There is a timeless philosophical warning: beware of the man who shouts loudest about virtue, for he may be using virtue as a veil.
As Abia State marches towards 2027, this warning has become prophetic. A new kind of politics has emerged. It does not wear party uniforms. It does not carry brooms, umbrellas, or any party logo. It comes in the fine, borrowed garment of activism, good governance advocacy, and concern for Abia.
We have seen this masquerade before, but the mask is now slipping.
Some of these so-called activists have been sighted, not in the trenches of the people, but in the inner political meetings of opposition parties. The question then becomes inevitable and credibility-shattering: what is the value of an activism that holds its strategy sessions in partisan war rooms? Can a man be a neutral arbiter and an interested party at the same time?
Philosophy and common sense answer with a loud no.
More questions must be asked:
Where were they before 2023, when Abia was sold short? Where were these boisterous voices when salaries and pensions were owed for years, and our elders died in penury? Where were they when Aba, the commercial heartbeat of the East, was reduced to a refuse dump and a network of failed roads? Where was their activism when Abia’s wealth was being shared at dinner tables while the people starved?
Where were they when governance became an insult, and Abia became a byword for failure? They were silent. Conspicuously silent. Comfortably silent. Their silence was loud because their activism was never about Abia; it was always about access.
Their partisanship is further betrayed by their selective blindness today. Some of them are direct beneficiaries of the transformative policies of Governor Alex Otti’s administration: the prompt payment of salaries and pensions that restored human dignity, the massive road revolution that has reconnected Aba and Umuahia to commerce, the restoration of security, cleanliness, and confidence to our cities, and the fiscal discipline that has made Abia creditworthy again. They have benefited, their families have benefited, and their businesses breathe because Abia breathes again.
Yet they have never found it worthy to bring these facts to the fore. For them, good news from Abia is bad news for their political enterprise. Do they not see the roads? Do they not hear the pensioners who now pray with joy? Or has truth become too heavy for their partisan tongues to carry?
Instead, they have become experts in handling the microphone of hatred, prejudice, and disunity. Their activism does not heal; it wounds. It does not unite; it divides. It does not build; it seeks to demolish. They trade in innuendo, weaponise ethnic sentiment, and preach a gospel of retrogression. What we see is not activism at all, but mercenary activism in which the loudest critics are not citizens seeking good governance, but political foot soldiers seeking appointments, contracts, or relevance ahead of 2027.
True activism is consistent, non-partisan, and in the interest of the people at all times, not just during election cycles. A true activist will criticise his own party when it errs and commend the opposition when it gets it right.
Ndi Abia must therefore robustly interrogate these personalities and their true mission with three clear tests:
One. Voice and Action: What does this activist say, and who truly benefits from his actions?
Two. Timing: Was he active in 2023, 2024, and 2025 speaking truth to power, or did he only wake up when funds for 2027 started flowing?
Three. Consistency: Does he hold all sides to the same standard, or is he blind to the failures of his paymasters while having 20/20 vision for the faults of others?
Ndi Abia must not be distracted in their historic march towards the protection of their freedom and the consolidation of their development, a march which Alex Otti’s transformative governance epitomises. After years of groping in the dark, Abia found light. After years of locust years, Abia found harvest. After years of collective shame, Abia found pride.
Today, Ndi Abia are no longer dwarfs struggling to see over the wall. They are now standing on the shoulders of a giant and can see far ahead of others. They can see a new Abia that works.
With a reverberating unison, from Ohafia to Aba, from Isuikwuato to Ukwa, the verdict is settled: Ndi Abia have chosen consolidation over experimentation, continuity over conspiracy, and performance over propaganda.
2027 beckons, and Abia 2027 must be decided by ideas, track records, and capacity, not by the noise of fake activists who have turned the noble cause of advocacy into a partisan enterprise.
.Iyioku, is a Legal practitioner and Public Affairs analyst
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