By Valentine Obienyem

Recently, Barr. Kenneth Okonkwo appeared on Channels Television where, as usual, he poured invectives on Mr Peter Obi. I am pleased that the matter has now become one between him and Barr. Obunike Ohaegbu, who has publicly stated that, in his eagerness to attack Obi unfairly, Kenneth fabricated statements he never made and disseminated them with evident delight. I saw the text messages Kenneth displayed and could not see anything linking Obi and the free-will donation the NDC requested. I understand that Obunike is taking him to court. This is a welcome development because it presents an opportunity for the truth to be tested.

More importantly, it raises serious questions about Kenneth’s character. In his determination to please his new masters, he appears to forget that he is a lawyer. Lawyers are trained to think before they speak, to weigh facts before making allegations, and to understand the consequences of careless assertions. When a lawyer abandons these principles for partisan excitement, he diminishes both his profession and himself. There is nothing left of Kenneth’s character. I hope that when the consequences of what he does today begin to hurt him in his old age, he will not resort to going to church in search of the breaking of ancestral curses.

Today, in boisterous indecency, Kenneth is moving from one stage to another, selling himself for kobo in the name of advocacy. He mistakes the stage for reality, putting up a series of paid performances. True greatness in leadership requires an anchor – discipline. Discipline should be the backbone of personality, enabling it to rise out of the baseness of human nature to the erect stature of the self-conquered man. Without such internal mastery, an anchor, a person remains at the mercy of instinct, drifting aimlessly from one impulse to another, from one stage to another. He wants to enjoy the pleasure of every impulse.

It is against this background that one must view the trajectory of Kenneth Okonkwo. He has no character. When you listen to his two views on Atiku, Tinubu, Obi, and many others, it is difficult to know which to believe. In truth, no discerning individual can clearly decipher Kenneth’s true opinion of the people he speaks about so freely. In one breath, his subjects are angels; in another, they are devils. When an individual continuously shifts position in this manner, it reveals a lack of symmetry and balance in conviction. The intellect is no longer in control of his impulse; rather, impulse – often driven by greed and the hunger for status – begins to govern the intellect.

He is presently so obsessed with Obi that it resembles the madness of Rufus about Naevia. Whether Rufus rejoices, mourns, or remains silent, it is always Naevia. He eats, he drinks, he speaks, he refuses, he gestures – Naevia alone dominates his thoughts. If there were no Naevia, he would be speechless.

In the same way, his public interventions now appear so fixated that they blur the line between political engagement and personal obsession. To appreciate the depth of this political nomadism, one must contrast it with genuine political conviction. There is hardly anything more startling in the history of governance in Nigeria than the rise of Obi, or more comforting than the thought of this man becoming the next president. The people love him so dearly because they have long discovered themselves that  justice  and passion for the welfare of the people are the two poles of Obi’s mind. His most prized asset in Nigeria is integrity.

The magnetic pull of that integrity became undeniable in everything he has done, starting from when he was Chairman of Fidelity Bank PLC and later Governor of Anambra State. The same light has continued to shine over the years, making him organically loved and widely admired. It was this enduring credibility that became especially evident during the formation of the third-force movement. As soon as Obi entered the NDC, there was mass movement. Immediately, the centre of political gravity shifted towards the party. Those hoping to ride on the wings of Obi for political advantage rushed to join. As a new party, the question naturally arose as to how it would be funded. The party requested free-will donations, and people responded generously, including Mr Peter Obi, whose donation was far greater than what is being bandied as what some people donated.

Besides the falsehood being propagated by the likes of Kenneth Okonkwo as if Obi personally requested any donation, he is also angry that Obi left the ADC. But why should he have remained in a place where plans had already been perfected to “hang” him politically? After what Obi encountered in the ADC – the fight by the government because of him, the prospect of the ADC not being on the ballot because of him, and the resistance from forces within the party – he had to make one of the most pivotal decisions of his political life, and either horn of the dilemma seemed fatal. If he remained in the ADC, or if he joined other parties under consideration, they had already planted their moles in them to cause confusion. In a burst of indignation, he called out the sabotage, and the NDC became the most rational choice.

rather  than respect Obi’s choice, Kenneth became Rufus and chose to amplify his own contradictions. One can say with certainty that his political career has increasingly resembled his former profession. It often seems as though each role is dictated by the script of the moment. In this regard, there is the enthusiastic description of Kenneth attributed to Hon. Afam Ogene, who portrayed him as an actor willing to accept payment to play any character. In a private discussion about his present conduct, Ogene assured me that a play always has many scenes, and that this should be understood as just another scene – or even part two of a long drama that continues as long as payments keep coming. And have you seen him speak? He is a perfect artist in acting out an opinion he merely pretends to hold.

This behaviour recalls the sceptical tradition associated with Carneades, the Greek philosopher who believed that no absolute standard of truth exists. He accepted the doctrine that any action is right if it can be reasonably defended. This is why he can fight for an opinion today only to turn against it tomorrow. His conviction is a fluid construct, shaped less by principle than by circumstance, and constantly reshaped by whatever argument serves the moment.

When a man lacks an internal anchor, his intellect becomes a weapon for hire. It then becomes easy to launch unprovoked attacks on men of genuine substance. I even heard Kenneth talking down on Chief Victor Umeh for advising him like a brother. It caught my attention when he said he refrained from answering Chief because it rhymes with thief, which is a thought he stole from Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

This pattern places him within a familiar and dishonourable fraternity in contemporary Nigerian commentary. He is guilty of some of the most vituperative ranting in the history of men without honour. In this fraternity are such names as Daniel Bwala, Bayo Onanuga, Reno Omokri and Femi Fani-Kayode. Like others in that circle, loyalty appears to endure only until a more attractive offer presents itself. They are all oil-mouthed, slippery, time-serving sycophants, and Kenneth is cut from the same cloth.

He lacks rational direction; that is why he acts without caution in the face of danger, recklessly speaking like a loose cannon, always prompted by inordinate avarice. Hungry and thirsty for money, he has become subtle in the craft of sycophancy. We hear too much – and indeed, we ourselves have written much – about his addiction to sycophancy. He resembles a faithless dog that ceases barking in his master’s defence once a bone is thrown in another direction. The tenacity with which he clings to false opinions formed under the influence of money, the ease with which he propagates such with ample gesticulations, and the consequent prejudice that warps his judgment, has doomed him to continual error.

Having abandoned the camp of integrity, he now directs his anger against the very man – Peter Obi – that briefly gave him a platform of respectability. For him, the destruction of Obi is now a categorical imperative. But where does this leave him? Does he think that, going by his earlier stings of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Atiku would ever believe in him? He is left in a political no-man’s-land – distrusted by those he abandoned and regarded with suspicion by those he now seeks to please. He is a Judas who betrayed truth, a mad dog that bites everybody. Those using him only recognise his nuisance value.

In his desperation, Okonkwo has now resorted to blackmail, a weapon often employed by those who have exhausted the arrows  in their quiver. I read his threat that if Obi proceeds with the suit, he would “spill” something. I laugh at such. I know that is empty rhetoric. Obi has never discussed anything unworthy of public scrutiny with anybody, not to talk of Kenneth, whom nobody trusts.

Ultimately, what remains unmistakable is that character is not a costume that actors like Kenneth  can wear on different occasions; it is the steady expression of an inner order. When that order is absent, public life becomes a theatre of absurd, shifting loyalties, and opportunistic outrage. In the end, such a man is left with neither the trust of allies nor the respect of adversaries. History is usually unkind to such figures – not because they lacked visibility, but because they lacked consistency.

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

 “It is sad that Kenneth Okonkwo has decided to live his life literally as a gun for hire, a professional character assassin. He is on a mission for his paymasters even when that mission is a deliberate attempt to denigrate Ndigbo… But the good thing is that quislings end up badly. History shows that they are ultimately discarded by the very people they served and permanently despised by their own people. Kenneth Okonkwo won’t be an exception. Ndigbo will remember in the fullness of time, and woe betide anyone who plays the collaborationist role of a quisling against them.”

During World War II, a Norwegian military officer and politician, Vidkun Quisling, helped facilitate the Nazi invasion of his own country and led a domestic collaborationist regime loyal to Führer Adolf Hitler. For his infamous role, he was executed for treason in 1945, and his surname became synonymous with ultimate betrayal.

The Norwegian traitor’s perfidy reminds me of Kenneth Okonkwo, the actor turned-politician, who has proven to be an Igbo quisling extraordinaire. He is not in government. He hopes to be if his principal, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, wins the 2027 presidential election. That is a legitimate ambition.

But in so doing, he is actively sabotaging the equally legitimate aspiration of Ndigbo, as evidenced in his virulent attacks on Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC). He has every right not to support Obi’s political ambition.

That is the beauty of democracy because the principle of choice is the heartbeat of a democratic society. And in deciding not to throw his weight behind Obi’s aspiration, he is not alone. Politics is a game of interest and it is not often that people subsume their personal interests into an overarching collective interest. 

But what he has no right to do is to continuously lie against Obi and impugn his character at the behest of those who do not wish Ndigbo well. Granted, Obi is not an Igbo candidate. He brings to the table competence, character and a sense of purpose. But he is, nevertheless an Igbo who has the right to aspire to the presidency just like any other citizen. It is left for Nigerians to make their choice and live with the consequences because elections have consequences, a point poignantly made by the irrepressible Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Afenifere leader, lawyer, politician and activist, in his February 13, 2023 interview with TheNiche where he said that if Nigerians failed to vote right in that year’s presidential election, the consequences will be dire, even as he would probably be in his grave enjoying himself. He died on February 14, 2025, exactly two years after that interview. The jury is already out on the correctness of his assertion.

So, if democracy offers the people the opportunity to choose, particularly in an election where there are multiple candidates, why is Okonkwo bent on destroying Obi?

Appearing on Sunrise Daily, an interview programme on the Channels Television, on Monday, June 8, Okonkwo alleged that Obi and the South-East caucus of the NDC demanded bribes from House of Representatives and Senate aspirants. Not only that, he claimed that Obi personally compiled a list of the party’s candidates from a room at the Johnwood Hotel, Abuja.

Calling Obi a criminal, he further alleged that the former Anambra State governor scammed the aspirants and is in the habit of travelling abroad to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians in the name of politics.

These are weighty allegations, which as Obi’s lawyers noted on Tuesday “were not mere political commentary,” but words that “crossed the permissible bounds of fair comment and constituted a direct assault on his person, integrity, image and reputation.”

Okonkwo, a member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) claimed that one Obunike Ohaegbu, NDC aspirant for the Nnewi North/Nnewi South Ekwusigo Federal Constituency ticket in Anambra, alleged that Obi collected N10 million bribe from him.

On Tuesday, Ohaegbu appeared on the same Channels Television programme to deny ever making such allegation against Obi. The N10 million, he said, was paid into the NDC bank account on the mandate of the party’s national secretary, Ikenna Enekweizu. While as he claimed that a list of party candidates was allegedly being compiled at the Johnwood Hotel even as the primaries were going on, he denied accusing Peter Obi of perpetrating the act.

Thereafter, Obi threatened a lawsuit against Okonkwo over the defamatory comments. In a pre-notice letter through his lawyer, Alex Ejesieme, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), he demanded that Okonkwo publishes an unreserved apology letter over the “extremely grave, damaging and reckless imputations of bribery, extortion, fraud, financial dishonesty and criminality” against him.

Insisting that the comments were “false, baseless, malicious, reckless, defamatory and wholly unsupported by any fact,” Ejesieme said “they were made with the clear intent and purpose of lowering our client in the estimation of right-thinking members of society, exposing him to hatred, contempt and ridicule, and injuring his hard-earned reputation as a man of unquestionable integrity, a statesman and political leader” and demanded a retraction and payment of N5 billion “as general, aggravated and exemplary damages for the grave injury occasioned to his hard-earned reputation.”

But anyone who expected Okonkwo to offer an apology must be delusional.

Why?

Because he is an agent who is acting a script written for him by the powers-that-be with a barely disguised anti-Igbo agenda. As the legendary novelist, Chinua Achebe, would say, “A boy sent by his father to steal does not go stealthily but breaks the door with his feet.”

Okonkwo is acting with extreme audacity, knowing that he has protection.

Though he claims to be working for Atiku, and Atiku is running against President Bola Tinubu, the president and his political camp are perhaps more determined to see Obi destroyed politically than Atiku. So, it is a classical case of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – two opposing political interests – Atiku and Tinubu – uniting against a shared adversary – Obi, with Kenneth Okonkwo acting as their mannequin.

So, it was not surprising when, rather than apologising, he took to the social media on Wednesday to present his fabled evidence against Obi. 

In a rant on X, he wrote, “If Peter Obi is looking for money to campaign, he should privately ask me for assistance, not come from extortion, and I will help him.” And then the subtle blackmail: “Let me sound this note of warning, the Lawyers must take responsibility for any information I may have to divulge, which I acquired as a spokesperson… Anyone who decides to sue his former spokesperson for defamation is indeed very unwise.”

Really?   

When did blackmail become a proof of evidence? The payment receipt which apparently was sent to him by Ohaegbu showed that the N10 million was paid into the party account. Obi, though the presidential candidate, is not a party official. So, how did that amount to him being a scammer?

Ohaegbu said he was told that while they were at the primary venue, some unnamed people were in a hotel room compiling list of NDC candidates. He didn’t mention Obi’s name. Assuming, without conceding, that is true, how did Okonkwo conclude that the person in the hotel room was Peter Obi?

When Ohaegbu sent him a text on WhatSapp to “read how the party blamed HE Peter Obi for the charade called primaries,” rather than asking, as a lawyer, who “the party” that blamed Obi is, he jumped at what he saw as the smoking gun to nail his bête noire: “Please send the message so I can use it for interview tomorrow. I intend to use your name and message as evidence to prove that PO is responsible for this fraud. I believe that PO will find a way to start refunding you people your money after the interview.”

Who does that?

It is weird for a 57-year-old man who holds not only a Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree but also Master’s in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Nigeria, to be so fatuous. But that is what happens when a man is consumed by lucre-induced hatred.

Ohaegbu has challenged him to point out specifically where he referred to Obi as a criminal or wrote that he asked him to pay a N10 million bribe. Okonkwo could not because those words were his, not Ohaegbu’s. In any case, even if Ohaegbu made those allegations, are they enough justification to go on television and call Obi a criminal without the courts pronouncing him guilty? Shouldn’t his professional training and responsibility as a lawyer act as a leash on his drunken, idiotic impulse?

The fact that Okonkwo is resorting to blackmail, a tool of the weak and desperate, rather than providing the hard evidence he boasted about, shows how pathetic and dishonourable he is.

On Wednesday, Kenneth Okonkwo, the quisling extraordinaire, tweeted, “It will be a shame to Peter Obi and his lawyers if they do not take this case to court.” As I am writing this, someone called to say he hopes the case would be given accelerated hearing. Truth be told, it will not in a judiciary that has become a parastatal in the presidency. That is why Okonkwo could be so disdainful. Those bankrolling his ignoble mission own the judiciary. That is how quislings roll.

It is sad that Kenneth Okonkwo has decided to live his life literally as a gun for hire, a professional character assassin. He is on a mission for his paymasters even when that mission is a deliberate attempt to denigrate Ndigbo.

Peter Obi’s crime is his audacity to actively seek the presidency of his country and his seeming invincibility despite the banana peels strewn on his way. If he decides to throw in the towel today and go back to business, he will be hailed as a patriotic Nigerian because the only good Igbo man is one who has no ambition or whose ambition does not challenge the post-civil war social orthodoxy and power calibration in the

country.

But the good thing is that quislings end up badly. History shows that they are ultimately discarded by the very people they served and permanently despised by their own people.

Kenneth Okonkwo won’t be an exception. Ndigbo will remember, in the fullness of time, and woe betide anyone who plays the collaborationist role of a quisling against them.