Abia Onyike: Why I Criticise Umahi

Chief Abia Onyike, a former Commissioner for Information and Social Orientation in Ebonyi State has been a critic of Governor David Umahi. The former Deputy National President of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), is also the Chairman and Convener of the Ebonyi Advocacy for Human Rights Initiative-an organization that works to defend the rights of Ebonyi citizens against political impunity, tyranny and oppression. In this interview with select journalist, including Olaoluwakitan Babatunde, Onyike bares his mind on the governance of Ebonyi, insecurity in the South-east and other burning issues

You have been in the news of late for criticizing Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State. What actually is the problem?

Well, the problem is Umahi’s mediocre leadership style which is a combination of autocracy and anarchism. Umahi is far from being a democrat. He came into governance with a totalitarian mindset. He has uprooted and destroyed all the legacy institutions he inherited from his predecessor in 2015. He has retarded the progress of the state. The first quarter report released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that Ebonyi State has been on the table as one of the ten poorest states in Nigeria. The state also came third in food inflation in Nigeria. Ebonyi is the only state in Southern Nigeria falling into such dangerous poverty levels in recent times because of Umahi’s vicious anti-people’s policies. His definition of development is extremely dubious.

He worked for four years (2015-2019) without Permanent Secretaries in order to deliberately destroy all forms of checks and balances in the governance of the state. It was only in his second tenure which started in 2019 that he reluctantly appointed Permanent Secretaries. Ebonyians have witnessed a lawless and oppressive government. For the first time in the history of the state, the civil service and local government service have been submerged and destroyed. Communal disturbances have reached abnormal levels with attendant destruction of lives and property, because of Umahi’s divide and rule tactics.

The Ebonyi State University, rated as one of the best state universities has been ruined and relegated because the Governor has no respect for University autonomy. He constantly invites the university authorities and lecturers to his office to intimidate them. Workers are paid half salary in the state and he has banned new employments into the civil service. He also banned the payment of retirement benefits to retired civil servants since 2015. People are dying instalmentally in the state because of Umahi’s evil policies.The state is getting poorer while Umahi and his trading/construction companies are getting richer.

It was reported in the news that you gave Gov. Umahi a two-week ultimatum or you will drag him to Court. What was the problem?
On the 2nd of September, 2021, Gov. Umahi announced that he had issued an Executive Order withdrawing all Certificates of Occupancy in the state. Which meant that he was embarking upon the total revocation of all C of Os in Abakaliki and Afikpo. That was the height of Executive recklessness unbecoming of an elected public officer. We gave him the ultimatum calling on him to withdraw the punitive order or we shall deploy all legal and legitimate instruments to compel him to step down his threat. We appreciate that a responsible government may have a genuine reason based on overriding public interest to revoke one or two C of Os but never to revoke all the C of Os in the state.

That is anarchism. Umahi is an uncontrollable land grabber and we suspect that he was embarking on the exercise as a selfish and self-serving land grabbing strategy to confiscate landed properties belonging to his critics and political opponents who own property in Abakaliki. He had done the same thing when he closed the old meat market and opened the new Abakaliki International Market. Most of the traders who owned shops in the old market were subjected to fulfilling impossible conditions before they could get stalls in the new market. Many of them developed hypertension and died. We cannot allow Umahi to continue to experiment with the lives of Ebonyi citizens.

But some people hold the view that Umahi has transformed Ebonyi State?
Umahi is a propagandist. He is not a humanist. Anything he does, he blows out of proportion. Moreover, like I said before, he came into government not to render service. He was a contractor even though he was just struggling to make ends meet. He became governor and felt that the opportunity to make it had arrived. Umahi came into office and decided to embark on some white elephant projects, such as the new Government House at Ochudo city, the Ecumenical Centre, the Shopping Mall, the 10 over-head bridges. Unfortunately, the bridges are being built in places without any atom of traffic congestion. Umahi is merely experimenting with the lives of the people. How can someone spend billions of naira building flyovers when he has cancelled scholarships and re-introduced extortionate levies in primary and secondary schools? How can you be so fixated to certain useless projects such as the Ecumenical Centre which gulped about N7 billion?

Human capital Development in Ebonyi state is at its lowest ebb. Ebonyi youths have been forced to go back into petty trading mostly at roadblocks in some Nigeria’s major cities. Umahi’s government has reversed all the positive achievements recorded by the former Governor, Dr. Sam Egwu who pioneered genuine youth empowerment programmes through overseas scholarship schemes which Umahi cancelled immediately he took office in 2015. After spending over N6 billion to build a Shopping Mall, Umahi is confused and does not know what to do with it. At the beginning, some companies came up and wanted to build the mall but Umahi rebuffed them and went ahead to commit the scarce resources of the state. Even the cement roads he is reputed to have constructed have started falling apart because of cheap materials and low quality compacting. The road from Afikpo to Amaseri is already collapsing and the current rainfall has weakened the structures of Umahi’s cement roads.

How do you assess Umahi’s performance as the Chairman of South East Governors Forum?
It is my considered opinion that he is unfit for that office. We know the sort of things that former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi did when he occupied the office. This one is a disgrace to Ndigbo. A man who cannot offer satisfactory service in a small state like Ebonyi dabbles into the South East. He is always looking at what to gain from any position he holds instead of considering the challenges of the office. He is not a stable character and he lacks the exposure required for leadership at that level.

May be someday Ebonyians may demand that former Governor Chief Martin Elechi should explain how he came about Umahi. Elechi brought him from nowhere and foisted him as State PDP Chairman and four years later as the Deputy Governor. Umahi sees himself as a smart guy.
In 2020, Ohanaeze Imeobi passed a resolution mandating the governors to create a Regional Security outfit for the South-East. Umahi worked hard to undermine that decision for a whole year. He was lucky to get away with his treacherous role because of the internal weaknesses of Igbo political leadership at the moment. When the chips were down, killings by Fulani Herdsmen erupted everywhere around March and April this year especially in his own state of Ebonyi. Then pressure was mounted on him and he was forced to go back to the drawing board. He came up with Ebubeagu which has now become an exercise in futility. Ebubeagu is only operational in Ebonyi State. Umahi has only succeeded in bequeathing a pseudo security structure to Ndigbo and his colleagues could as well be treading carefully with him before he blackmails them in Aso Rock. He is perceived in Igboland today as the Igbo nemesis.

What are Umahi’s chances as a Presidential aspirant in APC?
Even President Buhari and his kitchen cabinet cannot claim not to have Umahi’s dossier. Of all those who contributed to making him governor, is there anyone still with him? Starting from former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Senate President, Anyim Pius Anyim to business men like Chief Cletus Ibeto. Nobody can stand with him today because of his vicious and ruthless attitude to power. So, Umahi’s chances amount to nothing. He should be advised to moderate his inordinate political ambition and concentrate on the governance of Ebonyi State. He is not a material for presidential office. Even if the APC decides to hand over power to someone from the South-East, it can never be Umahi. Other stalwarts of APC such as Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Dr. Oji Uzor Kalu, Dr. Chris Ngige, Chief Ken Nnamani etc. are more qualified than Umahi. In the PDP, there are the likes of Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, Mr. Peter Obi etc etc. who are more credible, visible and accomplished than Umahi.

What are the political permutations in Ebonyi state in the build- up to the 2023 elections?
Ebonyi State is a PDP State any day. Umahi’s decision to cross over to APC in October, 2020 was informed by his selfish calculations especially his desire to try and shield himself away from the inquisition of EFCC. All the major stakeholders in the state refused to follow him to APC. Umahi has incurred the wrath of Ebonyi masses because of his excesses. He will face a level of mass resentment which he never witnessed in his political career. We hope to use the platform of the opposition to mobilize against whomsoever Umahi would want to support as his successor in 2023. We hope to reclaim the state from him and APC come 2023.