I love music a lot but not these noisy bedlams most people dance to. My preference is country music. That was why, before I deviated solely to gospel music, I had all of Don Williams and Kenny Rogers’ collections and others in that genre.
I loved Kenny Rogers’ undulating self-infected croaky, hoarse voice. The dexterous crafting of his oft-timeless messages always enthralled me. In fact, even up to today; his ‘Coward of the County’ gave me the philosophy I live by. “You don’t need to fight to be a man,” and then, “sometimes, you need to fight to be a man.” That balances the equation, I guess. Ah, Kenny, great soul!
However, for the purposes of this write-up, I opt for an excerpt from his “The Gambler.”
If you’re gonna play the game, boy
You gotta learn to play it right
You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run.
In fact, that is my advice for the gamblers in Imo North politics, who don’t know when to play or walk away; who insist on winning all the time. Life is not like that; nobody wins all the time. Wanting to win all the time is complicated, fraught with disappointments and tendencies to incur more losses, and heartbreak.
Ask those that patronise the betting joints, littering our neighbourhoods. Even married women with their babies strapped to their backs are seen, checking the numbers. You would hear them lamenting that only one number was ‘cut’. They have lost anyway. Because, like Julius, my erstwhile colleague, who loved playing ‘Badero’ but ended up empty and broken, they don’t know when to walk away.
It is the same with politicians that lack the steely character to back down but instead raise a cult-like army of deceivers around themselves, comprising hungry sycophants. Even when failure stares starkly in the face, they holler, “Oga, ride on,” arms raised high like the agberos of Ojota motor park.
Similarly, charge-and-bail lawyers would hushpuppi their jaded victims’ pockets by painting rosy pictures of the impossible. Though every other person sees that the glory had departed and road blocked, the victims’ brans have been so fudged that they would believe green is white. Just like Lasbery Cole’s (?) Igbo song. Once a person is stoned on weed, he would jam a pillar and apologise but would stand in the middle of the expressway, commanding speeding vehicles to get out of his way. Because na igbo do am so; reason has gone; common sense pillaged.
It is apparent that political gamblers and geese-chasers have taken over Imo North and continued to disturb the peace of the country for several months on. The falcon now cannot hear the falconer, confusion everywhere.
The Supreme Court finally blew the game over on Imo North when it annulled the disqualification of Distinguished Senator Frank Ibezim from the senatorial race over a trumped-up allegation of certificate forgery to truncate his senatorial ambition. By that, the curtain ought to fall on all other aspirations till about two years hence. But what is this scheme at the Election Petitions Tribunal and Appeal Court?
My very respectable High Chief, Senator Ifeanyi Godwin Araraume, please, let God-win. How do you really see your quest at the Appeal Court introspectively, sir? Are you ignorant of the Supreme Court ruling or merely on a self-deceiving adventure goaded by insincere cheerleaders? Did you challenge the ruling at the election tribunal? How come you are now asking to be declared winner, on what grounds, sir?
And to Chief Emmanuel Okewulonu, don’t eat your evening in the morning. Why go to the Senate today through the back door whereas you could still gain access through the front door tomorrow? Can’t you see you have no case? You said APC had no candidate in the by-election but the Supreme Court has torpedoed your obscure reasoning and said, no, APC had a candidate, your brother, Frank Ibezim. Finito!
Why were you misled into filing a juvenile petition at the tribunal? Did you not see how fast it was flung through the window? And how deep a widening hole it left in your pocket? Why the scorched trip to Appeal Court; did your lawyer not show you the Electoral Act or have you not read up the provision yourself? Your petition was struck out for failing to meet the provision of the law and not waiting until a person, not a party, was declared and issued certificate of return before approaching it. You don’t hold the aces, nwanne; so I guess you should walk away in peace.
In fact, Araraume did the unthinkable too when, irrespective of the clear Supreme Court ruling on Ibezim’s candidature, he audaciously sought to inveigle INEC to set a wrong precedent and invalidate the apex court’s superior order in preference to an inferior Federal High Court ruling in his favour.
Unfortunately, taking this maneuvering to the Appeal Court sitting over the ruling of the Election Tribunal, which had thrown out Okewulonu’s petition, is piteous and laughable.
People have mistaken Araraume’s political gerrymandering for a cross appeal. In reality, he was only a respondent in the petition filed by the PDP and Okewulonu, just like APC and Ibezim. Strangely, he turned around to ask the tribunal to declare him the winner despite not being the petitioner. It was also Okewulonu, not Araraume, that filed the appeal. So, for Araraume to be asking to be declared winner despite this fact and in utter disregard to the judgment of the Supreme Court is the height of wretched desperation, esoteric and disingenuous.
Araraume just wants to be declared winner based on the controversial judgment of Justice Taiwo Taiwo even though he never went to the tribunal to ask for any relief; yet he expects the court to become Father Christmas and give him what he never asked for.
The case before the court is simple and straightforward anyway. Did the Supreme Court rule that APC actually had a candidate in the election, Frank Ibezim? Was the Election Tribunal right in throwing out the PDP petition because it failed to satisfy the requirements of the law? As for Araraume, on what ground is he asking to be declared the winner, since the Supreme Court had since torn Justice Taiwo’s ruling in his favour and also failing to file any petition at the election tribunal? Or is he relying on subterranean forces? That will go up in smoke!
I envision the clear end of this melodrama but wish we fostered love and unity among brethren. I am not a politician; I carry no party badge.
I am just an independent-minded constituent fully sold to the good of the mass of Okigwe people. Methinks we could do with a Cubana and that it would be more rewarding to invest the money being wasted on endless, avoidable legal skirmishes into making a few millionaires out of our teeming careworn youths.
Ibezim is the right man. Any objective analysis like I did would come to the same conclusion. He is almost fresh; carries no baggage. He is self-effacing and accessible. He belongs to the ruling party and in the same camp with the state governor, Hope Uzodinma, and the Minister of State for Education Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba. This means that Ibezim is connected to the power grid at both state and centre and can easily attract dividends to Okigwe better than an opposition politician like Okewulonu or Araraume, who is at daggers drawn with Uzodinma and Nwajiuba.
A testimony of this is the power transmission substation Ibezim just emplaced at Okigwe within one month of request. Why and how would we throw all this away because of cheap politics?
As our revered judges untangle the legal jigsaws, Imo North wishes those chasing wild geese realised that the birds had since flown away; tomorrow is yet another day for hunting. But all said and done, let truth, justice prevail. Shalom!!!