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To the Imo
Heartland in
Search of Votes
A Learning Odyssey
By Cecile Oguguo
Keke
(Special
Correspondent)
It has been an unbelievable
odyssey, and an immeasurable privilege to have journeyed
with the Nwajiuba-Mezu
CPC Gubernatorial campaign team round the urban and
remote rural areas of
Imo
State in a bid to inform the people on why they
should vote for the
Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
It was educational; it was also revelatory and a
learning experience. Where-ever the team went, they had
three (3) top opening messages, viz:
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CPC is a party that does not distribute
money. Distributing or throwing embezzled
money at people is a bid to buy citizens’
votes. This brand of politics is immoral,
it is unethical and it is illegal, for says
John Paul II, “Politics is not the
technology of power and manipulation of the
people but rather one of seeking and
attaining life’s meaning with a view towards
serving the true good of the community”
(Arrival Speech at Prague’s International
Airport Czechoslovakia, 21 April 1990);
CPC will give a just, compassionate,
technology-based and progressive government;
The Nwajiuba-Mezu
led
CPC government will complete the
programs
Dr. Sebastian Okechukwu Mezu had
articulated under
Chief Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe, the 1st
civilian Governor of the
Imo State under the Second Civilian
Republic. This team will transform the
state into an industrial and
technologically-driven modern state that
will be business friendly, with basic
healthcare services, and basic amenities. |
a. From
the start of its campaign tour, it was evident that this
Gubernatorial team has its task cut out for it. For the
twelve (12) years of the various
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP)
led-governments state and nation-wide, Imo citizens in
particular have experienced incredible hardships through
gross mal-administration, fraudulent embezzlement and/or
diversion of funds, bogus and over-inflated projects
that were never done but were simply designed to be used
to siphon off money. The hapless citizens have been
experiencing incessant closure of schools, and
Government-run hospitals for non-payment of salaries of
workers, et cetera.
In 2010, universities were
shut down from July to January 2011 because teachers
were on strike. And as at the time of writing, doctors
and other health workers at the newly-established Orlu
Teaching Hospital were still on strike and the hospital
under lock and key. In short, the citizens of
Imo
State did not need to be told that this
PDP government was a failure and must be driven off
by the peoples’ votes. Never in the history of Imo
State had any government been less transparent. And
never in recent memory has any Government been so hated,
mocked and scorned as the present
Imo
State government. And the Governor has the peculiar
penchant for attracting to himself unending
controversies—quarreling with practically
everyone—friends and foes alike. He wears arguments,
controversies and mudslinging like an overcoat.
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Calling himself, “Ikiri”—the
animal that hangs on to whatever it has its grips on,
he made the scandalously arrogant and Godless
statement: “No Man, No Woman, No spirit can stop me
from having a Second term in office.” To all and
sundry, the statement indicated the age-old axiom that
pride goes before a fall. And what a fall it will be,
indeed! Often, he is pelted with pure water sachets and
the like, wherever he went. It was clear to all and
sundry that the bell has tolled for this government.
The citizens have been rendered so poor sometimes living
a life without hope whereas we have it from the best
authority that “extreme poverty is a source of
violence, bitterness and scandal, and to eradicate it is
to do the work of justice and therefore the work of
peace” (JP II – Incarnationis Mysterium,
1998, n. 2).
Nwajiuba (3rd from right) and Mezu (2nd from
left) with traditional leaders |
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When Christ said “Blessed are
the poor in spirit”, Venerable JP II explains that the
kind of poverty Jesus declared ‘blessed’ is “composed of
unselfishness, trust in God, restraint and readiness to
share with others” (Homily at Chalco,
Netzahuakoyotl
diocese, near Mexico City. 7 May, 1990). Christ also
pointed out the moral corruption of even the religious
leaders of his period. Certainly, people at the helm
of affairs in Nigeria, the nation have not been willing
to share with the populace they have rendered poor,
wretched. The only sharing comes during election period
while trying to buy up votes. The greedy ones among the
populace understand this and that is why election period
is so exciting for them for then they are ready to milk
the politicians to the limit.
Thus, it is with anguish that
one realizes that it can be a collective act – this
willing collaboration with the people who defraud
them. And so, this vicious cycle self-perpetuates for
as soon as these corrupt politicians win the vote, they
declare their obligations to the people discharged for
they have already paid them for their votes. And misrule
continues unchecked for everyone is complicit in this
fraud and corruption—politicians, their agents, the
masses. Presently, all the opposing political parties
had one thing uniting them—a burning desire to see this
Imo
State government, and the
PDP at the federal level booted out of
Imo
State. The only way this government can come back
for a second term is through massive rigging since it
controls all the structures of power and limitless funds
from the public coffers for the bribery of corrupt
electoral officials And that would be a gargantuan
tragedy.
Rescuing a Traumatized
Citizenry
As already stated, what is
glaringly obvious is that the citizens of
Imo
State under the different regimes have known
incredible hardship and suffering. It is an
impoverished citizenry with their psyches so traumatized
that they have grown used to not having even the basic
amenities of daily living. It is a curious
phenomenon—the people are at the same time poor and
greedy, hapless yet happy and resilient even in their
misery; they have been socialized into expecting and
accepting as the norm cheating, stealing government
funds, to noisily hail and celebrate those who had
managed to grow fat on public funds, to even grasp
and cheat themselves. Used to being thrown crumbs, they
beg for the money no matter how paltry. Yet at the same
time, there is within that core of decency that sees,
hears and responds to Truth, honesty and fairness.
Yet, everywhere the
Nwajiuba-Mezu Campaign team went, there were hordes of
young people singing, chanting, crowding round the cars
with outstretched hands begging and shouting—“Give us
money! We want money! Give us money, money,
money, money!” At the end of a rally, all the
discipline of one-by-one for line was thrown to the
wind, for there was a mass rush towards whatever mineral
drinks, etc. that were brought out for the event since
some had been waiting for hours. These people’s
psyches have been brutalized, bestialized and indeed
traumatized. It was clear what must be done first is
to try and reach that core of their being where Truth
and love and humanity reside, to reverse the trend of
brutish greed and seek bring out the gentler human and
humane part of their human nature.
Changing People’s Mental
Attitude
"Men desire authority
for its own sake that they may bear a rule, command and
control other men, and live uncommanded and uncontrolled
themselves"
(St. Thomas More,
A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation).
As a girl at the ramshackle
Imo Airport stated publicly while waiting to board our
plane and the discussion centered on the elections,
“leadership is not just building roads and providing
light and water, it is also changing the peoples’ mental
attitude.” “How so true!” I thought to myself.” The
Nwajiuba-Mezu rallies had taken on an ambience of a
religious revival. The team leaders found themselves
using extensive biblical references to explain what it
is about. Perhaps, it is no accident that the
Vice-Presidential Candidate is the Evangelical Pastor
Bakare who freely delves into the Bible to explain some
of the moral problems that have led Nigerians into
their present quandary and crisis of leadership.
The objective is to strive to
restore trust in public governance in a people now jaded
with misrule and who regard politicians as all liars and
fraudsters. The team seeks to achieve a sort of
revolution of conscience that can be transformative,
able to motivate and move the people to renew their
hearts, reclaim their courage and free themselves from
these fraudulent leaders addicted to the exercise of
power but who themselves want to live uncommanded and
uncontrolled. At each
CPC Campaign rally, speakers first explain the
party’s name—The Congress for Progressive Change
and its symbolism—reform people’s social and mental
attitudes first so as to produce the real change that
leads to progress.
Also the party’s logo—The
flag and the Fountain Pen—the flag to denote patriotism
and the pen to symbolize commitment to qualitative
education that leads to enlightenment, and a re-writing
of the socio-political, economic and cultural History of
Nigeria. The leadership at both the National and State
levels is characterized by men and women noted for
honesty and integrity.
Rtd. General Muhammadu Buhari is a simple leader
remarkable for honesty and incorruptibility. He had
held several appointments as Bornu State Governor,
Minister of Petroleum under Second Civilian President
Shehu Shagari, Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund
(PTF) under
Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo’s civilian presidency and no
one had ever pointed a finger at him for corrupt
practices. The
Buhari-Idiagbon military intervention at the end of
1983 possibly saved Nigeria from tumbling into an abyss
of chaos and civil strife.
The duo ruled Nigeria from
December 31, 1983 to August 27, 1984 and till date,
whatever ethical or decent programs that in the Nigerian
polity were programs they had started—War against
Indiscipline (WAI), One-by-one for line—peaceful queuing
in line—and the monthly Last Saturday Clean-up
Exercise. The last two subsist to this day; and because
their regime was toppled by Gen
Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida indiscipline in form of
corruption, inflation, drug trafficking, bribery and
looting again became the order of the day. At the time
of writing, terrorism and kidnapping of even very
ordinary villagers for money ransom are still plaguing
the Nigerian society.
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One of the cardinal concerns
of the Nwajiuba-Mezu team is to combat the specter of
Insecurity, to inculcate in the minds of populace the
fact that Violence thru thuggery, or armed conflict is
a lie for Violence destroys that which it claims to
defend—“dignity, life and freedom of human beings.”
Religious leaders and moral philosophers proclaim
violence and war as a negation of humanity and a crime
for it destroys the very fabric of society; it installs
instead a corrosive brand of barbarism that makes people
behave like beasts. Despite being a Muslim, and contrary
to the belief held by some people in the Southern region
of Nigeria, Gen.
Buhari is an honest man whose name is rather an
asset at rallies. |
All the campaigning team
needs to do is to make mention of the ethical programs
listed above established by the Buhari-Idiagbon regime
and people will nod their heads in agreement, and
themselves complete the citation of the programs. He is
disciplined, fearless and very much respected and it is
gradually dawning on the Nigerian populace that this
leader is the only Nigerian living who can command the
respect of all citizens. They know him as a man of
strong character and determination.
President Goodluck Jonathan is quite young and
untried and people have taken advantage of his good
nature and relative inexperience in political
leadership.
Thus, corruption, insecurity,
kidnapping and other anti-social phenomena go unchecked.
But when
Gen. Buhari speaks, people listen and take him
seriously. There can be no greater validation for the
character of the
CPC Presidential Flagbearer
Gen. Buhari than the comments made by the Catholic
Archbishop of
Owerri
during a
Buhari-led courtesy call to him on March 8, before
the rally marking the start of his South-East
Campaign held in Emekuku, Owerri. The report of His
Grace
Dr. Anthony
J.V.Obinna’s remarks reads:
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General Buhari during his military
regime instilled needed discipline in
Nigerians, brought into being the formation
of queues to obtain services, the promotion
of environmental sanitation through a
monthly clean-up of the urban and rural
areas. But that was military and forced
discipline. [The Archbishop’s] prayer was
that this time that discipline will no
longer be carried out under the barrel of
the gun but will emanate from the heart of
the people. Corruption must be
eradicated and the resources of the country
must be applied to the service of the
people, the building of roads, provision of
water and electricity, improvement of
education. |
Thus, it can be seen that the
present election cycle is another chance for Nigerians
to get things right. They must for Nigeria has come to a
crossroads. This is another chance from Providence and
any mess-up carries considerable risks for the survival
of Nigeria as a nation.
Equally on the State level,
the
CPC Imo Guber team has impeccable credentials. The
candidates’ great learning, historical antecedents and
leadership experience as well as their reputation for
honesty, integrity sets them apart from their
competitors. They are the only duo that can boast that
when they served, they did not embezzle and enrich
themselves with the peoples’ money. Simply stated, they
served with merit. Dr.
Rose Ure Mezu, the wife of the
CPC Gubernatorial candidate, served as the first
Woman Commissioner of the old and greater
Imo
State. By an act of divine favor, at the end of her
tenure of office, she was validated by this same Buhari-led
regime that toppled the civilians. She was found not
corrupt by late Gen. Abdulkarim Adisa. She remains the
only serving high functionary in Nigeria that did not go
to prison in 1984.
The
CPC Deputy-Governorship candidate
Dr. Okechukwu Mezu takes listeners at rallies
through the reasons for, and consequences of the
Nigerian civil war, his various roles establishing the
Paris Biafran Office and along with Ambassador Ralph
Uwechue translating the Biafran propaganda materials
into French and other languages (while abandoning the
defense of his completed doctoral dissertation in
service to his people). Then, as a 27-year old
Ambassador to la Cote D’Ivoire, he worked with
Caritas Internationalis and other charitable
organizations such as Terre des hommes whose
services saved the people of Biafra from total
annihilation. Single-handedly, he installed
Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe as Governor of Old
Imo
State in 1979—the mantle of leadership being given
to Mbakwe at
Mezu’s hometown Emekuku—which place also
providentially became the venue for the 2011
Buhari Presidential South-East rally.
Equally, the
Imo State University system with its five zonal
campuses was the brain child of
Dr. Okechukwu Mezu. As Chairman of the
Imo
State Educational Review Commission, he reformed the
educational system creating LGA and Zonal school boards
for easier administration, de-boarded secondary schools,
etc.
Mbakwe’s government remains the best government now
being celebrated nostalgically in songs and hailed as a
model by all the political aspirants. But the architect
Dr. Mezu is here, he says, in
CPC and will complete what
Mbakwe did not have sufficient time to complete.
The
CPC leaders from its National Presidential candidate
to the
Imo State ticket of Nwajiuba-Mezu have proven
records of service and patriotism.
It was during the
Buhari–led regime that the Radio / Television slogan
daily encouraged young people not to “check out” of the
country like the disillusioned young man Andrew with
back-pack slung on his back. And the patriotic slogan
was: “This generation of Nigerians, and indeed the
future generation of young people have no other country
but Nigeria. And we must stay here and salvage it
together.” Evidently, the work at hand presently is
one of salvaging the country from disintegration, from
corruption, ethnic prejudices, predilection to violence
and from terrorism.
Rescuing a Wasted, Wasting
and Wasteful Generation of Young People
Listeners at Imo
CPC rallies are always gradually initiated into a
frame of mind that eventually accepts that this is the
modus operandi
of the
CPC leadership group—a bribery-free campaign. They
just do not fling ill-gotten money at the crowd. It is
so palpable the implied insult and cynical denigration
of peoples’ dignity that the act connotes, and sadly the
masses largely do not see this gross treatment for what
it is for they sometimes laugh so blatantly at their own
humiliation and the rape of their authentic freedoms.
Considering the alternative, one refuses to give up, for
the Nwajiuba-Mezu team and
Gen. Buhari offer the promise of a humane and
enlightened but disciplined leadership, as they strive
to bring into politics niceties and delicate refinements
that idealism connotes.
Gradually, one feels that
considerable impact is being made in this enlightenment
campaign to educate the people as to their basic civic,
and human rights. As is being explained at rallies,
leaders canvassing for votes are actually applying to
serve the people. Therefore, a servant seeking
employment is not expected to give money to be
employed. That was the reason for the ire of the
unemployed Imo university graduates who in 2010 were
asked by the Imo Government to pay N2,000 naira to
secure an employment form. The outrage was so much and
this contributed to the peoples’ hatred and disdain for
their governor.
The Nwajiuba-Mezu Generational Fit
Chukwuemeka Uwaezuoke Nwajiuba is described by his
Deputy,
Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu as being “young enough to be
his son yet brilliant and worthy enough to be his boss.”
The Nwajiuba-Mezu
combination is—sort of like the U.S. Obama-Biden team.
They work well together. The youthful, really tall, and
handsome Gubernatorial candidate has primed himself very
well for the job—with two terms at the House of
Representatives in the National Assembly. He was also a
two-term chairman of the Works committee described by a
U.S. legislative observer team as the best legislator in
the National Assembly. A law graduate, he had opened his
own law firm. Modest, respectful and self-respecting,
he has none of the noisy showmanship theatrics of his
other competitors who are mostly cut from the same
fabric as untrustworthy politicians who made their money
dubiously.
He travels lightly with none
of the flamboyant, long convoy of limousines and
expensive Jeep vehicles—each costing more than 50
million naira. That is not his style. Disciplined and
purposeful, the only candidate to date who had described
leadership as involving sacrifice; he keeps time and
does his business expeditiously. At rallies,
Hon. Nwajiuba is often presented as the face of Imo
/ Nigerian youth, worthy of emulation as a fitting and
proper role-model for the youth—a well-brought-up son,
family-oriented, respectful, extremely well-spoken and
knowledgeable. At this juncture in Nigerian history,
young people need such a beacon of hope, hardwork and
success—teaming up with the elderly
Dr. S. Okechukwu Mezu, brilliant intellectual, poet
/author, publisher, business entrepreneur, Pan-Africanist,
and political idealist.
With his academic
credentials, and proven business entrepreneurial
achievements, people know he carries a lot of gravitas
and brings credibility, immense experience, and
historical antecedents to the Gubernatorial ticket.
Mezu restates often the reasons why he came out at his
age are to set things right and to stem exploitating
oppression, for says Achebe in
The Trouble with Nigeria,
“Oppression is wrong . . . whenever and wherever we see
it, we must say ‘No.’ We must not say foolishly ‘it
is not our business!’” and also to properly hand
over the right ideals of leadership to a younger
generation. He had worked with iconic national and state
leaders such as Nigeria’s First Civilian President
Nnamdi Azikiwe,
Dr. Michael Opara, Premier of Eastern Nigeria,
Chief Justice Mbanefo, and the Biafra Leader
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.
Thus, the
Nwajiuba-Mezu partnership
unites the generations for it represents a Father-son
image that is unique and reassuring for its promise of
functional leadership, creativity, and ethical
re-orientation.
This bodes well for
Imo
State. There is no other team comparable to
theirs. The fervent prayer is for the Holy Spirit
of the All-Knowing God to bless and fructify their
efforts, supplying whatever is lacking so as to spare
the much-exploited and suffering people of
Imo
State the imposition of anyone of the supposed
frontline Trio who are all birds of the same
feather—defrauders and procurators of marauding violent
thugs. They all worked together in harmony dividing the
spoils of office until greed and how to share the spoils
of office tore them apart. And even though they are now
dispersed to head other parties, they are still cut from
the same cloth woven with greed, self-interest and utter
lack of compassion for the suffering masses.
These people are noisy,
flashy but empty and violence-prone. The worst thing
that can happen to
Imo
State is to have any of them rig their way to
power. If that happens, Imo youths would be wasted
beyond what they are already for there would be at the
helm of affairs, conscienceless defrauders of the
peoples’ wealth who boastfully mislead the poor youth
who think their method of “Get rich quick or die trying”
is a surer way to accumulate easy wealth rather than to
sit in a classroom, study, work and succeed the normal
way. As career-politicians with no other prospects,
they are the worst kind of role models for they would
unleash a descent of totalitarianism. They had already
beggared the Nigerian nation and produced a people now
used to having only mere crumbs of their own vast
resources thrown at them with insolent pride. Something
has to give soon, and very soon, or the future of the
young people of
Imo
State / Nigeria / Africa would be irreparably
compromised or lost.
Fulfilling the Mandate with
Programs for Decent, Worthwhile Living
Nwajiuba-Mezu team will
fulfill its campaign promises. Traveling round the
state one sees areas in various stages of sorry
neglect. In some parts of Ngor Okpala, one could travel
thirty (30) miles and not see any signs of
civilization—miles and miles of pristine forest area
with neither roads, electric poles or water—no visible
signs that any of these basic amenities had ever been
given but had fallen into a state of disuse. In one of
the trips, it had rained the night before, and it was a
shock to see children and women collecting water from
puddles formed on the road. Signs of life came with a
large, noisy group of men, women and youth carrying
ropes and machetes whom I at first mistook for political
thugs on the rampage only to learn later that they were
going on a communal palm fruit harvesting trip. The
water collected from the road will be used for
processing the palm nuts when crushed. It was
lamentable to see literally “earth” people scratching
out a living in a deteriorating rural environment; it is
an unforgivable neglect of a helpless citizenry.
In one of the trips through
Okigwe town to Arondizuogu and from there through Akokwa
to Ideato North and south, we passed through one of the
worst roads imaginable. It was a journey through an
unending stretch of rocky, uneven, and badly eroded
road. As was remarked to Governor-to-be
Nwajiuba, passing through that road was indeed an
exercise in expiation of every sin that one could ever
have committed on this earth. In fact, no traveler
through that road can ever set foot in purgatory. It
was that bad and one came back later at night with
aching head and muscles that have been jolted and rocked
to sore bruising.
Yet these journeys revealed
such a state of lack that one felt catapulted out of
one’s self-complacency. Throughout the campaign trips,
one experiences a palpable feeling of being involved in
something greater than one-self, an engagement in
something of a calling that gives a lofty purpose to
life. There is an abiding sense of higher mission that
you have received so much and have at your disposable so
much talent, skills, contacts, and abundant
opportunities to do good—to indeed make people’s lives
so much better for you know exactly what must be done
and how to do it.
The
CPC programs articulated in their website—http://www.cpcimostate.org/—are
laudable:
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a campus of
Imo State University in every senatorial
zone, a 2-year junior University in every
local government, a Teaching Hospital in
every senatorial zone, basic health
care delivery, good technological education,
stem the brain drain and bring back Imo
citizens who have become exiles abroad for
fear of coming home, even to bury their
loved ones, a revitalized economy, effective
Security to enable people prosper and live
without fear. |
Bastardizing Democratic
Principles: A Recurring Cycle of Violence and War
|
Not a few people view elections as war.
While some believe it is an all out war
where one deploys all the weapons in his
arsenal—the good, the bad and the ugly—as
the case may be, others insist it is a war
with a set of rules that must be obeyed to
give essence to the electoral system. (Compass) |
Only in Nigeria / Africa can
some of these election malpractices be allowed to go
on. In Western countries, political parties beg their
supporters for financial support no matter how meager.
In Nigeria, political parties rather throw money at the
voting masses; political aspirants and those seeking for
second terms carry money in bags and go from house to
house in communities bribing possible voters. They
distribute bags of rice, dried stockfish and other
commodities in an effort to buy the people’s votes. Only
in Nigeria can the wave of instability sweeping the
North African countries of Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya not
make a dent in the way that democratic principles are
bastardized and the people’s civic liberties trampled
upon.
Because the Nigerian
political leadership is made up of professional
politicians with no other careers, politics essentially
become a do-or-die affair, with thuggery, kidnapping,
assassinations, and other forms of violence making life
unsafe for the helpless population. Several theories
have been advanced as to why the correct application
of democratic principles has not found fertile round in
Nigeria / Africa:
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That because of
the many ethnic groupings in Nigeria, there
is a sense of alienation from central
Federal authority. People owe no allegiance
or feel patriotic about the Federation which
is seen as belonging to no one person but to
all—a national cake from which any strong
person can carve out as large a slice as can
safely be carried away. And communities
thinking that they lack any visibly potent
redress of the absolute power wielded over
them become apathetic and indifferent, while
some even collude noisily with their
defrauders. |
Asking God to interject the
Divine Self into this Political Maelstrom
It is not against hard
realism to have to invite God—the Omnipotent, Omniscient
and Omnipresent Being—to interject the Divine Self into
human affairs, even if political. People of ancient
Israel did it as a way of life. And oftentimes, people
forget that Jesus Christ was not only embroiled in
theological controversies, arising from his claims about
His Divine origin—“I and the Father are One” (John 10:
30) but He was embedded squarely in both ethnic,
national (with the Scribes and Pharisees), and
international politics (with Rome)—as to the role of
the Messiah which His hearers superficially perceived as
a conquering King who perhaps will replace Caesar and
lead Jews to freedom from occupation.
This fear was the reason why
Pilate was ambivalent about pronouncing the Christ
innocent even though his conscience and his wife Claudia
told him to do so. So God in the Second Person of the
Trinity—Jesus—was thrust into the game of
politics, and He yet took the opportunity to advance a
proper definition and apprehension of the nature of
Leadership. To his squabbling apostles jostling for
high positions, Jesus at the Last Supper taught the
meaning of Leadership—as being Service. And
when he had finished washing their feet, Jesus said to
His disciples:
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Do you know what
I have done to you? You call me Teacher and
Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I
then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed
your feet, you also ought to wash one
another's feet. For I have given you an
example, that you also should do as I have
done to you. (John 17: 12-14} |
In order to still drive home
His point, Luke quotes him as explaining literally what
leadership means:
|
he who is
greatest among you, let him be as the
smallest, and he who governs is he who
serves. Who do people think is
the greatest, a person who is served or one
who serves? Isn't it the one who is served?
But I have been with you as a servant.
(Luke 22: 26-27) |
This is what the
Nwajiuba-Mezu Campaign team has tried to drive home—that
“he who governs is he who serves.”
It is also my firm belief
that God does not want human beings to live in
perpetual, imposed want and suffering. If God did, then
Christ would not have done the miracle of the loaves and
fish to feed starving thousands come to hear Him speak,
nor would He have changed water into sweet wine for
people to feast on at the Cana wedding. God is all
loving and compassionate. People only need to look
within to discover the innate power with which human
beings are endowed. As has been restated, there was an
element of religious fervor to the Nwajiuba-Mezu
Campaign rallies because it was a new and different kind
of leadership team, unlike all the others;
CPC is the newest, national political party and is
led at both national and state levels by very
disciplined, patriotic and incorruptible individuals.
At one of the Campaign rallies in Orlu, the
Nwajiuba-Mezu team got upset at the incessant demand for
money and the lead speakers showed some impatience with
the people:
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Why do you want free money to
be given to you? Why do you say, ‘Give us money!
Money, money, money! When did we become a beggarly
nation? When did you become beggars? Are you beggars?”
and the answer came, “No, we are not!” Then, “Ask us
to keep colleges and universities open and students in
school; to pay teachers and to make education
qualitative. Ask us to reopen and make functional the
over 150 industries established by the
Mbakwe regime which are now abandoned. Ask us to
give you good roads, steady water and uninterrupted
light. With these, you can make a decent leaving.
Igbos
are a proud race of people—with indomitable courage,
hardworking, full of initiatives and have never been
beggars or willing to accept handouts. A proud Igbo
smart answer is always, ‘Ana -m eri nga-gi?—Do
you feed me?’ |
Exercise your power by voting
for good leadership. Then, your children will be
decently educated, able to live a life of dignity rather
than become armed robbers, kidnappers, drug traffickers,
and terrorists. The money being thrown at you as if you
are ravenous dogs is actually your money stolen from
you. If you must, then take the money but do not vote
for your defrauders, for these are the same people who
frequent fetish shrines to curse both the money and the
recipients. Do not vote for them.” It was a hard task
explaining to these suffering but sometimes cynical and
willing collaborators with their defrauders that they
actually have the power—to vote in good leaders, or vote
out of office people who have lied to them. They can
exercise their power, or take it back any time. But
the question remains: do the people really understand
that power belongs to them?
Lessons Learned
1. That enlightened
leadership can not begin with the badly-governed masses
but must start at the top with brave, compassionate and
enlightened leaders. The efforts of the
CPC Imo Gubernatorial team, its supporters and team
of writers are geared to primarily enlighten the
citizenry as to their proper human and civic rights,
reverse electoral malpractices, stop the bleeding
exploitation, pauperization and criminalizing of a whole
population. These acts destroy the chances of bringing a
purposeful and decent future for this generation of
young people. There are signs that these efforts at
re-education are beginning to filter into the brutalized
psyches of the people. Two incidents suffice:
2.
At rallies, the people
have come to accept that
CPC is not about bribing with money. They sit
quietly and listen—their hearts beating palpably. One
could hear a pin drop. It is a desperate effort to
respond to that pull at their heart’s core to decency
and belief in the truth.
3.
Caught in a traffic
hold-up the
CPC Deputy Governor-candidate (DG) and his son
received the slogan salutation of
CPC—Change We Must! from a young driver of a
Keke car—Keke na pepe is the pejorative name
given to toyish-looking, very fragile two-wheeled cars
imported from over-populated India which poor
Nigerians use to make a living. The DG brought out some
party business cards with the party logo and a calendar
at the back; the young driver came out of his car and,
took the cards and immediately started distributing them
to other drivers. He came back for some more and about
200 cards were distributed while waiting for traffic to
ease off.
The young man said to
them, “You may not know me, but I was at your
Owerri
Municipal rally last night. We know your party is not
about distributing money. All we want from you is to
make
Owerri Municipal and
Imo
State better. It was a moment of epiphany. This
message of reform and change is really filtering down.
This young man can reach many who can reach yet many
others with the
CPC message of ethical reform and change. It was an
encouraging sign not to give up but to persist with the
efforts at bringing a progressive change.
|
At the last rally of
the day in Ezedibia, Emekuku, people had been waiting
for hours. When the team arrived, it was already 8 pm.,
yet the people waited, and even those who had gone home
came back. There was a mass of women, men and children
in attendance. It had the feel of a traditional
gathering for storytelling in the village square on a
moonlit night. They listened patiently and with
excitement.
From
Dr. Mezu, it was not a catalogue of empty
promises for they already knew what he could do. He was
their well-loved and well-respected son. He had tarred
their road during the defunct Second Civilian Republic,
his NPP party had given them steady water and light and
industries, had revamped and restructured the school
system and established the
Imo State University, Imo Airport, Concord
International hotel, etc. |
 |
4. They knew that it was
he who brought both the NPP Governor and now
Gen. Buhari—a former President of Nigeria to Emekuku.
They believed him. Certainly, his message of
disciplined living, hard work and prosperity and
well-earned social amenities permeated their psyches and
touched the listening hearts. When he told them not to
rush at the drinks but to quietly share whatever was
offered—even if 2 or 3 people only could get to share a
bottle of soft drink, to accept it quietly and with
satisfaction. Later reports validated his words. There
was no rushing, no struggling. People drank and went
home uplifted and encouraged. The message of reform and
change that
CPC is bringing nation-wide is reaching down to the
people. There is still hope and one needs to keep
going.
5.
At a courtesy call to
an Eziama Obiato Eze in Mbaitolu LGA, a speaker prayed
for the success of the Nwajiuba-Mezu team likening them
to the wine that was served last at the Marriage feast
at Cana that became the best, the sweetest tasting wine
beating out all the other wines that were served
first—the symbolism of the prayer being that the Last
can be the Best of all, and that, the youngest son—David
beat out the other sons of Jesse, for God’s ways, the
speaker says, are not the ways of humans.
Conclusion
Like raindrops on the soil,
like the word of God once spoken, determined efforts do
yield dividends. A little corn seed planted in the soil
will yield corn cobs. Once an effort is made and one
has invested so much of human energy, initiative,
resources and passion, there are bound to be positive
results—sometimes unimagined. It is always better to
work, to act, to write than to sit on the sidelines and
complain or cry. Action trumps inaction any day. An apt
analogy suffices: As Christ went along his via
dolorosa carrying his cross, a group of Jerusalem
women stood and wailed and his answer was: “Women of
Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and
for your children.”
Along the same way, rather
than just stand and weep, another woman Veronica, very
proactively braved the wrath of the intimidating Roman
officials wielding their whips; she struggled and with
her handkerchief wiped the bloodied face of the Christ.
The result was an instantaneous show of gratitude—an
imprint of the Face of the Suffering Jesus on her
compassionate cloth material.
Equally, His holy mother Mary
actively defied the officers and hugged her Son.
Simon, the Cyrenean though unwilling at first was
coerced into helping to carry Jesus’ Cross. Yet the man
from Cyrene did carry the Cross for the Christ. That is
the law of nature, it is better to work, or act, or
write rather than to do nothing. Nothing produces
nothing but something always yields something.
Ultimately, the Nwajiuba-Mezu team is about ensuring a
peoples’ survival, to finding solutions in negotiating
the tides of history— using historical experiences,
practical knowledge and enlightened vision to negotiate
the present and thus ensure a brighter future for
Imo
State and for Nigeria / Africa.
Therefore, to all of you who
have invested time, energy, talent, resources in this
worthwhile struggle to bring sanity, compassion and good
governance to our nation Nigeria and to Africa, by
extension—nothing is lost; but quietly, inwardly like
the action of yeast in a dough, this investment will
have a multiplying effect and will produce dividends
beyond human imaginings. For me, the participation at
the
CPC National election campaigns was indeed an
educational odyssey, a learning process that will last
and last. It was a unique privilege and an epiphany.
Source:
TheNigerianVoice
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Imo State Citizens Stand For Change
By
Olachi Ndubuisi, MD, OD
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 |
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
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The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” His father distrusted
the police, who had frequently called
him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr.
Kennedy’s father “relished Muhammad
Ali’s quip that the Vietcong had never
called him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places
his father, and Mr. Wright, in
sympathetic historical light. |
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* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
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Enjoy!
* * * * *
The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
posted 15 April 2011
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