Balancing The Equation Of The Governor’s Address At The Imo Stakeholders Meeting

DR. CHUKS OSUJI 

One of the highlights of events during the just passing New Year’s activities on the side of the government was the hosting of the state’s stakeholders meeting. It was a celebrated occasion on two major planks. First, it was the first major address from the governor of Imo State, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma in the year 2022. Secondly, the dramatisation of the event reached a High peak when it was announced that the governor would use the occasion to name the sponsors of terrorism and insecurity in the state. 

It was for this purpose that the event attracted a celebrated expectation because members of the public particularly Imolites who have suffered the major aspect of insecurity in the state wanted to hear those names being mentioned. To the greatest chagrin of those at the stakeholders meeting and other members of the public, the governor did not, could not and would never ever mention such names. As a political scientist and a public opinion Analyst, I never believed that the governor would undertake such a dangerous political path as a governor of a state. From the world go, I did not have any slightest believe that he would mention names. Because I am sure he had greater wisdom that must have not been perceived by many members of the public. To me, he was not being deceptive or deceitful. But he was climbing the rope of Solomon’s wisdom.

Honestly and frankly, no governor or a leader at his level will tread that dangerous political path. Because to do that would amount to setting the state ablaze with endless speculations, name calling, denials and counter rebuttals. In addition, such mentioning of names would have triggered a lot of conflicts, law suits, etc. 

Those in this state and outside it who were calling the governor all manner of names for failing to name the sponsors and supporters of insecurity in the state are missing the point. Many Imo citizens and Nigerians, through several comments, speculations, rumours, certain behavioural pattern of some individuals must have made up their minds as to where the pendulum swung to. It is at this point that I will throw in one important Igbo proverb to clear the air. One day, a father took his son to a public gathering of elders. As they sat down, to the amazement of everybody around, the father threw an anus bomb which made bad noise to the hearing of everybody. Spontaneously, in order to cover the loud noise the father reproduced a similar noise with his mouth. But his son responded, “Daddy don’t worry we already know which noise came from your mouth and which one came from your buck.” Therefore, those who wanted the governor to mention the sponsors of insecurity in the state are fault finders and mischief makers. If the governor disappointed them by not mentioning the names, to me and many other intellectuals, we know that he displayed a large measure of the wisdom of Solomon. Therefore they should count their teeth with their tongue. In a feeble told by a Tortoise, when confronted with a riddle of explaining what he meant, the Tortoise used the following words, “Tricky, deceit, cunning, crafty, witty and smart and asked his listeners to choose a word that tallies with their perception.”

If the governor had mentioned those names, he would have opened a can of worm of stone throwing episode. From what I know about Senator Uzodimma, he is a very witty and smart person who makes full use of his experience and connections to arrive at anything he wants to do. From the entire episode, what he did was the right thing. However, he had only exposed his advisers who did not stop him from making such a promise. Perhaps according to Henry Kissinger, “Leaders should rehearse what they will say to the public with their top advisers because one of the things that cannot be changed is to recall a spoken word.”

Therefore, if the security operatives whose responsibilities is to identify those people carry out their duties very well, we would have been saved a lot of armpit sweats other than expecting the governor to open his mouth to name the sponsors of insecurity in the state. In fact, no governor would do such thing. If he had done it, people would have clapped for him for a wrong reason and the ripple effects would have been severe. Therefore, from my own point of view, he displayed smartness and wisdom.