By Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu
Every man deserves right to toe a particular line of action.After all, we
all cannot flow in the same direction and swim on the same page. But
history has taught us neither to oppose a popular cause, such as the
Ukwa-Ngwa aspiration to have a consecutive second shot at the number one
position of Abia State, nor to support and unpopular one. People who
either opposed the cause of their people or support an unpopular cause
have ended up in regret.
” A traitor to his people will be a traitor forever,” they told poor David
Dion, as they shoved him into the gas chamber before the end of the second
world war. David Dion, the renegade Jew, thought he could buy a lifesaving
friendship into the German power caste by betraying his people.
The fate of David Dion may not be familiar, but we cannot easily forget
Hughes Stanford. Stanford sought to appease the Christian mission which
explored the Niger areas(later Nigeria). Stanford poured invectives on
Africans only to be keenly avoided by the church leaders who rightly felt
that they needed diplomats, committed missionaries and lovers of humanity,
not raving racist and hate- monger who would ignite African resistance to
their new values. He died without a job and without a penny in the world.
But this was a time some more positive colonial agents were building their
career in the emerging colonies.
Joseph Goebbel, the German Nazi Party member, paid dearly for supporting
an unpopular cause. Goebbel became Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister in
1933 comes to mind. By exploiting mob emotions and by employing all modern
methods of propaganda Goebbels helped Hitler to power. His work as a
propagandist materially aided Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. When Hitler
seized power in 1933, Goebbels was appointed Reichsminister for propaganda
and national enlightenment. From then until his death, Goebbels used all
media of education and communications to further Nazi propagandistic aims,
instilling in the Germans the concept of their leader as a veritable god
and of their destiny as the rulers of the world. In 1938 he became a
member of the Hitler cabinet council. Late in World War II, in 1944,
Hitler placed him in charge of total mobilization. Unfortunately, despite
Goebbel’s propaganda wizardry, Germany lost the war. On May 1, 1945, as
Soviet troops were storming Berlin, Goebbels committed suicide.
What of Benedict Arnold (1741-1801), the American hero of the
Revolutionary War (1775-83) who later became one of the most infamous
traitors in U.S. history after he switched sides and fought for the
British .Arnold was involved in several landmark battles for the US such
as the capture of the British garrison Fort of Ticonderoga in 175, warding
off British invasion of New York at the Battle of Chaplain. Arnold also
played a crucial role in bringing about the surrender of British General
John Burgoyne’s (1722-92) army at Saratoga. Unfortunately, Arnold felt he
was not adequately rewarded and became a turncoat. He entered into secret
negotiations with the British, agreeing to turn over the U.S. post at West
Point in return for money and a command in the British army. The plot was
discovered, but Arnold escaped to British lines.
After fleeing to the enemy side, Arnold received a commission with the
British army and served in several minor engagements against the
Americans. After the war, which ended in victory for the Americans with
the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Arnold resided in England. He died in London
on June 14, 1801, at age 60. The British regarded him with ambivalence,
while his former countrymen despised him. Following his death, Arnold’s
memory lived on in the land of his birth, where his name became synonymous
with the word “traitor”.
Even in the Bible, strong opposition from Sanballat and Tobias did not
deter Nehemiah’s efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem .We may have
been offended one way or the other, but the best way to vent our anger is
not to become a turncoat by standing against a collective aspiration.
May we not share the fates of David Dion, Hughes Stanford or Benedict
Arnold. Let us support Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s second term. This is the
appeal to my Ukwa-Ngwa brothers.