Udom, Who Are A'Ibom Enemies?
By UbongAbasi
Ise
"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my
friends?" - Abraham Lincoln
It was Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union's de facto dictator, that
reinvented and popularized the phrase, ‘enemy of the people,' just to
combat political opponents or his personal critics real or imagined. Anyone
referred to as the enemy of the people was at the risk of being tortured,
imprisoned or summarily executed. With this Stalinist language routinely used
to inspire fears in the Soviet society, hard lucked citizens were having their
properties confiscated; their families scattered, millions murdered and millions
more perished in the camps of the gulaps, until Nikita Khrushchev banned the
phrase after Stalin's death in 1953. Apart from Soviet Union, the coinage,
enemy of the people, is mostly used by the authoritarian leaders or repressive
governments to silence opposition forces. It is unpopular governments that use
the phrase as part of the diversionary antics and tactics to wipe
sentiment against citizens that stand up against their clueless, inept and
macabre methods.
Instead of using the 2019 edition of
Akwa Ibom Christmas Carol festival at Ibom Hall arena to preach love,
forgiveness and to show magnanimity to our brothers and sisters who played the
same game with different colours of jerseys during the 2019 general elections,
Governor Udom Emmanuel was using the occasion to open old wounds and to create
'enemies of the state’ out of a section of the citizenry. His speech was smacks
of hatred, and was dutifully made out of spite against his political opponents.
He stated that some people had boasted that the State and the people will
witness what Adolf Hitler did to the people of Poland during the Second World
War. He fired further: "A new
political lexicon was added to the Nigerian political reportage “Warsaw saw
War”. Some had gone to the shocking level of contracting the merchants of death
or those who had assured them of the destructive powers of their “walking
sticks" or guns to put it in plain language. The desire by
some of these agents of death was to unleash an orgy of violence in our State
and cause our people to stay at home and not to exercise their primary civic responsibly
of freely electing their elders." A sincere mind might have wondered
if such an incendiary and insensitive remark was actually necessary on the
altar supposedly meant to preach love associated with the birth of the 'Prince
of Peace.' This shows unforgivable orientation and unwillingness to unclench
the fists and transform them to handshake in the spirits of sportsmanship and
of the season. Every right-thinking human knows that the season of
electioneering could be a moment of smear campaign exchange, after which sanity
would return and brothers become brother again - after all, there is a
time for war and a time for peace, according to Ecclesiastes 3:8. But with Udom
Emmanuel, the Christmas event was an opportunity to ridicule and to offend the
pride of his brothers and sisters whose sin was to contest against his
ambition.
Before the General Overseer of the Redeemed
Christians Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, mounted the pulpit for
Christmas message at Ibom Hall arena on Friday night, Governor Udom Emmanuel
had already created the imaginary enemies of Akwa Ibom State in the minds and
hearts of the audience. With this sensation, the clergyman might have no other
reason not to pray thus, "Lord I
declare that whoever is the enemy of this state, that enemy will not see the
new year."
I may never know those that would fall down
and die before the 12 midnight of December 31, 2019 for resenting the state,
should the prayers of the General Overseer be granted. All I feel is
that, for refusing to use the Christmas Carol night to weld all divergent
interests together, and by using the occasion to intensify political hostility,
it apparently means Udom is the chief architect of antagonism in the state. It
means he enjoys the continued slugfest amongst the citizens according to
APC-PDP fault-line. It also shows that the Governor really enjoys the
unprecedented polarization that makes one section of the citizenry more Akwa Ibomite
than the others simply because of their political party preference.
If the enemies of the state were to be
described, would they be the citizens that ask government to reinvigorate
ailing businesses in the state and to create real job opportunities in order to
absorb teeming unemployed population? Would the enemies be conscientious indigenes that
constantly ask the government to pay pension, gratuities, promotion arrears and
leave grants? Would they be those cataloguing the government's abandoned
projects and bringing same to public awareness or those drawing the attention
of the state government to the poorly executed road projects? Would the ‘enemy
of the people’ description cover those curious citizens calling on the state government
to give account on how it expended cash refunded by Paris Club, including about
N78 billion federal projects monies refunded by President Muhammadu Buhari, the
monthly allocation from FAAC as well as the IGR? If this set of people are
those to be classified as the enemies of the people, then it is a clear case of
calling a dog a bad name in order to kill it; it also means that our governor
is running a Stalinist-styled government, an anti-people government whose
handlers may not see the 1st January of 2020 if God decides to
answer Adeboye’s prayer.
One should wonder why Udom Emmanuel threw
conscience into thin air and made an utterance perceived to be untrue at a
Christian gathering. He said, “We have
been able to raise our agricultural output to such a level that our staple
food-garri and rice are readily available and at affordable cost.” As
expected, this statement drew murmurs from the crowd. It shows Udom is totally
cut off from reality of mass hunger and unprecedented hardship, and therefore
has no idea of how the citizens struggle to feed themselves from garri and
other cassava products from Cross River, Benue and northern states via
deplorable roads. When one beguiles you to abandon what you know as absolute
truth and to embrace cheap deceit, he thinks you a fool, and such a character
is not acting with good intention or whatsoever. This is an attribute of an
enemy.
Perhaps Udom
Emmanuel was thinking that the attendees of Christmas carol festival were only
his political party’s supporters coming out to merely celebrate his reelection
and his recent Supreme Court victory. If this was actually his thought, then he
should have also been sincere in considering that Christmas Carol festival is a
tradition that appeals to most Akwa Ibom people irrespective of political party
affiliation. It is a tradition that was enunciated by former governor Godswill
Akpabio which used to be accommodating over 9,999 choristers until this
administration inherited it and whittle the number down to about 3,000 in 2019
edition. People of Akwa Ibom State are used to this form of yuletide festival
the same way the Cross Riverians are acquainted with Calabar carnival. The mood
of the audience was apparently spoilt with Udom’s speech which flowed with
undercurrents of political rivalry. Politicizing this common tradition of
Christmas carol festival in the state is the beginning of the painful death of
this popular end-of-the-year programme, unless something is done to remedy it
from the virus of insensate politicking.
Let’s erase a wrong impression here. Those
that contested 2019 general elections in Akwa Ibom State also wished the state
well. For instance, Senator Godswill Akpabio said he decided to adopt another
political approach in order to link the state with the centre. Obong Nsima
Ekere said he saw the need to create job opportunities for the vast number of
unemployed youth and to take the citizens of the state out of the miserable
state of poverty. Even though the duo ran on different political platform, they
didn’t wish the state bad. They also acted in the general interest of the
state. So the final message to Mr. Udom Emmanuel is, "Whenever you are
confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love,” according to Mahatma
Gandhi.
Yes!
I am UbongAbasi Ise, for comment send SMS to 0818991609 | email:
ubongabasiise@gmail.com
©The Sensor Newspaper
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