Gov Umahi, Prof Odo, Elders Of Ezaa Nation And The Rest Of Us: A Manifestation Of How Not To React To Issues.

In Ebonyi, it appears like the hornet's nest has been steered in the past few weeks. This is following the letter written to the government of Ebonyi State by one of it's own: the erstwhile SSG- Prof Ben Odo.

Prof Odo wrote a letter that apparently revealed one out of the myriad of nasty things that go on in the name of governance not only in Ebonyi but in Nigerian and indeed in African nations.

Odo wrote to tell the world how a substantial chunk of our collective resources was mindlessly squandered by a few in government in the name of an inexistent programme.

Prof Odo raised very germane issues in that letter that stand yet to be adequately addressed nor clarified by the government.

I don't know what the government thinks but it is my personal opinion that if those issues are not properly clarified, they may come back and hunt whoever I don't know tomorrow.

Instead of addressing such weighty and germane issues raised, the Hon Commissioner for Information - Barr Uchenna Orji recently tagged Odo's letter a love letter and wrote one of the most childish gibberish I have ever read in my adult life as a rejoinder.

Orji, in my thinking spoke not for himself but for the government as he signed the letter attaching all his designations and titles.

Instead of organizing a press conference to clear the air (on every single issue) on such grave allegations raised by someone who was once a part of the system, Barr Orji responded in a most laughable and unprofessional manner. His response left many of us wondering whether he wrote as Uchanna Orji writing his friend Ifeanyi Odo or he wrote as Ebonyi State government spokesperson addressing official matters of government.

And even if he had written Odo a friendly letter, the quantum of grammatical irregularities contained therein made those of us who did a bit of psychoanalytic theory in literature to unravel that he must have written under very intense pressure. That therefore left us with the conclusion that he must have been lambasted, scolded and ordered to respond to Odo. In a bid to satisfy whoever should be satisfied, Orji ended up reducing the number of his admirers and those who respect him.

Days later, precisely on the 30th of May, while in my farm at the village, the governor was reported by the EBBC as saying he holds no bad-will or ill-intention against any son or daughter of Ebonyi and that he as the father of the state doesn't have any issue with prof Odo. He also enjoined other people especially his appointees not to go on having altercations with anybody in the name of the government.

The summary of the governor's stance is that whatever Odo has done that the government feels offended has been forgiven.

Such is good of a father. That is how a father should talk.

But come to think of it, if the issues Odo raised are false, why didn't the government debunk them with verifiable facts before "forgiving" Odo? If they are true, then why don't the government want to make the account public, explain the whereabout of the unused monies and tender an unreserved apology to Ebonyians for the delay in being accountable?

Those who blame Prof Odo, those who say he is ambitious, those who say he is ungrateful, those who say he has no right to question whatever that is /was being done by the government of his state are the worst enemies of the state. Under this category falls the urchins that ravage the social media space in the name of being appointees of government. Ironically, greater number of them are very hungry boys from the same clan as Odo.

Who says a government shouldn't be criticised? Is a Governor infallible? Why can't he be constructively criticized so that he could sit up in such areas?

I attended a meeting one day where someone I respect a lot said that governors are addressed as Excellencies because their decisions are excellent and faultless. I argued against that and promised to make a research about it. It is people with such faulty orientations and servile mentality that are our problem.

Now that we are about to sleep with our two eyes closed, haven been freed from the entire brouhaha of the letters, the Elders of Ezza Nation have come up with their own hullabaloo.

I woke up this morning to behold the communiqué issued by the elders of Ezza nation.

After reading that piece, I laugh hysterically before weeping profusely. I laughed because the communiqué is fraught with lexical, grammatical and mechanical blunders. Paragraph 6 and the second to the last paragraph have the bulk of such errors. I wondered who scripted it. I also wondered who scrutinized it before making it public.

I took a deep breath and began weeping after a thoughtful consideration of that communiqué.

I was disturbed on why such a lopsided document has to emanate from such respected elders as HRHs of the oldest indigenous clan in the Abakaliki bloc of the state. I began considering what might have led them to come up with such kind of document wherein they exposed whom they are and how much they hate their own.

As traditional rulers, they are fathers. As a father, if your two sons are fighting, your duty is to separate the fight in a most amicable manner and never to take side as those HRHs did. In taking side as a father, you sow seeds of discord and division in your family. For me, it appears like the elders were not guided by the principle of one of our axioms in Ngbo where we say: onwedu onye maru ji ga efu unwu- no one knows the exact tuber of yam that will last till the period of famine.

Come to think of it: ladened with his own faults as we all have, Prof Odo should be celebrated (and not vilified) by his own people for many reasons.

(i)He is such a young man who has attained the highest height in his chosen career. To sit on a professorial chair at an age less than 40 in Nigeria is a no mean feat. It is a great achievement even if that professorial chair is of the university of Congo.

(ii)To be courageous enough to resign a juicy government position in this era where hunger or iberiberism (apologies to Sen. Rocha's) has made people reduce themselves to puppet just to remain in power and be suffering is something to be commended.

Prof Odo is not a saint. He doesn't write constituted authorities with respect. He doesn't address the highest office in his state with decorum supposed of a professor. We know all that but such is not enough for his own fathers to "denounce" such a gift as Prof Odo to such a people of the Ezza nation.

Before the 2019 general elections, we heard rumors of the Abakaliki bloc being called the foolish majority. Is this act by the elders of the oldest clan a substantiation of that insult?

Tuphekwa!
Oburu le Ngbo, anyi ekuo hee ndu ogerenya mbekpe!