What I am here to tell you is that before some Igbo leaders began to oppose Peter Obi’s nomination, a madman had predicted it in the late 50s, I was told.
Chika Abanobi
You must have read how some Igbo political elite opposed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s nomination of Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State, as his running mate. I am not here to say who is right: Atiku, Obi or his detractors. Of course, how can someone who was recently appointed Commissioner for Laughter, in Imo State, know any other thing except how to make people laugh?
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So? Don’t take such people or whatever they say, serious. In the past, we use to have court jesters. They are the present ‘cot jesters’ in the age of ICT. So? Ignore their counsel because if you take them seriously you may end up in hospital. As you very well know, only serious people go to hospital, the unserious ones go to watch comedians at a comic event.
As I was saying, I am not here to tell who is right and who is wrong in the opposition against Peter Obi. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. So plagiarizing them should be punishable by Executive Order 7 or 9, if you ask me. This is why I wouldn’t want to go there lest somebody bans me from travelling within the country.
But what you don’t know and what I am here to tell you is that before some Igbo leaders began to oppose Peter Obi’s nomination, a madman had predicted it a long time ago, in the late 50s, I was told. That time Obi had not even been born. According to my mother, Madam Faith Onyejisike Abanobi, who told me the story, there used to live within the period I mentioned a madman by name “Ukapenny.” A popular face then around Okigwe axis, he used to go from place to place, picking dirty things including used plates, pots and all that.
Usually, madmen are not known to talk sense or make sense with their words or talks. This fact everyone knows. But told that we were about to get our independence from our British colonial masters, in those days, according to my mother who witnessed the incident, the madman started laughing, and laughed so hard that he fell down.
“Did I hear una tok say Igbo wan rule demsef?,” he asked after recovering from the paroxysms of laughter, although what was at stake at that moment was the independence of Nigeria as a whole, not Igbo. Bystanders who were watching the drama concurred . “Abeg make una help me tell dem say dem no fit.”
According to the story, someone managed to ask why. The madman looked at him and burst into another round of laughter. “Did you hear me so? Dem no fit. You wan know why?” he asked. “As the white man dey leave una dey go, na so una go begin dey fight unasef until white man go come back take dat freedom go gi’am anoda person.” “Ah”, he exclaimed, “dis thing wey una sey una wan rule unaself so go cause katakata.”
Told that it is Nigeria that is about to get independence, not Igbo, he looked at his interlocutors and burst into a song that says: “this one will like to rule but his fellow will not allow him. Weda Nigeria or Igbo, ol na de same. The white man say make I tell all of una say where he kill una reach, make una use una hand finish the killing wey remain to be done, una hear? ” And, with that, he walked away.
Since this Peter Obi’s case I have been thinking about that story told me many years ago by my mother. Could the madman have accurately predicted not only our post-independence coup and civil war but also the current much ado about nothing over Peter Obi’s nomination? I wonder and as I do so I keep thinking that people say that mad people hardly make sense with their words, could we say the same thing about Ukapenny?
When a madman warns that giving you freedom to choose to rule yourself will cause katakata and it is causing katakata, when he said the point where the white man stopped his killing of us is where we are to continue from and it is happening just like that, the question I want to ask everybody is: isn’t better to remain insane and be talking sense rather than to claim to be sane and be talking nonsense? An Igbo proverb says that it is not good for a community to lack a madman, but the only snag is, which compound or family will be willing to produce or donate one to the community?
EDITOR’S NOTE: Reactions are welcome from readers
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READERS’ REACTIONS
Why everybody in Nigeria is now trekking
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Man, Mile 2- Badagry Expressway is an expressway to hell on earth. So, I suggest that Atiku and his PDP group should start their campaign from there. In fact, they should visit that road and tell us what they intend to do about it. That road alone is bad enough to send Buhari, Ambode, Sanwo-Olu and their APC group packing.
-Ovuta Sunday, 08167847133
But for the ne’er-do-well leaders we have in Nigeria, what business does an average Nigerian have with trekking? We probably made mistake by voting the way we did in 2015 but let’s get it right in the 2019 election, irrespective of party affiliations and differences.
-Gordon Chika Nnorom, 08062887535
Since I discovered that walking is part of exercise, I have been able to trek from Aba to Port Harcourt and sometimes I make a detour and trek from 9th mile corner to Nsukka. Who knows, Nigeria may one day, become a nation of trekkers, walkers and athletics.
-Onu Victor, 08030918192, Isiama Onicha Igboeze, Ebonyi
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My son mistakes defection for defecation
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Your write-up is very interesting. Tell Akpabio who defected from PDP to APC that he is not an uncommon defector yet until he truly and really finds himself inside the APC’s Armoured Personnel Carrier.
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