Political Perspectives: Chuks Ileogbunam On A Fool’s Errand

 

“Peter Obi has ‘confessed’ to us that he went to Harvard to study “Market-to-Market Management.” He’s told us he’s professionally a distributor, a salesman. In what is basically a Freudian slip, this snake oil salesman further revealed to us that his children at home never accept his word as his bond…”

PEGASUS REPORTERS, LAGOS | OCTOBER 29, 2022

When you are or have been on the payroll of a public officer or someone aspiring to be, and you choose to write a book on the fellow to advance his electoral cause in an election season, the first rule is that you should strive to be above board like Caesar’s wife. That is the only condition you can be taken seriously.

For instance, Chuks Iloegbunam had been the Chief of Staff to Peter Obi as Governor. This works both ways. You can either be seen as an apple polisher or as a man with some honest insight into the now presidential candidate. If you are seen as an apple polisher, you can as well be considered dead in the consciousness of serious-minded people; but to be seen in the second light requires a level of intellectual honesty and self-restraint. While it’s okay to let people understand you’re partisan, you actually have to write or speak in a manner that talks to facts and reason in a way that makes people reading or listening to you almost forget you are partisan just because they find themselves sharing your sentiments.

You are not fighting with anyone, not even political opponents of your principal; your job is to win people over, especially independents. But what we have with this Iloegbunam’s THE PROMISE OF A NEW ERA is the near-equivalent of Onitsha market literature in political writing. It has all the crudeness and bombastic emptiness of the genre, but lacks the earnestness of presentation. Onitsha market literature does not pretend to be what it is not. It is basically rib-cracking entertainment in cheap print. But, here we are with Iloegbunam presenting Obi as some kind of political sage coming to save battered, bedraggled people. Worse still is the farce of repeatedly dressing up Obi as some saintly force and all others as evil. That’s not politics; that’s plain kindergarten stuff.

The truth is, any relatively discerning person can see through Obi easily. He’s just a trader who with a trailer-load of short-term certificates and a poor command of English and statistics is trying to hoodwink Nigerians frustrated with the status quo into thinking he’s their savior. In truth, he’s as empty as a void and as bright as a brush. But because he’s had some experience in Nigerian politics, he’s developed a kind of political smartness that sells with people who’ve allowed suffering to stop them from being intellectually curious, people who aren’t keen on scratching the surface anymore to reveal what is truly underneath.

Peter Obi has ‘confessed’ to us that he went to Harvard to study “Market-to-Market Management.” He’s told us he’s professionally a distributor, a salesman. In what is basically a Freudian slip, this snake oil salesman further revealed to us that his children at home never accept his word as his bond. They’d insist on taping what he says, so they can hold him up to it in the future when he attempts wriggling out to escape from the liabilities of his own words.

Now, Nigerians need to think deeply about that. You may think it’s a joke, but it’s telling. A man whose children do not trust what comes out of his mouth is promising you capacity, competence and, wait for it, character. Hehe! Anyway, una go soon find out when result show….

Kennedy Emetulu, a Lawyer and Journalist, wrote in from the USA

What’s your view? Tell us you were here by replying to this story in the comment section below. You can share it, too.

Pegasus Reporters: making news that reaches your audience | Advertise with us! | Join our readers’ list on Telegram (+234 813 308 8344) Follow us on Twitter @pegasusreporters | We are on Facebook; The PegasusReporters | Chat with us on WhatsApp (+234 815 444 5334) | Contact the Editor, Mallam Oyakhamoh Y. Carl-Abu’Bakar with your adverts or articles via pegasusreporters@gmail.com

Read Our Preceding Post: Labor & Sex Trafficking Produce An Estimated $150 Billion In Illicit Profits Annually – ICIJ Report