Declan Mbadiwe Emelumba 

Reading through Ethelbert Okere’s treatise titled “ Imo gang up: Too late in the day”, published in the Daily Sun of Friday October 18, 2019, one is left with one conclusion. The write up was hastily put together,lacking  sufficient research and  laden with fallacies and fantasies, thus  offering no normative value. This makes it imperative that I must join issues with my good friend Okere to set the records straight 

I believe that one settled golden rule of the Journalism profession is that while comments are free, facts are sacred. In the instant case, while Okere was free to make his comments on the subject matter, he was duty bound to respect the sacredness of facts. This he did not do.

His greatest fallacy, which destroyed the fabric of his premise, and made his entire submission lame and impotent, was to include Sen Hope Uzodimma as part of the gang up. Uzodimma was not and is not part of the gang- up.In fact Sen Uzodimma issued a  statement categorically stating that he was not part of any alliance or gang up

The statement was published in both traditional and social media. Specifically it was published in Trumpeter and Lead Express, two Owerri based newspapers, on Tuesday October 15 and Wednesday October 16 respectively.  This was clear three days before Okere’s publication on friday. As an Imo indigene and an experienced Journalist, It is obvious that Okere did not do enough to get his facts right. This must be stated emphatically, because Okere ought to know better.

In the denial statement, Uzodimma made it clear that he was focused on his case at the court of appeal and that he will not be distracted by any alliance or gang up. He went further to say that he was optimistic of victory at the appeal because he was certain that there was a miscarriage of Justice at the tribunal. The statement also emphasized that as a member of the ruling party, the APC, the Senator would not be “intimidated by any power into hasty and unproductive alliances nor be frightened into unnecessary gang up”.

Why am I going this length to recall the Senator’s statement? Because it proves beyond all doubts that the foundation of Okere’s submissions is porous,falicious, baseless and therefore of no effect. And this is more so because he went to great lengths to anchor his submissions on a  non existent gang- up  involving Sen. Ifeanyi Araraume of APGA, Uche Nwaosu of AA, and Sen Hope Uzodimma of APC, as well as former Governor Okorocha. Without doubt including a party that was not part of the gang up,destroyed both the flow, sequence and logic of his entire write up, particularly because most of his postulations centered around Uzodimma.

Now to the specifics of some of his fallacies, the first of which is that my friend said that the gang up group adopted Araraume as the consensus candidate in the event of a re- run election. By this position the agreement includes Uzodimma as those who adopted Araraume. It is clear that somebody who is not part of this group cannot be part of this adoption, more so when that person, Uzodimma, believes he has a good case in court. Mind you Uzodimma is asking to be declared the winner of the election because he believes he won.

Deriving from this it  follows that Okere’s poser to Uzodimma whether by adopting Araraume he has told Imo people that in the event of a re- run he, as the candidate of the ruling party, can not lead the party to victory, becomes  trite and a non-issue.  Uzodimma indeed made it clear in his denial statement that as a member of the ruling party he would be neither intimidated nor frightened into any action. Does this seem to be coming from a man who is not sure of victory in an election?

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In like manner Okere’s submission that Okorocha is to bankroll the cost of the appeal case on behalf of the group, with all his insinuations therein, becomes yet another none issue. Still out of curiosity one may wonder what Uzodimma and Nwaosu are still doing in appeal if they have already conceded consensus candidacy to Araraume in a re-run. By the way a re- run is the centroid of Araraume prayer in court. Most importantly this point fails to fly because Uzodimma is not part of the gang up.  The summary is that almost all of Okere’s submission stand discredited because of the fallacious foundation  in respect of the composition of his gang – up group.

For those who may want to argue that one person alone not being a member of the group does not vissiate every reality about the group or the decisions therefrom, this illustration will suffice. If you build a premise that 4+1=6, which is wrong, everything that flows from this fallacy  is bound to be wrong. For instance if  you continue  from  this false premise to say that  4+1 =5 ÷2 = ?. What ever  conclusion you reach will also  be wrong.

Now to the other plank, Okere is also guilty of habitual delusionary fantasies. Often, and quite inexplicably, he goes into this delusion of arrogating to himself a sanctimonious prophetic prowess which he thinks entitles him to speak for Imo people. This is the third time he is doing that, hence the need not just to call him to order but to remind him, with every energy at my behest, that he is just one Imo indigene who has neither the oracular nor prognostic powers to speak for Imo people.

In 2011, as former governor Ikedi Ohakim’s aide, he publicly challenged those propagating Ohakim’s unpopularity outside Imo state to come home and test his popularity by criticising him in Imo and risk being stoned by his teeming supporters. That year Ohakim lost election as incumbent Governor.

Late in 2018 after an APC coalition wrestled the party structure from incumbent governor Okorocha, Okere again went to the press to declare that the jubilation that followed was” evidence that Imo people have accepted APC”. That jubilation was only among the followers of the APC leaders who rebelled against Okorocha. It was certainly not an Imo affair.

However more interesting is that my friend has forgotten that his postulation, baseless though, that today he is making a  case why another party, not the APC accepted by Imo people, should occupy Douglas house.

Now on this instant publication, my good friend is at it again. He is pontificating in the name of Imo people. Hear him:” The mood of Imo is not to embark on a back and forth inauguration of one governor in May and another in December…Imo people believe they have put the 2019 election behind them especially as they had through it untied a logjam that had appeared impossible for 20 years — achieving a power shift “.

•Emelumba is the Director of Media, Hope Uzodinma Campaign Organisation