ASSUMING WITHOUT CONCEDING: WHEN DID SLIDE IN BUSINESS BECOME A PREREQUISITE FOR POLITICAL CONTEST? WHY DIBIAGWU MEDIA HATCHETS SHOULD AVOID THE LEVIATHAN CESSPIT: UJU IS NOT BROKE
E-ISSN: 2354-4481
BY: AGWA FOR OMEUDO (AFO), 2027
The attention of Agwa For Omeudo (AFO) has been drawn to a publication titled “WORKERS/VENDORS PROTEST NON-PAYMENT OF SALARY AS POLICE SHUT DOWN HOTEL AND CLUB IN ABUJA,” written by Mr. Desmond Orum, the immediate past Chief Press Secretary to Hon. Ifeanyi Nnani, the immediate past Local Government Chairman of Oguta, who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) Secretary in Oguta, against our principal, Hon. Engr. Kingsley Chima Uju (Omeudo), the candidate of the Action Peoples Party (APP) for Ohaji-Egbema/Oguta/Oru-West Federal Constituency in 2027.
We have waited for days to see whether the author of such stale, unacademic, and empty lines would, at least, avoid a social seizure of a persona who served as an image-maker of our dear Local Government. But, just as cowards do not forgive, he chose not to take a second look in the mirror.
In politics, there are no permanent enemies but permanent interests (alignments). In pursuing these interests, there are sacred lines, whether real or imagined, that it is natural for actors to maintain and not cross, such as refraining from weaponising the misfortunes of opponents resulting from sickness, death, and business challenges. These lines are even more respected in wartime, when the suffering of civilians, the wounded, the dead, and prisoners of war calls for restraint and humanity. Yet, in disregard for these definitive sacred lines, Orum seems to have been loose enough to cross them just for politics.
What is Orum afraid of? The uncertainty of the political fate of his present principal, Hon. Eugene Okechukwu Dibiagwu? Or has Orum thought about life outside power for four years, making him run against the “run of play?"
In any case, Orum deserves our pity. The wrongs of contumacy that have characterised his media voyage are taking their pound of flesh. That is why his earlier confrontational position against the people’s choice, the face of people-oriented representation in Ohaji-Egbema/Oguta/Oru-West Federal Constituency, Hon. Engr. Kingsley Chima Uju (Omeudo), could not pass as a mere instance of petulance by an overzealous apostle of questionable media and political communication.
Ordinarily, a man who left office four years ago in a typical Nigerian political setting, nay, the oil-rich Federal Constituency, should not make much of political headlines, especially for those who premise their stay in the “hallowed Green Chambers” as a gate pass to a looting spree. But for his name to be constantly mentioned or sung as an anthem of great nostalgia, development, a powerful voice of unity, inclusivity, friendship, and respect for institutions, that person, as Wole Soyinka and J. P. Clark wrote in “Abiku,” needs to return.
Hon. Engr. Kingsley Uju is not the Abiku persona in the poem, but a necessary character who should return to the seat of Ohaji-Egbema/Oguta/Oru-West Federal Constituency, for the people to reclaim their flamboyant voices in the Green Chambers, their impregnable personality, and, above all, return the people to the altar of development that has been decapitated and rendered in political “impressionistic endeavours” and declarative empty gongs.
Uju is not broke. His scorecards four years ago, registered in the political report cards of the 33 wards in the Federal Constituency, are a great deal to remember. Just as every child and parent would always take a look at an excellent academic testimonial or result, the people of Ohaji-Egbema/Oguta/Oru-West Federal Constituency, have the verified political report card of Hon. Kingsley Chima Uju. There is no controversy about that. The people are ready to vote for him again come 2027 because he is loved!
If not for political mediocrity and an unbridled propensity for worshipping The God of Small Things, as written by Arundhati Roy in her 1997 novel, why would a civilised media personality, whose best job should be to market his candidate or principal to the voters with the candidate’s programmes, and who serves as the image-maker of a federal lawmaker with the largest constituency-tied funds of about ₦1 billion at his disposal as understood, explicitly attack personality of an opposition instead of bombarding the media space with projects done by the incumbent as an alibi to re-elect him?
The sin of Hon. Kingsley Chima Uju was that between 2019 and 2023, when he excellently represented the people of Ohaji-Egbema/Oguta/Oru-West Federal Constituency, he used the resources of the people to work for them. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, who defined democracy as “government of the people, by the people, and for the people", Omeudo, as he is fondly called, used the resources of the people, even with less than ₦140 million in annual constituency-tied funds received, compared with the excess of ₦1 billion received by Dibiagwu, for the people.
One would ask again, is it the fault of Hon. Kingsley Chima Uju that the people of Ohaji-Egbema/Oguta/Oru-West Federal Constituency are reacting to a lawmaker who has steadily, but in a sodomised manner, taken them to “Point Zero,” as El Saadawi wrote in Woman at Point Zero, in every index of legislative performance? Instead of feeling the impact of a supposed ₦3 billion investment in a system that needs infrastructure such as education, good roads,healthcare, economically oriented bills, social safety motions, empowerment, among others, we are bereft of a renaissance of representation.
Against this backdrop, it is instructive, perhaps, for the best interests of Dibiagwu’s political facelift in the Federal Constituency for his media handlers, or what could be described as his “image-makers,” to apply the brakes on their Leviathan-preoccupied and deluded media rascality and instead, tell the electorate about the humanity in their principal, which there may be, ahead of 2027. Unfortunately, their job is more difficult than finding the courage captured in Sophocles's Oedipus, the rolling stones as a punishment.
The people of the Federal Constituency have reached a consensus to vote for a leader who sees them as his primary constituency, rather than a leader who treats their humanity as King Leopold II treated the people of his empire in Africa, particularly in the Congo, in present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Uju’s time in 2019 to 2023 was a herald of federating talking points of goodness, unlike what we have today.
Let the debate be about issues, not personal attacks. We will not return to the Leviathan order. Every media occupation is to convince the people through public, open-access communication of the projects done by a candidate as an undeniable fact to elect or re-elect the person, but rather to pick on the personal business of a preferred opponent.
Let us close with the words of John Locke and Edmund Burke about good representation in a democratic republic, where individuals hold office in trust for the people.
John Locke — on political power and trust: Locke’s political philosophy holds that government exercises power in trust for the people and that political authority must serve the public good.
Edmund Burke says: “Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
This is the reality that Dibiagwu’s media agents, especially Mr. Desmond Orum, have failed to reconcile. They should wear it as a badge of media shame!
Uju is not broke; the people have chosen him, and there is no going back. Sell Dibiagwu to the people and leave Hon. Kingsley Chima Uju alone. He is not the cause of the present political dissonance!
WRITTEN BY: AGWA FOR OMEUDO (AFO)
2027 MEDIA/PUBLICITY AND STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
