek, care must be taken not to assume the stance of ‘it is either I get it or we go to war’.

Governor Theodore Orji must be commended for his ability to bring most Abia political heavyweights under one umbrella pulling in the same direction for the ultimate good of the state. While it is a tall order to expect all political gladiators to accept the outcome of the primaries process currently ongoing, necessity is laid on the gladiators to rise above their self-interest and be high-minded enough to accept that the state will suffer should another round of political crisis be inflicted on her.

It is God that gives power and irrespective of who emerges and the circumstances of his or her emergence, if God does not ordain it, they won’t emerge. Thus, this call is for politicians in Abia State to be gracious in defeat and magnanimous in victory to minimise the likelihood of crisis after the primaries.

As Abians, our creed should be ‘Never again would we go back to the days of rancour and acrimony’. As the popular Igbo song goes, ‘nee ka osi di mma, mmeko, ke umunne’. We are all brothers and sisters and we must ensure that we internally resolve any emerging crisis to protect our state from losses arising from political enimities.

Sam Hart wrote from Umuahia.

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