By Kennedy Eweama
(O8035529265)
I would honestly classify Greg Obioha as an educated man. He also writes well. He is equally by no means a neophyte in the pen vocation.
However, as late Prof Chinua Achebe said, “if a lizard of the homestead does not do the things for which it is known, it might be mistaken for a lizard of the forest”. By ignorantly dabbling into the issues pertaining to Imo traditional institution, and uncouthly attempting to paint our revered traditional rulers with tattered paint brush,Greg misfired. If anything, his article smacks of not only blackmail, but an exposition of the extreme antics of a busy body.It was “much ado about nothing”, QED.
Greg, blinded by his loyalty to a vested interest, chose to throw caution to the wind. He went hay – wire like “a bull in a China shop”, indulged in inflammatory and reckless utterances, and resorted to attacking some distinguished royal fathers by rudely calling them “hypocrites and dictators”,etc.
These were contained in an insipid and lousy article he authored against over 95% of Imo traditional rulers for expressing their preference for the return of HRM, Eze Ilomuanya as Chairman of their Council.
That was purely an act of unbridled impudence! I ask Greg, was it wrong for the monarchs to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed Right to Freedom of Expression? Was it a sin for the monarchs to appeal to, and advice Governor Hope Uzodinma to graciously choose Eze (Dr) Cletus Ikechukwu Ilomuanya, CON, as their Chairman,their being fully aware that such appointment is at the discretion of the Governor? Did they castigate anybody in all they said? Does Greg mistake the Governor for a man, who will leave a confirmed diamond in preference to a brass?
To any rational mind, his veiled animosity and diatribe against our respected royal fathers for pleading that the governor harkens to their appeal, is akin to the activities of a meddlesome interloper. It also reminds one of the Biblical saying, “hand of Esua, voice of Jacob”. I don’t want to believe that an educated mind like Greg has suddenly embraced amnesia. That’s not possible because he is still young and full of vigour.
But why should he intrude into an area he’s not knowledgeable about? Why should he always dish out falsehood for public consumption?
I can vividly recall that Greg orchestrated the first ever false and grossly misleading alarm that HRM, Eze Emmanuel Okeke, has been appointed the Eze Imo as against his Community Policing portfolio. That falsehood propelled by desperation, attracted severe condemnation from Imo royal fathers and the public. The uproar it generated, swiftly prompted the State government to also disown and refute the fake news which Greg apparently master minded to assuage somebody’s inordinate interest.
Surprising to many, he has come again after the hullabaloo his embarrassing and fake information caused the government and the royal fathers. This time, he roared in a more uncultured and ferocious manner laced with blackmail against Ndieze Imo.
Greg isn’t a traditional ruler. Therefore, calling his father’s age mates, or even probably, his father’s elders, hypocrites and dictators, sounds like an irresponsible statement. How would he feel if someone describes his own respected father in such gutter language? Let him do unto others as he would expect others to do unto him.
Again, how are the revered monarchs dictating for the Governor? Unless the words – appeal, gracious, plead, advice etc, and their synonyms as used by the monarchs in their press interviews have lost their denotative or connotative meanings, I can boldly say that Greg goofed big time in his use of diction.
Chinua Achebe said in “Arrow of God” that “it’s only a fool who points at his father’s house with the left hand”. I dare assert that it is such reckless utterances as made by Greg that encourage outsiders to abuse our monarchs just as was the case in Orlu recently, where a policeman allegedly commanded a traditional ruler to lie prostrate on the ground. Aru!
The world today is a global village via the internet and is, therefore, reading whatever we write or do here at home ,after all, “it is the rat in the house that informed the rat in the bush that there is fish in the house”.
On Eze Ilomuanya, I wonder where Greg got the ridiculous information that he spent nine (9)years in office. Law No. 6 of 2006, Imo State Traditional Rulers and Autonomous Communities Law(as amended), provided for two terms of five years each. Section 17 of that law explicitly made it clear that the Chairman can be reappointed for a second tenure at the discretion of the Governor.
Eze Ilomuanya only served one tenure. His second tenure was truncated within just 18 months by former Governor Rochas Okorocha , leaving a balance of three and half years. The rest of the story is well known to many Imolites, including Greg. Mathematically, Greg’s assertion is irredeemably flawed and off mark. Even a Junior Secondary School (JSS 1)student could have easily helped Greg solve this seeming arithmetic quagmire if he had sought for his help.
Having mildly addressed this unwarranted and unnecessary misadventure by Greg, I don’t really wish to further dissipate energy elucidating on this matter. I advice Greg not to cry more than the bereaved. Even Jesus Christ admonished us in the Holy Bible to “allow the dead to bury their dead “.
Greg is a young man I admire , but he also ought to understand that respect is reciprocal. He has obviously crossed the red line. Raking up unnecessary dust as he is overzealously trying to do, does nobody any good.
I also respect highly, the monarch he is vigorously pushing his interest at a neck breaking speed, but then, let it not be at the expense of pouring opprobrium on other more educated and socially exposed monarchs in the State. Some of the monarchs whom he struggled to throw scarsm at, are lawyers, Ph.D holders, university dons, Engineers etc, who can neither be intimidated nor gagged by him nor the interest he represents.
It is only God who gives power in His own ways. I would therefore, frankly advice Greg to allow the monarchs to do their own thing without his meddlesomeness. They know themselves better than he knows them.
Calling our revered monarchs hypocrites and dictators, and ludicrously turning around in a twinkle of eye, to start “dictating” for the Governor and the monarchs, who is supposed to be their Chairman, is the real hypocrisy and dictatorship;a case of the “pot calling the kettle black”.
Let it be known that “a man, who brings ant infested faggots into his house, should expect the visit of lizards”. Greg, should leave the traditional rulers alone to freely express their minds and have a say on who leads them, subject to the convenience and approval of the Governor.
He should without reservation, equally tender an “apology” to the royal fathers he threw tantrums on without provocation. Let him remember the age long Igbo aphorism that “a young man who throws his father up, easily gets blind folded by his father’s loin cloth”.
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