KOLAWOLEs LIES ABOUT T. A. ORJI The greatest challenge in Nigeria’s nationhood is corruption and two of its viral offshoots are the civil service and the media. All public functionaries, especially those in the executive cadre, depend on civil service bureaucrats to commit any financial hemorrhage in their establishments. Only the civil servants in this country know the minutest details of siphoning public funds through years of dexterous manipulation of figures and unwholesome foolproof documentation of financial shenanigans. Overall, they tutor their usually ignorant bosses on how to loot clinically. Next to the civil service in the underdevelopment of Nigeria is the fourth estate. Most of the problems of this country would have been addressed if journalists had been responsible and committed to the ethics of their profession and propagation of national interest. Alas, personal drives come first before any other extraneous consideration. It is self first in Nigerian journalism. And because of this, mercantilism has been enthroned in media practice. Everyone in the communicative business now, unlike before, seems to sadly have a price! This prefatory has become apposite because of Mr. Simon Kolawole’s Back Page Column in THISDAY ON SUNDAY of March 16, 2014, euphemistically entitled ‘Conflict and Underdevelopment’ and illustrated with T. A. Orji’s repulsive face. I am certain that Kolawole wrote in ignorance of the festering decadence in governorship of Abia State, my state. At a personal level, I could dismiss Kolawole’s erroneous declarations about God’s own state, but the public may be deceived by such sponsored and mercantilist piece of creative writing if these authoritative espousals are not made. I do not blame Kolawole for humouring the disastrous governor of Abia State, Chief T. A. Orji (known by his bewitched backers as ‘Ochendo Global’), with such unmerited laudatory comments. From the outpouring of Kolawole’s lavish praise, it is obvious that he must have written from documents made available to him by Government House officials without any first-hand experience of the monumental rot in my state. Columnists, especially respected ones, should not sit back in their cozy Lagos homes built with donations by Alhajis Aliko Dangote, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), among others, and begin to pontificate on matters they know little or nothing about only through literature review and mega-phonic briefs from personal operatives of governors. This is the drawback of Nigerian journalism: instead of telling thievish leaders to retrace their retrogressive steps, most reporters, columnists and editors are easily compromised or intimidated with convertible pots of porridge! If some of the media fellows know the damage they do to the society through wanton acquiescence in the perpetration and perpetuation of evil, they will solemnly ask for remission! The incalculable harm by corrupt journalists to the country after collection of inimical peanuts from roguish and non-performing governors is unimaginable. Despite these scandalous behaviours, they sermonize (Simonize?) weekly by indulging in public relational stunts for individuals/blue-chip institutions or extreme combativeness depending on bargaining profiles of both parties! There is no distinction again between gossip and standard publications. Let me state from the outset that I was in Abia State between December last year and January 2014 for the celebration of the Yuletide season. A fortnight ago, too, I was also in the state for other engagements. I went through all sorts of craters and heaps of refuse amid other visible structural decompositions—most of them unattended to since the exit of Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu (MON) as Abia State governor almost seven years ago! I do not know if it is this same Abia State that Kolawole wrote so profusely about as if he was giving an experiential account of a state like Lagos, a city of media excellence! SK (for Simon Kolawole henceforth), on my honour and word, nothing is happening in my state. I personally invite you for an all-expenses-paid three-day investigative tour of Abia State at any opportune time. In my own case as your friend, colleague and host, there would be no ‘handout’ for you—just logistical management of the trip! SK created a misleading background in his deceptive thesis. For once I was disappointed by SK’s analytical frame of mind in his mischievous interpretation of the nexus between conflict and underdevelopment as they apply to Abia State. The first dubious extract: “It is not just leadership and corruption that impede development: conflict is a strong repellant. Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, as governor of the state from 1999 to 2007, was most of the time at loggerheads with President Olusegun Obasanjo. The battleground was the media. Orji Kalu’s airline, Slok, was eventually grounded. Abia suffered as the state was denied plenty federal juice as a result of the conflict.” How can SK descend to this kind of boyish illogic shrouded in devilish technicality? For SK’s knowledge, conflict in this circumstance was a revolt against presidential corruption. We should not see corruption only in the garb of financial misappropriation or other fiscal misdemeanors. It is an indeterminable phenomenon. In other words, conflict in the Nigerian equation is, therefore, critical to good governance. Yes, Kalu was at loggerheads with Obasanjo over developmental issues that bordered on the maltreatment of the Igbo—Kalu’s confrontational stance was not a personal thing and that was the only way to challenge the Otta bully. He could have out of cowardice, as SK is suggesting, and self-preservation kept mum in the face of needless oppressive tendencies. Well-meaning Nigerians should take off their hats to Kalu for looking Obasanjo in the invidious face. Leadership is not supposed to be personalized. It is for the uplift of the society and enhancement of the people’s condition of living. Such public roles are not for ego-massaging of a vindictive, wicked and arrogant president who wants everyone to endlessly kowtow to his whims and caprices as the worst president this country has ever produced. It is not only Slok Airline that Obasanjo grounded for petty reasons that confirmed witch-hunt. Hallmark Bank PLC that was a first-tier corporate citizen was also laid to rest because the Slok Group owned by Kalu had substantial investments in it. Most bankers know full well that the bank was not in any way unhealthy—it was even healthier than some of today’s banks at the time of the vicious clampdown. Are SK and his benefactors equally aware that Slok moved on shortly thereafter to become the national airline of The Gambia? Is SK also conversant with the fact that Obasanjo unsuccessfully used former EFCC boss Nuhu Ribadu to shut The Sun Publishing Company Limited, the publishers of Sun titles, among other atrocities by the Otta farmer? Why should a sensible president deny a state its due because its governor insisted on the right things being done? This is the issue that SK should focus on and not blame Kalu for his bravery because he wants to justify the outlay by T. A. Orji. Obasanjo should be held responsible for the underdevelopment of Abia between 1999 and 2007—not Kalu by any stretch of the argument. If Obasanjo had conducted himself well, his disagreements with Kalu should not have impacted negatively on the state. Such dispassion is the livewire of credible leadership, of maturity, of reason, of vision, of objectivity, of statesmanship, ad infinitum. It is not only Kalu or Abians that suffered Obasanjo’s misrule, Odi and Zaki Biam hapless people irredeemably did. There are so many other victims I cannot recollect immediately! Kalu could not have been spinelessly submissive just because he wanted Obasanjo’s ‘favours’ (rights and entitlements) for the state. Why should governance and leadership be personalized? The point that must be underscored is that Obasanjo is very vindictive and bad-natured! In any case, what did other obedient and subservient South East governors get from Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007? In case SK does not know, Obasanjo hates the Igbo with an uncanny passion—he has never hidden it! That is a subject for another day. SK, please note that, contrary to one of your statements, T. A. Orji was not released by the EFCC to be sworn in. He was ingeniously shepherded by Kalu from Umuahia to the Abia State Liaison Office on Victoria Island in Lagos and hastily sworn in to foreclose his arrest (on grounds of immunity) by rampaging EFCC officers, who, as you rightly mentioned, were relentlessly trying to get at Kalu at the instance of headhunter Obasanjo! This man again? T. A. Orji was just at the point of being rounded up before Kalu’s masterstroke. That is why it is not good to obstruct injustice at times as T. A. Orji’s arrest would have effectively and gloriously truncated his governorship and saved Abians from the current rape and assault! Another excerpt from the subtlety of SK’s reputational and perceptive mismanagement of T. A. Orji ahead of his senatorial day-dream arising from malarial affliction: “Orji’s performance in the last four years, in my opinion, is certainly way beyond what he recorded between 2007 and 2010. Significantly, unlike Kalu, Orji is in the good books of Abuja.” Why would a respectable columnist and former editor of a national newspaper make unsubstantiated, sweeping, irrational and self-opinionated overgeneralizations? What are the parameters to measure and assert that the last four years of T. A. Orji is far better than his first tenure approximately? The entirety of T. A. Orji’s era, including the few remaining months, is nothing to write home about. His massive media propaganda, sponsored awards and PR innovations through commercialized newspaper columns have not changed the reality on ground. Even if all the columnists in Nigeria are inaugurated to adumbrate T. A. Orji’s vain-gloriousness and irredeemable misrule in Abia State, it cannot change anything as a pig will always remain a pig. Is SK aware that staff of Abia State University are paid one month in a quarter and told by the government to source for the remaining months? Does SK know that the Amachara General Hospital has remained in a decrepit condition since the last renovation in 2006? Is SK informed of the whitewashing of commissioners’ quarters built by Kalu as one of the ‘achievements’ of T. A. Orji? Has SK heard of the Ehirim Housing Estate constructed by Kalu and all the cock-and-bull stories as to who initiated it? SK, will you ever go to Ariara Market in Aba and hear tales of woe of excessive taxation by T. A. Orji and his agents? Simon Kolawale Live, have you recently travelled from Aba to Ikot Ekpene, Umuahia to Port Harcourt, and Igbere to Owerri or intra-city movements within the major cities of Abia State, particularly Aba for obvious reasons? SK, again, accept my invitation to visit the aforementioned flashpoints, among other places, with me at my own expense. Once more, a poser for SK: must a governor be in the good books of Abuja for federal developmental initiatives to manifest in his state. SK may not know this: the modified cordial relationship between President Goodluck Jonathan and T. A. Orji is a function of the spousal amity between their wives—it has nothing to do fundamentally with our president, who, I hear, has reservations about the maladministration in Abia State. In other words, if Jonathan had his way, he would distance himself from the non-performer, but for Dame Patience! SK said he visited Umuahia last year as a guest of the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dr. Eze Chikamnayo (who jocularly calls him ‘my leader’). During the visit SK was shown few rehabilitated structures, dualised roads in Umuahia, new quarters under construction, a multi-storey secretariat, a judiciary complex and a conference centre, the specialist hospital and diagnostic centre, relocated market, refurbished schools and was informed (you see truth cannot be hidden) by the commissioner that all the projects he ‘saw’ in Umuahia “were replicated in all parts of the state” and SK gullibly agreed and agrees! When a man is confronted with pecuniary demands of life, he can accept anything especially when tuition in elitist citadels has to be paid! If Dr. Mike Adenuga, GCFR, dashes me a house and I remodel it, I will now tell the world that I built the mansion when indeed my mates had built their own third houses without any billionaire intervention! Let us even accept the report of SK’s guided and heavily monetized PR tour of Umuahia (not Abia State!), is that all there are in seven years of ‘Ochendoism’ and ‘Ikukucracy’? In any case, most of those claims were renovated projects of Kalu with negligible fresh additions. The records are there if SK cares. Can SK come to Aba or Ukwa-Ngwa and show me just one of such purported Umuahia projects? All the good roads in Aba have turned to craters since Kalu left. For the avoidance of doubt, conflict, its management and resolution, underdevelopment and development, good governance and inscrutable leadership are international developmental lexicons that should not be localized out of context because of domestic political patronage and demonstrative appreciation of professional beneficence! You can only tell a blind man there is no oil in the soup—not that there is no salt! Fortunately, Abians are not blind! Wabara (ewabara@yahoo/08055001948) is the media advisor to Kalu.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 20:39:04 +0000
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