It Is A Wrong Calculation To Assume That Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah Will Not Be Governor In 2027.
Thursday (Afor) 06-08-2026.
In all human calculations and efforts, proofs that show that man is not God and can never be God abound. No man born of a woman, even if it is through cesarean operation, can lay any claim to infallibility.
Of all of His creations, it was only man that God regretted creating. This is aptly captured in the Bible Book of Genesis 6:6. Man is hardly trustworthy, and takes interest and comfort in deceiving and betraying his fellow human-beings. This is the nature of man. Whoever that understands the nature of man does not repose much confidence in him. This is because man will always deceive and betray even his own closest associates.
After all rigours, including heavy ‘pecuniary settlements’ and burdens of multiple dimensions, an urbane gentleman from Mbubo-Nsulu in Isialangwa-North Local Government Area, Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah, emerged the 2027 Governorship Candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Abia State. He is a knowledgeable man, with a glaringly visible means of livelihood that every decent man will be proud to associate with.
Some political leaders, even in APC could, for reasons only known to them, make an open but strange and embarrassing pronouncement that Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah will not win the 2027 Abia Governorship election. No meaningful APC member should feel demoralized by such a self-motivated unfair comment. In the first instance, the man or men that said it was or were not God. The ways of God are different from those of men.
There are many reasons why Chief Opah stands many good chances of winning the 2027 Governorship election. Except for the widely-held wrong notion that ‘the Ngwa man is not deeply principled and disciplined as to place optimal value on what he has and may not necessarily know what he wants, 80% of Ngwa votes when cast for Chief Opah will translate to electoral victory for Chief Opah.
The fact that the present Governor of Abia State hails from Arochukwu in Abia-North Senatorial district but lives at Nvosi in Isialangwa-South Local Government Area of Abia-Central Senatorial District means, by rotation, the Governorship seat is presently oscillating between Abia-North and Abia-Central. In the present context, no one will situate Chief Opah as being out of the Governorship rotation framework.
Another critical perspective that should not be ignored is the fact that the Ngwa, no matter what perception some people have about them, are among the most educated clans in Igbo land, Nigeria and the Black race. Any person banking on the probability of the Ngwa electorate being naive in 2027 when one of their most philanthropic and illustrious sons, Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah, will be on the ballot paper, will be deceiving himself or herself. The Ngwa that I know are neither foolish nor naive. They are a sophisticated clan of people and will always differentiate between their collective interest and extraneous public relations’ interests.
Another factor that deserves consideration in predicting how the 2027 Governorship pendulum will swing is the attitude and position of the electorate in Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency. Section 3 of 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, has Umuahia as the State Capital of Abia State but the present Labour Party Government in the State gave a devastating slap on the face of Umahia people by disdainfully removing the State Capital to somewhere else. Those people so disrespectfully and badly treated will surely use the ballot paper to stamp their objection to that unconstitutional removal.
As long as 2027 Governorship election will be concerned in Abia State, the Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency will play a major decisive role. The people have never been given a sense of belonging by former Governors in the State but, despite all manner of pressure mounted against him, Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah, out of deep sense of equity, justice and fairness, chose his Running Mate, Dr Godswill Agu Egbe, from that Federal Constituency. It is a strategy extraordinary.
Discontent in Abia State is deep. From Teachers, Local Government Council workers, Public and Civil Servants whose salary structure is not reflective of necessary consequential adjustment, commercial vehicle and tricycle operators who have been subjected to excruciating daily taxation, the odds are evidently against the incumbent.
Chief Eric Chinemeucheya Opah will run an honest, transparent, accountable and inclusive Government. He will surely win the Abia State Governorship Election in 2027. Any APC leader that holds a different view is just on his own.
Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, and Publisher of Equity Global Reporters Ltd.
