THOSE who build their fortresses on lies, mud slings and all manner of smear tend to underrate their society. They assume, in their low opinion of the land, that they can tell any tale, hoax, hooey, hogwash, cock-and-boo, mumbo-jumbo and even bunkum and get away with them. To them, we are all fools, just fit for no faculty but to savour the reek of their fart and applaud the mesmerism of their abracadabra.
What a goof… such damning thought! They forget the Nigerian proverb: “He who aspires to be a liar must have good memory.” May be they do not even have faculty for memory, let alone a good one.
If they have, they should at least hold in mind, these popular lines in the lyrics of reggae music legend, Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley: “You can fool some people sometimes/ but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
Upon reading the article ‘I’m Not Desperate to be Anambra Governor – Obidigbo’ published in interview format in the Daily Sun newspaper of December 30, 2017 under the by-line of Magnus Eze who wrote from Abuja, I found myself wondering how a headline could so directly contradict the body of its story. I could not hold my disapproval of the writer’s presentation because, what the title should have been is: I’m Desperate to be Anambra Governor – Obidigbo.
However, as I struggled through the maze of flip talks and reverse logics presented as spoken by the subject of the interview, Chike Obidigbo, I found where the headline was excerpted and concluded that possibly, the writer or his editor, served the interview with that title as an irony or to buttress the parody and the double-speak of their newsmaker.
When I went through other dailies and found out that ThisDay newspaper also published the same interview, I realised that it was a syndicated material. This convinced me that the lies were deliberately planted in the interview for some possibly very subjective political purpose.
The desperation behind the lies were so raw and crudely veiled that even the unsuspecting would easily spot them. Ponder this: a man who claimed he is not desperate even as he hops from one media house to the other to speak of his intention to rule Anambra at all cost says this: “As for my aspiration, it is not over yet until God says it is over; as long as God didn’t say it is over, no problem… that’s not something that one feels desperate about. It is something that one should allow the will of God because the bible says it is not for him that willeth nor of him that runneth fast but it is him that God shows mercy.” The contradiction between desperation for an aspiration which he insists, “is not over yet,” and the quick recant (to tone down the extreme despondence with a smart recourse to the very holy book) that it is all about the will of the Almighty God is interesting.
At one point Mr. Obidigbo came across as someone who is routing for the involvement of more youth in the politics of Anambra State and for more jobs for the young one. Yet, at another question he tells you that the problem with the state’s politics (none of which he explained) was caused by the youth absorbed into the political system.
Obidigbo’s words: “You see Anambra people; we are different in a way because everybody participates in politics there including the youth. The only danger is that most times, these youths are sponsored to counter genuine reasoning.”
Then he goes on in the same interview to say: “You see the energy of our youth are not being channelled where it is supposed to grow the economy because that is the force we actually need to grow the economy; as long as our youth continue to be dormant and underutilized, we are not going to see the light because this is time for that. It is the time to look inward, time to see the use of our young people.”
So which youth of Anambra was he dwelling on? The ones he disdains and scorns or the ones he later remembers that he should placate to make good his image?
Anyway, being a marketer, Dr. Obidigbo is living up to his profession, salesmanship. The 66 year-old former lecturer of marketing in the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, obtained his Ordinary and Higher National Diplomas in Business Administration (Marketing) and Advanced Diploma in Management Studies (DMS) from Salford University College, Manchester, United Kingdom (UK) in 1978. His masters degree from the University of Lancaster, UK, in 1980 was in Marketing Management. Therefore, his being a professional salesman is in no doubt. But he has not done well in selling himself here. Some more honest and factual presentations would have helped, given that discerning people can always decipher the inanities of double-speak.
Sierra Leoneans have a proverb: “Not all the trees in the forest make good firewood.” This media plank does not sell the Umunya-born salesman well. He needs to retool because playing the chameleon and word-puzzle-like gerrymandering can only thrill in fairy tales. It does not boost the image of someone who wants to be a leader or aspires to be a governor.
How would the people of Anambra State reconcile these statements from Obidigbo when they know the truth? He said: “…there is serious unemployment problem in Anambra State. The quality of life has been going down. There is so much bitterness, so much unhappiness in the hearts of parents.”
Is this the Anambra State of today under Gov. Willie Obiano who leads the rest of the governors of Nigeria in regular monthly payment of worker’s salaries and leave allowances? Is he referring to Anambra where Gov. Obiano has given employment to all graduates living with disability? Which Anambra is he describing as filled with bitterness and unhappiness with quality of life going down? The one where we just had the festive Christmas and new year seasons without robbery, kidnapping, assassination and all those crimes that ‘trademarked’ the era of the former governors he eulogised in his interview?
Is he talking of Anambra where Dr. Obiano is currently rehabilitating 111 roads to make marginal edge of the on-going dry season? Even if he chose to sell himself with lies, why not at least recognise that the current governor is the only one in the country that has initiated an effective economic stimulus to cushion the excruciating hardship of the national economic recession. And it is working to the level that other states are coming into Anambra to borrow a leaf.
If Obidigbo forgot all these, did he forget the innovative community and socio-economic development program of the current governor which gives all the 181 rural and urban communities of Anambra a chance to pick and execute their preferred projects with total funding from the state. The on-going project (now in completion stage) channels N20 million directly into every community as the sons and daughters of the towns in collaboration with the monarchs and town unions execute the facilities they all agreed on through contractors who must be natives and labour sourced from the towns. Can any developmental project be more novel and directly relevant to all the citizens and residents of the state?
And I read Obidigbo’s claim that the only thing that has happened in Anambra under Dr. Obiano is the building of three flyover bridges in the state capital, Awka (at least he could not ignore that). But nothing can be cheaper and shamefully bashful as such an obscurant false claim.
Holding court in a waltz of his fantasy for a throne in Government House, Awka, he went further to state thusly to his interviewers: “I’ve told you that I don’t want to assess the governor. But the truth is that the governor did nothing in the area of security. You know sometimes things happen and then somebody lays claim.” Can you imagine him saying that? What is that thing that happened on security in Anambra which somebody is laying claim to?
What a glib! Is that what Obidigbo wants to bring to Anambra?
*Nnabuife is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Anambra Newspapers and Printing Corporation, Awka.
...
Do you have any article for publication? Send to us via blog10nig@gmail.com
What a goof… such damning thought! They forget the Nigerian proverb: “He who aspires to be a liar must have good memory.” May be they do not even have faculty for memory, let alone a good one.
If they have, they should at least hold in mind, these popular lines in the lyrics of reggae music legend, Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley: “You can fool some people sometimes/ but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
Upon reading the article ‘I’m Not Desperate to be Anambra Governor – Obidigbo’ published in interview format in the Daily Sun newspaper of December 30, 2017 under the by-line of Magnus Eze who wrote from Abuja, I found myself wondering how a headline could so directly contradict the body of its story. I could not hold my disapproval of the writer’s presentation because, what the title should have been is: I’m Desperate to be Anambra Governor – Obidigbo.
However, as I struggled through the maze of flip talks and reverse logics presented as spoken by the subject of the interview, Chike Obidigbo, I found where the headline was excerpted and concluded that possibly, the writer or his editor, served the interview with that title as an irony or to buttress the parody and the double-speak of their newsmaker.
When I went through other dailies and found out that ThisDay newspaper also published the same interview, I realised that it was a syndicated material. This convinced me that the lies were deliberately planted in the interview for some possibly very subjective political purpose.
The desperation behind the lies were so raw and crudely veiled that even the unsuspecting would easily spot them. Ponder this: a man who claimed he is not desperate even as he hops from one media house to the other to speak of his intention to rule Anambra at all cost says this: “As for my aspiration, it is not over yet until God says it is over; as long as God didn’t say it is over, no problem… that’s not something that one feels desperate about. It is something that one should allow the will of God because the bible says it is not for him that willeth nor of him that runneth fast but it is him that God shows mercy.” The contradiction between desperation for an aspiration which he insists, “is not over yet,” and the quick recant (to tone down the extreme despondence with a smart recourse to the very holy book) that it is all about the will of the Almighty God is interesting.
At one point Mr. Obidigbo came across as someone who is routing for the involvement of more youth in the politics of Anambra State and for more jobs for the young one. Yet, at another question he tells you that the problem with the state’s politics (none of which he explained) was caused by the youth absorbed into the political system.
Obidigbo’s words: “You see Anambra people; we are different in a way because everybody participates in politics there including the youth. The only danger is that most times, these youths are sponsored to counter genuine reasoning.”
Then he goes on in the same interview to say: “You see the energy of our youth are not being channelled where it is supposed to grow the economy because that is the force we actually need to grow the economy; as long as our youth continue to be dormant and underutilized, we are not going to see the light because this is time for that. It is the time to look inward, time to see the use of our young people.”
So which youth of Anambra was he dwelling on? The ones he disdains and scorns or the ones he later remembers that he should placate to make good his image?
Anyway, being a marketer, Dr. Obidigbo is living up to his profession, salesmanship. The 66 year-old former lecturer of marketing in the Institute of Management and Technology (IMT), Enugu, obtained his Ordinary and Higher National Diplomas in Business Administration (Marketing) and Advanced Diploma in Management Studies (DMS) from Salford University College, Manchester, United Kingdom (UK) in 1978. His masters degree from the University of Lancaster, UK, in 1980 was in Marketing Management. Therefore, his being a professional salesman is in no doubt. But he has not done well in selling himself here. Some more honest and factual presentations would have helped, given that discerning people can always decipher the inanities of double-speak.
Sierra Leoneans have a proverb: “Not all the trees in the forest make good firewood.” This media plank does not sell the Umunya-born salesman well. He needs to retool because playing the chameleon and word-puzzle-like gerrymandering can only thrill in fairy tales. It does not boost the image of someone who wants to be a leader or aspires to be a governor.
How would the people of Anambra State reconcile these statements from Obidigbo when they know the truth? He said: “…there is serious unemployment problem in Anambra State. The quality of life has been going down. There is so much bitterness, so much unhappiness in the hearts of parents.”
Is this the Anambra State of today under Gov. Willie Obiano who leads the rest of the governors of Nigeria in regular monthly payment of worker’s salaries and leave allowances? Is he referring to Anambra where Gov. Obiano has given employment to all graduates living with disability? Which Anambra is he describing as filled with bitterness and unhappiness with quality of life going down? The one where we just had the festive Christmas and new year seasons without robbery, kidnapping, assassination and all those crimes that ‘trademarked’ the era of the former governors he eulogised in his interview?
Is he talking of Anambra where Dr. Obiano is currently rehabilitating 111 roads to make marginal edge of the on-going dry season? Even if he chose to sell himself with lies, why not at least recognise that the current governor is the only one in the country that has initiated an effective economic stimulus to cushion the excruciating hardship of the national economic recession. And it is working to the level that other states are coming into Anambra to borrow a leaf.
If Obidigbo forgot all these, did he forget the innovative community and socio-economic development program of the current governor which gives all the 181 rural and urban communities of Anambra a chance to pick and execute their preferred projects with total funding from the state. The on-going project (now in completion stage) channels N20 million directly into every community as the sons and daughters of the towns in collaboration with the monarchs and town unions execute the facilities they all agreed on through contractors who must be natives and labour sourced from the towns. Can any developmental project be more novel and directly relevant to all the citizens and residents of the state?
And I read Obidigbo’s claim that the only thing that has happened in Anambra under Dr. Obiano is the building of three flyover bridges in the state capital, Awka (at least he could not ignore that). But nothing can be cheaper and shamefully bashful as such an obscurant false claim.
Holding court in a waltz of his fantasy for a throne in Government House, Awka, he went further to state thusly to his interviewers: “I’ve told you that I don’t want to assess the governor. But the truth is that the governor did nothing in the area of security. You know sometimes things happen and then somebody lays claim.” Can you imagine him saying that? What is that thing that happened on security in Anambra which somebody is laying claim to?
What a glib! Is that what Obidigbo wants to bring to Anambra?
*Nnabuife is the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Anambra Newspapers and Printing Corporation, Awka.
...
Do you have any article for publication? Send to us via blog10nig@gmail.com
