Dr. Goddy Okeke whose text messages came last Wednesday through GSM number 081 – 8558 – 0605 is two – of – a – kind with the impertinently insulting Akwa Ibom State – born professor, I wrote about a fortnight ago. Like him he was biased and gave wrong interpretation to my article. But unlike the professor who spoke good English when he phoned me, Dr. Okeke’s text messages were full of mistakes, including the type not expected from a primary six school pupil.
Can you imagine someone who is either a medical doctor or a Ph.D. degree holder writing that he was giving me food for taught instead of food for thought. And this is in spite of the fact that it is in the logo of this column that Pabulum means food for thought. If he had written food for tot, I would have taken it that he was using text message language. But with the other errors in his short text messages, it is apparent that he is simply deficient in writing good English sentences, having correct spellings and using punctuation marks appropriately.
To be candid, the way he and the professor read my articles out of context gave the impression that they probably went through them under the influence of alcohol and were tipsy or in a state of stupor. As shown in my column two weeks ago, what I wrote the previous week was that the politician God sent me to can only win the 2019 presidential if he accepted the message I conveyed to him. And if he did all that the Lord told him to carry out.
I did not mention the name of the person the Heavenly Father sent me to. Yet, the professor said what I wrote was that the man would succeed President Muhammadu Buhari and that he had filed my article to see if I would be proved right or turn out to be a fake prophet. In other words, he took it that anyone who won the election was the person I was sent to. And that if the person does not perform well that would mean that I lied. It took the explanation I made two weeks ago before he understood the difference between what I wrote and the interpretation he gave it.
All I did in last week’s column with the headline: Efficacy of Mrs. Folarin’s herbal medicine confirmed (3), was publish the names and telephone numbers of four among the men who said her medicine had cured their prostate enlargement or cancer. And what I expected reasonable readers to have done was call them to find out if my report was true or not. But Dr. Okeke did not do so.
In the seventeen articles before that of last week, which were published from July 26 through November 15, I did not compare herbal medicine with orthodox one. Let alone saying that alternative medicine is better than modern one. Neither did I say that herbalists were more effective than orthodox doctors.
But see the reckless and highly irresponsible and vexatious trash message sent to me by Dr. Okeke, who is supposed to be a Christian and reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Apostles in his behaviour. Said he: “I loathe (which means regard with hatred and disgust) reading your column since you left the bit you are paid for to become the product sales manager to herbalist Mrs. Folarin.
“Stop deceiving gullible patients that (sic, it is who) are thirsty and hungry for an end to their health misery with your vulger (sic, it is vulgar) and wicked claims. Medical practice whether orthodox or not has accepted normal place to ventilate its efficacy never on the pages of newspaper. You are not urologist and should be advised to concentrate in areas where you are well equipped to write. “Jounalist (sic, as r is missing between o and u) that worth their onion write on issues they have dept (sic it’s depth).”
Indeed, the sentences in the last two paragraphs are terrible. There should have been the between accepted and normal and there should have been a full stop after efficacy. The next sentence should have been: It is never on the pages of a newspaper or pages of newspapers. The last sentence should have been: journalists who are worth their onion write on the issues they have the expertise or competence to treat or deal with.
To be continued next week
Colonel Clark, here is my curriculum vitae (3)
As indicated in the tailpiece announcement in last week’s column I am in this article discussing my integrity as a journalist, political appointee and servant of God. Integrity means honesty, wholeness or soundness, but in this piece I will limit myself to my honesty and incorruptibility as a journalist. I am leaving the wholeness or soundness aspect of it until sometime next year when I will do my 49 years in the profession and write about my achievements and legacies.
My first experience of people offering money to a journalist was in 1982, when I was the Deputy Editor of the Sunday Concord, and went to interview Lawyer Tunji Braithwaite, the founder and leader of the Nigeria Advance Party (NAP), at his residence on Victoria Island in Lagos. When I finished asking him questions and was about to leave, he brought out an envelope and said: “Sina, this is for you to buy fuel for your car.”
I just told him, egbon (as the Yoruba refer and show respect to an older person), I am not that type of journalist. I do not take money from the people I interview or who want a story published for them. I then told him that I had an official car, and that the editorial staff members of Concord Press of Nigeria who do not have company cars made claims for the refund of any fuel bought, so far as they had a receipt to back them up from the petrol station where they made the purchase. Senator Ben Obi, a senior member of his party and second – in – command was with us that day and a witness to what happened.
My second experience was in 1986 when I was the Editor of the Sunday Concord (1984 – 89), when late Prophet Samuel Adewole of the Celestial Church of Christ brought a story for me to publish on an event in his church. When he was about to leave, he too offered me money, but I declined.
For continuation next Wednesday with my story on Chief Arthur Nzeribe.
The third incident was when in 1987 or so the late Chief Onwuka Kalu (May 24, 1954 – February 23, 2015), a business magnate (tycoon) sent money in an envelope to me for Easter or Christmas celebrations. I can’t remember which of the two it was. Again I did not accept it. When his staff, Ms. Chichi Omoekachie, who brought it got back to him, he was impressed at my attitude. He phoned that I should come over to his office in Ikoyi, Lagos as he likes to meet me and be my friend. She too is still around as a witness.