What Many Failed To Realize In Hon Nkwonta’s ‘Declaration Of ‘My Vote Is For Dr Alex Otti’.

What Many Failed To Realize In Hon Nkwonta’s ‘Declaration Of ‘My Vote Is For Dr Alex Otti’.

Thursday (Eke) 23-07-2026.

English language is one that is strictly driven by its known rules. One of the them is the application of tenses in both oral and written form.

In the language, there are different types of tenses; present tense, present participle, past tense, past participle, and future tense. Each tense is indicative of time and, or, process.

Tenses will always indicate time. The time of an action is always indicated or conveyed through the application of appropriate use of tenses. For instance, if someone uses the present tense for an action that will take place in the future, the sentence in which it is used becomes grammatically inaccurate, and that would also affect its meaning.

Students who make use of tenses incorrectly either in tests or examinations, always get the short end of their Teacher’s stick.

Her Excellency; The Wife of President Tinubu and First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON, out of her developmental initiative, paid an official visit to ‘celebrate and promote’ women weavers of the famous Akwete Clothes on Tuesday (Afor) 21st July, 2026. It was very encouraging of the First Lady.

According to reports, the Member representing Ukwa-East and Ukwa-West Federal Constituency in the 10th House of Representatives, Hon Chris Nkwonta, while giving his goodwill message on the occasion, stated, ‘I am a member of APC but I tell you something today, my vote is for Dr Alex Otti’.

That pronouncement appears to have generated a lot of controversy. Some critics, taking into consideration how ‘unfairly’ APC treated Hon Nkwonta who won his election to the House of Representatives in 2023 on the umbrella of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, but was approached to join APC with a promise of having right of first refusal for 2027 only to be denied the Party’s Nomination after it was obvious he had won the primary election, think Hon Nkwonta could have been on a revenge mission against a Party that ‘deceived him after undue exploitation’

To some others, Hon Nkwonta could only have repeated what many other leaders of APC in Abia State had earlier said about the ‘good performance’ of the incumbent Governor of Abia State. There are a good number of APC members in the State who openly express support for the State Government. Hon Nkwonta’s is, therefore, no exception and not out of context.

However, in all these, one fact remains clear, ‘Hon Nkwonta’s vote’, as at Tuesday (Afor) 21st July, 2026, and at Central School, Akwete, ‘is for Dr Alex Otti’.

The next governorship election in Abia State will be on Saturday (Afor) 6th February, 2027, that will be more than Six months from the day Hon Chris Nkwonta stated that his vote ‘is’ for Dr Alex Otti. Putting that statement critically in the perspective of Tenses, that statement did not in any way state that Hon Nkwonta’s vote will be cast for Dr Alex Otti on 6th February, 2027.

It could, rather, have meant that if an opinion poll was to be conducted in the venue where Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, CON, had come to encourage women weavers of Akwete, that his vote would have gone to Dr Alex Otti.

Hon Chris Nkwonta’s statement was not made in a future tense, it was not futuristic and, so, could not have been associated with an election that will take place at a date that will be more than six months from the time it was made.

This, simply put and in accordance with William Shakespeare in 1598/99, is much ado about nothing.

Sir Don Ubani is a former Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Abia State, and Publisher of Equity Global Reporters Ltd.