17 February 2019
CHECKPOINT (Monday February 11, 2019
You must be aware of the travails of Hon. Venatus Ikem, a former governorship aspirant, former commissioner, a serial defector or "jumpologist" {one who jumps from one political party to another}, ex-APP, ex-ANPP, ex-PDP, ex-ACN, ex-APC, and now, a staunch PDP jobber, whose lot we do not envy. Brother Vena recently published a badly written diatribe titled: "As The Campaigns Begin: Matters Arising (1)", ostensibly to denigrate the APC in Cross River State and to deride its candidates in the 2019 general elections. He promised to publish the second part of the piece shortly. But the campaigns are almost coming to an end, yet the second part is far from being published. Ordinarily, one would have loved to ignore it as trash emitting from the trap of a political truant or a rolling stone that gathers no moose. But since, as they say, a lie told and allowed to persist for so long might be mistaken for the truth, it is very necessary for us to debunk some of his claims orchestrated by jaundiced verbal diarrhea and intellectual hallucinations.
At first, Vena was seen to be a young, dynamic lawyer and politician whose brilliance and commitment to progressive causes would help cub the assumed excesses of some old brigade of politicians who often played to the gallery. But little did Cross Riverians know that Vena lacked all the panoplies of a good leader but possessed all the attributes of a notorious street fighter. The followership comprised awed admirers of his boyish stature and cosmopolitan gait and those who did not know him but tolerated him for his assumed loquaciousness, his garrulous exhibitionism and his propensity to attract odium. Then he began to shudder us. He chose to engage whoever he ever worked with in a free-for-all, and offered his odious jobbing service to any highest bidder or anyone who could pay his bill, without scruples.
Outraged, the massed punditry of the Cross River State rumour mills came out in full cry. Erstwhile friends and fanatical admirers of this political prostitute began to regret knowing him. A spectacle, this: the politician at bay! And when he became so poor that he could no longer pay his domestic bills including his N2.5million annual rent, he sought to rejoin Gov Ben Ayade for a signing fee of N5million. Of course, Ayade's co-governor, Dr. Frank Ayade, could only release N3million to him after rejoining the PDP. As ill-luck would have it, when he went back to Frank for the balance of N2million, the latter retorted: "don't ever ask me for any money again. Who do you think you are?" He was never paid the balance. That was how Brother Vena was left like a fish on a dry sandy beach panting without water or food.
A roller-coaster monster or paper tiger, whose nuisance value is nauseating, Venatus Ikem joins whoever is willing to pay his bill. His recent claim that APC in Cross River State is for the highest bidder and as such fell easily for Senator John Owan Enoh's strong financial muscle is an inverse of his outrageous partisan cronyism and politics of stomach infrastructure. Those who know him very well have said that he wrote his recent piece in order to attract some financial support from Ayade, and his failure to write the second part is borne out of the governor's refusal to reward him for the first. How could you have said that even John Owan Enoh knows that PDP is better than APC in Cross River State, if not to sensationalize and curry Ayade's favour or the sheer advertisement of your mundane and vacuous sense of judgment?
If the PDP had met the yearnings and aspirations of the people of Cross River State since the past four years of Ayade's showmanship, why would the people troop out in their thousands to welcome and identify with a rival political party? Why would all the paramount rulers in all the local governments visited take turns in endorsing Sen. Owan Enoh even in the full glare of national television cameras? If the tumultuous crowds generated by Owan Enoh's campaign tour of Northern Cross River were mere social media stunts, as claimed by Vena, why did Ayade who had boasted not to campaign on account of his assumed phantom projects, suddenly jump into the fray junketing all over the state with his customised fictitious claims and white lies in an attempt to continue to hoodwink the people? If Ayade is not desperate to cling on to power even when all his achievements are only on billboards and posters and if he is not afraid of Sen. Owan Enoh's ground-breaking momentum and popularity across the state, why is he ordering the pulling down of Owan Enoh's billboards and posters?
The issue, right now, is not because Venatus Ikem, who hitherto circulated that Ayade came into governance unprepared without a blueprint, is now advertising Ayade as a political gadfly who cannot be beaten by anybody in Cross River State. The issue is certainly not because Vena, who had described Ayade as "sky governor" on account of his gallivanting all over the world signing insignificant memoranda of understanding that have no effect on the quality of life of the average Cross Riverian, is now singing praises of the man he described as best suited for dancing. Ultimately, what is at issue here is not even the political party involved but the moral responsibility or otherwise of the politician as a public trust. For, you see, my sweet dreams have long been haunted by this sad infighting and lack of understanding among Nigerian politicians. There is indeed one thing we should know: the average politician should be a classic exponent of learning and morality. By the range and depth of his knowledge and experience he should lead virtue. All things being equal, the equanimity of the politician should not be vitiated by the nuances of his personal background or business interest.
If therefore our new-breed politicians cannot rise above parochial group or personal interests, what moral justifications have they to criticize the existing backward-looking social system in our society? Or when shall our polity emerge from the dark laboratory of revolting dissembling and ethno-religious cross-breeding? Politics must always profess an end in view which, roughly speaking, appears to be a decent and mature struggle for power and judicious allocation of resources. The politician’s task, therefore, appears to be clearly cut out for him; and it ought to be comparatively easy to decide whether be performs it satisfactorily, and in general, what kinds of political actions are useful and what are otiose. But on giving the matter a little attention, we perceive that politics, far from being a simple and orderly field of activity from which impostors can be readily ejected, is no better than a Sunday park of contending and contemptuous orators who are yet to arrive at the articulation of their differences. Here, one would suppose, was a place for quiet co-operative labour.
The politician, one would suppose, if he is to justify his existence, should endeavour to discipline his personal prejudices and cranks, tares to which we are all subject, and compose his differences with as many of his fellows as possible, in the common pursuit of responsible politics. While it is very necessary to tolerate the practice of radical politics as a vital weapon for the social advancement of any given nation; while it is very necessary for us to realize that there are certain national issues that transcend personal or even tribal sentiments, it is also very necessary for us to cultivate the habit of objectivity as an inevitable therapy for political survival-all in the business of moving our nation or state forward. But we find out that the fair-weather politician owes his livelihood to the intellectual convalescence and political chicanery of his time, or else, to some trifling oddities of his own which he contrives to season the opportunistic positions which men already hold, and which, out of vanity or sloth they prefer to maintain. Yet, the question remains: who will salvage Brother Vena? Maybe, Sen. John Owan Enoh would still be the one to redeem our brother from political suicide. Better days are indeed possible again in our dear state.
* Amor, Literary Critic and Journalist, is the Media Spokesperson for Sen. John Owan Enoh Governorship Campaign Organisation.
