I have become increasingly convinced that there is an anti-Ngwa sentiment in Abia State. Recent events have made it hard for me to keep dismissing it as ordinary political rivalry.

Take Iroegbu Emenike, the Labour Party publicity secretary in Abia. He recently made a statement about the Abia Charter of Equity that I found hard to ignore. His question, essentially, was: without the Charter, who would allow an Ngwa man to become governor? I find that question disturbing—not because the Charter can't be discussed, but because of what the question itself assumes. Who exactly is supposed to "allow" an Ngwa man to become governor? The electorate? The Constitution? Or some political class that treats the governorship as theirs to hand out?

When people pushed back on his Facebook post, Emenike told them they could "tie it on our head." That response tells you something too. If people from a particular ethnic group object to a statement about their political legitimacy, why should the answer be that they should just carry the insult and move on?

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Then there's a video I watched involving Charles Ogbonnaya, an elder statesman from Umuahia, in which he alleged that Governor Alex Otti told him Ngwa people "don't have brain." I want to be careful here—I didn't witness that conversation, and I'm only repeating what Ogbonnaya claimed in the video. But it's a serious enough allegation that it shouldn't just be waved off, especially set against everything else being said about Ngwa people lately.

That's why I think this conversation has moved past ordinary criticism of politicians.

To be clear, I'm not saying Okezie Ikpeazu was above criticism. He was governor, and governors get criticised, after all, freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. If a road was badly built, say so. If a project was abandoned, say so. If money went missing, investigate it. That's what accountability looks like, and I have no issue with any of it.

What I object to is something different: turning the failures of one administration into a verdict on an entire people. I've heard it said, about Ikpeazu's government, "this is what happens when Ngwa people are in power." That's not a criticism of Ikpeazu anymore. That's an ethnic generalisation, plain and simple.

And it's strange, honestly, that this line keeps getting repeated when Ikpeazu hasn't been governor since 2023. Alex Otti runs Abia now. If the state has problems today, look at Otti's government. If some of those problems were inherited, say so. If his administration has fixed things, give credit where it's due. But why is an entire ethnic group still being talked about as though one of their own is sitting in Government House, personally responsible for everything wrong in Abia?

There's also this habit of discussing Ikpeazu as if he inherited a state nobody had governed before him. He didn't. Orji Uzor Kalu and Theodore Orji governed Abia for sixteen years combined before him. Ikpeazu had eight. That doesn't let him off the hook for his own record, but it should at least put that record in context. He inherited things. He left things behind too.

And whatever anyone thinks of his time in office, it's simply not true that nothing happened under Ikpeazu. His administration built a lot of roads: in 2022 he said his government had completed more than 150 and had another 48 underway. His government also finished the Osisioma interchange, which we all know is the only flyover in Abia till this day, along with the reconstruction and dualisation of the Aba–Owerri Road.

None of that puts him beyond criticism. It doesn't mean every claim his government made held up. His record deserves proper scrutiny; what got finished, what got abandoned, what worked and what didn't. But shortcomings don't give anyone license to turn "Ngwa" into shorthand for political failure.

If anything, I think we should be able to talk about Ikpeazu's record without constantly bringing his ethnicity into it. If his government failed somewhere, say it failed. If it delivered something, say that too. His being Ngwa shouldn't factor into the assessment at all.

The same standard should hold for Alex Otti. For Orji Uzor Kalu. For Theodore Orji. For every governor Abia has had, and every one it will have. A road isn't good because the man who built it shares my ethnicity, and it isn't bad for that reason either. One standard, applied evenly, that's all I'm asking for.

This matters to me in particular because I supported Alex Otti.

I backed him because I wanted Abia to move forward. I wanted a government that would tackle the problems people had been frustrated by for years, that would get Aba working again, that would bring in investment and fix the state's infrastructure. I wanted change, and I believed he could deliver it.

So I'm not writing this as someone who's always been against Otti. I'm writing as someone who supported him and has grown increasingly uneasy about some of what I'm seeing and hearing around his administration.

These recent statements have made me reconsider a few things. I haven't suddenly decided Otti is wrong about everything, or that Ikpeazu was the better governor, or that Ngwa people deserve special treatment. What I can't do is look past what feels like contempt for an entire people, just because I happen to support the man currently in Government House.

And I don't think the answer is for Ngwa people to start insulting other groups in return. That would just reproduce the same problem we're complaining about. If we want fairness, we have to ask for it across the board, including for people who aren't us.

But fairness also means being willing to say it when you think your own people are being treated unfairly.

Ngwa people are a major part of Abia State. Our votes count. Our communities matter. Our businesses, professionals, students and workers all contribute to this state, and we have every right to take part in its politics, including seeking its highest office.

We shouldn't have to apologise for producing a governor. We shouldn't have to accept that an Ngwa man only became governor because some other group "allowed" it. And we certainly shouldn't accept the idea that one governor's failures prove Ngwa people can't govern.

If Ikpeazu failed somewhere, name exactly where. If Otti succeeds, acknowledge it. If he fails, criticise it. If he builds on something Ikpeazu left behind, say so. If he fixes something Ikpeazu got wrong, say that too.

What we shouldn't do is make ethnicity the measure of competence.

I believe there's an anti-Ngwa sentiment running through Abia politics right now, and recent statements have pushed it closer to the surface. I suspect a lot of Ngwa people who backed Otti in good faith will end up reconsidering some of this too, once they see it clearly. I'm one of them.

Criticise our politicians. Hold them accountable. Vote them out if they deserve it.

But leave Ngwa people out of it. We are not a political failure. Ala Ngwa asala.

I am Alilieleghimba.