Our Lord Jesus Christ said : “This evil people are expecting signs and wonders, but no signs and wonders shall be given to them except the sign and wonders of Jonah”!
What are the signs and wonders of Jonah? It’s simply embedded in the saying: “to obey is better than sacrifice”! The Lord Master had sent Prophet Jonah to take the message of salvation to the people of Nineveh!
But out of wickedness of the heart of Jonah, of which he never wanted Ninivehians to be liberated from the shackles of sin, Jonah decided to travel by sea in a boat. But because God is God and God is Good, He made Jonah suffer the wrath of God in the belly of a point and kill fish for three whole days and three whole nights, only to still do the will and bidding of the Lord, his Master!
That’s the signs and wonders of Jonah that all anti-government agents must enjoy or endure until they come to and mature into knowledge and understanding! To obey is better than sacrifice! There are too many Jonahs Imo State, who are enduring in the periphery when they should be enjoying in main field! Just because they hate somebody who loves them!
The English say: “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”! Yet, the same English say: “The complete man is one who keeps his head, while others around him are losing theirs”! That’s the English!
On the other hand, Ndigbo say: _”Eburu ozu nne onye ozo, odi ka ebuliri ukwu nku”!_ The same Ndigbo say: _”Onye ozo buru ibu, mkpumkpu aputa onye ozo na azu”!_
The songstress, Emily Nwanyi na Ebi ego, that became am ambassador plenipotentiary of Nkwerre Opia egbe nation worldwide, which is today in Nkwerre Local Government Area (LGA) in one of her pan-Nkwerre and universal philosophical folklore sang a number of songs through which she, _inter alia,_ taught people the culture of according due praise and honour to those deserving of praise and honour.
The legendary philosopher singer, Celestine Ukwu, sang some ever green songs through which he admonished people to be tolerant and accommodating of one another, eschewing bitterness and bile!
One of his very memorable numbers is that in which he cautioned that the root cause of the problems and rivalry in the world is the struggle for money and women affairs. He lyrically captured it like this: “Competition for this world na sake of money palava, sake woman palava”!
Today, both Emily, Celestine Ukwu and such other philosophic and prophetic creative artistes have sustainably been proved efficacious in their gift of foresight and wisdom. Patience takes one far in the journey!
There’s excessive competition and rivalry for ephemeral materialism all around the world. And that’s applicable to all walks of life, and in all fields of human endeavours.
In politics, for example, and with Imo State as case study, the quest for money and material things has eroded and incorrectly redefined politics, politicking and political engineering, and grossly incensed the processes and procedures of running the business of government and governance.
The immediate consequences of the worrisome situation includes that, for example, the Executive Governor must be the American wonder Man of Galilee, who must turn water into high grade quality wine fast fast! Otherwise, the governor must be a Professor Peller, or an O Rechanger Pambolambola who must produce hot steam rice, stew and meat on a platter with the little sand and two stones that he scooped from the arena of his “magic is magic!
The aforesaid English saying is:” Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown”! It’s never realized as: “Decapitated must be the head that wears the crown”! There’s a world of difference between “unesasy” and “decapitation”! The head may be made uneasy, but never to be decapitated!
Some people nurse the dishonest and insincere expectations of an ubiquitous governor with the omnipresence capacity and capability of being in more than one place at a time. What shall such people be called? Opposition? Your answer is good as mine!
Some people envisage an omniscient and omnipotent governor with whom all things are miraculously possible! They forget that though he’s the elected governor, he’s still a mortal being that possesses the capacities and capabilities of all mortal beings!
It’s such that because he’s the governor, he must always garb himself with his super extraordinary attributes of omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. He must make rain fall in dry season and ensure that no rain drops in the rainy season! All roads must be tarred with swiftness of Alice in Wonderland! He must share the money!
However, it is obvious that the traducers of the governor and his government are petty mischief makers, who are mere professional faultfinders, that pose and pretend to have all the answers even when they don’t know any of the questions!
That’s why you read in local newspapers in the State and online social media assorted inane headlines that are misconstrued misconceptions and misinterpretations of much of what the governor says and does. “Anaghi ano uzo di anya aro ube onya”!
But the saving grace is that amid all the distractions by his detractors, Governor Uzodimma remains level-headed, with his eyes never leaving the ball nor his legs veering off the right track. There’s no magic about it! According to that adage of the Orientals, “Good thinking always results in good products!
The working and running of the State is seamlessly going on at all times via the instrumentality of delegated responsibility. That way the government appears omnipresent.
Hence, that the governor hasn’t personally attended to the scene of an event, both good or bad, fine or ugly, doesn’t translate into the wrong perception by Association of Faultfinders that the Governor and his government haven’t said or done anything about the situation.
There’s always a process and procedure! Many positive things happen behind the scenes, which never meet the eyes of the ordinary razzmatazz news hunter on paparazzi mission, as populate the opposition camp in the State!
Therefore, it’s unwise to elect to unabatedly orchestrate and perpetrate daily blames, complaints and condemnations of the governor and his government, even when a lot is happening for the overall good of the citizens.
Even for governor purportedly wearing a supposed bullet-proof device, somebody snaps photos and rushes to the social media to publish “breaking news” that the governor wears bullet proof devices! How’s that a “breaking news? Honestly, opposition should be redefined to reflect the serious roles that are constitutionally assigned to the opposition!
What really shall it profit a man to continually wrestle against who or what he doesn’t know, when there are more edifying and rewarding options and alternative actions? How true it is that people perish for lack of knowledge and understanding!
What are the dividends of uncalculated opposition? In climes as the one we find ourselves, opposition connotes and denotes “Wilderness of Sin”, where the best anybody experiences is the Moses anointing of steadily seeing the Promised Land, but never entering it!
Anyhow, we believe that with carefulness, the system of endlessly blaming the governor and his government for the mere sake of sustaining opposition or to fulfill the righteousness of servicing the opposition urge to say something when silence should be golden, would be rested in the dustbin of old things, which must pass away so that all things may become new! As Professor Nnamdi Obiaraeri has popularized: “A new normal is always possible”! That’s our package in this edition! We’ll be back after the interlude! Stay tuned! The world is watching!
By God’s grace, Imo State must be rehabilitated, reconstructed and recovered!!