The Good Governance Media Tour under the leadership of Minister of
Information, Labaran Maku, has come to Abia State and gone, but the dust
raised is yet to settle. Fielding newsmen, Governor Theodore
Orji said that the tour seemed was orchestrated for Abia State, but it had
ended up exposing his critics that the state was under-reported. While
reading Orji in an interview it was as if one Louis Kronenberger in Company
Manners had Orji at heart when he wrote that one of the misfortunes of our
time is that in getting rid of false-shame we have killed off so much real
shame as well.
People like Gov. Orji are the only ones who rejoice in such occasion that
bystanders had rated Labaru Maku-led team to the Abia State as very low;
and there should be the Bad Governance Media Tour that would tell Orji what
he would not like to hear. Not that of Maku. The Minister’s “good
governance” tour of Abia State and the veiling of shame in praise of
mendacity were baseless.
What Maku had succeeded to do in Abia State was to defocus the world that
there was the Federal Government’s presence in that state, which was not
true. Did the Minister reach Aba town to see the high degree of bad
governance that their guided and censored tour was unable to meet? The
environmental decadence of Aba is one reason there should be the Bad
Governance Media Tour in Abia State.
The overrating of Abia State by Labaru Maku was a shock, when Orji could
not show anything on ground his government could say it had accomplished,
except verbal report. So, from where did Maku get his pumped-up appraisals
of the state? Did Maku form his opinion based on the manipulation of the
human rights in Abia State by the Orji administration, the non-conduct of
LGAs election, reckless abuse of the Fiscal Responsibility Law, Public
Procurement law, FOI law, and condescension of Civil Service or what?
That Maku was in total praise of the government in Abia was like a child
eating from the house of those that killed his or her parents. It was not
politics when a person or group decided to give a nod to evil and
corruption and evaluating them in the positive. How come that the “Good
Governance Media Tour” failed to see proper the shame called Abia State?
Perhaps, Orji took them to his compound, because that was the only
beautified place in Abia State, and the blatant “Good Governance Media
Tour” thought that it was part of the bloated Abia projects.
The Utopian rating of Abia State by the “Good Governance Media Tour” had
shown that Maku was a national parrot, a singer, who would not stop singing
for his self-seeking position, even when there was nothing to sing about.
Did Maku visit the International Market – Ariaria Market, Ekeoha Plaza and
Ngwa Road market? So, from where did he get his ill-fated facts that Abia
State was using its economy judiciously? It was obvious that this “Good
Governance Media Tour” of Abia State was hyper-guided in order not to find
the true state of the government of Governor Orji in Abia State.
But it was dangerous and shameful that any right thinking person could say
that Abia State was great in term of good governance. It was not an
impressive statement of an outing. Such would not make Abia State and its
lameduck government to progress. The “Good Governance Media Tour” wanted to
close the eyes of people from the crudity called government in that state
but has succeeded to energise onlookers to beam more on the state.
Governor Orji should stop boasting yet that he had received numerous text
messages on commendations from citizens within the country and in the
Diaspora. He had been boasting that such text messages came from the United
States of America (U.S.A.), United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Ghana and other
places since the tour ended. Orji should not be jubilating yet because “Bad
Governance Media Tour” was on the way to Abia State. And he will be crying,
contrary to his outburst that “This Good Governance Project is good. It is
a wonderful one and I commend the Presidency, the Minister and all of the
journalists that found time to come…”
When “Bad Governance Media Tour” comes to Abia State, it will write what it
saw in Abia State, and not what it is told by Governor Orji to write about
Abia State. It will tell the world how Orji has been using propaganda to
run his government. And by then, people like Labaran Maku will cover their
face in embarrassment and shall be reminded that lies can never wash shame.
