By Eugene Uwalaka
The thought process is the seed bed of heresies and schisms. It is necessary to control the mind in order to control the thought process through accurate propositions. In making accurate propositions both word and sentence meanings must neither be vague nor ambiguous to avoid equivocations. This is because words communicate vision, values, unction, function, purpose, mission, life and death. With words you communicate, joy, sadness, blessing and curse with words we govern men. What you tell a nation either heals or hurts the nation. What you tell a man either heals or hurts the man. This is because the human mind is a huge emotional register or database where impressions, impulse and feelings, are recorded and encoded for subsequent use. Ogbuagu Anikwe erred in mistaking a tree for the whole forest Mr. Peter Obi has never been a member of the Nigerian Youth Movement. Even by linear interpolation, the Zikist youth movement could not become the labour party of today to which Mr. Peter Obi is a member and Presidential candidate. Is it that Mr. Anikwe failed to see the overt difference between theory and hypothesis?
The former Anambra State Governor has been thrown up by what Mary Parker Follet would have called the law of the situation. Note that when things are at their worst, they are sure to mend. No condition is permanent. The evil wind does not blow forever. There is time for everything. There is time to start and there is time to stop. Nigeria cannot and would not continue to be a work-in-process. It will not continue to be the unfinished business of Albert Camus. According to Winston Churchill empires of the future are first created in the mind. Peter Obi, it would appear, has long put Nigeria on the planning table. He has analyzed and appraised it. Mr. Peter Obi once told our Assembly men and women point blank, that “It is no longer business as usual”. He told them bluntly and blandly that his policies will deemphasize consumption and focus on production. He said he will switch policies away from consumption to production. He told our assembly men and women at a time he needs their support that the era of quick gains, quick fixes, easy money associated with politics has come and gone!! The former Anambra State Governor, will not allow a return of the unclean spirit. He has the courage of his convictions. He has the roadmap. He has the compass. He has socialized his powers and not personalized them. This is why I could not be carried away or allow other patriots to be carried away by Ogbuagu Anikwe’s tendentious script titled “ObiDients’ fundamental mistake” on page 19 of Daily Sun of January 5, 2023. Hear the profuse rendering of Ogbuagu’s mind and heart. The “ObiDients movement” appears to be a doomed enterprise if history is anything to go by. It is certain that the movement built around the labour party candidate will peter out and die immediately after the presidential elections of 25th February, 2023.
This forecast is based on repeated patterns of instinctive behavior he called youthful exuberance. Mr. Anikwe Ogbuagu, it would appear, intentionally wants to lead us astray using word-play in which, the “ObiDents” and the “labour party” are indistinguishable. At best, the word “ObiDient” is a neologism or coined word for the network of voters loyal to Peter Obi. But you will have such voters in PDP, APC, APGA, NNPP and the labour party. But the “ObiDient” is distinguishable from the labour party because there are members of the labour party who are not “ObeDients”. This is why I remarked earlier that Ogbuagu erred because he could not distinguish the tree from the whole forest. The Obidients can stand for a doctrinal party but cannot stand for the labour party.
In characterizing the youth movement in Nigeria, Anikwe did not indicate their stage of moral development. There are two stages of moral development. There is the heteronomous stage and there is the autonomous stage. The youths at the heteronomous stage are infants. It is not surprising if they behaved the way Mr. Anikwe described in his essay. Those in the autonomous stage of moral development can judge for themselves what is right or wrong based on their personal standards of judgement and those of their peers. The Peoples Democratic Party has ruled Nigeria for 16 years of uninterrupted democracy. The PDP was peacefully voted out of power in 2015. The APC won the elections held in 2019. After eight years to 2023 Nigerians are dissatisfied with the dismal and dysfunctional performance of the APC.
Not even the enemies of Nigeria will blame Nigerians if they decide to try their hands at something new. Let me quote “IPSISSIMA Verba the words of the founder and chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN). “Mr. Peter Obi of the labour party is the most qualified person to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari. Indeed, Afe Babalola’s words were not gentle breezes but powerful blasts of condemnation and obtuse criticism.Chief Afe Babalola said, the only people opposed to Peter Obi are those who participated in plundering the country into the state of under development it is at the moment. Said he, having pillaged, plundered and looted the resources of this country in the last 24 years, this set of Nigerians must not be allowed to run Nigeria aground. In the last eight years, the APC was full of over promises and under delivery. After eight years of APC rule Nigeria has sunk deep down the drain. To paraphrase Edmund Burke the only thing necessary for evil to thrive and triumph is for good people to do nothing in the face of idempotent evil.
Uwalaka is a former special assistant to Chairman Senate Committee on Education