Major Highlights of Abia Opposition in 2025: Achievements in Retrospect By Obinna Oriaku
The year 2025 marked a defining moment for opposition politics in Abia State. Beyond slogans and social media optics, the opposition emerged as a critical force that consistently peeled back layers of propaganda to expose the widening disconnect between online narratives and the lived realities across Abia’s 17 local government areas.
What became increasingly clear to many Abians was that the Abia projected on social media bore little resemblance to the Abia they experienced daily. This awakening triggered a surge in opposition engagement, activism, and civic consciousness across communities.
A major takeaway from our engagements throughout the year under review was that they were strictly issue-based. At no time did the opposition descend into personal attacks or private lives of government officials. Our focus remained squarely on governance failures, public finance, service delivery, and accountability.
Rather than confront the substance of these concerns, the state government responded with an aggressive propaganda strategy. More social media handlers were recruited and funded, not to enlighten the public, but to harass, ridicule, and silence dissenting voices. Any contrary opinion on Abia’s governance was met with coordinated attacks, smear campaigns, and intimidation.
In 2025 alone, no fewer than 13 different legal actions were reportedly instituted the state government or its proxies against opposition figures. As I write, there is hardly any genuine opposition voice in Abia without an ongoing legal action, threat, or pre-action notice. Security agencies were allegedly deployed to intimidate critics, while reports of phone surveillance and privacy violations against key opposition leaders became widespread.
Ironically, these draconian measures only strengthened the resolve of the opposition. Instead of retreating, opposition voices across party lines doubled down on accountability, transparency, and truth-telling.
One of the most significant interventions of the Abia Opposition in 2025 was exposing the manipulation surrounding pension and gratuity payments. The government initially attempted to compel pensioners to forfeit gratuities amounting to ₦70 billion, despite Abia receiving an average of ₦47 billion monthly in combined allocations and internally generated revenue.
Sustained opposition pressure forced the government to publicly acknowledge inconsistencies in its claims and agree to revisit this fraudulent narrative. The commitment to pay gratuities, once denied, became unavoidable under public scrutiny.
The opposition also dismantled the misleading narrative that portrayed increased revenue inflows as a product of mystical financial management. Abians were made to understand that monthly allocations had, in some months, risen from about ₦6 billion to over ₦47 billion in total revenue, largely due to major fiscal reforms the Federal Government, including subsidy removal and the floating of the naira, which significantly increased FAAC inflows.
This position was reinforced the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Ben Kalu, during an event at Aba Stadium, where he openly demanded better performance from the Abia State Government, especially in light of improved monthly revenues of about ₦38 billion to the state, exclusive of local government allocations.
Civil servants and pensioners were repeatedly reminded that credit for improved liquidity and regular payments belonged largely to federal policy decisions, not local propaganda.
For months, the state government obscured the truth about ongoing federal road projects, presenting them as purely state-funded achievements. Sustained opposition engagement eventually forced an admission that the APC-led Federal Government was already processing reimbursements for seven federal roads executed the state on behalf of the federation.
Mismanagement of local government allocations became a major flashpoint in 2025. Councillors, particularly in Osisioma Local Government, openly protested a situation where councils received an average of ₦600 million monthly, yet had little to show beyond boreholes in wards and a paltry ₦250,000 salary for councillors.
Following sustained agitation, councillors’ salaries were increased to ₦600,000, with supervisory councillors earning ₦450,000, alongside renewed commitments to grassroots development. This was a direct outcome of opposition-driven awareness.
The opposition also exposed the hypocrisy surrounding minimum wage implementation. As late as August 2025, workers at Abia State University Teaching Hospital including cleaners and waiters as well as staff of the Abia Advertising Agency, were still earning ₦29,000 monthly.
Public outcry forced the government to adjust wages to ₦77,000, though this still lags behind states like Imo, where the minimum wage stands at ₦104,000.
Perhaps the most damning exposure was the claim that ₦82 billion had been spent on repairs of public schools across Abia State. Opposition verification revealed this claim to be largely fictitious and fraudulent.
There is no public school in Abia today that can compete with many public schools in Borno State township, a region that has battled insurgency for over a decade. Classrooms remain dilapidated, learning environments unsafe, and basic facilities grossly inadequate.
Only after sustained opposition pressure did the government hurriedly commence cosmetic repairs on a few carefully selected schools for media optics. These selective interventions do not invalidate the broader pattern of fraud, misrepresentation, and corruption surrounding the ₦82 billion claim.
On the health sector, the Abia Opposition consistently lampooned the government for abandoning secondary healthcare while gambling on a briefcase contractor at the Owerrinta Medical City now a mirage. Despite claims of over ₦60 billion spent on health, there is no functional secondary health institution in Abia today except Aba General Hospital, which was initially discredited the same administration.
Nearly three years on, all general hospitals remain in a state of coma, while primary healthcare centres are celebrated as achievements. Meanwhile, other states including those in the North are commissioning 300-bed referral hospitals to meet the healthcare needs of their people.
Contract awards in Abia State remain shrouded in secrecy. Procurement processes lack transparency, raising serious doubts about value for money. SFTAS reports reveal alarming expenditure figures on several projects.
Conflicting official statements the governor’s media aides on the acquisition cost of Star Paper Mill deepened public suspicion. Similarly, the Omenuko Bridge reportedly moved from an initial ₦1.6 billion contract to ₦4.7 billion after exchange rate recalibration, with unofficial figures suggesting costs as high as ₦25 billion. Abians continue to demand a transparent procurement framework.
The opposition raised early alarms when the state claimed to have spent ₦15 billion on compensation for properties affected road projects. A review of the 2024 financials showed that actual payments to beneficiaries fell far below what was declared, as revealed in the 2024 SFTAS report.
By September 2025, an additional ₦14.4 billion was claimed for similar compensation, even as protests persisted particularly among airport landowners. Serious questions remain over how non-indigenous names appeared on compensation lists.
Some Audio Projects and Inflated Claims, Several flagship projects exposed as media stunts include:
1.) Enyimba Hotel, still inactive despite multiple announced commencement dates, while Imo Concord Hotel and Presidential Hotel Enugu are progressing.
2.) Owaza Modular Refinery, now overgrown with weeds despite national media flag-offs.
3.) Abia Seaport, publicly admitted the governor himself to be “audio.”
The claim of 600km of roads delivered was another inflated assertion. After receiving over ₦1.2 trillion in revenue, the government struggles to credibly account for even 140km of completed roads.
Contrary to grand promises, Abia has not attracted a single new factory or industry since 2023. The narrative that investors would flood Abia at the mere mention of the governor has proven false. This only confirms the status of the state with the highest number of unemployed youth as reported NBS in 2024.
The so-called 24-hour power supply remains another carefully packaged illusion designed solely for social media applause.
In retrospect, the achievements of the Abia Opposition in 2025 were not measured political power but impact. These efforts were not the work of one individual or one party. Voices from the PDP, APC, ADC, and Labour Party, alongside independent activists and concerned citizens, worked relentlessly to ensure the world understood that the Abia on newspaper pages is vastly different from the Abia of lived reality.
Special appreciation must be extended to the Deputy Speaker House of Representatives ,Rt Hon Ben Kalu, His Excellency, Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, PhD, Leader of the Abia State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, whose steadfast leadership gave strength and direction to opposition engagement. Notable recognition also goes to Sir Chiekwe Udensi, whose courage and consistency amplified critical voices within the opposition space.
All these came at a personal cost. I bear my own bruises in this struggle, but if that is the prize for exposing fraud and manipulation in Abia State, then so be it. Our assurance is that we will deepen our focus in 2026 to expose the lies and manipulation.
It is gratifying to note that many Abians, including artisans and traders, are now asking hard questions about project costs beyond the fake optics promoted the government.
While Abia still grapples with deep governance deficits, one thing is clear: without the vigilance of the opposition, many of these truths would have remained buried beneath hashtags and propaganda.
Obinna Oriaku
©️Ekwedike
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