Emeka Obasi: An Amnesic Ingrate

WHEN did Prince Emeka Obasi become the attack dog of Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State and spokesman of the state? Is Emeka aware that Gov. Orji made most of the appointments as Chief of Staff to Dr. Orji Kalu?

Who in the Nigerian tribe of journalists does not know that Emeka Obasi is a professional swindler that is worse than an advance fee fraudster? Any member of the pen fraternity in this country who does not know Emeka's kleptomaniac antecedents, fraudulent dispositions and predilection for scams must be a rookie. It is routinous for Emeka to be saucy in the crudity of his interjections called writings. It is incontrovertible that Emeka is synonymous with laudatory/public relational journalism or obtuse and asinine hypercriticisms that smack of idiocy. In the instant case, I have never seen this kind of bellicosity that borders on imbecility in print! Emeka will excel in celebrity/gossip/junk journalism which is his forte! Formal/standard journalism is not for blackmailers and mercantilists.

A long time ago, a political godfather from the South-East had issues with his godson who had fought him to a ludicrous standstill and needed to explain his position to a group of journalists in Lagos. As usual, Emeka turned out to be the intermediary between the former governor and journalists at a forum held at Airport Hotel in Ikeja. While the briefing was going on, two well-stuffed Ghana-must-go bags were taken to a corner of the conference room under the custody of Emeka, who later transferred the bags to another unknown room. After the session, journalists milled around for their welfare package—some left in anger sensing a foul play. Much later when the crowd had diminished, sleek and slippery Emeka reluctantly brought out one of the bags and gave peanuts to the remaining die-hard journalists who insisted on getting their entitlements! You can guess what must have happened to the second bag! That has been Emeka's modus operandi since more than three decades that I have known him.

Recently, Mr. Richard Akinnola, a popular rights activist, did a damning and unassailable analysis consequent upon the pig-headed, thoughtless and ill-advised abduction of developmental journalist, Ebere Wabara, from his Lagos home by the agents of Gov. Orji. Emeka, unsurprisingly, took on Akinnola as if he caught him in bed with his wife! That is Emeka for you: a lousy slave to any self-assignation that will rake in money no matter the unprincipled medium or benefactor!

In a brainless response, on behalf of Governor Theodore Ahamefula of Abia State, the worst state in Nigeria, to Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu's Leadership Series which descended on Emeka's principal and brother a fortnight ago, Emeka threw caution to the winds obviously in a stereotypically deceptive way to get a part of the loot from his kinsman! And he will get it because the governor is reputed to be generous with public funds in maintaining the likes of Emeka and his elderly accomplices instead of developing the state. We shall return to this shortly.

If not for the weighty nature of issues raised by Emeka, the best thing would have been to ignore him. But if you do that the delusion and mass deception will continue unabated. In such a fallacious circumstance, the gullible members of the society will be misled hence the appositeness of this verifiable correction.

Before we go into the institutional matters upturned by Emeka whose second nature is corporate beggarliness for survival, it is imperative that we examine the professional pedigree and character of this so-called prince who was at loggerheads with his father until his death—a fact that is known to one and all in and around Umuahia.

In Nigerian journalism, empty drums like Emeka make the most bedlam and somewhat profiteer from that because their victims and prospective victims are so timid and easily cowed into pacifying the extortionist clan of Emeka's genre of journalists. Ask any reputable journalist in Nigeria if Emeka has ever practised credible—serious, in loose parlance—journalism all his entire intimidating career. Most respected members of this noble profession see Emeka more as a sweet-tongued, swindler with sugar-coated tongue with which he uses to hoodwink unsuspecting captains of industry and bank CEOs most especially.

Emeka pretends to be a publisher. All the kwashiorkor publications he purportedly published and still publishes never survived let alone blossom. It surprised many journalists and investors when he tricked Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim into buying the carcass that has been rejuvenated at the unimaginable cost of N530 million when indeed half of that amount could have been properly used to establish a flourishing newspaper—not the haunted National Mirror which is yet to shed the newspapering fatalism associated with Emeka.

Ask anyone that has worked or is still working for Emeka in previous establishments or the latest tragic mimicry called Hallmark Newspapers his level of staff salary indebtedness and unprecedented frequency of employee turnover on account of this obligatory lacuna and you will be amazed by his level of callousness and nonchalance. Yet he falsely lives like an imperial Lord from the money he ingeniously obtains from corporate bodies and moneybags who do not know him well or are afraid of his nuisance capacity. Mr. Blessing Onumajuru and others died partly on account of accumulated and unpaid entitlements owed them by this cunning megaphone. How many editors have edited Hallmark Newspaper since its inception less than a year ago? None of them lasted more than three months! The same turnover afflicts other staff.

Ask most past and current bank CEOs whether they have ever encountered a chronic liar like Emeka Obasi and hear a litany of stories and tale of woe. Which of them has Emeka not harassed to submission? If you doubt me, ask Mr. Ayodele Aminu, a frontline Assistant Editor (Business), and indeed former business editors like Chijama Ogbu, Enitar Ugwu, Amos Adetunji, ad infinitum, who professionally interface with bank CEOs and other captains of industry, if they know the pugnacious relationship between Emeka and financial institutions particularly and other blue-chip organisations. If you see any corporate advert in Hallmark Newspaper, go and find out the history. It could never have been a function of the quality, spread (reach) and credibility of the medium, but essentially a product of blackmail. The immediate past CEO of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Ihejiani and some of his contemporaries can confirm this.

How did Hallmark Newspaper come into existence? Emeka conned, normally, the former Chairman and CEO/MD of defunct Hallmark Bank PLC, Chief Marc Wabara, into parting with some hundreds of millions for the establishment of floundering Hallmark Newspapers shortly before the largesse from Barrister Ibrahim whose windfall for Emeka went into the obscene burial of Emeka's father whom he never cared for while he was alive. The spending spree, according to those who attended the lavish burial, was symptomatic of Emeka's prodigality in search of postmortem paternal forgiveness!

When we talk of journalism in its proper context, a duper like Emeka should not ascribe such nobility to himself. He does not deserve to be called one or even be associated with such a hallowed profession. He knows this himself. Can he boldly bring some of his articles for assessment by an evaluation panel of experts? Masquerading and parading about as a top-class writer is sheer self-deception for in the firmament of journalistic distinction in Nigeria, thoroughbred and accomplished journalists know themselves and are known by colleagues. A few names that ring bell will suffice in no particular order: Debo Adesina. Eniola Bello, Segun Ayobolu, Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, Femi Adesina, Mike Awoyinfa, Steve Nwosu, et al.

That poverty is wracking Emeka is not in doubt, his pretences notwithstanding. He is the only “publisher” who attends events with cub-reporters, including his unpaid former and present employees, and shamelessly collects brown envelopes with them—no character, no dignity! He is most likely the only publisher who is still a tenant in Lagos at a time when junior reporters have second and third homes in Lagos and Abuja. How do you explain this: money extorted from innocent people cannot be used for any meaningful purpose? Most of it is frittered on sustaining a fleeting make-believe life, with the Obasi clan carrying on with security details as if they share tenancy with Aso Rock occupants! Beneath the façade are journalistic scams, insolvency and moral bankruptcy of unparalleled dimensions.

If Emeka is not into systemic arm-twisting of CEOs, he organises all manner of phony awards ranging from Zik Leadership Award to nondescript allied tricks that are heavily paid for by his victims. What amazes me is the gullibility of these awardees some of whom even advertise such worthless awards! It only shows the erosion of values in our society. And each time he organises these quarterly awards, there are always fall-guys scrambling for them possibly to be in his good books and escape his malignant notoriety for institutional and individual blackmail!

How did Emeka become a short-lived commissioner in Abia State during the governorship of Dr. Kalu? It took the intervention of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida whom he had lobbied endlessly to get Dr. Kalu to reluctantly appoint him as a commissioner in understandable deference to IBB. Ordinarily, Emeka was and is not qualified and competent to hold such a position in a state like Abia with a profundity of cerebral minds and superfluity of distinguished journalists and mass communication lecturers in elite citadels nationwide. That is the problem when you bend the rules to accommodate amnesic ingrates who easily forget where they were rehabilitated from once there is another benefactor.

The stupidity is so elevated that Emeka irresponsibly admits that he ran Dr. Kalu's propaganda and strategy as information commissioner. This bloke should be ashamed of himself and just shut his noisome claptrap! Why did he accept to run the alleged propaganda machinery only to be pouring out venomous spilt milk almost a decade after? Why didn't he resign so that hunger and abject poverty will encircle him? If Emeka was so good, why did his current mentor and brother, Gov. Orji, not make him a member of his cabinet? I can assure you, dear reader, that, tomorrow, this same Emeka who is praise-singing and worshipping Orji will make a volte-face if given a paltry N200,000 anytime from May 29, 2015! That is his irredeemable and unapologetic life that has over the years become congenital.

Those in glass houses should not throw stones. Emeka does not have any moral scruples to point the finger at Dr. Kalu because of the inevitable porridge his transient townsman will dash him for lying against their former master. There is more to life than just illicit money from Government House used in public disservice to witch-hunt. If anyone should legitimately fault Dr. Kalu definitely it is not a mischievous person and mercantilist like Emeka. There are credible men and decent minds Abians can join issues with---not hacks like Emeka and his cohorts in and out of government. For the interest of Emeka and his co-travellers, the time of reckoning is drawing nigh!

Having done a clinical diagnosis of the emptiness that Emeka represents which most people did not know until these revelations, let us now address the subjects he raised in his boyish labyrinth and errant rebuttal. Emeka in his solicitous open letter to Dr. Kalu accused him of sundry misdeeds through a deliberate muddle-up of critical issues that are clear to everyone in and outside the administration of Kalu.

Emeka said Dr. Kalu “embarrassed” himself by that article which kept him wondering what point Kalu was making and to whom. If Emeka were not shallow he would have clearly understood the point (the message) and the intended target audience. And because of this blatant ignorance, he saw it as an embarrassment! I sympathise with Emeka on grounds that his paymaster and his ilk comprehended it as feelers had confirmed

Before we continue, a kindergartener should civilize Emeka that here is nothing like “living witnesses” and “litany of falsehood” as he wrote in his trivial feedback. The blanket statements that contained these juvenile blunders did not tell readers in specific terms what the falsehoods were. Over-generalisation from a former 'special adviser on research and strategy' and subsequently an undeserving 'information commissioner' (packaged by IBB) shows the hollowness of public service.

Emeka likes name-dropping which leads him to announce that Gov. Orji is his kinsman. What edge does that confer on him? Was it under contention in the Kalu article? Is this one of the issues that should be addressed in a serious setting? Who is interested in such clannishness? Are we expected to jump into the lagoon because of that otiose information? By the way, is Emeka aware that the governor is more inclined to his maternal home? What will Barack Obama's extended relations do? Go to the clouds! Sub-ethnic bunkum!

Emeka foolishly accuses Dr. Kalu of using his newspaper conglomerate and nexus to unwarrantedly attack his paymaster and dede (elder brother). He calls it “an abuse of position”. Let the world judge between T. A. Orji and Kalu who is the worse offender. What has Gov. Orji not done to Kalu except to impossibly take his life? If Kalu was not greater than Orji in all ramifications of life, Kalu probably would have been history by now. Anyone who contradicts this inalienability must be a satanic agent from hell, worse than Emeka—who should not talk of “professional ethos” at all and the exigency of his acting (yes indeed!) as “a watchdog against purveyors of falsehood.” How can a common blackmailer, a merchant of bloody lies and an extortionist of unrivalled magnitude be professing the very antithesis to his widespread indulgence and corrupt avowals?

Emeka asserts that Kalu did not make his new-found “brother” governor! Well, I believe Nigerians know the truth. We shall leave it at that for historians. It is obvious you do not know the circumstances leading to the selection and election of your man as governor. He knows it all but will never needlessly reveal it to you or any other third party.

As for other incidental and petty issues you raised, we shall know the mileage after May 29, 2015. We would thereafter get to learn more about Chinedu (Ikuku) Orji and Legacy conduit pipes for siphoning public funds and do a comparison. Most of the so-called Abia Elders you listed have been monumentally compromised that they can never see any wrong in T. A.'s gross underdevelopment of God's own state. Unlike your preposterous presumption, Kalu is in good terms with some of the names you mentioned, who, strictly speaking, cannot be classified as “elders”.

And who tells Emeka that the listed microcosm of Abia indigenes is representative of the totality of Abia elite? Illogical and intemperate vociferousness informed by poverty and survivalist instincts does not confer knowledge, wisdom or status. What is the relevance of anyone's estimation about another person with questionable integrity? What should bother Kalu and any other person is his relationship with God—not any man, let alone an indigent elder on a non-performing governor's pay-roll!

It may interest the Hallmark dunderhead to know that OUK does not have any problem with Abians. He remains popular not just in Abia, but pan-Nigeria. Emeka's elders should take a trip to Aba today and see how far they have sold their conscience for handouts in preference to deplorable roads and other dilapidated social infrastructures that were last given a face-lift in 2006!

Why should an irredeemable sinner like Emeka be interceding for Kalu whose character is a million miles incomparable to the disaster that Emeka hallmarks? Before Emeka embarks on his vanishing journalistic mercantilism, he should take proper briefings and critical notes from his principal and brother who guarantees his livelihood through monthly peanuts from slush funds. Emeka is a classical case of an amnesic ingrate who was made a commissioner in eternal error!

Ndubuisi is an Aba-based journalist.