IN his article entitled ‘Flight of Logic and Decency in Edo state’, the Professor Edwin Sogolo advised the Commissioner of Information, Louis Odion, to go back to school for, perhaps, logic 101.

Sadly, Sogolo became guilty of his own accusations by not only ignoring logic largely but also advertising ignorance about his understanding of the Nigerian and indeed, Edo State realities.

By his own grave error of omission, Sogolo only succeeded in removing further doubt on the real identity of the “old witch” Odion figuratively referred to.

In the first salvo, he posited that “many of those who pollute the nation’s environment do not have the tools of their trade”.  That is very true as Nigeria has refused to get to its socio-political El Dorado despite all its God-given natural and human resources.

However, the only problem with Sogolo’s claim is that he did not point at the right direction by identifying individuals in exalted seats without requisite qualification beyond the need to turn our commonwealth to personal estates.

If  Sogolo is not pretending ignorance, he should know that those who ruled Edo State for nearly a decade are among those in that category. He ought to know that Anenih held a supervisory position over the period under review here.

Even though Sogolo admitted that traditional philosophy is logically acceptable, he, however, posited that Odion’s analysis for conclusion that Anenih is chief suspect in the attack on his residence is not supported by the position of contingency and necessity, two basic ingredients, he said, are imperative to both the criminal justice system and practice of medicine.

To that extent therefore, Sogolo can only see the nexus between Anenih and events that the Commissioner narrated succinctly in his article as mere coincidence. Good thinking, except, however, that the Professor failed to understand that like traditional logic, jurisprudence imposes the onus of proof of innocence on a man who threatened to burn down another man’s house and shortly after the house is actually razed down. Thus, contingently or necessarily, Odion could not have been that wrong in concluding that the man who threatened him earlier in February could have information on the gunmen who began to trail barely 24 hours later and the eventual attack on his residence two months later by four gunmen.

But the ‘professor of Philosophy’ just would not consider the following posers. For instance, given the prevalence of politically motivated killings in the state, will Sogolo, assuming he is in Odion’s position, not recall what transpired earlier in situating who is responsible? Will the idea of necessity and contingency matter at all were he to be the target of the said threat? My guess is that even if the Inspector-General of Police were to transfer his entire retinue of guards to his (Sogolo’s) residence, he would remain paranoid given the nature of the threat involved.

In the face of these possibilities, I am at a loss as to how Sogolo fails to realise that Odion understands well the distinction between contingency and necessity and that there is indeed a glaring thread of logic in his “Death and the Old Witch’s Cry”.  If Sogolo’s hold on facts of history is as sharp as his idea of the manner of logic, it is unlikely that he will write an informed piece rather than propagate his tendentiously peculiar and beggarly liturgy.

According to Sogolo, “Odion is a small fry” because of the disparity between his age, status and accomplishment of the man he fondly addressed as “Chief Anenih” who “has attained some of the greatest heights possible in Nigeria’s socio-economic life”.

Therefore, the lowly commissioner is only attempting to ridicule the chief’s many worthy-of-emulation feats in order to be relevant. The problem here is that the “Professor of Philosophy” conveniently chose to ignore the odious reputation that appears to trail every position his revered idol ever held.

Indeed, given the traditional philosophy that those who live in glass houses ought not to throw stones, the erudite professor, defender of logic, failed to understand that when the mighty Anenih came down, unashamedly, from his Olympian height to meddle with Lilliputian Louis Odion, age, status and accomplishment will become irrelevant. Or has it become proper now for those who throw stones to live in glass houses?

Before sending in his article for publication, Sogolo should have endeavoured to distance his opinion from being overly beggarly as his position looks like one begging for Anenih’s favours.

Lastly, Sogolo made it clear that the killing of Odion, possibly approved by him, would not affect the political equation in Edo State. This position reflects a very low imaginative capacity indeed; very unbefitting a “professor”. Many an observer made the point in the past that the ungodly run of murder, near-murder and what not in the state are orchestrated to possibly derail the governor’s campaign for re-election.

Is Sogolo’s logic so outdated   that he does not understand that a commissioner can be as close as the word in the circle mentioned above? If Sogolo’s idea of logic holds a contrary view, he must be an apostle of trite philosophy.

Sogolo claims that Edo State is in a moral and intellectual turmoil because people like Odion are acting as commissioners.

How come that even in the current realities in the state, he is speaking of moral turmoil in the present tense while deliberately ignoring the past when his revered “Chief Anenih” held sway? He must be a variant of the absurd if his allegiance to the chief is so blinding that he cannot see the current speed of development described as a fitting definition of quality performance.

Dr. OSAZE STANLEY wrote from the University of Benin, Edo State.