By Enyinnaya Appolos
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, the Senate Minority Leader, and the representative of Abia South Senatorial District in the Senate, under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is trending. Yes, he has been trending.
Abaribe, the Ukwa-Ngwa Senator, was elected into the Red Chambers of the National Assembly in 2007 on the PDP platform. His 2019 re-election into the senate is his 4th tenure in the National Assembly. He is one of the longest serving lawmakers in the Nigeria Parliament.
So, why is he trending now? He is not trending because he signed bail for Nnamdi Kanu. Neither is he trending because he decided to wear a made-in-Aba Dot Nation polo.
Abaribe is trending because: “The greatest want of the world is the want of men, men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” E.G white.
That is why my Dear Leader, Senator, brother, namesake, Dede Ukwu, Enyinnaya Abaribe, is trending.
Abaribe, you do not need to wear the Dot Nation T-shirt, for the world to know the stuff you are made off. To those who do not know you, they are free to think you’re just trending because you’re wearing a made-in-Aba Dot Nation polo.
You have been trending even before you decided to stand for the Ngwa nation against the evil plots of Orji Kalu, when you lead the Otu Onu struggle for the political liberation of Ngwa man in Abia.
Today, you are trending globally, because you have decided to stand up again, against the political marginalization of Ndigbo and other Nigerians in the current dispensation.
You are trending because you distinguished yourself from the day the Ukwa-Ngwa people of Abia South sent you to Abuja to represent them, and you have been carrying yourself with dignity, knowing whose child you are.
You are trending because your name in the Nigerian political space is blemish, otherwise the enemies of our people would have dealt with you.
You are trending because you have kept your name very clean as a lawmaker. And have done your job creditably and impeccably in the upper ‘echelon’.
You are trending because no trace of fraud, or corruption has been linked to your name ever since you came into the political space as deputy governor and senator.
You are trending because you stand for a united Nigeria where every citizen must enjoy equal right.
You are trending because you do not stand for secession.
You are trending because You want an equitable Nigeria for all.
You are trending because you are not a member of IPOB or Massob, and you needed not to be to stand for any Igbo man and Igbo nation.
You are trending, and the Igbo nation is standing in honor for you, an Ngwa man, because you decided to stand for Ndigbo, despite the derogatory comments about Ngwa people by other Igbos.
You are trending because you didn’t think that if nnamdi Kanu were to be an Ngwa man, other Igbos would have turned their backs on him and allow him to rot in jail. But you, an Ngwa with the true Igbo-onyeahala nwanne ya spirit, stood for Nnamdi Kanu, nwa ohuhu, from Afara ibeku umuahia.
You are trending because, you didn’t complain that No Igbo leader stood for CSP Alozie Ogugbuaja, a bold, fine and fearless police officer, an Ngwa man like you, who also spoke bitter truth to power, when he was indiscriminately dismissed from the Nigerian police.
You are trending because, an Abaribe, onye Ngwa, a brother to Ogugbuaja, risked everything to stand for nnamdi Kanu, when others chickened-out.
You are trending because you represents the spirit of Ngwa man who does not abandon his brother.
You are trending because Abaribe, you represents the large heartedness of Ngwa man, who gave his land, including ancestral graves, for other Igbo to live and do business in Aba, where every Igbo is happy and proud to call a home.
You are trending because, Aba the city you represents in the senate, remains the only City in the entire Igbo nation where every Igbo man sees himself as a freeborn. It is only in Aba that an Anambra man, Imo man, Enugu man and even Ebonyi man of yesterday, is free to contest to be a local government chairman, house of assembly member, councilor, House of Representatives. That is the spirit of Ngwa man, that is spirt in Abaribe. That is the spirit that every Igbo must imbibe.
Abaribe, you are trending because you represents respect for elders and authority. It is not in your Ngwa and Seventh-Day Adventist Church upbringing to insult or abuse elders or authorities.
You are trending because you will politely and diplomatically speak truth to power, not minding the consequences.
You are trending because you understand that you do not need to insult elders and authorities to get your people liberated.
Abaribe is trending because he believes and understands that dialogue, and not inciting diasporan comments, is needed in engaging an intolerant regime.
Thank you Abaribe for speaking truth to power without insults and abuses. Thank Abaribe for standing for your brothers and people. Thank you abaribe for choosing to lead from the front.
Thank you for representing the true Ngwa man from Uhie in Obingwa.
Thank you for accepting the task ahead. I am aware you know the task ahead is indeed tasking.
This is why you are trending. Keep trending.
Appolos writes from Isiko.