By Oguwike Nwachuku
On January 20, the day the 47th President of the United States of America, Donald Trump was sworn in, I deliberately made out time to watch his Inauguration Ball the way many others did. Don’t ask me what I was looking out for because you will soon know.
Trump and the wife, Melania, who is the First Lady of the US were looking splendid in their outfits. In fact, while Melania made a bold fashion statement with her attire, looking glamorous in her accessorised matching black satin choker necklace adorned with a silver pendant, Trump looked dapper in his black tuxedo with a matching bowtie and white buttondown shirt.
Even the Vice President, JD Vance and his wife, the Second Lady of the US, Usha Vance, as well as other relatives of the First and Second families such as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump (Jnr) and Kai Trump, among others actually turned up in resplendent outfits.
Nothing was spared to make the Trump Inauguration Ball worth the while and that is what it should be in a celebration mood that involves First families, whether they are Presidents or Governors.
Planning an event where the President or the Governor is expected to celebrate must be done with the intention of making it the best. No excuses must be entertained, whether in terms of fashion, food, music, quality of guests, the ambience and more.
Suffice it to say that events of that magnitude provide an avenue for a take away in the area of marketing, fashion designing, interior decoration, food business, music and generally, entertainment.
Fashionistas will always have their day in the sun after attending or watching such occasions if the opportunity provides itself.
Yours sincerely has taken time to lay the above foundation so that readers of this piece will appreciate the gobbledygook that my brother and senior professional colleague, Mr. Steve Osuji, wrote in his recent column, Espresso.
Captioned the “grandmother of all parties” by the author, the claptrap, nay highly folderol essay, has as usual exposed the underbelly of my good friend, brother and colleague as an unrepentant mischief maker who knows the truth but hides behind his finger to deceive his readers. I shall explain shortly.
Not many people have forgotten that sometime in 2023, July to be precise, I had cause to chide my senior colleague, Steve, for using this same column to defend and support the unbecoming demeanor of a notorious unprofessional broadcaster in Imo State whose stock in trade is the resort to false alarm over government activities just to attract attention and deceive the people.
To the greatest surprise of many, including yours sincerely, when the fellow had an issue with the law enforcement agents, and the source and cause of his arrest and subsequent detention made known to all, Steve, as an unconscionable sympathiser, set out to change the narrative in his Espresso column, all in an attempt to demonise the government of Sen. Hope Uzodimma.
Let me come back to his recent write up on “grandmother of all parties” since we already have an idea of the character of the person who is the author. But before I proceed let us get certain facts right regarding mortals and celebrations.
Most human beings like to celebrate three major things in life – birth of a child (birthdays), marriage (weddings) and achievements (may be promotions, house warming, graduation, survival from ugly incident, etc).
Therefore, that Hope Uzodimma and his beautiful wife, Chioma as the First Lady of Imo State celebrated their 10th year wedding anniversary falls within the realm of an occasion worth celebrating. After all, a decade in a marriage is not a joke.
They owe no one any excuse for doing so, including Steve, who tried to hide under their joyous moment to act true to type, which is to see nothing good in what the Governor does. Sheer hatred.
Even if we are to interrogate the wedding anniversary party, is there any petition written by anyone that suggests Imo State resources were used for it? Does Hope Uzodimma, a man of class and known for good living, look to Steve like someone who would deploy Imo State resources for his personal event given the array of persons he has remained their benefactors both as a private sector person and a politician?
Did Steve want the First Lady of Imo State to attend her own event looking tattered and shabby simply because of what people with the same mindset like him would say? Or, is Steve saying that because Hope Uzodimma is Governor he should be immune from celebrating landmark events in his life like his birthday, his wedding anniversary or any other occasion of joy, or even associating with such joyous moments as they affect his immediate family members?
Can Steve swear that since five years Hope Uzodimma mounted the saddle as Governor this is the first time he would be seeing Flavour perform at Government functions in Imo?
I think it smacks of mischief, wickedness and even hatred, for Steve to disrespect the Office of the Governor and by a extension, his personality and the personality of guests from Imo and outside, including the Governor’s colleagues and associates, who happily joined the First Family to celebrate their wedding anniversary.
Did I hear Steve allude to Imo as a captured State? Did he also claim that Imo has fallen behind amongst the South East States? Is it not possible that Steve was hallucinating or in deep slumber when he thoughtlessly compared the government of Uzodimma with that of former Governor Rochas Okorocha?
I cannot believe that my friend and brother Steve has degenerated to this level of writing his column from information he picks from ill informed characters in beer parlours and “food is ready” eateries in the suburbs. Who did this to Steve?
Let’s face it, how is Imo a captured State? And captured by who? I do hope Steve, by now, must have known that the train had departed from the Station with out his knowledge. Can someone, please, remind him that the Imo State he was used to has, since the past five years of Hope Uzodimma’s Shared Prosperity 3-R Government, charted a new course of irreversible socio-economic and even political developmental trajectory.
He may be seeing the indices all over the State, including reading about them, but because he remains fixated on the old ways, and harbours a genre of hatred for the Captain of the Ship he does not even have reasons for doing so, he appears confused, hence helplessly churning out inexplicable gibberish, sorry jibber-jabber.
By now, Steve must have learnt something from my often remark that, “we did not come to Imo to joke.”
Even if he pretends to be blind, deaf and dumb, people around him are aware that the Owerri-Okigwe road that takes Steve to his home, and which the two administrations he was part of were not able to fix, is now one of the best roads around, courtesy of the Hope Uzodimma reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery government he loathes so much to hear.
But Steve is not in any way challenged health-wise. And I know he knows that the Owerri-Orlu road, Owerri-Umuahia road, the MCC-Uratta-Toronto road, the Naze-Nekede-Ihiagwa road, Mgbidi-Omuma-Akata-Okporo are part of the more than 190 kilometres of roads initiated and already completed by this administration, with ongoing work progressing speedily on other roads across the State totalling 380 kilometres.
Steve knows that the Hope Uzodimma administration he is scandalising for no reason has made a lot of impact in the health of Imolites, building Health Centres across the 305 Electoral Wards and three brand new General Hospitals at Omuma, Egbema and Oguta. He knows that the Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu has been enhanced to carter to the health needs of the people, and complementing activities at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri Teaching Hospital which Hope Uzodimma single-handedly made possible. If Steve is not benefitting from the State’s health insurance scheme by choice his relatives are, and he knows.
I do not know the yardstick Steve was using to place Imo behind other States in the South East other than recourse to dangerous politics of seeking the attention of the leadership of those States as a way of furthering his mischief against his own governor. What the Igbo would call oka nma na ama ( literarily meaning, one who feels that outside is better than his home).
Is his comparison of Uzodimma with Okorocha not funny? I am sure he may not know that those who read his line on that would be laughing at him. They will be wondering if Steve actually lives in the country.
Regardless, I challenge Steve to visit just one of the signature projects of his new mentor, Okorocha, like their famed Imo International Conference Centre (IICC), now undergoing proper rebuilding, rehabilitation, recovery and renamed Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu International Conference Centre ( EIICC) and see if he will not ask God to forgive him for such careless comparison, and for deliberately undermining the person and office of his Governor.
Truth is that Steve thinks he is undoing the government of the day without knowing that he is hurting his own integrity by churning out falsehood and raising the bar of fiction writing above factual reportage, the latter being the hallmark of the profession we both belong.
But is Hope Uzodimma against criticism? The answer is no. If anything, he welcomes them with open arms and mind so long as they are constructive and could be relied upon to make amends.
Not long ago, a Skill Acquisition Centre, at the National Open University of Nigeria Ezeoke Nsu, Mbano was completely raised by hoodlums. I cannot remember if Steve, the word Smith statesman who happens to come from that political zone deployed his writing skill to roundly condemn the dastard act. My intuition tells me that if he did, he would have also blamed it on Hope Uzodimma’s administration or the often usual imaginary Fulani herdsmen.
I do not know how often Steve uses his Espresso to kick against the activities of none state actors and their sponsors who, for years now, have remained hell bent on putting our State on the edge by fueling insecurity.
I cannot also remember if Steve has devoted any of his pieces about the properly reconstructed Imo State House of Assembly Complex which one of the governments he was part of abandoned as if it didn’t matter. Please, can anyone draw my attention to any of his write ups commending the Urban renewal projects in Owerri, whether roads, traffic signs (junction improvements projects), modern markets, the erosion control mechanism, the completely rebuilt Government House premises, et al?
To him, they don’t count as what he ought to focus on to educate his audience, and as long as they are in the interest of the people and can bring accolades to Hope Uzodimma’s administration. What matters to him, really, are the things that promote fear, hatred, distrust, disharmony, insecurity and generally, the things that cast the leadership of the State Government in bad light before outsiders and a miniscule Imolites who think exactly like him.
Steve, take it from me, I repeat that “we didn’t come to Imo to joke.” If you keep an open mind, you will soon thank God that Hope Uzodimma was your Governor for eight years. You may not like his face, you may not like his courage, but one thing you can be sure of, and which we are confident about, is that Imo will never be the same again after Hope Uzodimma’s intentional efforts to reset it for the good of all, including you after eight years in the saddle. Never!
Nwachuku is Governor Uzidimma’s Chief Press Secretary/Special Adviser Media
