By Chuks Osuji
One of the highlights of events during the New Year’s activities on the side of the Imo State Government was the hosting of the state’s stakeholders meeting. It was a celebrated occasion on two major planks. First, it was the first major address from the governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodimma, in the year 2022. Second, it was announced that the governor would use the occasion to name the sponsors of terrorism and insecurity in the state.
It was for this purpose that the event attracted a celebrated expectation because members of the public particularly Imolites who have suffered the major aspect of insecurity in the state wanted to hear those names being mentioned. To the greatest chagrin of those at the stakeholders meeting and other members of the public, the governor did not, could not, and would never ever mention names. As a political scientist and public opinion analyst, I never believed that the governor would undertake such a dangerous political path as a governor of a state. From the world go, I did not have any slightest belief that he would mention names because I am sure he had greater wisdom that must have not been perceived by many members of the public.
Honestly and frankly, no governor or a leader at his level will tread that dangerous political path because doing so would have amounted to setting the state ablaze with endless speculations, name-calling, denials, and counter-reports. In addition, such mentioning of names would have triggered a lot of conflicts, lawsuits, etc.
Those in this state and outside it who were calling the governor all manner of names for failing to name the sponsors and supporters of insecurity in the state are missing the point. Many Imo citizens and Nigerians, through several comments, speculations, rumours, exhibited certain behavioural patterns that showed that some individuals must have made up their minds as to where the pendulum would swing.
At this point, I want to throw into the ongoing discourse one important Igbo proverb to clear the air. One day, a father took his son to a public gathering of elders. As they sat down, to the amazement of everybody around, the father farted so loudly to the hearing of everybody. Spontaneously, in order to cover the loud noise, the father reproduced a similar noise with his mouth. But his son responded: “Daddy, don’t worry, we already know which noise came from your mouth and which one came from your butt.” Therefore those who wanted the governor to mention the sponsors of insecurity in the state are faultfinders and mischief-makers. If the governor disappointed them by not mentioning the names, to me and many other intellectuals, we know that he displayed the wisdom of Solomon. Therefore, they should count their teeth with their tongue. In a fable told by the Tortoise, when confronted with a riddle of explaining what he meant, he used the following words: “Tricky, deceit, cunning, crafty, witty and smart” and asked his listeners to choose a word that tallies with their perception.
If the governor had mentioned those names, he would have opened a can of worms that would have led to a stone-throwing episode. From what I know about Senator Uzodimma, he is a very witty and smart person who makes full use of his experience and connections to arrive at anything he wants to do. From the entire episode, what he did was the right thing. However, he had only exposed his advisers who did not stop him from making such a promise. Perhaps according to Henry Kissinger, “leaders should rehearse what they will say to the public with their top advisers because one of the things that cannot be changed is to recall a spoken word.”
Therefore, if the security operatives whose responsibility it is to identify those people had carried out their duties very well, we would have been saved a lot of armpit sweats for many, other than expecting the governor to open his mouth wide and name the sponsors of insecurity in his state. In fact, no government would do such a thing. If he had done it, of course, people would have clapped for him but for the wrong reason. But the ripple effects would have been severe. Therefore, from my own point of view, he displayed smartness and wisdom.
•Dr. Osuji, the former MAMSER Director for Imo State, writes from Owerri.