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04.03.2009 Feature Article

Campaign of Calumny against Agbaso

Campaign of Calumny against Agbaso
04.03.2009 LISTEN

When people work for money against their conscience, there is every predisposition that they are living with dead conscience no matter the impression they might give. Albeit, some people perhaps don't know when they are going dissimilar to their conscience and that is why we have to call such people to order.

One Mike Nwachukwu and Hansen Nwana wrote two different articles that were published in The Sun (and in other dailies) of 4th March 2009. While reading their articles I had the intuition that they were going to proffer solution to the unending political bickering in Imo State, but they yet added fuel to the inferno.

In their different opinions, they went berserk against Mr. Martin Agbaso who was the gubernatorial candidate of the 2007 elections in Imo. Their antagonism against Agbaso was that why should his Emekuku people and his followers celebrate the Court's verdict of Feb. 26 which was in the favour of Agbaso that a matter he brought to the Court was going to be heard as against the obverse claim that the case was struck out.

The question I have been asking was why should people be angry when a people are celebrating their victory? Do they not know that there is nothing like success? The two writers without doubt expertise in the business of calumny as directed them by their employers, if actually they wrote the articles with their family-given names.

The two writers were angry against Agbaso perhaps because the plans of their principal or principals were abrogated in favour of Agbaso and they were disappointed. So, they had no other way to air their anger other than start fighting Agbaso who never said, “Ohakim, shame!” but they were the people now shaming themselves because Agbao won.

Let me state here that I am not politically a supporter of Ohakim, Araraume or Agbaso – the three politicians that have left Imolites to be crying since after the Iwu-led sham called election of 2007 – because of the power-struggle of who actually won the 2007 Imo governorship election. I am a supporter of fair-play and transparency. I decided to back-off commenting on the Imo politics since, in any form, on noticing the barrage of militant-writers Ohakim surrounded his government with, who are ready to write anything for money, as I have seen in the two writers mentioned above.

But why is Ohakim afraid of the opposition and the court? Why does he engage in a long telephone conversation with those he believed would be the justices that are going to rule the matter before him brought by the opposition? The issue of giving 'Ghana-Must-Go' bags is old story in Nigeria. Let us leave that!

A recent revelation by a neighbour who happens to be admitted in the same hospital at Orlu, Imo State, where one of Ohakim cabinet members was also admitted, was a revelation of shame.

The Ohakim boy, according to my neighbour, was saying that there is no hope that Ohakim was going to win at the court, because all the 'connections' they have, have been exhausted. The Ohakim boy was quoted saying that it would be a very big shame if the court nullifies the election and direct that either Agbaso or Araraume becomes the governor of Imo State. The Ohakim boy was reportedly as saying that all they are praying for is that the court verdict should be a re-run election.

In the same vein that is the shame that has gripped Nwachukwu and Nwana when Agbaso's matter before the court was given a human face and adjourned to March 23. The duo, instead of hide their faces in shame, decided to engage in the campaign of calumny against Agbaso. It is a big shame they have brought to their families they have now sold because of money given them by their principal less than 30 pieces of silver.

In other vein, I list expected that the revered Nigerian newspapers could publish such jaded articles best for trash, but I have no grudges against the newspapers for publishing the trash because they didn't know that the constitution of the hack writers were not written on their faces. They wrote the articles perhaps to mar Agbaso forever in Imo State, but the Imolites know who among Ohakim, Araraume and Agbaso clinched to power through blackmailing and imposition.

One thing the writers didn't want to hear because they were rented was that Ohakim himself has a lot to wash out from his linen and I am not here to wash it for him. If anyone cares, the person should contact one writer Maximus Uba who writes on Nigeria issues especially the Imo State issues. Like Nwachukwu and Nwana are now after Agboso so also the special aides to Ohakim – Ethelbert Okere and the once revered NewAge newspapers editor Steve Osuji – were after Maximus Uba. But Uba continued letting out his voice on the government Ohakim is running on the newspapers, without minding.

However, if horses were wishes, I would have suggested that the three henchcontenders of the 2007 gubernatorial election in Imo State give way for new untainted people of Imo State. The political 'war' between these men in Imo is increasing to the low performance the succeeding governments in Imo have exhibited. Government is not run on the newspapers. A barking dog does not bite. Rented praise-singers of Imo government under Ohakim, like Nwachukwu and Nwana, are adding salt into an injury. They are creating a 'war' they can't fight and are not capable of fighting the 'war'.

If Agbaso and his followers celebrated that they won, did they not truly won? They won a battle against those whom Nwachukwu and Nwana are writing to protect, who applied lead, sinker and hook that Agbaso's case in the court would not be given a listen ear by the court. But one thing remains unchanged: Agbaso has won on Feb. 26 that his matter would be revisited. He might win again on March 23, when the matter would be heard. And I wonder what again Mike Nwachukwu and Hansen Nwana would write about Agbaso.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Founder, Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), Rivers State. 08032552855. [email protected]

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