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OKADIGBO
NOT MY HERO
Few sights are
demeaning than a pandering and compromised academic. Wilberforce
Chuba Okadigbo is one such sight and he is not my hero. He came
to politics for one thing: to satiate his greed and massage his
ego. And he did it well, very well biding his time. And that was
why he left the Ivory Tower. He only knew one route: the route to
cream easy money. He bided his time and chose his fight carefully
to unleash the best shot, going to bed and flirting with anybody
that cares.
The emergence
of these crops of duplicitous politicians will continue to attend
our current form of governance. He could be intelligent, yes he
is, but what is intelligence without native wisdom and integrity.
Evidence abound. Why do we praise every dead man to high heavens
even though one's life on earth is laced with innuendoes? It is
hard to say! He only cared for himself, his pocket and his immediate
family and betrayed the collective Igbo interest. Let us not give
credence to his cursed legacy for those who chase a madman all day
long are easily counted as part of his elaborate entourage. He bequeathed
none to the his generation. We must continue to acknowledge Okadigbo
and other dubious and failed Igbo politicians as resilient purveyors
of the current rot when are engrossed in. He is not alone in that
list: Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Aurthur Nzeribe, Ojo Maduekwe and Evan(s)
Enwerem. Okadigbo's quest in his unrelenting quest for riches is
unparalleled. Madness they say does not have a method but I doubt
if Okadigbo's own is true of this wise saying.
Right from the
days of NPN, he was viscerally and well immersed in the art of corruption.
Instances of greedy gluttonous politicians calling the shots in
high places in our polity have become the norm. Because he votes
with his stomach, NPN was the natural party to join and once there,
he pitted his tenth to the decadent and programmeless regime of
the moment. Contracts and easy money was in full stream and the
boys could make something for themselves enough to circulate round.
There he found vultures like Uba Ahmed, Joseph Wayas, Adisa Akinloye,
Suleiman Takuma and Umaru Dikko and anything that was brought up
was a done deal. We are now the true story of that regime that had
Okadigbo playing a prominent role. He made money, easy and questionable
money though! And probably needed more. The requiem is his. Who
says that we cannot speak of the dead. Your good work while you
were alive should speak for decades when you are no longer in the
scene.
Today we remember
him as one excited felon, who woke up one day to rain abuses on
Zik with its attendant consequences. Corruption is the handicraft
of a decadent society and Okadigbo and his like will thrive in that
kind of pedestrian stuff. Alhaji Idris Kuta panel laid bare facts
in midst of great politicking and denials of how itchy Okadigbo's
fingers were as Senate President. Let people singing his praise
to high heavens bury their heads in shame if they cannot point to
one thing be it road, school or any other thing Chuba did when he
was alive for his people. He only knows himself and his immediate
family. In my dialect, Oyi means cold. Cold will always torment
those who bequeathed no enviable legacy to the society. Mike Onwukwe
works with UN International War Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda sitting
in Arusha Tanzania and can be reached on mikeonwukwe@yahoo.com
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