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By Lexzy Ochibejivwie
On July the 22nd, 2022, Deltans and indeed Nigerians learnt of a crude ploy by the Government of Delta State to polarize youths and make nothing of their efforts to and desire for a new and prosperous Nigeria. On this day, the Secretary to the Delta State Government, Chief Patrick Ukah, issued a letter on behalf of his principal, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa.
The highlight of the letter is that Mr Josiah Omenuwoma has been appointment Special Assistant to the governor on Youth Mobilization. Mr Omenuwoma, a die-hard Obi-dient, is the convener of the Obi-dient Movement in Isoko land.
His appointment is quite chafing and come at a very precarious time in the history of our country, when conscience has become a demotic commodity for sale. As a graduate with no gainful employment and steady source of income, one must admit that this appointment is very tempting.
But it also affords an opportunity to put a lie to the view held by most Nigerian politicians that Nigerians are so hungry to such an extent that they will hurriedly swallow bait of any kind thrown at them. As an obi-dient convener, he has a responsibility to organize and co-ordinate Isoko youths, and guide them on what it takes to see that Labour Party Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, wins next year’s election and become Nigeria’s next president.
On receipt of his letter of appointment, Mr Omenuwoma saw to it that his conscience vanquished his stomach. On August the 2nd, 2022, he wrote to Governor Okowa, and politely declined the appointment. His reason was that the appointment runs amok of the principle upon which he stands and the task he is currently engaged in.
He reason, which is spot on, is that he cannot be a supporter of Peter Obi, while running errands for Okowa. Late last month, the immediate younger brother of Ebonyi State Governor, Mr. Austin Umahi, also rejected an appointment from President Buhari as Secretary of Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Mobilization Commission (RMAFC), on the ground that the appointment is too low for him.
So, we are in, in a sense, a season of rejection. But what is perhaps striking of the acts of both men is that while Mr Umahi’s is in the realm of class status, that of Mr Omenuwoma’s is in the mode of moral principle. Opting for conscience over status is a rare virtue in the Nigeria of the now, and this is the kernel of this piece.
Governor Okowa is undisputably the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State today. He is going into next year’s election as a potential next Vice President of Nigeria. But today as it stands, the Labour Party is arguably the greatest threat to his ambition, need I say to his dreams.
Today as well, Okowa has all the accoutrements of state power, as far as Delta State is concern. Okowa has the yam, and the knife too. He can do with these whatsoever he wishes, and sure, he has done and continues to do so. And quite candidly, with the brash appointment of Mr Omenuwoma, Okowa has once again shown that in the final analysis all that matters to an average Nigerian politician is personal interest, not the well being, not the collective good of the people they purport to lead.
With the appointment of Mr Omenuwoma, something instructive has once again come to fore. What has once again been established is that Mr Peter Obi and his Obi-dients are steadily gaining ground in Delta state, and the only way to drag them down is to appoint a prominent member from among its fold.
A move as this is premeditated. It may be one of the products of one of their numerous nocturnal meetings. Of course, politicians will not pursue a course without careful deliberation, only that this act of theirs is usually blind to the future.
Had a rejection as Mr Omenuwoma not taken place, it would have become a blueprint upon which to weaken the Movement in Delta State. Surely, other states would have followed. But with what Mr Omenuwoma has done, any state planning to influence the conscience of the Obi-dients will have to reconsider.
Well, there are so many things that cannot be gainsaid about the average Nigerian politician. Apart from being a schemer, the average Nigerian politician is mendacious, shamelessly draped in lies like someone who wears a perfume.
With no sense of shame and only thinking of the present, the average Nigerian politician will want you to believe that he was born in a log cabin he built himself. Not to say anything of his guile; he wants you to believe that in a moment he has the capacity to turn water into wine.
And as Okowa has demonstrated with the crude appointment of Josiah Omenuwoma, the average Nigerian politician is notoriously divisive. He sure knows how to wrench apart, to tear down, to rip off and to morph honest men into dishonest little brat.
The average politician in Nigeria is so dangerously divisive such that he can, for instance, manipulate the Urhobo of Okpe into believing that they are belittled and even hated by their kith and kin —- I mean precisely the Urhobo of the Ethiope, the Uvwie and the Ughelli — a matter for another day.
Back to the matter at hand, there were many who wrote against bad governments and rebuked their obnoxious policies, and later became a willing tool for their avarice.
Human activists of note have lost their dignity, because they were given political appointment, which made them derail from the principles upon which they once stood. It matters less now to mention names. Scholars with clout have also soiled their reputation, because they decided to sink their teeth into politics.
It is said that no good man goes into government and comes out a good man. It is partly why some have vowed not to take up any political appointment. In most cases, politicians deliberately single out good people, not really to make them put into practice their long-held views, but to mock them and watch them fail.
It appears that it is the same methodology that Okowa intended to apply in his appointment of a distinguished Obi-dient as Mr Omenuwoma. If not, Okowa has approved this appointment because he is beginning to notice that his party is gradually losing the tight grip it has been using to hold Deltans on their loins since 1999. If not, Okowa knows that Mr Obi is behind the wheel and most young people in Delta state and Nigeria are willing to ride with him anywhere he takes them.
Surely, he knows that the pendulum is swinging and the weight of his party in the state is reducing. It is to reduce pressure, and possibly, to buy time, that Mr Omenuwoma was dubiously appointed. At a time when a loquacious governor as Nyesom Wike is commissioning landmark projects in Rivers State, not minding the fact that he has less than a year to leave office, Deltans are now subjected to a crude reality of a governor who left many who have been working for him to appoint Omenuwoma in order to satisfy his divisive taste.
Some will say Okowa has the franchise to appointment who he wills. But you will agree with me that there is something sinister, something sly about this. We are aware that the PDP in Delta State has been a bunch of disappointment to most Deltans, and it is in a bid to restrategize, to go back to the drawing board that this appointment has been made. Delta youths are no fools. If we were, the beam has been taken off our eyes.
Many were once blind, now they can see. We know that Okowa is trying to create the impression to Atiku Abubakar that he has the capacity to bully other parties in his state. We know that the appointment of Mr Omenuwoma is all eyeservice, a status-saving mechanism that aims at announcing to all that his party is capable of controlling voters in the state. We know surely that Okowa has the intention of pitching the youths against one another and make them look stupid, while he mocks them in his closet.
But like Mr Omenuwoma, Nigerian youths have woken up to the reality that our faults can dim our stars, and that any noble step we take now can in the coming days bright up the glory that we carry. Most importantly, Delta and indeed Nigerian youths have learnt to be more circumspect and be more weary of lean-looking, hungry-looking men — men who love no play at all. It is now my honour to bless you, my brother — Oghene fi obor ko we. I commend you my brother, for your honour — for it is like the feces of a snake, so rare to come by. Thank you for allowing your good spirit lead you, for following the leading of your conscience and for being a true soldier of Mr Peter Obi — the only man among the lot that has the potential to mend Nigeria’s bad soles.
Mr Ochibejivwie writes in from Warri