BY REV FR GERALD NWAFOR
I was not totally disappointed when I listened to the interview granted by the Honorable Minister of Works: His Excellency, former governor of Ebonyi State and a former senator of the Federal Government of Nigeria. He is also an engineer by profession and a professor in practice, according to him. With all these attributes, I expected him to be above board at least, but that interview opened my eyes to areas of our unity I had never imagined. The only reason why the caption of this paper resonates is that the minister mentioned Zik in the interview. The senator said that if a president should come from the southeast, it should not be from Anambra since the first president of Nigeria, in the person of Nnamdi Azikiwe, came from today’s Anambra State.
What a pity; how can we treat a founding father in such a belittling way? Who on earth did not know the work and the support of Zik in Nigeria and Africa? How can you compare Zik to yourself, honorable minister? If I may remind you, in case you have forgotten, that it was Zik who capped the mermaid (Mami-water) inside a bottle and swallowed the key so that the Niger bridge you renovated could be built in the first instance in 1955. It was Zik who collected independent paper from Queen Elizabeth; it was Zik who spoke the grammar that confused the white men, and till today the whites are still searching the dictionary in search of Zik’s grammar. Minister, it is a pity that you did not value the works of our heroes past. Let me remind you that Zik was in the political life of Nigeria for more than 50 years, but no woman died in his house, and nobody accused him of not paying for a job he ordered.
If those standards mean nothing to you, we in the southeast valued them. The old text said that Cesar’s wife should be above suspicion; therefore, we do not want to present to the Nigerian public a politician whose behavior towards other people is questionable. Meanwhile, it is not a good thing to defend your principal with any good work he has done for the public instead of going after Obi. The minister said that he started attacking Obi because Obi went and stood on a road he was constructing and made a bad comment. When pressured to show the evidence, he changed the story, citing that he is attacking Obi because Obi was attacking his principal, the president of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Tinubu.
If the minister said that Mr. Peter Obi did not consult the Igbos before agreeing to four years presidency I wonder who he consulted before accepting the office of the minister. I hope he knows that no other son of Ebonyi State should be Minister of Labor in Nigeria since he has taken their turn. Going back to his case on Azikiwe. Let me remind the minister that Azikiwe won the election in the West (Yoruba land). Called Michael Okpara from now Imo State to become the premier of Eastern Nigeria. No Nigerian politician would call the name of Azikiwe, Awolowo, Sardauna, and Tafawa Balewa just for selfish reasons and to score cheap political points, which, in this case, the minister did not even score a point; rather, the ball was kicked far away from the goal post. Zik convinced Kwame Nkuruma to pursue political freedom in Ghana. Zik helped many African countries fight for their independence through his newspaper called Pilot.
By contrast, the minister was a deputy governor for 8 years, incumbent governor for 8 years, senator for three months, and minister of works for 3 years and counting. The only legacy he is about to leave before departing office is making his son local government chairman. When asked about it, he said that it is the business of the current governor who succeeded him and his wife. How can you say that the vision of your son does not concern you? If you cannot dictate what happens in your home, how can you dictate what would happen in the southeast?
At a point in the interview, I was wondering about the real goal of the interview. Looking at the time the presenter allowed you to explain the deaths of engineers and the physio or nurse around you sent a strong signal that the interview is just a damage-control interview. The one you said that a friend of yours paid $70,000 hush money to the souvenir girl was laughable. That friend who can pay $70,000 for you must be an angel. Your detailed analysis of the engineers’ death in a village conflict was striking, and the phone call details of the death physio with the boyfriend are like a written script. Finally, how do you know that the $70,000 collected by the souvenir girl is causing trouble for her and her cohort?
Finally, I do not want to trade words with the minister lest that make him feel important, but I would like the people of southeast to get their PVC (permanent voters card) ready for the January election. After the election, we will revisit the topic of today if the people of Anambra have taken their turn on the presidential space in the Nigerian polity. The problem with elders who do not listen is that they mislead the community and destroy the fabric they are supposed to protect.
The one-hour and some-minutes interview on Arise News did not focus on anything tangible but three allegations bedeviling the minister. Whether he cleared himself remains to be seen. He even claims that he would sue Sahara reporters who broke the news to the public. I wonder what he is waiting for before suing the online newspaper.
My little advice to him, since he is also from my stock called Igbo race, is: Sir, remember that truth is a defense in law, and the court does not accept hearsay, so you cannot come into court and start saying that the boyfriend of the physio girl said and I said, so be very careful what you plan to say in court, or you will expose your already battered image more, and the bottom of the basket will give way (ekete ekwupu ike). The plan to destroy the image of Peter Obi will not work. All the paid brothers to kill a brother will be shamed in the end. There is always tomorrow.
