Columns/Opinions/Letters - Abia ThinkTank News

Jan

2026

Okezie Ikpeazu And The Record Abia Lived With – Allegations, Failures, And Political Shielding (Compared With Alex Otti) – By Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Politics

Okezie Ikpeazu and the Record Abia Lived With — Allegations, Failures, and Political Shielding (Compared With Alex Otti) 1. Financial Mismanagement & Debt Accumulation (Documented Governance Failure) During the tenure of Okezie Ikpeazu (2015–2023), Abia State accumulated significant salary arrears, pension backlogs, and contractor debts, despite steady federal allocations.Multiple reports noted that Abia workers were owed months—sometimes years—of salaries and pensions by the end of his tenure. This was widely reported in national media, including Punch and Premium Times, with civil servants staging repeated protests over unpaid entitlements (see Punch: https://punchng.com/abia-workers-protest-over-unpaid-salaries-pensions/).Why this matters:Failure to pay salaries and pensions while receiving…

Jan

2026

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Ikenga Gburugburu Blasts Orji Uzor Kalu As Politically Spent, Warns Him To Stay Clear Of Governor Alex Otti

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Politics

Ikenga Gburugburu Blasts Orji Uzor Kalu as Politically Spent, Warns Him to Stay Clear of Gov. Alex Otti Orji Uzor Kalu’s Political Expiry Date Has Passed — Abia North Should Not Pretend Otherwise By Ambassador Dr. Osita Offor Politics, like time, does not wait. It moves on—sometimes gently, sometimes brutally. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu’s difficulty today is not that his political time has passed, but that he refuses to accept that history has closed that chapter. His recent fixation on Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, OFR, is therefore less a debate of ideas and more a public display…

Jan

2026

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Between Servitude And Freedom: Why Truth Telling Terrifies Political Power In Abia – By Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Personality, Politics

Between Servitude and Freedom: Why Truth Telling Terrifies Political Power in Abia There is a dangerous confusion spreading across the political space in Abia State: the deliberate attempt to blur the line between service and servitude, between loyalty and slavery, between citizenship and submission. This confusion is not accidental. It is manufactured, cultivated, and sustained by political actors who thrive not on truth, performance, or accountability, but on deception, emotional manipulation, and intellectual dependency.History shows that every society that abandons truth telling in favour of sycophancy ultimately collapses into mediocrity. Abia is not immune.For decades, political narratives in the state…

Jan

2026

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Abia, Listen Carefully. This Is About Memory, Direction, And Defence Of Reform- By Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Politics

ABIA, LISTEN CAREFULLY. THIS IS ABOUT MEMORY, DIRECTION, AND DEFENCE OF REFORM. Abians, address yourselves with honesty. States do not fall overnight; they rot when citizens forget who wrecked them and then clap for the wreckers. The loudest attacks you hear today are not courage—they are panic. Panic of those whose era of shortcuts is ending.Let us be clear and factual. Orji Uzor Kalu had full opportunity—as Governor and now as a long-serving Senator—to transform Abia. The record of 1999–2007 is not opinion; it is lived history: infrastructure collapse, salary arrears, urban decay, and institutional neglect. Aba did not become…

Jan

2026

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2027: Governor Otti Bombs Orji Kalu, Benjamin Kalu And Other Displaced Abia Politicians With Moral Truth – By Ebere Uzoukwa Ph.D ( SSA To Governor Otti On Public Affairs)

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Politics

2027: Governor Otti Bombs Orji Kalu, Benjamin Kalu and Other Displaced Abia Politicians with Moral Truth By Ebere Uzoukwa, PhD As the 2027 electoral season gradually comes into view, Abia politics is shifting away from the familiar noise of elite conspiracies toward a more consequential contest between performance and desperation, truth and propaganda, legacy and failure. This transition is neither accidental nor cosmetic; it is the inevitable outcome of a state rediscovering the value of leadership anchored on competence, integrity, and results. Governor Alex Chioma Otti’s remarks on Saturday, 10 January, at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Umuoriehi, in Umuahia…

Jan

2026

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2027: Between The Enemies Of Abia And Governor Otti’s Second Term – By Ebere Uzoukwa Ph.D (SSA To Governor Otti On Public Affairs)

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Politics

2027: Between the Enemies of Abia and Governor Otti’s Second Term Ebere Uzoukwa, PhD On Friday, 9 January 2026, a group of politicians of Abia extraction gathered at the Umuahia country-home of Senator Theodore Orji, a former governor of Abia State. Present at the meeting were individuals who played active roles during the administrations of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu from 1999 to 2007, Senator Theodore Orji from 2007 to 2015, and Dr Okezie Victor Ikpeazu from 2015 to 2023. At the end of the meeting, reportedly convened by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, their agenda became clear. The plot was to…

Jan

2026

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Seven-Day Ultimatum, Rapid Engagement As Teachers’ Welfare Is Top Agenda – By Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Education, Good Governance

Seven-Day Ultimatum, Rapid Engagement as Teachers' Welfare is Top Agenda While friends, colleagues, party faithfuls, movement activists and commentators exchange volleys with Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and other anti-Otti disinformation factories, Governor Alex Chioma Otti has been visibly preoccupied with a more urgent matter: the welfare of Abia teachers. This week, the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Abia State, led by Comrade Kingsley Mmadu and Comrade Nnenna Okonkwo, formally issued a seven-day ultimatum over unpaid salary arrears, promotion bottlenecks and payroll irregularities, a development widely reported by The Eagle Online (https://theeagleonline.com.ng/strike-abia-teachers-issue-seven-day-ultimatum-over-unpaid-salaries-welfare-gaps/). Rather than deflect or dismiss the concerns, the issue…

Jan

2026

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Kalu’s 1999 Vs Otti’s 2023: How The Former Governor Further Exposed His Intellectual Deficiency-By Ebere Uzoukwa Ph.D (SSA To Governor Otti On Public Affairs)

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Good Governance

Kalu’s 1999 vs Otti’s 2023: How the Former Governor Further Exposed His Intellectual Deficiency By Ebere Uzoukwa, PhD Public commentary by political leaders carries a responsibility. It must be grounded in facts, context, and historical honesty. When these pillars are absent, statements may ignite partisan passions but will inevitably collapse under scrutiny. This is the fundamental flaw in Senator Orji Uzor Kalu’s recent attacks on Governor Alex Chioma Otti OFR, particularly his reckless attempts to compare governance outcomes between 1999 and 2023 while disregarding context, economic realities, and his own legacy in office. Kalu’s latest pronouncements reveal a troubling combination…

Jan

2026

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Achebe’s Mirror And Abia’s Moment: Reading Governor Alex Otti Through The Trouble With Nigeria – By Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Good Governance

Achebe’s Mirror and Abia’s Moment: Reading Governor Alex Otti Through The Trouble with Nigeria When The Trouble with Nigeria was published in 1983, Chinua Achebe did not intend to flatter power. He intended to diagnose it. His conclusion was as brief as it was brutal: Nigeria’s problem was not geography, intelligence, or resources, but leadership—specifically the absence of moral seriousness, institutional discipline, and restraint among those entrusted with authority.Four decades later, Achebe’s work remains relevant because Nigeria keeps repeating the same mistake: judging leaders by rhetoric instead of systems, by alliances instead of outcomes, and by noise instead of structure.This…

Jan

2026

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The Silent War Of 2026: Data, Courts, And Election Infrastructure- By Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Politics

The Silent War of 2026: Data, Courts, and Election Infrastructure The most decisive battles of the 2026–2027 electoral cycle will not be fought on stages, rallies, or social media timelines. They will be fought quietly—in databases, courtrooms, server rooms, and evidentiary files. This is the silent war many political movements underestimate, and it is where elections are now truly won or lost.Across Nigeria, electoral outcomes are increasingly shaped by three invisible pillars: data integrity, judicial preparedness, and election infrastructure. Noise mobilises crowds; systems secure mandates. Any movement that ignores this reality is preparing to lose loudly.Governor Alex Chioma Otti OFR…