Anambra 2013: Willie Obiano for continuity… BY EBERE WABARA Writing a column in Nigeria can be hazardous! If the dispassionate columnist criticises, he is lampooned by his victims and their clan of clownish supporters and if he does a laudatory article, hypercritical buffoons declare that money has exchanged hands or other pecuniary anticipations. And when you take the middle course, you are accused of sitting on the fence by a platoon of disgruntled charlatans! In trying to achieve a semblance of balance, there are also proprietorial interests, self-censorship, environmental factors, ethical considerations, professionalism, code of conduct, and specific editorial policies for different media houses to contend with. Indeed, the challenges are legion. Of course, there are equally the issues of peculiar publication/marketing mechanics, asphyxiating deadlines and space constraint. It is a no-win situation. Walking on this tight rope, one’s flanks are inevitably exposed at one point or another. If any publication or columnist tells you that these things do not exist or that objectivity enjoys supremacy, inform them that it is a big lie. There are written and unwritten laws guiding the operations of the media. Writers cannot because of the foregoing abdicate their responsibilities. Deaths at the warfront cannot stop people from going to wars. The point to be underscored is that the columnist’s conviction must be based on some responsible parameters that could be verified if need be. And one and all should bear in mind that facts are sacred and comments free in journalism. In other words, I am entitled to my opinions here on any matter—this is even fundamentally guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) under section 36. In any case, this forum is a marketplace for the exchange of robust ideas—not for the haulage of brickbats. The most vexatious aspect of the foregoing is that a few numskulls who, from their intemperate language and manifest illiteracy you could easily decipher their uncouthness and shallow thinking, send you multi-media mails deploying all manner of diatribes that should have been better written in vernacular (their mother-tongue)! As far as their loose frames of minds are concerned, every writer has a price and is usually compromised. Most elitist columnists of my class have the aristocratic capacity to employ these daft respondents as gatemen in our posh homes (not rented apartments!). At the risk of immodesty, for me, by God’s grace and personal diligence, through exposure—all at managerial levels—to quintessential and award-winning journalism, banking and telecoms sectors, I have conquered basic needs of life and grown beyond compulsive quest for filthy lucre. Psychotic and uneducated readers who do not comprehend issues at stake in column writing because of their delinquency and cerebral limitations should look for exhilarating pictorial publications that thrive on nudity and salacious celebrity gossip! Indigent and half-literate readers who are still grappling with the fundamentals of existence should not think that all columnists are enmeshed in poverty like them! I have made this lengthy prefatory to today’s subject because of the nonsensical responses I received last week on who succeeds Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State. Of course, as one of the few responsible rejoinders observed, I was unequivocal in my choice of Chief (Dr,) Willie Maduabuchi Obiano, APGA flag-bearer in the November 16 governorship poll, as the next governor based on my inalienable belief in his pedigree, honesty and leadership substance. The unimpeachable preference drew a lot of profound interventions from informed readers and flaks from incorrigible ignoramuses suffering from aggravated (third-degree) dementia! No doubt, the electorate in Anambra State will determine who the next altruistic governor becomes after Gov. Peter Obi’s distinguished tour of duty. But, voters cannot be allowed to vote sheepishly or be influenced by agents of moneybags in the race to vote for their gangster-principals. That is the essence of this civic education through the instrumentality of this column among other voter engagements. Electors need credible information on candidacies lest they are misled by electoral inanities and ephemerals. One of the infantile reactions to my introductory article last week was the lousy inference that because Gov. Peter Obi is supporting his party’s candidate in the forthcoming election and his natural successor, Chief Obiano, the incoming governor is his stooge! How can this be rationalized? Should Gov. Obi support oppositional candidates? In any case, there is no basis for Chief Obiano, a former nine-year Executive Director in Fidelity Bank PLC and next in command to the CEO/MD—after nine-and-half years’ glorious service at the top echelon in Texaco Nigeria PLC—to be anyone’s lackey. His exceptional scholastic attainments, career antecedents, sparkling opulence and contentment foreclose such ignominy and juvenility. The overriding interest is the need to enthrone continuity in order to build a better future for the state, its children and also contribute to national development through collaborative governance with the federal government irrespective of the ruling party. That is the only way the state and indeed the entire South-East sub-nation can move forward. According to Chief Obiano, ‘let’s continue to plant the trees that will give shade to our children and our future’. Anambra under Chief Obiano must be ‘the first choice investment destination and a hub for industrialization and commercial activities.’ His mission after the preceding vision is ‘to create a socially stable and business-friendly environment that will attract indigenes of Anambra, Nigerians and foreigners to seek wealth-creating opportunities in Anambra State’. Now that INEC has formalised the candidacy of Chief Obiano, all other aspirants on the party’s platform should collapse their campaign structures and back the forever thrust of their colleague to ensure a well-deserved and resounding victory for APGA. I have the conviction that as Gov. Obi does well in the currency of his official assignation Chief Obiano will do even better. It will be an irredeemable tragedy for Chief Obiano to lose to any someone with controversial and festering sources of riches or the taciturn friend of mine, Dr. Chris Ngige, a good man in a wrong party! The remaining candidates in the race cannot even win in their wards! The incoming governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, was educated at Holy Trinity School and CKC, both in Onitsha, and my alma mater, UNILAG, where he obtained a 2.1 degree in Accounting and an MBA (Marketing). An ICAN Fellow, he also attended Harvard University and Stanford Graduate School, both in USA and another alma mater of mine, Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria, for management and skill honing. Chief Obiano left First Bank in 1981 to join Texaco Nigeria PLC, as a lead accountant specialising in bunkering, lube blending and refinery audit. He later became Chief Internal Auditor Texaco (Worldwide), the first African to attain that height.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 20:01:10 +0000
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