TheCable

BY EKENE BOB-EKECHUKWU

I just read the piece dated 27/5/19 on the above subject written by Sam Onwuemedo the retiring Chief Press Secretary to the retiring Governor Rochas Okorocha. Ordinarily I wouldn’t have commented on the write-up if it hadn’t emanated from the author. Therefore, for the purposes of putting issues in the right perspective, I will comment.

Brother Sam Onwuemedo who is a self-styled born-again Christian was the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of the local Newspaper called The White Paper. He hails from the same kindred with the incoming Governor Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha in Aronta, Mbutu Aboh Mbaise LGA. Prior to his surprising appointment in 2013 as Chief Press Secretary to Governor Okorocha , he was known to be a forthright journalist who criticized wrong government policies and stood on the side of the people. In fact his initial self-righteous posture had made it impossible for anyone, including some of his close colleagues to believe that he would one day accept a political appointment to serve in the same government he criticized. But as the saying goes, no condition is permanent. “Man must wack”. So sometime in 2013 Uncle Sam did a political gymnastic and somersaulted from his former “holy Nweje” stance to accept an appointment to serve in a government popularly rated as one of the most corrupt in the combined history of Imo and Abia States (old Imo State). The actual reason why Uncle Sam accepted the appointment may be best known to him.

However, the value of any message is quantified by the weight of the messenger. When the messenger bearing a message doesn’t have weight, the message he is bearing equally becomes valueless. For us to take this copious letter serious, we have to weigh the author on a scale of sincerity, credibility and genuity. The best way to discover who people actually are, is to gauge the opinion of their friends and close associates. As a result, we shall use the opinion of Onwuasonya FCC Jones who is a colleague and a very close friend of Uncle Sam as a scale to weigh the sincerity, credibility and genuity of Uncle Sam and to know whether we should take his long letter to H.E. Rt. Hon Emeka Ihedioha seriously.

FCC Jones who is known to also cowardly operate under a pen name Johnbull Chikwe, wrote a long open letter to Uncle Sam criticizing him for accepting appointment from an unpopular Rochas Okorocha administration. Although Jones FCC later did a volte face, like Uncle Sam and joined Okorocha’s government. Confirming the saying that birds of the same feather flock together. Excerpts from FCC Jones’ epistle to his colleague which was dated 3rd November, 2013 and titled: “GOOD BYE, SAM ONWUEMEDO, reads and I quote:

“Yours is one huge and disastrous job, and I sympathised with you from when you were appointed into that office. Some people told me you were not going to accept the offer. I wish you never did. But you jumped at the offer and grabbed it with both hands as if it is the ultimate prize for the many years you have invested into this ink fraternity of ours…Oga Sam has had some enviable years writing the truth, defending the positives and using his pen as an armour in fighting for the rights of the masses…To me, a journalist is first and foremost, a politician. Any journalist, worth the name must at one time or the other be seen as propagating one political ideology ahead of the other. But, it is safer if the journalist promotes political ideologies that are popular with the people…But for a renowned and highly regarded journalist to pitch tent with a Governor whose massive goodwill with the people has been washed away by his massive errors and lies, that journalist needs to be sympathised with. At this stage in Sam Onwuemedo’s career, I wonder how much hunger could still lead him into taking up a shovel to dig a grave for his popularity and respect with the people….But, being brought in at this stage is being brought in to tell lies and tell Imolites about the things that never exist. Sam Onwuemedo has been picked to deceive the same Imolites who depended on his ink to know the truth….Somehow, Sam Onwuemedo has bid us farewell in this truth saying vocation. He has decided to go with our deceiver-in-chief in oppressing the people of Imo State… The letter was concluded with the clause,”…Till then, I bid him farewell as he joins our Deceivers-in-Chief to deceive us”.

Judging from FCC Jones letter, we can see that Uncle Sam is a professional liar. So the contents of his letter to the incoming Governor are laced with pathological lies and as a result, should be totally discountenanced. He is no longer a man to be reckoned with at all, since he lost his milk of human kindness in 2013 when he joined Okorocha’s government, sold his conscience for a pot of porridge, and like his colleague said, joined the camp of “Decievers-in-Chief” of the people. From the tone of the letter he wrote to His Excellency, one can see that Uncle Sam is indeed frustrated, tormented and disappointed that his hallucination of remaining in office to keep deceiving the people has been aborted. He is also jealous that a kinsman has risen like a Phoenix from the ashes that is now Imo State, to shine like a star in the darkness.

Uncle Sam let me ask, if indeed your letter was written in sincerity, why didn’t you write a similar letter to Okorocha when he cut salary of workers and owed months in arrears? Where were you when pensioners and contractors were dying in their hundreds due to unpaid pensions/contract sum? Where were you when he demolished markets and sources of livelihood of people? Where were you when he disobeyed court orders, neutralized the House of Assembly and put the Judiciary in disarray? Where were you when he turned the State in to a family affair by appointing his sister Commissioner for Happiness/ Deputy Chief of Staff, his son-in-law Commissioner for Lands/Chief of Staff, and his wife supervisor of Ministry of Works, Health, Women Affairs, Office of the SSG and the Amnesty Committee? Where were you when he tried to install his son-in-law as Governor? Where were you when he arrogantly declared that there were no men in the State, including yourself? Where were you when he turned governance upside down and shunned due process/Rule of Law? All these happened under your nose and you kept quiet. In the past you would have challenged these ills, but you kept mute because you had sold your conscience and wanted food on your table. Now that God has delivered the State you have the effrontery to write trash to His Excellency. Shame on you. You have lost your soul.

Uncle Sam you betrayed your kinsmen and indeed the entire Owerri zone, twice in 2015 and 2019, instead of repenting your letter has shown that you have graduated as an apostate. Are you not tired of being labelled a serial traitor? You are now the Ifeajuna of Mbutu! The Bible refers to apostasy as a state of no return where the apostate usually goes to hell. Uncle Sam repent! I don’t want you to go to hell. Repent come out of your apostasy or perish! I rest my case (not my pen).