When one listens to Valentine Obienyem, the Senior Media Aide to Peter Obi, the Governor of Anambra State one cannot help but wonder how such a character has been inflicted on Anambra State in the name of being a media aide to the state Governor. Like Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda Minister in 1933, it is obvious Obienyem’s article of faith is founded on the belief that “… propaganda is good which leads to success, and that is bad which fails to achieve the desired result, …It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success’’. For Val Obienyem facts do not matter, he edifies falsehood and denigrates truth.
We reluctantly decided to honour his piece, which does great damage to the high office he occupies, but we are mindful that, like Goebbels, if he is left unchecked he may enthrone Peter Obi as a living saint as well as the only man who can determine the future of Ndi Anambra. This is despite the near unanimous opinion that Peter Obi’s performance is uninspiring by any measure, and that his failure is magnified by the grand scale of the hope and support that Ndi Anambra put in him.
Ifeanyi Ubah has never shied away from being asked questions as Obienyem knows full well. He was available for questioning in Florida during the ASA-USA Conference and it is on record that he put up a stellar performance at a time when Willie Obiano had a terribly poor showing that he could not remember the name of his running mate. Ubah loves being taken on as he believes that a leader should be open to questions from his people.
This election will be defined by issues not by empty boasts about achievements. It will not be won by the invocation of the revered name of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu., who would be turning in his grave at the great rape carried out the state by Peter Obi.
Obienyem has embarked on a mission of misinformation because he cannot fault Ifeanyi Ubah’s programmes for the state. As enlightened as he claims to be he pretends not to know that a company has a legal personality different from that of its promoters/owners. He pretends not to know that it does not matter at what point a man decides to acquire further education as people in their seventies and even eighties have been known to go back to school.
We expect Val to challenge Ifeanyi Ubah’s plans for the state rather than make up stories to support his attack on Ifeanyi Ubah. It is lamentable that in all the years of Peter Obi as Governor of the state, human capital development and job creation took a back seat. It was deemed unimportant. Job creation became a ploy by Peter Obi whenever election was around the corner. Of-course Willie Obiano will not be any different as he has only promised to continue Peter Obi’s programmes, complete and commission them. Ndi Anambra are not fooled as they know that it will be another four years of paucity of imagination and confidence. Propaganda is a substitute for solid governance and verifiable achievements’ – apology to Okey Ndibe.
If Valentine Obienyem were not an intellectual fraud he would have provided explanation as to how Peter Obi would be providing 500 buses, 178 Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and billions in gift money to schools and institutions he failed to improve in his almost eight years in office. If he were not a fraud he would have at least pretended to offer explanation as to how a Governor who had all the time in the world to improve the state is suddenly running around in an election year sharing cheques against all known financial regulations and without any budgetary provision.
One expects him to explain to Ndi Anambra why after almost eight years in office by Peter Obi ‘the state capital, Awka, is so rundown and wretched that it would do war-ravaged Mogadishu no credit at all’ (apology once more to Okey Ndibe).
Valentine Obienyem if he were not a fraud would have been more interested in answering the questions long posed by Chudi Ofodile and indeed Ndi Anambra concerning the ownership of 22% of Sab Miller shares. Available records show that Anambra State Government owns 10% while the remaining 12% is said to be owned by other businessmen from Anambra State. Who then are those other businessmen? Are they are ghosts? How come the state owns a mere 10% even after investing billions of naira as well as making available the land on which the factory is sited?
Instead of making unfounded allegations against Ifeanyi Ubah, Obienyem should explain to Ndi Anambra how Mr. Obi used more thanN2 billion of Anambra government funds to promote the company that produces Hero beer while also allocating shares in the company to himself, represented on the company by his company-NEXT International Limited.
Obieneyem should also explain to Ndi Anambra how in addition to using state resources to promote private interest in the company, Peter Obi also received through his company the shares of SABMiller in Intafact.
If he were not an intellectual fraud, he would be more interested in telling us where Peter Obi built 77 bridges and 103 schools which he has so often repeated as some of the major achievements of his ‘government by propaganda’.
He accused Ifeanyi Ubah of being a fraud but failed to provide details to show that the secondary schools on which Peter Obi purportedly spent billions of naira are indeed in a very good state. He failed to show that Obi was not playing politics by suddenly handing out cheques like Tom Tom to bishops and community leaders on the twilight of his administration.
We are not surprised that Valentine Obienyem has embarked on his stock in trade of dishing out falsehood in a desperate bid to ensure that Obiano wins the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra state. If Obiano loses (as we believe by grace of God he will), he will of-course be out of a well-paying job. Like Peter Obi he has a major stake in ensuring that Obiano, Peter’s hand-picked choice of successor wins. We assure him that Ndi Anambra will yet again say a resounding ‘NO’ to this new godfather. The plague of god-fatherism will be uprooted in our body polity.
We are ready to join issues with Obienyem whenever he is ready to discuss serious issues shorn of all falsehood. We shall not be deterred in our quest to wrestle Anambra from those who feed the people with falsehood while feeding fat on their commonwealth.
Ayo Akinola
Ifeanyi Ubah Election Campaign Committee.
