THE SURREPTITIOUS INSULT ON NSUKKA/IGBO EZE SOUTH FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY by Justin Eya

By Justin Eya.

Elections cycle is here again, and career politicians, who are parasites of our common wealth by another name have suddenly woken from slumber with promises of untenable plans of development in their manifestoes. As habitual liars, they lick their lips to lubricate their lies as they reel out cheeky blueprints. “The world is on the bases of lie, thus who knows how to decorate the lie is truthful” was the timeless postulation of Kamaran Ihsan Salih

Just few days ago, precisely 24th August, Vanguard Newspaper (one of the revered dailies in Nigeria tabloid) published an interview with one of the top contenders for House of Representatives Nsukka/Igbo Eze South federal constituency. The interview report titled: “I ‘ll provide needed rural infrastructure in University town of Nsukka” was full of errors on both sides. On the side of the paper, it watered-down the objectivity of its own presentation, as it shuttled between the miry boundaries of editorial position and opinion column, in its effort to make appear fair the readers.

In its intro, it poured encomium on the fellow; a situation that paints the whole episode as a paid promotional. The editorial crew forgot the advisory of Daniel Patrick Moynihan that: “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.” But that’s by the way. After all, the media is a business, and at election time, desperate politicians, who are deficient in the natural ingredients of innovative ideas for effective representation takes refuge in media, where they hide to churn out irreconcilable rhetorics.

On the side of the candidate in question, he betrayed his own beliefs. He indirectly discredited his party, and counteracted his submissions, to prove that he is up to no-good but advancement of the same old system that had plagued Nsukka/Igbo Eze South over 20 years now.

Firstly, he acknowledged “the deficit of infrastructure in this local government especially the rural areas,” but refused to point out the fact that his party (which he had chaired in the state for many years) was on seat in the constituency since 1999, and had impoverished our land. This was why authors of some medieval literatures on political philosophy advised that: “when you’re dealing with frauds and liars, listen more to what they don’t say than what they do. Truth is hard, propaganda is cheap. Lies sound like facts to those who’ve been conditioned to mis-recognize the truth.”

He went further to say that Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has turned Nsukka town to London, which figuratively means a “perfect city” yet he agreed that his cardinal purpose for seeking the constituency seat at the Green Chambers is to “provide needed rural infrastructure in University town of Nsukka.” It shows a man speaking from both sides of the mouth, struggling to cover the obvious fact that he and his party has made a mess of our constituency, no less our dear state. Lies always fly with perforated plumage. No wonder, Mehmet Murat advised voters of his time that “one of the greatest responsibilities for the people of our time is to accept everything that they hears in the pro-government media as a lie and to investigate the truth from independent sources personally!”

In another blooper of the charade called interview, he told his itinerant interviewer that he will be “going to take all the key sectors including education…” if elected. Certainly, he was saying all these to impress the unsuspecting masses, but he ended up declaring his insufficient knowledge of the duties and job descriptions of a parliamentarian in a representative democracy. His claims strike a note of semblance to the story of one aspirant to SUG presidency in a certain university in 2010, and on the day of manifesto, desperate to win at all cost promised “to build more lecture halls and administrative blocks for the students if elected.”

His fellow students had exhilarative laughter to such unguarded and misguided promises, because it sufficiently proves that he doesn’t even know the functions of the position he is vying for.

This our own dear candidate for 2023 parliamentary elections in is obviously is a clone of that clown in our short story, in his outing in Vanguard. Legislative mandates are distinct and clearly delineated from those of the executives. Separation of functions exist between the two. Monies federally allocated for constituency projects are well defined with regards to the areas of application. Talking about education and other humongous projections as he spoke is merely a deluded approach to courting the masses.

In his elusive quest for the office, he is in dearth of both the primary and oversight functions of legislators, thus, his candidature may just be an informal gazette to incompetence if elected. The interview was roundly a surreptitious offence to the collective sensibilities of good people of Nsukka/Igbo Eze South. He forgot that during his time as the state party chairman, he could not use his influence to attract a single project to the constituency. And the people have not forgotten that either.

But anyone who knows the candidate’s age will understand why he sounded blank the way he did. He is a geriatric, with undeniable senility presentations. He lacked situational awareness. And this is why we keep advocating for old people like him that contest for the seat just to go and sleep under the chilling air conditioner at plenaries to give way to younger, intelligent and energetic candidates with innovative ideas on improving the lots of our community using the instrumentality of legislative apparatus.

God bless Nsukka/Igbo South Federal Constituency.