Everlasting King of Glory, I come before you today in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and I thank you for the gift of life. Thank You heavenly Father for this is the day You have made and we shall rejoice and be glad for You have made us glad.

Father, today, I bring our dear State, Abia, before You. Because your word, oh God, says in all things we should give You thanks, I thank You for Abia State. I thank You for how far You have brought us, for the past nearly 28 years, that Abia State has been in existence, having been created August 27, 1991. I thank You Almighty God that despite the numerous ills that our state has passed through, You have kept us and preserved us in your mercy and by your grace, with the hope that all will be well with us.

Heavenly God, Abia State will join 29 other states of the federation on Saturday, March 9, 2019 to elect individuals who will manage the affairs of the state at the gubernatorial and legislative levels. This is a very important election for the people of Abia State, as it will afford citizens and residents alike, the opportunity to elect those who will administer the affairs of our state for the next four years.

Father, your word says that all things lie naked and open before your holy eyes and that You know the ending even from the beginning. I know that even before we file out on Saturday to vote for our preferred candidates that You had already concluded the matter. Therefore, I ask that you help us align our will with your will concerning Abia State.

Lord, even as I ask that your will, oh God, be done, it is also my desire that You touch the heart of our people to make the right decision and vote those persons that have the fear of You Almighty God and love for the people in their hearts.

Father, I pray particularly concerning the governorship election, for this is the election that will throw up the individual that will administer the state at the executive level. The burden of leadership shall be upon this individual. The lot of policy development and implementation shall rest on the shoulders of this individual and therefore this individual must be one who understands what leadership is all about.

As I bow before the throne of your grace this day and make my supplication, different political parties have lined up candidates to contest for the governorship position in Abia State. Among these parties are three which stand out from the lot. They are the incumbent, PDP and the opposition APGA and APC, whose candidates are Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu, Dr. Alex Otti and Uche Ogah, respectively.

For 20 years, Okezie Ikpeazu’s party, PDP, has led Abia State and for those years the people had groan in pain and anguish. Civil servants in the state have persistently been owed several months in arrears of their salaries, even though your word, oh God, expressly proclaims that a labourer is worthy of his wage. Relatedly, retirees who have given the better part of their lives in the service of the state have been scorned as they are denied their gratuities and pensions.

In addition, our state has had the misfortune of being reputed as one of the worst, if not the worst, governed states in Nigeria. Abia State, under PDP, has failed in all respect of development – economic, social and political. The government of the day and the ones before it have failed woefully to provide the citizens with the basic amenities to make life a little easy. Our roads are death traps, our environment is filled with overflowing gabbage. Insecurity is the order of the day, as violent crimes such as kidnapping and armed robbery, continue to rise.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) the crime rate in Abia State has risen astronomically in the last four years, growing from a little over 300 to over 12,000. The health infrastructure of the state is comatose. Same with the power infrastructure. I can go on and on about our inadequacies and misfortune.

Your word, oh God, says that your ears are always open to the cries of the righteous and that whatsoever I desire when  I pray and believe that I will have it. I therefore ask of you Lord concerning Abia State that you take away from us this regressive government of PDP and enthrone a progressive leadership that will lead our state to prosperity and abundance.

Father, even our oppressors, Okezie Ikpeazu and his party PDP know that they have performed abysmally, but are insistent on going for a second term, for according to them it is equity for Ikpeazu to rule for eight years, even though he has not done anything in terms of achievement in his first term to merit a second term.

Father, even man in his definite wisdom understands that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands. But Okezie Ikpeazu and his party PDP have refused to hearken to the words of wisdom.

How can Okezie Ikpeazu talk about equity when he continues to operate diametrically opposed to the word of God? It can never be equity for Okezie Ikpeazu and PDP to continue to exploit hunger as a weapon to oppress the mass of Abia people, particularly the men and women who toil daily to generate the wealth that comes to the state and which the governor and his band of praise singers use to service their greed and flamboyant lifestyle.

Is it equity that residents of Abia State now dread the rainy season? For each time the heavens open up to pour forth showers of blessings upon the state many mourn rather than rejoice because homes and roads are overtaken by flood.

Is it equity for the mass of the people to continue to live in perpetual fear of what to eat and how to pay their bills when Okezie and his godfather and all the complicit elders continue to revel with impunity of filthy lucre? Is it equity that our educated and diligent youth are left without work, but are always dubiously exploited at every election year when they are deployed as brigands to disrupt the electoral process?

I know for certainty Lord that it cannot be equity that on account of greed, incompetence and callousness on the part of leadership precious lives are lost daily due to poorly staffed and trained personnel, ill equipped, or lack thereof, medical facilities and other executive misdeeds.

Is it equity for Okezie Ikpeazu to continue to lie in public media that he has built the Osisioma flyover, constructed hundreds of kilometres of roads, paid civil servants salaries up to date, fulfilled his obligation to pensioners, equipped hospitals and generally turned Abia State into Dubai when in actual fact none of these imaginary projects has either been conceived or executed, even when billions of Naira have been voted and spent.

Heavenly Father, as you deliver us from the evil of bad government and governance as eminently demonstrated by Okezie Ikpeazu and PDP, I ask that you look upon us with mercy and bless us with a new crop of leadership, the type that understands that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; a leadership that truly knows that all power belongs to God and He gives it to whosoever He wills.

I ask Almighty God that You bless us in Abia State with Dr. Alex Otti, a man who has the fear of God in his heart and love for the people. You have obviously prepared him for a time like this, having endowed him with the requisite wisdom and competence to confront the challenges that face our state today. The record of his achievements and accomplishments as a scholar, economist and banker of repute have been written in volumes of texts and they are public knowledge.

You brought him very close to the leadership of Abia State in 2015, but as a discerning student of the Bible, I know that the cup of iniquity has to be full to overflowing before justice can be dispensed. The time to dispense justice on PDP in Abia State is now. Touch the hearts of Abia voters, INEC officials, security agents and all others who will be playing active role concerning Saturday election in Abia State and cause us to do the right thing, that your will, oh God, be done.

Thank You Heavenly Father for answered prayer, in the name of Jesus. Amen.