Date Published: 05/04/09
Chukwudi Nwokoye’s Stand, My Stand, Part 1
By Hon. Chinedu Opukiri-Nkwonta
Kpomnigeria4ever@yahoo.co.uk
Chukwudi Nwokoye came to my notice in 2007 that I published a few articles in support of Dr. Andy Uba. He wrote a long mail back to me which I believe was all to tell me how deranged I was as to contemplate such thought. Up till today, I have not really read the mail in detail though he has represented same when I mentioned Dr. Andy Uba’s name in a recent article. My original position with some mails had been to ignore them and get on with things hoping they will disappear and the people will forget but I am much wiser now. I will take time later to revisit that letter to me from him but for now, I feel the need to counter the recent publication he brought out in almost all the internet based Nigeria media and possibly Nigerian newspapers.
I respect Mr. Nwokoye mainly for his consistent interest in his State. A lot of people may not appreciate this but for a man to be in as far away a place as Maryland in the United States and still find time to follow and contribute to the politics of his country is laudable. Mr. Nwokoye has been fairly reasonable in his positions (though I have not really read his mail to me) but I have never perceived him as someone with some hidden agenda. He tries to come across like a reasonable man striving to live a respectable life with certain level of decorum. His position is the position of most diaspora Nigerians who are only asking for a reasonable government that would be sensitive to the needs of the society so that we can come back home to contribute in making our country great, reasonable expectation. Fortunately or unfortunately, that is where we always get it wrong. Some one may say that get a rope and tie a goat and get a goat and tie a rope are the same but it only takes someone with wisdom to differentiate the two and know when to use any. The two may achieve the same purpose but they are different processes. I have come to realise in life that the process is the most difficult of any vision. If Mohammed can not get to the mountain, the mountain would go in search of Mohammed, brilliant idea but it will take some extra-ordinary power for the mountain to be up in search of Mohammed. I will revisit this later.
There is no reason for Chukwudi Nwokoye not to come back to Nigeria tomorrow to vie for political position as to contribute to the development of his country. As far as I know, he has all the pedigree; I only have to remind him that no man is an island, achievement is a collective responsibility, where your partners are not interested, it would really be difficult, the mountain would be difficult to shift. To take a horse to the stream is easy but the horse has to decide if it really needs to drink water.
Though some people would feel that my reason for replying to this mail is to get my own back on Chukwudi, no it is not the case, as much as I would love to do that if that is what he has done to me with his 2007 letter openly published for all but for my attention, I would like to deal with the factual aspects of his publication for now.
Let me first of deal with an area that I have spoken so many times with no one really paying attention, it is not politically realistic to sight examples of what is happening in America as a yard stick to measure where we are in Nigeria. By so doing, people like Mr. Chukwudi Nwokoye start to loose the plot from the beginning because the scenarios are not the same. Our ambition as a country may be to be as democratically effective and articulate as America and other international communities but that is a process that will come over time. It may not take us the length of time it has taken America to get to its present position if we are smart enough to learn not from our own experience. Someone somewhere would say that experience is the best teacher, I actually believe same. It is not possible for a hungry man to run as fast as a well fed man, the equivalent of getting me in the football pitch with Kanu Nwankwo, I will be so lucky if my leg touches the ball before I land in emergency ward for running out of breath.
Nigeria as far as I am concerned is an analogue environment and anyone that means well for us must support us to sort the fundamentals. We need to master the analogue principles that eventually make the foundation for digital. Analogue for me means going back and doing the basics and really knowing how to do them well, put in the infrastructures and position ourselves as a people to welcome the digital age.
I am aware of Ghana and the strides it has made over the past few years due to an analogue system rapidly put in place and forcefully monitored by Uncle J. Rawlings, today, though we come from the same mother, we are definitely from different gods. On the basis of this argument, it is not difficult to identify my position with the stand of Mr. Chukwudi Nwokoye.
I look forward to the days that we shall elect people properly on the basis of their manifesto for the masses. I look forward to the day that I would leave Lagos by ten o’clock in the night heading east with out fear of armed robbers (either police or their real brothers), without fear of bad roads, and actually stopping over at Benin to experience their night life as I continue my journey, it will be really great but as we look forward to that, we have to start laying the analogue foundations which is, provide trainings and jobs, healthcare, security for the people today so that they can have the right mind frame to listen to politicians and make up their minds without pressure. No matter the kind of grammar that we blow from today till Christmas on good governance, if you are not providing jobs for the people thereby somehow in control, all our grammar will always be in vain. A goat would always go with the person with the palm leaves, how much is your English or etiquette worth? Young men (and now women) are ever so willing to become thugs to some crazy money bags that would give them peanuts for their services. These brothers and sisters will come after any one with no questions asked; they most times end up destroying what would have helped them but who really cares?
An electoral Commissioner conducts a by-election, she is put under pressure by two different groups of criminals, the pretty grand mother (like my mum) runs for her dear life and resigns in hiding while still with the result of elections conducted, is that how it is done in Maryland, let no one tell me about how they do it in America anymore.
Back to Chukwudi Nwokoye, sorry jare, he described Peter as “a sitting governor with impeccable achievement”. Collins dictionary explained “impeccable” to mean “without fault”, “excellent”. He went on “Governor Peter Obi has performed wonderfully well despite the volatile political environment……” On the paragraph after the last quotation from the article, Mr. Nwokoye wrote, “By any means, Obi is not a saint. He is subject to human frailty and imperfections”, he went on “Governor Obi is far from being perfect”. These are the kind of writings that confuse my little brain. One can not be without fault and suddenly is subject to imperfections, what I conclude is that Chukwudi may have gotten a bit carried away (say slightly angry) due to Ngige’s attitude towards Peter but at a later part (when things began settling down within his system) he began to see Peter as a human being, good, that’s the end of this matter.
Mr. Nwokoye used so many biblical illustrations and quotations to buttress his position with Peter Obi. I do not want to believe that it has gotten so desperate for Peter and his man Mr. Nwokoye that he wants to tell us that Peter is the Messiah. If it has gotten to that, then I will renounce my State and move over to Ondo immediately. Fortunately or unfortunately, the only thing that His Excellency has in common with the bible is the name Peter “da rock”. As we all would imagine, the parents must have given him such name with expectations that His Excellency would emulate his spiritual name sake in doing good. Let us not also forget that Peter in the bible denied Jesus at the very crucial times in the struggle against bad people, three times.
I look forward to Mr. Chukwudi Nwokoye becoming a part of us tomorrow, then as a politician , he will be addressed and seen as one of the “plunderers”, one that “would swoop on our wealth to feather their own nest”, he will obviously be “prowling around the state” for the same purpose. It is very nice to abuse a child and still believe that the child will grow up to be a responsible member of the society. If Chukwudi believes in his heart that politicians in Nigeria are worse than any other group in the country, then good luck to him. I just hope he does not get so naïve and excited in his writing as to corner himself in the future. All these things that we are writing will always be there as evidence for or against us. There are bad politicians just like there are bad eggs in other professions. I refuse to be called a plunderer as I have not plundered nothing yet, may be because I have not seen anything to plunder unless I am being sentenced in advance which in a way is an advanced certificate to plunder. Would anyone believe me if I do not plunder or feather my personal nest, it is a terrible wind, catch 22. If a doctor wants to cure an ailment, he prescribes medicines that would help the patient to recover not to make the patient worse. The truth is that when a child is constantly treated as a criminal, the subconscious and indeed the conscious convinces the child that criminality is his destiny, it is a matter of choice in which aspect of criminality to engage in, armed robber, kidnapper, consultant thug, assassin, agbero, area boy, etc. That is the permanent position we have conditioned our mindset, Governor Obi knows that so anytime the acadas, the Americanas and Londoners visit home or he comes to see us, Peter is always playing with our minds on this area that we are very rigid on, “the politicians asked me to empty the treasury and I refused, that is the problem”. You can buy into that like Mr. Chukwudi Nwokoye has done but I am grateful to God that I can not be 419ed, I ask questions and look deeper than just believing that there are just five people in Nise town.
Chukwudi Nwokoye would see that I have consciously avoided bringing the subject of his anger to the front line on this my stand; it is because I am more interested in dealing with the issues raised than the shadows. Another reason is that I am certain that Ngige is quit capable of dealing with his issues which is why Nwokoye is getting irritated.
CONTINUED ON PART 2
