One of my favourite quotes among those credited to the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte, was one I came across in 1991 while reading William Doyle’s book, The History of the French Revolution. Doyle quoted Napoleon, in all his soldierly arrogance, as saying; ”The French Republic is like the Sun in the Sky; so much the worse for those who don’t see it.”

I am not as brave as Napoleon (militarily, I could pass for a coward), neither am I as arrogant, but I am beginning to believe that there are elements in the Enugu State political hegemony that believe the only trophy they’d win on their way to feathering their political next was to run me down by any means possible, including, and especially amplifying falsehood. These boys have been at it since the days of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and the fact that they have achieved no results hasn’t even discouraged them.

It is only fools that do exactly the same thing over and again and expect different results; reason Nigeria’s departed revolutionary reggae artist, Majek Fashek sang that “you do not expect to sow cassava and reap (up) cocoyam.” But these guys have been working the same plough, repeating the same falsehood, yet, and because their principals lack the digital media expertise to realise they are like people locked in a room, echoing the same conversation among themselves, they continued to invest in the continued rotation of their carousel.

I woke up on Sunday morning and noticed that a particular phone number had called me twice. When I ran it on TruCaller, the name, Chimezie Ashuke came up. When I called him, he drew my attention to an article, “Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai and Ikem Okuhu’s Obsession with Mischief,” purportedly written by one Chimezie Ashuke, and published on www.trendsafrica.online.

It happened that the real Chimezie Ashuke had friends who are in the limited circle where the purveyors of this falsehood operate, and they drew his attention to it, wanting to know (as Chimezie told me when he called) if he was the writer of the article.

Well, long before he called me, the same Chimezie Ashuke whose name appeared as the writer of the article written to disparage me, had published a disclaimer on his Facebook account, distancing himself from the article. For the purpose of this rebuttal, I pleaded that he forward his disclaimer to me and it reads:

“*DISCLAIMER*📌📌

“I Chimezie Ashuke wish to use this medium to distance myself publicly from one article titled; ”Ifeanyi Ossai and Ikem Okuhu’s Obsession for Mischief”.

“I want to make it clear that such write-up never emanated from me, rather it is one of the ways in which the jobless media urchins wish to cause confusion through frivolous and empty write-ups. Personally, I don’t know Mr. Ikem Okuhu nor Ifeanyi Ossai from anywhere nor do I have any issue with any of them.

“The general public is hereby advised to treat such write-up as frivolous and unfounded just as it is. Such is from the camp of the enemies of peace in the state and never from me.

“God bless Enugu state!

Mr. Chimezie Ashuke

I have rarely bothered to respond to the prolifically dud media output of Enugu government apologists, who are so smart they find clever means of dissociating from their own media publications, hiding behind fake names and stolen identities. I have been in professional Public Relations practice long enough to know that the credibility of a story is mathematically directly proportional to that of the source; stories become more believable if the source is believable. If, as is mostly the case among Enugu PR “experts”, the writer of the article, is found to be a pseudonym, the value drops to zero, and in the long run, begins to erode the impact of even the few true and good stories.

I tried in vain to get the team that worked for former Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi to understand this, and I can boldly say that one of the things that wrecked Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s reputation was his over-reliance on ghost media to propagate his popularity and tarnish those he saw as his enemies.

During this meeting, I told Governor Ugwuanyi in very clear terms, that I was not going to support the PDP in that Governorship election. I made it clear to him that I had already announced my support for Chijioke Edeoga and that I was not the kind of person that would hunt with the capitalists in the morning and run with the communists in the afternoon.

But I am not here to teach effective PR. Those in need of it should come and pay for it. In the past 24 months, I have traveled to five African countries and two European nations, delivering seminal papers on the vast subjects of PR, Corporate Communications, and reputation Management; I have done so for countless Nigerian companies and organisations and so, I won’t give it to anyone free, at least, not to people who spend money to purport that, like them, I am mediocre.

But I will wish to speak about the person, whom I suspect, is behind this particular article, but who made every effort to pass it off as coming from Chimezie Ashuke. That person is Obinna Mamah. If you wonder why “Stockholm Syndrome” is a part of this headline, the reason is Obinna Mamah.

I have never met Obinna Mamah all my life, but I remember that during the time I was battling Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for attempting to pass the Enugu State ex-Governors’ Pension into Law through the House of Assembly, I noticed that this Obinna Mamah became a follower online. At a time, he organized a certain programme in his community, Ovoko or somewhere around that, and invited me to join in mentoring the youths there. I accepted to attend and had prepared my presentation when I got security reports that the event was going to be disrupted by PDP thugs, purportedly loyal to Pat Asadu, who, at the time, was in the House of Representatives.

For my own personal safety, I did not attend. On the day of that event, I saw pictures and videos on Facebook and WhatsApp of how thugs disrupted the event and attacked dignitaries, including Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who I later understood, was Obinna Mamah’s benefactor. The security report was spot on!

Is it not surprising to read that the same Obinna Mamah, who approached me to mentor the youths of his community against political thuggery in 2020/2021 is accusing me in 2023 of professional mediocrity, among a number of other antisocial behaviours? What could have made me qualify to mentor Obinna Mamah’s people then that has changed now? Could it be because Obinna Mamah has mortgaged his conscience, traded off his person and bent his soul and spirit to join the praise and worship choir of his very oppressors. Like Esau, who sold his birthright for a bowl of peppersoup. This is heart-wrenching Stockholm Syndrome and nothing else!

Months down the line, I heard that Ifeanyi Ossai, who is now the Deputy Governor of Enugu State, and whom “Comrade” Obinna Mamah is defending, had arrested him along with two other social media irritants masquerading as activists, “Comrade” Francis Akpa and “Comrade” Joshua Ogbonna in Enugu, allegedly for the crime of, as The Guardian reported on July 21, 2021, “being the admins of a WhatsApp platform called ‘Enugu Political Arena,’ where comments alleged to have offended certain persons at the echelon of power in the state,” particularly, Ifeanyi Ossai, had been shared.

When I got the information about their detention, I took the pains to seek and find the young lawyer handling their case then and got involved in discussions seeking their release. Through the lawyer, I got to know that there were problems raising money for even their feeding while in detention, and I made a transfer of a “token” of N10,000 for this purpose.

It was therefore with unrecoverable shock that I learned that upon their release from prison after nearly one year, these guys, particularly Obinna Mamah and Francis Akpa, groveled to Enugu Government House, servilely licked the backside of government leaders, and submitted to the overlordship of their Oppressor-in-Chief, Ifeanyi Ossai.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is this same Ifeanyi Ossai that this same Obinna Mamah is rising to his defence by trying to impugn my reputation as a journalist. Isn’t it strange? It is also laughable that a government whose media minders have claimed that I am a mass media quack has released at least five articles in response to one harmless intervention from “Ikem the Nobody.” Why are they beating themselves if what I said is not true?

Meanwhile, while they continued their vain attacks on my person, the real job, which is to strengthen the profile of the Deputy Governor and make the world know that he exists, has been left undone. If you go to Google and search for “Ifeanyi Ossai”, the third link that will come up is the article I published on August 10, titled, THE FORGOTTEN DEPUTY GOVERNOR OF ENUGU STATE, BARR. IFEANYI OSSAI, and the first two articles wouldn’t be referring to the person of the current Deputy Governor of Enugu State.. If you then go further to give Google “expo” by searching for “Ifeanyi Ossai Deputy Governor” this article of mine becomes the very first article that Google’s algorithm will place as number one in your search results.

Unlike what they do which is propagating falsehood using fake names, my articles are based on facts and science, and inspired by my conviction. In one other article written to tarnish me, again written under the fake name, Dr Nicholas Odo, it was suggested that I was trying to endear myself to Ifeanyi Ossai.

This is quite ridiculous. I really have nothing against Ifeanyi Ossai as a person. But I will not work for him, because I believe that his mandate was fraudulently procured, and because I worked for the Labour Party, I know that this mandate will be relinquished in no distant time. So, assuming I am a commercially-minded person, what is the point of trading off a genuine legitimacy of possibly eight years for a transactional relationship of a few months?

Since this conversation has drifted to subtle blackmail, it is necessary for me to put on record here that had I desired to work for Ifeanyi Ossai and his principal, this would have happened in January this year, when Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi invited me to the Government House, with what was clearly an offer for me to abandon Barr Chijioke Edeoga and the Labour Party and begin to support him and his party. Because I knew that a day would come when this blackmail would happen, I told the person that moderated the visit, Wilfred Ameh, otherwise known as Pancho Villa, that I was not going for the meeting alone. This made them also invite Chineme Onyeke, a former PDP big gun from Opi.

During this meeting, I told Governor Ugwuanyi in very clear terms, that I was not going to support the PDP in that Governorship election. I made it clear to him that I had already announced my support for Chijioke Edeoga and that I was not the kind of person that would hunt with the capitalists in the morning and run with the communists in the afternoon.

I had to place this on record here so that those who think this cheap blackmail would enable them to succeed to track back and look for some other things to say. If I was the sort of person who, like Obinna Mamah, would eat his words, trade his soul and mortgage his conscience for a pot of porridge, I would have been a high-ranking member of the Mbah team. Long before the meeting with Gburugburu, there were some other overtures that I turned down because I wanted to fuel my belief in the possibility of a new order in Enugu. And more importantly, I never believed in the Mbah-Ossai ticket.

It will not be good if I conclude this article without appreciating the effort made by Chimezie Ashuke, not only to repudiate this falsehood being propagated against my person but also the pains he went through to get my contact details just to draw my attention to this issue.

I must also appreciate those who encouraged him to issue that disclaimer. These are people who know me, I assume, by reputation, and who were sure that the contents of that asinine article are not reflective of what little they know about me.

First, it proves that the falsehood dished by Government media may be commuting around WhatsApp, but convincing nobody. Secondly, it makes me believe that out there in Enugu are smart and intelligent people that have rejected the illegitimate government currently in place in Enugu and patiently waiting for the due process of the Law to enable the restoration of the mantle that the good people of Enugu State freely and willingly gave to Barr Chijioke Edeoga and Chief John Nwokeabia.

That day will soon come. And until then, I wish to draw the attention of those who have read Wole Soyinka’s famous drama, The Lion and the Jewel, to what the character, Lakule said in response a suggestion that he should bend to the dictates and caprices of the establishment. Those words have guided me since 1988 when I read that drama while preparing for my Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations, and it says:

“… what is a jewel to pigs? If I am misunderstood by you and your race of savages, I rise above taunts and remain unruffled.”

Yes, I will forever rise above those cowardly taunts of falsehood, and remain unruffled in the pursuit of truth.