Re: Anambra and the truth

I READ the above piece which was a rejoinder by the writer, Mr. Pat Anyadubalu, to my piece entitled, Of Anambra and Uncritical Analysts, which  itself was my reaction to Pat’s piece, Waiting for Peter Obi’s Classroom Blocks.

In the second paragraph of his piece, Pat said he wanted to ignore me because he thought it infra-dig reacting to my “jaundiced, prejudiced, biased and pedestrian piece full of vituperations, myopia and fallacies”. He said he changed his mind and decided to reply in order to put the record straight, especially in the light of my attack on his town of Umunachi. He even accused me of the use of foul language.

In the said piece, Pat traced the genesis of our meeting and quoted copiously from what I wrote about him in 2008. He also took the opportunity to tell us about his two books and how Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo who wrote the foreward to his last book eulogized him.

Patrick finally accused me of resorting to the fallacy of argumentum ad hominem, and insisted that Anambra State Government issued dud cheques to communities in the State. Our man vilified me for attacking his town while he honoured, in passing, some stars from the town such as Prof. Elochukwu Amucheazi, Dr. Muokwugwo Okoye, Mrs Grace Adichie, among others, as part of the luminous agents of not just Umunachi, but Anambra. It is good and, in fact, delightful to hear about the people of Anambra who are doing so good in their choosen fields.

Let me even tell Patrick that my own town has its own surfeit of industrious men such as Gov.  Peter Obi, Prof. Dora Akunyili, Dr. Ifeanyi Okoye (who just built one of the most modern intravenous pharmaceutical plants in Africa), among others.

First and foremost, let me commend Mr. Patrick for the discourse, civilized or not. I believe that men gain more from the arbitration of the pen than that of the sword, even when they write nons

At that time, Patrick would not be allowed to make adverse comments, truthful or not, about a Governor. Such was the state of affairs on the 17th of January, 1800, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the suppression of 60 of the 63 newspapers published in France. By the end of the year, only two survived, none of them radically critical. “Three hostile newspapers,” he said, “are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”

Today we are happily living in an age of freedom of speech. In a state with the like of Peter Obi where no overt or covert act endangering this freedom is allowed, the government is harassed by all manner of characters propagating all manner of views, thus creating an atmosphere always electrified with controversy and ideas. Some do this genuinely, others do it because of political aspirations and blind attachments to their political masters.

Even after the election of February 6 in Anambra, some still continued attacking the Government and her policies according to their masters’ fancies, and often to a degree painfully uncongenial to the otherwise admirable nature of some of them. Of course I have Patrick in mind.

Oh yes, as Patrick rightly observed, we met in 2008. As we discussed, he appeared tranquil, friendly, sociable, self-critical and occasionally pensive.   Indeed, I wrote an article where I faulted his position about government’s approach to library development, telling him Obi’s plans about that. I also commended him on the research he did before writing the article. However, in my subsequent pieces on him,  my condemnation of his views  implied that the encomia I earlier poured on him were misplaced because whatever research he did was actually not to edify the subject he chose to discuss, but done in the course of seeking handles upon which to hang Governor  Obi.

In quoting what I had earlier written about him, I honestly do not know what Patrick intended to achieve. What if he has changed from the person I used to write about? What if Pat was used to calling a spade a spade until Ngige employed him or made some commitments to him and, pronto,  he started calling a spade a shovel?

Could Patrick be doing a hatchet job? All these are conjectural; however they make me remember a book  Joe Igbokwe wrote entitled, Heroes of Democracy, in which he praised our beloved Dee Sam Mbakwe to high heavens, but when Mbakwe joined the two-million-man march for Gen. Sani Abacha, Igbokwe publicly withdrew his praises. What Igbokwe merely told us was that those conditions that made him to praise Mbakwe were no longer there.

I only tell this story to remind Patrick that praising him in the past should not be construed as conferring constant behavioral sanctity on him.

Mr. Obienyem is SA (Media) to Governor Obi of Anambra State.