THE relationship between Mr. Sunny Igboanugo and Anambra State and, especially Governor Peter Obi, has become an obsession with Rufus about Naivia. Rufus slept, ate and dreamt about Naivia that if Naivia was not alive, Rufus would be dumb.

If you have been following the writings of Sunny Igboanugo, you will suspect that he is under commission to destroy Anambra State, Peter Obi and All Progressives Grand Alliance through his pen, which, as I often say, could be an instrument of enlightenment or blackmail. If one is able to read between the lines, one will most certainly discover the perspective from which a given writer writes.

Some people had written against Governor Obi and Anambra State from a point of ignorance. It is so easy to detect this and once you present the true facts to them, they will quickly acknowledge their mistakes and ignorance.

This is maturity. Some people, like Sunny Igboanugo, as has been observed and noted by many people in publications and personal discourses, often present their views according to selective biases fuelled by those that may have clandestinely lubricated their palms.  Sunny has written for Dr. Chris Ngige, Prof. Charles Soludo, and now Chief Chekwas Okorie.

Such writers are fond of trying one master, then another, without making any claim to consistency in so fluid a world. Such is the fate of hatchet writers everywhere; they are usually  not in the condition to be just and objective.

In his last piece on APGA, Obi and other minor issues entitled “APGA:  At Last the Haze clears”, he was at his destructive best.  Why has he chosen to be recklessly aggressive, so carelessly outspoken and exuberant?

On Governor Peter Obi, he offloaded his caustic effusion thus: “In Anambra State, you hear the Governor, Peter Obi claiming that he has achieved more than all the governors before him put together in the last four years or so”.

Writing further, he said: “In 2006, the same Governor took several pages in virtually all the national newspapers to advertise how he has completed all the roads in the State”, including, he says, the Ajalli-Ogboji-Aguluezechukwu-road that passes through his village. He told us  how Chekwas was received by Ezeigbo himself, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu and the crème of Igbo people after he(Chekwas) had registered APGA, and submitted that Obi is now killing the party.

It will be recalled that the same Sunny Igbanugo who has not seen anything good about the present government, even without understanding the issues involved on the last ASUU-Government face-of vilified the State Government and encouraged ASUU to go on strike in perpetuity until the State Government met all their demands.

Even when the N250 million saga had been laid to rest, he tried exhuming it for reasons only he himself knows.I do not get worried when some people write and Sunny is one of such writers. The other day, he wrote a timid rejoinder to an article written by my Oga in office, Uncle Chuks Iloegbunam.

I was the one that showed it to Uncle Chuks whom the Chief Press Secretary and I restrained from dignifying Sunny’s effusions by replying.  In the write-up under reference, Sunny described where, in his fancy, Obi advertised in virtually all the newspapers that he had completed all roads in Anambra State. Will it be considered as violence of language if I call him a liar on the reason that there was no such advert in 2006?  I challenge him to name one newspaper that carried the said advert in 2006 and the page.

I know that a few years after Gov. Obi took over government, he refused to engage in publicity, saying that his work would speak for him. I recall how, against his wish, we in the media team insisted that we must publicise his achievements, which we only did in 2009. On road, we categorised the roads. We put the road he said the Governor claimed to have completed under roads at various stages of completion.

So why should Sunny say that the Governor claimed he had completed the road if it is not pure mischief.  Why should he, without compunction, inoculate the minds of the uninformed with stupefying, bewildering absurdities and lies?

What Sunny did is related to what the people of Umueze-Anam did recently. Since creation, as attested to by the House member representing the area, the local government had not witnessed the construction of any road until Gov. Obi started the Umuoba-Anam-Nmita road. The Governor through relentless efforts also persuaded the Federal Government to start another road in the area that leads to Kogi State. Rather than be happy and cook food happily for the contractors to encourage them, the people started threatening them with abduction and kidnapping except they gave them millions.

This can be likened to the action of Sunny, who rather than be thankful that Obi is at last constructing the road to his village with three bridges, last constructed more than 40 years ago, he  is vilifying him because he is beholden to a failed candidate and hates Obi as if Obi caused the failure of his candidate.

The same Sunny was among the journalists invited to Anambra  State to  see some of the projects of the Governor. I remember that Sunny met the Chief Press Secretary and I and told us that there was no need to take journalists round the projects, that ‘with a few wads’ they would write beautiful reports. We started preaching to him that it was only a Governor who has not done anything that would subscribe to what he just said.

Till today, most journalists that came on that trip wrote about their experiences, the projects they saw and pointed out areas they thought the Governor should make an improvement. Sunny, who is “passionate” about Anambra and the growth of APGA, did not write a sentence, at least offer advice on how Anambra would be made better.  From reports, his chief amusement during their stay was straying out at night disguised, to indulge in vulgar and miscellaneous incontinence in the common haunt for vice.

Igbanugo claimed that Chekwas did wonders for APGA, but he did not tell us that Chekwas attempted ceding APGA to Ngige in 2005 and nearly succeeded until Gov. Obi and Chief Victor Umeh blocked the move. He described the type of drink Ojukwu used to celebrate Chekwas when APGA was registered, why did he not tell us the type of singlet Chekwas wore on that day to drive home his point?

If he was close to APGA when it was registered, why did he not tell us that Governor Obi bore all the expenses: the trips, local and foreign, the rent for the offices, among others? 

Mr. VALENTINE OBIENYEM is SA Media to Gover nor Obi of Anambra State.