By Dodoh Okafor


1. His Excellency Sir, I bring you greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is my hope that this letter meets you well. 

2. I know you are a very busy man so I would go straight to the meat of the matter. It concerns our dear state, its present, future and your legacy as one of the very few men to have had the privilege of presiding over the affairs of millions of people. 

3. You may or may not be aware that your chief of staff (operating through an unregistered NGO with a non-existent office address) has sent the police on my trail ostensibly for "insulting President Buhari." 

4. His Excellency sir, you and I are aware that there is no Buhari in this matter. Your chief of staff, Mr Anthony Agbazuere, working through aliases, is leaving no stone unturned to silence those of us who have been asking a few questions concerning your stewardship at Government House Umuahia. 

5. You are certainly aware that Mr Emperor Ogbonna, a well known human rights activist in the state has been in detention since March on the instruction of Mr Agbazuere. 

6. All sorts of funny and idle allegations have been brought against Mr Ogbonna including "insulting Buhari," being a member of IPOB and cyber stalking. 

7. You are no legal expert sir but as a very educated man, you know that these allegations have no weight before the law. As I hinted earlier, Mr Ogbonna's only crime is demanding that the resources belonging to the people must be deployed to improving the lots of Abians. 

8. His Excellency it is a blight on your government that an Abian is being hounded for expressing his political views. How would history record this absurdity? 

9. Does it make sense that you sacrificed your own brother, an Item man to Abuja political sharks simply because he joined those of us who protested in February against the wanton looting of the state's resources by the Theodore Orji family as reported in several national dailies? 

10. Dear Governor, Mr Ogbonna's wife is heavily pregnant. Recently it was reported that his daughter nearly committed suicide over the trauma of missing her dad. Replace "Ogbonna" with "Ikpeazu" and think about it for a few minutes. 

11. Was this what you told Bende people when you sought their votes in 2015 and 2019? That their son would be incarcerated for months if he dares ask questions? 

12. I would encourage you to think about the judgment of history as you read this. Do not be cynical here His Excellency. All it would take to free Mr Ogbonna from the gulag is a phone call from you. Why not do that now sir? 

13. Away from Mr Ogboona sir, I turn attention to other matters currently in the front burner in Abia State. The terrible state of public infrastructure, non payment of salaries and pensions and the high cost of governance in Abia State

14. His Excellency, recently I posted some recent pictures of the some of the roads in Aba here and many Nigerians reacted with shock, wondering how and why Aba had been allowed to deteriorate so terribly. 

15. Does it not worry you that the singular most important reason many people considered your candidacy was because of the popular view that only an Aba brought up can fix Aba? 

16. I am afraid to tell you, your report card so far shows nothing but embarrassing disappointment. Think about the stench, the heaps of refuse, the dilapidated and impassable roads in the city. Those certainly are not what you bargained with the people when you sought their votes. 

17. Are you not disturbed by the popular opinion across Igboland that you are the worst governor the region has ever had since 1999? Don't you worry about the judgment of posterity? 

18. As some of my friends have alerted you; your aides including Agbazuere will only get a footnote mention when the story of the last eight years is written. It will be all about you. Sadly, the verdict would not be flattering. 

19. Agbazuere and some of the men misleading you were the same people who conned your predecessors, Orji Kalu and Theodore Orji into political infamy. 

20. When last did Mr Agbazuere for instance call his former mentor since his travails began? Did he visit him in prison? Did he sent a message to him on his last birthday? 

21. As our people say sir, kindly use your tongue to count your teeth. I understand you are a carefree person, unperturbed by whatever is happening around him. People who know you say you are a jolly good fellow. However sir, I do not think the disposition of a "guyman" would do  you any good now. 

22. What you need now is the mindset of a man in a hurry to overturn the harsh judgment of history. The past five years of your reign have been nothing to write home about. You have been an epic portrait of failure, the type never seen before in our land. 

23. His Excellency civil servants are dying. Pensioners are crying to their graves. Abia youths are jobless and their future is wasting. The students have no teachers and the traders have no customers. What can you do to reverse this dangerous slide your Excellency? 

24. The answer is simple for me. Start immediately with clearing the salary and pensions arrears of Abia workers and pensioners. It is their right sir and not a privilege. Pay them their due entitlements. 

25. Sir, civil servants are buying cars in Anambra, retirees are building houses and students are passing on the strength of quality teachings not through malpractices. How are they doing it? Pick your phone and call Willie Obiano. 

26. When I finished from Nsukka ten years ago, there were 11 Abians in my set. Today sir, not one of them lives in the state. We have all fled to several parts of the world in search of our future. By contrast, majority of our mates from Enugu returned to their home state after NYSC. Presently, majority are doing fine. None relies on political sycophancy to survive. 

27. His Excellency look at Ebonyi. Consider the quality of roads Dave Umahi is building and compare same with the works done at Faulks Road. Does it mean Abians don't deserve the same quality of road as Ndi Ebonyi? Think your Excellency. 

28. In Owerri, new housing estates are springing up everyday and according to a friend, if you do not have a house around World Bank Owerri as an Igbo man, then you are still poor. Can you point to any real estate heaven in Abia State? 

29. Sir, I can go on and on. I have been saying the same thing for more than 2 years. My message is simple: channel Abia's resources for the development of the state. I want nothing else sir. 

29b. I do not want appointment, I do not want government money, I do not want contracts. Just do for Abians the very things you promised to do on your own volition. It is an act of honour sir. 

30. Then on the little matter of the plot to arrest me; tell your lackeys or whoever is behind it to perish the thought. It would do you no good. Not only is there no ground for arresting me; it would simply make your existing problems a lot worse. You deserve to focus and not be distracted by idle shenanigans of self seekers and political opportunists. 

31. Lastly His Excellency, do not forget your background. Your were not born in a mansion. Like many of us, you did not find things rosy. Now events and men have contrived to elevate you to where your wildest imaginations could not have gone ten years ago. Do not go back to Umuobiakwa in shame at the end of your tenure. 

Time is running out sir. 

I wish you God's speed.