It was just impossible for me to swallow and digest the constant media attacks on my political leader in Akwa Ibom State by one “Da Zion Umoh” in his commentaries on Facebook. My leader is a man I clearly walked into while seeking the moral tribe in the politics of Akwa Ibom State at a time that I was already giving up on finding an adaptble political platform that would embrace my belief system and my lifestyle as a god-fearing man. It must be understood how in Nigerian politics, apart from playing politics on a political party platform, every member of a political party has a political tribe he follows within his political party.
It is usual, especially at a time like this when political appointments are in view that there would be competing partisan interest amongst the tribes within a political party. This competing interest is a normal phenomenon. I have written severally on why President Buhari should choose his minister from Akwa Ibom State wisely, and my point has been on discouraging politicians who have constantly being the continuous bane against our political development from holding office perpetually when they have done nothing to change our ugly narratives.
The pitiable role that money inducements play to compromised the ideals of our democratic polity and it’s economy makes it impossible for me to support President Buhari in recycling politicians who, rather than help our political growth, have caused and contributed to our political deterioration and economic woes as a people. While some of us, who are reasonable and fair players, collate the aggregate lifestyles and political antecedents of our politicians, Da Zion Umoh chose to play dirty by attempting to play one leader against another.
Playing a leader against another has been a trade some hungry, underdeveloped mindsets have engaged in, in order to put food on their tables. And unfortunately, my leader had always been on the receiving end and edge because he is a peaceful man. We have decided that it should not be so any more. There is a terminal point for every social nuisance.
Now, in making contributions on, and as to whom President Buhari should rest his ministerial nominations on, my friend, brother, colleague, and political kinsman, Thomas Tomas, had recalled his dilemma as a journalist in the years of the making of the APC and his near death situation in the hands of the incumbent government, at that time, as his “nay” to the appointive consideration of a particular leader of our party. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that – he wore those shoes that almost took his life for standing for what he believes.
Though this did not go down well with the principal of that brutish regime, he, unfortunately, went back to his yesteryears and dusted his threats boots against Thomas Tomas, which he (Thomas Tomas) could not fathom, stomach and cried out very loud against him. We felt that the principal went too far with living in the past in his incumbent present, and we variously rebuked him for forgetting his past and attempting to repeat it. Our contributions were not aimed to disparage any leader but to call for justiciable and fair considerations in our democratic pursuits.
For God’s sake this is a democracy and we have guaranteed conventional and fundamental rights, especially that of holding political opinions. It was therefore not expected that any leader should, because his antecedents are played back to him, attempt to subjugated the rights of other people to recall their past experiences. It was at this stage that “Da Zion Umoh” decided to introduce gutter attitude into a pure desire that called for a change in the attitudes of political players in our State.
Thomas Tomas raised genuine points that should have been tackled or handled, but Da Zion Umoh decided to make it a war of lords by importing a false imagery that brought an innocent man into a pure literary exchange of ideas to map out a better political future for our people. He churned false allegations against my leader in a way that engaged us to prepare for a media war, and we were bent at holding no prisoner captive in our exposing the criminal nature and nuturing of these people.
Politics in a democracy should be about ideologies and policies to drive good governance to the doorsteps of the governed. It is in this regards that some of us have assembled behind our leader to fight to change the sad, unholy and the unwholesome political narratives in our State. It was for this struggle that we decided to engage the man who threatened our brother and colleague: we have had so many of our people killed, tortured, dismembered, raped and harrassed for political gains, and we feel this must stop and we are speaking out loudly against this ill and immatured politics and attitudes.
Our efforts at defending our leader, interestingly, earned us severe rebuke from our leadership, whose thinking removed our advance from joining an underdeveloped mindset to disparage any leader in our party, however weak he appears to us. Our leadership looked more and forward to a cohesive and a united political party than the war we were arrayed to fight. On their advice, we decided to sheath our swords and to cancel out the bad apple from our bunch by investigating their pedigree.
Being an investigative journalist with international links, Thomas Tomas went down to search out “Da Zion Umoh”, who, interestingly, had worked on his side during the years of his travails, and wondered why he should now be his attacker for holding up the tenets of democratic ideals. Thomas Tomas later found out that for his constantly hungry mien for the absurd, Da Zion had been compromised and enabled to cross many rivers into the United States. We have results at our disposal and now we warn…that any politician who attempts to include Da Zion Umoh on his payroll to hang out their dirty linens should understand how that can construe to his sponsorship of a convicted armed robber to distort reasons and healthy political practice in our State.
And let this be told, that it is God’s will that the sad narratives of our local politics be changed and for this reason, our leaders must understand how they no longer have hiding place to conceal their nonentities and bad political behaviours, as we are bent to expose every evil they perpetrate internationally, so that the righteousness of God would rule among our people.
Affliction shall not arise a second time. Below is the story of the criminal record of a polarizer of good men with good intentions. Enjoy your reading:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2091016661010556&id=100003067270068&ref=content_filter
Ini Akpan Morgan convenes the Akwa Ibom Patriots Grouping (AKPG) and writes in from Uyo via “time.subsidaries@gmail.com”
Ini Akpan Morgan Blog 