“If you are incapable of gratitude, you are incapable of noble sentiments. Even animals are grateful,” — By Sir George Bernard Shaw.
In that famous romantic Comedy, Arms and the Man, Sir George Bernard Shaw, the English dramatist and playwright observed that ‘If any man (by extension a community, society, country or even group) is incapable of gratitude, the man must also be incapable of noble sentiments.” Sir Bernard Shaw added: “Even animals are grateful”
Indeed, it is from this standpoint that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu recently led the Ukwa Ngwa people to give honour to whom honour is due. On Friday, April 13, the Ukwa Ngwa people, led by their Governor, gathered at Ngwa High School, that old symbolic citadel of learning and expressed their heart-felt gratitude to Senator Theodore Ahamefule Orji (Ochendo) for helping them attain an almost elusive dream; for ensuring that an Ukwa Ngwa man became the Governor of Abia State. On that historic day, the people said their gratitude in great eulogies; they expressed it in music and dance; they did by their colourful attires and by the great multitude of men and women that assembled at Ngwa High School. The Ukwa Ngwa openly demonstrated that they are Sir Bernard Shaw’s men – men who are capable of gratitude and therefore capable of noble sentiment.
Why did Governor Ikpeazu lead the Ukwa Ngwa to celebrate Ochendo? The governor was inspired by the history and the existential reality of the people. Remember that right from the First Republic when the Aba Division in the Old Eastern Region was shortchanged and their position given to an Efik woman, Margaret Ekpo, who represented them in the old Eastern Region House of Assembly, successive regimes have always short-changed the Ukwa Ngwa and reneged on whatever promise or agreement entered into with the people. Thus, the struggle for the emancipation of the Ukwa Ngwa became a long-drawn battle that spanned over six decades, climaxing with the OTUONU Mass Movement led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe. The movement raised the momentum of the Ukwa Ngwa agenda and brought many issues about the people to the front burner of national discourse.
From the Old Imo State, it appeared as if the UkwaNgwa was consigned to the position of Deputy Governor, only good to play the second fiddle. From Isaac Uzoigwe, Enyinnaya Abaribe, Chima Nwafor, Acho Nwankanma to Col. Ananaba, the tradition endured. At different times and on different scenarios, many UkwaNgwa men of repute led heated struggles to break the jinx but to no avail. The iron hand of oligarchy continued to strangulate them.
But, significantly, the reality of the fate that confronted the UkwaNgwa came in 2001, at the hallowed ground of Okpuala Ngwa, the ancestral cradle of the people, when the former Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, looked at them eye-ball to eye-ball and announced that his daughter (who was three years then) will grow up to govern them if they did not give him support for his second term bid. The Ukwa Ngwa took it as the height of insult against the collective sensibilities of a people.
Based on the rotational principle in the Abia Charter of Equity, power was to rotate between the Old Bende and the Old Aba Zone. Kalu, from inception, promised to adhere to this ordinance. But, out of his deep-seated hatred for the Ukwa Ngwa, he reneged at last and handed over power to his fellow old Bende man from Abia Central in 2007.
In the twilight of his administration in 2015, Governor T. A Orji came under intense pressure by his people of old Bende to shortchange the Ukwa Ngwa again. Thus, the Ukwa Ngwa are aware that, except for the firm and unwavering decision of Governor Theodore Orji who, against all pressure and odds, stood his ground on power rotation and kept his word as his bond on handing over to an Ukwa Ngwa, the people could not have attained the current milestone.
Thus, the Ukwa Ngwa showed gratitude to Ochendo for setting this standard of equity. They celebrated him as the only leader of Abia who has demonstrated that balance of power is critical and crucial for our common existence as one common humanity. The people celebrated Ochendo for being a father of equity.
By that grand thank you reception, the Ukwa Ngwa man re-invented himself. The act of paying good with good is primal in our value system. The Ukwa Ngwa does not pay good with evil. Such an act almost amounts to a sacrilege in our cosmology. The Ukwa Ngwa are men of great honour who carry themselves with so much respectability and dignity and this also applies to the moral of gratitude.
This is why Governor Ikpeazu led his people to roll out drums and in colourful ceremony said: Thank you Ochendo for fighting a good fight and leading us across an important bridge.
Godwin Adindu, is a public affairs commentator.
Godwin Adindu
