DECONSTRUCTING THE MAYORS AS NEW ABIA TRADE UNIONISTS.
The last may not have been heard of the incumbent mayors in Abia State amid their new sinister dance steps signifying their readiness to revolt against the system that brought them about. Feelers tapping on some dissonant tendencies by most of the mayors are pointing to a conspiracy to sit tight beyond their tenures in a fit of revolt or failing which the entire superstructure may very well come toppling down. The mayors have tasted power enough to feel the pulsating flex of it and are not about relinquishing it’s hold and so are ready to resist attempts to be unbundled under any calculable permutation.
They have united themselves as a trade union to plan together, work together, conspire together, wine together, fight together and possibly also die together. They understand that the power graciously donated to them by their boss, Dr. Alex Otti is about to extinguish just like flame. But their resolve and new found resistance to fight the system that produced them could become a bridge too far to cross, hence their banding themselves together in a collective bargain could offer some lifeline.
But how far will these overrated Abia Mayors go in their struggles against the decision of the party apparachik to end their nascent dispensation in the 17 local government areas of the State? What are their winning options and winning streaks? But given that their various appointments were at the pleasure of governor Alex Otti, what is it that drives this new found impetus and swag? Something very sinister is budding underneath.
Info from grapevine sources, gossip harbingers, rumour mongers, informal and unprocessed beer parlour and street yarns are rife about some secret meetings by these ravenous mayors in secret places in Abia North, Abia Central and Abia South to upend the decisions of the party hierarchy recently taken to dump them by the wayside refuse bin.
Resisting their deposition by dint of supreme party decision is one last battle royal they’re prepared to wage against Dr. Alex Otti and his government they all served under. Their last ditch effort is to use the principle of collective bargaining to leverage or force a power sharing arrangement with Dr. Alex Otti by fire and by thunder that will give them custody of the LGAs in a notch of tenure elongation or at least allow them take hostage of our LGAs as settlement or better still hold those LGAs in perpetual captivity. This is non other than game of blackmail taken to ludicrous heights. Here’s the plan.
The coalition of trade union mayors had in their last meeting at their Umuahia secret venue taken a decision to move in block to APC to be adopted and all presented as APC candidates for the upcoming LGA election. In this audacious plan, all 17 mayors will be fielded in the election as APC candidates. This is classic ‘rogue’ politics 101 who’s scripts exists only in Abia political lexicon. Tufiakwa.
We said it when some of these mayors first emerged that they will turn to be sinister thrall as many of them were known pedagogues, retrogressive elements, nonplussed, audacious, disloyal, treacherous and of course a disaster waiting to happen. The disaster is here with us.
The dirty fights of these mayors against the system that produced them is to take advantage of the internal Labour Party rifts to foist irreconcilable crisis in the polity in such a manner as to produce no winners at end of the LGA election.
The calculation is that the erstwhile Labour Party mayors turned APC LG mayors will remain in office in the event of a logjam or stalemate in the election of Nov. 02. Remember that the Supreme Court order to hold the election will be capped after November 02 without the provision to entertain a power vacuum at the LGA beyond November 02 expected day of the election. How full proof will this evil plan play out?
Dr. Alex Otti and his team must move swiftly and in a fit of political thunderstorm to stop these treacherous mayors or they will make him pay irredeemable political capital arising from not taking necessary action. The government of Dr. Alex Otti must without delay dissolve the office of the mayors and replace them with new TC appointees or chairpersons even if they will serve for one day before the election on November 02.
The mayor’s sinister plots are leaving the Otti government stripped, so vulnerable and with very little choice of political maneuverability. At stake would be the 2027 elections and so any delay in taking action will be very dangerous probably unthinkable.
Abians that elected Alex Otti are not yet done protecting their hard earned Mandate that cost so much in 2023. After surviving the PDP power of incumbency amid daunting treachery, it will be so painful to fall by the kindergarten plots of these mayors.
Abians will be so disappointed that it took only appointed mayors to rob them of their political sweat in 2023. A word is enough for the wise. Offload the mayors now or the government of Abia State will pay incalculable political cost resulting from non action.
Dr. Engr Odo Ijere.
