Towards the end of January 2016, the people of Arochukwu had begun to notice that there was a leadership crisis in the Abia State College of Education (Technical), Arochukwu through repeated announcements and counter- announcements over the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA) radio on who was or not the provost of the college. Really, the crisis raged.
In the first announcements, the then provost, Prof Theresa Nnennaya Kanno (the Amuvi-born, Isimkpu-married ABSU educationist-lecturer) had been congratulating the governor of Abia State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, on his victory at the Supreme Court of Nigeria. Then, suddenly, a group of Ngwa students at the college went on air to congratulate one Dr Solomon Iheonunekwu on his appointment (being the most senor academic staff member of the college) as the new acting provost. So, as Prof T N Kanno was congratulating Gov Ikpeazu on his Supreme Court victory as the provost of the college, other groups were busy congratulating Solomon Iheonunekwu as the new acting provost at the same time.
The Ngwa people were joined by the ASCETA branch of the COEASU (Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union) as headed by the Amankwu, Arochukwu-born Dr Joseph Kanu. So, for about a week, the announcements from these bodies rented the air on BCA over ASCETA leadership tussle.
That was the situation through February 2016. But in early March, Abians woke up one morning only to hear from the mouth piece of government, the BCA, that Dr Philips Nto, the Ututu-born, immediate-past Commissioner for Finance in Abia State and a member of the academic staff of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, ‘has been appointed the new provost of Abia State College of Education (Technical), Arochukwu to restore peace in the college,’ the radio station had announced.
Then, on 1 March, 2016, the State Government radio, BCA, announced that nine new Transition Committee Chairmen had been appointed for nine LGAs, one of them being Hon Ama Abraham Nnanna, Ihechiowa-born business mogul, a staunch member of the PDP and the Political Adviser to Gov Ikpeazu of Abia, a position he had held in the regime of Chief Theodore Orji as the governor of Abia State too.
The next day, the appointed chairmen and their deputies were sworn in and they have since assumed duty, ‘with a special task to ensure that the re-run elections slated for 5 March 2016 in Abia North senatorial district and in some other constituencies went well,’ according to a source who spoke to Aro News on the condition that his name should not be mentioned.
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