Valentine Obienyem
Engr. Dave Umahi is talking too much and too recklessly these days. Any person who loves him should calmly remind him what Zeno told a youth who talked thus: “The reason why we have two ears and only one mouth is that we may listen the more and talk the less.”
Because he talks too much and too carelessly, it is easy to discover that his ignorance is as crude as his behaviour; his crudity is as great as his conduct. Umahi is pugnacious, obstinate and proud. He is one of the strangest characters of his time. A man who, without qualms, can make dishonourable compromises to secure or retain political posts deserves, at the very least, to be reminded that political office ought to enlarge a man’s sense of responsibility, not diminish it. Not Umahi. He tells us who he is through the manner in which he conducted himself in his last interview with Channels Television.
Mr. Peter Obi is from Agulu, while Engr Dave Umahi is from Uburu. In the said interview with Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television, Umahi challenged Seun to place his hometown, Uburu, and Peter Obi’s Agulu on the map and compare their levels of development. As he was saying this, he looked morose and in need of help. Seun, by his reaction, was shocked at the request. I was equally shocked. What about you?
I listened to that part of the interview and wondered: have we considered what obsession can do to a man’s sense of proportion and his grasp of right and wrong? It gradually diminishes the capacity for rational judgement until matters that ought to be treated with gravity begin to look like playground contests.
One could clearly see that the difference between the minds of Umahi and Obi is almost the difference between childhood and maturity.
Umahi has made no secret of his opposition to Peter Obi’s presidential ambition. In fact, like Prof. Charles Soludo, they represent the faction that wants a knock-out-blow of Obi – his utter destruction. In politics, people are entitled to support one candidate and oppose another, but not the manner they are going about it. But when political opposition descends to the point where one begins to challenge an opponent to a competition between their hometowns, one is reminded of the amusing rivalries of childhood.
It reminded me of our own days as children. I remember myself as a young Mass Server around 1980 – about seven/eight years old and in Primary three. I had a fellow Mass Server, Mr Godwin Ubani, from Enugu-Ukwu. For almost three days, whenever we met, we returned to the exact same argument: whose town was better? That was days and age children debated whose mother cooked better food.
I would tell him that three major roads passed through my town. He would counter with what Enugu-Ukwu possessed. The following day, we would begin the argument all over again, each of us determined to establish the superiority of his birthplace. At eight years old, that was perfectly understandable and forgivable. We were children.
History is replete with ironies, but few are quite so arresting as the spectacle of maturity returning voluntarily to the nursery. One expects that experience – that gruelling crucible through which power, office, and statecraft are filtered – would imbue a man with a certain solidity of mind, leaving behind the crude scaffolding of early prejudices.
Yet when an individual who has traversed the high corridors of governance and at above 60 years, invites us into a public discourse of such elementary design, we are compelled to pause. We look for the fruits of wisdom, for that seasoned perspective which alone redeems the burdens of public office; instead, we find ourselves staring across a gulf of years at an argument so barren that one is left wondering whether, through all the tumult of elections, portfolios, and pomp, humanity has travelled any distance at all from Primary Three – this is Umahi.
What exactly does Umahi expect Peter Obi to say about Agulu? That he should produce a catalogue of Agulu’s achievements and then ask Umahi to produce Uburu’s? Should the former governor start counting houses, banks, schools, professionals, businesses, and wealthy citizens in the two towns?
Should Obi say that Agulu had electricity decades before the comprehensive rural electrification project commissioned in Uburu in 2015? Should he point to Agulu’s long educational tradition, its institutions, and the large number of entrepreneurs associated with the town? Should he gleefully tell Umahi that 80% of bread in Nigeria are made by Agulu people who also operate 80% of super markets across the country. Should he begin counting who has the bigger house or compound? Should he say that Uburu’s history started with Umahi through the indiscriminate use of government resources and utter neglect of other towns and that that of Agulu was through honest labour of their fore fathers? Would Obi likely mention that Agulu remains clean, not burdened by the scandal involving nurses and physiotherapists? And what would be the point? Is it after recounting the development in Agulu that Umahi would do the same for Uburu?
Honestly, what format should such a contest take? Since Umahi has chosen to reason like a Primary three pupil, perhaps the exchange belongs in a school debate format, whereby Umahi might step forward to address a panel of judges thus: “Good evening, Mr Moderator, members of the panel of judges, and my co-debater. I stand before you this morning to support the motion that Uburu is more developed than Agulu.”
If not framed as such, let Umahi clarify. It is profoundly sad that he has reduced governance to the level of two eight-year-old boys arguing over whose village boasts a better path or whose mother cook better food.
There is nothing you will say or write that will distract from the character of Peter Obi that the people know and love. His quiet, staid character, his modest simplicity and his indiscouragable honesty have won the minds and souls of Nigerians. I am sure that, in his private time, Umahi, if determined to be truthful to himself, also appreciates Obi for who he is.
Peter Obi, from everything I know of him, has much more important matters to discuss with Nigerians than whether Agulu is superior to Uburu. Nigeria is currently facing severe insecurity, unchecked unemployment, biting poverty, a faltering educational system, inadequate healthcare, massive infrastructure deficits, and a frightening decline in the purchasing power of its citizens. These are the structural crises that should occupy the mind of any statesman seeking to lead the country.
As for Umahi, having served as Deputy Governor, Governor, and Minister, one would naturally expect his political arguments to be anchored in national policy, measurable economic achievements, and a rigorous examination of competing ideas.
If he insists on benchmarking development – perhaps playing the role of the political lion he fancies himself to be – he should direct his gaze to broader horizons. Let him compare the East and the West. We would like to see how many seaports, trunk roads, railway lines, power transformers, and federal schools the current administration has provided in the West compared with the South. We would further like to examine how many Easterners are appointed to high-level federal positions relative to their Western counterparts.
When some of our leaders act and speak in this manner, it highlights a desperate need to tame our political barbarism. Surely, we should have outgrown the Primary Three argument by now.