PUNCH NEWSPAPER AND ABIA GOVERNOR'S WIFE'S SAGA, MY WORRY: BY SIR DON UBANI
Posted by Factnews | 7 years ago | 2,997 times
Trending for some days now in Abia State is the rumour that a headmistress of a primary school in Ohafia Local Government Area got a punitive transfer to Ukwa-East area of the State for complaining of non-payment of salaries to teachers when the wife of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu; Deaconess Nkechi Ikpeazu, visited her school on her free meal programme for school pupils in the State.
This imagination was reportedly highlighted by no other medium than the Punch Newspaper. That the names of the Wife of Abia State Governor and Punch Newspaper are mentioned here is, indeed, a source of worry to me. Politics or sentiments apart, the Governor's wife, for whoever that has ever come close to her, would never raise her hands against an ordinary fly, not to talk of hurting any body's feelings. She purely symbolizes motherhood in every ramification.
My honest assessment of Deaconess Ikpeazu is that she is not a politician and I do not think she would ever like to be. In the same vein, the Punch Newspaper is a tabloid I have much respect for, rightly or wrongly. My first direct encounter with the Punch Newspaper was in 1982. For elites who had grown up then, the story of a Jamaican Sociology lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Patrick Wilmot, could still be remembered. As at December 21, 1981 Wilmot, who was married to a Nigerian, had spent twelve years in Nigeria. President Shehu Shagari's government was apparently doing everything to assist majority black South Africans obtain their liberation from the clutches of apartheid.
There was what appeared to be government policy that abhorred any business link with apartheid South Africa. So it was believed. Working on that premise, Wilmot was writing extensively on Nigerian Companies owned by very prominent and influential Nigerians who were illegally doing business with South Africa. Believing that Wilmot might expand his critical x-ray by mentioning names of Nigerian personalities involved in the illicit transactions, some of the powers that were decided to throw a spanner in his wheels. They felt the best way to achieve their aim was by repatriating Patrick Wilmot. Their first attempt was on 21st December, 1981 but it was botched. Still determined, the cabal came up with a second attempt on 20th July, 1982.
In her ploy, a letter asking Wilmot to leave the country in his own interest and safety was written on unheaded foolscap, with no departmental stamp and purportedly signed by an obscure Muhammad Damulak for the Director of Immigration Services. It was at that point that many Nigerians rose in defence of Patrick Wilmot. I was then teaching at Ihie High School (former Adventist College) and as a young man imbued with a burning fire for equity and fairness, I wrote what I considered a well-worded piece and sent it by post to the Punch.
In those days, there was not much opportunity for electronic transfer of articles or commentaries. So, the mail had to go through the snail speed of our mail delivery system. But about two weeks later, my article on why the Federal Government should not repatriate Wilmot was given a conspicuous half-page publication in the Punch Newspaper. I felt highly elated by that publication. It also made me a rallying point both among my fellow teachers, especially the young ones and my students whose belief in me grew in leaps and bounds.
Correspondents of Punch Newspaper are, to the best of knowledge, very scrupulous and professional. When an unethical practice is associated with a group I have my respect for, it worries me a lot. In the first instance, that a public servant who elated to serve her State in a given capacity is transferred to any part of the State should not elicit the kind of press I have seen for some days now. Transfers are common in the public service.
There is nothing special about them. Besides, if a transfer list has four names on it, would there be any convincing syllogism to prove that one out of the four is being transferred punitively? In investigative journalism, the reporter of the story should have put a call to the Executive Chairman of Abia State Universal Basic Education or the Honourable Commissioner for Education to ascertain the true situation before going to town. From the moral angle, public servants are said to be only seen and not heard. The headmistress involved in this episode must have run foul of public service ethics. The Wife of the State Governor does not occupy any position known to the laws of Nigeria. The free meal programme is borne out of charity.
I was present the day the programme was launched at Amapu-Ntigha primary school and observed that some philanthropists had volunteered to bank-roll it. What this means is that the Governor's wife simply used her husband's goodwill to attract sponsorship of a very laudable project and personally supervises it, at least, to serve as a role model both in terms of humility and service. For that headmistress to have come in the open to embarrass not only the Governor's wife but her fellow woman and fellow mother, even though she could have been sponsored to exhibit that moral decadence, I put it to her that her husband must be going through hell in his marriage to her. Mrs Nkechi Ikpeazu is not her employer. She went there on an entirely different mission. The show of shame by that ill-mannered headmistress was uncalled for.
As at 1983, the government of old Imo State headed by Chief Sam Mbakwe owed teachers about four months. At a time, I opted for employment with Kano State government but I could not spend upto one month before I changed my mind and returned. It was the military that cleared the arrears in 1984. So, who does not know that teachers have always been owed? This experience is as old as the teaching profession itself, hence the saying that the teacher's reward is in heaven. This does not mean they should not be paid. What is playing out in this scenario is politics of geo-sectionalism and vindictiveness. Some of us served this state very diligently and transparently as Hon Commissioners yet were owed seven months of our Executive Sitting Allowance. Did we kill any person? The truth of the matter is that Arochukwu/Ohafia area is the nativity of Dr Alex Otti who contested the 2015 Abia governorship election but lost to Okezie Victor Ikpeazu, Ph.D.
The 2015 governorship election in Abia State was guided not by political party affiliation but deeply by geo-sectional sentiments. While the Ukwa/Ngwa areas of the state uncompromisingly voted for their son; Okezie Ikpeazu, the Old Bende areas overwhelmingly voted for their own son, Alex Otti. That geo-sectional division that played out in 2015 is still putridly pungent in the state and might be worse in 2019. I say this because I am quite experienced and frank in this game called politics. Any person that does not see it from this perspective is either naive or being sycophantically deceitful. That reminds me, the advisers of the Governor seem to be grossly inexperienced. To begin with, life has no duplicate.
If a sponsored cantankerous and belligerent headmistress could openly depict the type of indiscipline and crudeness she did in antagonizing the governor's wife who was her guest, it would also be possible that a wild mob could have been mobilized against her, not minding the chains of reprisal actions that it would ignite. No adviser worth his salt would advise or encourage the wife of his or her Principal to 'stray' into a domain which hatred and hostility against the Principal are not in any way hidden. Common sense and political sagacity should have dictated that either the wife of the Deputy Governor or that of the Deputy Speaker, being from the hostile North, should have gone to represent the wife of the Governor. Political appointees from Abia-North should thank God that OVI and his wife are the easy going type. Otherwise, by now they would have started enjoying their suspension like those of us from Abia-South were compelled to enjoy following late Odimegwu Ojukwu's corpse at Aba Stadium in 2012. This matter should be allowed to rest for it is a no case submission.
Readers Comments
comment(s)
No comments yet. Be the first to post comment.
