By Emeka Omeihe
One may have ignored President Buhari’s observation in Imo State that he would be careful when next Governor Hope Uzodimma invites him, but for attempts by sundry officials to assign wrong interpretation to the statement.
The president while addressing a gathering of prominent men from the South East had concluded his speech thus, “Governor of Imo State, I cannot thank you enough. But I will be careful with your future invitations”. Soon after that observation, apologists of the state government and sundry social media sympathizers ran amok and began to push in wrong words into the president’s mouth.
All manner of adjectives were floated in place of ‘careful’ all in efforts to obfuscate the seeming indictment which the president’s speech was largely seen to represent. The most disingenuous of such was the futile and grammatically incongruous attempt to smuggle in the adjective ‘cheerful’ in place of ‘careful’ as the actual word of the president by Uzodimma’s media handlers.
But in the midst of this contrived confusion, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina weighed in. Adesina’s angle was that the president’s speech was “being deliberately contorted and twisted out of context”. If this was targeted at the claim by Uzodimma’s media aides that the actual word of the president was ‘cheerful’, one can understand Adesina. But if it is intended to address unfavorable commentaries arising from Buhari’s deployment of the adjective ‘careful’, I beg to disagree. We shall return to this.
Adesina then embarked on a curious voyage of naming who is who in Igbo land that came to receive the president, apparently to underscore the success of the visit. He quoted the president thus, “I am overwhelmed by this reception, overwhelmed in the sense that when I accepted the invitation by the Imo State governor who wants to justify investments the government has done to the people of Imo State, I thought I would see the bridges, the roads and a few innovations. He didn’t tell me he was going to get the whole Igbo leaders here”.
He captured the president’s closing speech thus: “Governor of Imo State, I cannot thank you enough, but I will be careful with your future invitations”. That put paid to the madness in forcing wrong words into the mouth of the president by those who claim to be supporting Uzodimma.
If media handlers of the governor could go the extent of assigning wrong words into a clear and unambiguous statement by the president all in the attempt to de-odorize the cynical remark, how do they expect to earn public confidence and trust?
It was good a thing Adesina came into the fray to state very clearly the actual words of the president which conform fully with the interpretation of the mainstream media and captured vividly in trending video clips. But that is the little credit Adesina should savor for now. His claim of an attempt to twist the speech out of context cannot fly if the reference is meant for those who read that closing remark as an indictment on Uzodimma’s showing during the visit.
There is practically nothing to suggest that the president’s admission of being overwhelmed by the reception or the gathering of key personalities in the southeast were sufficient to prevent him from entering some reservations on the visit outcome. The fact that he withheld his impression on the projects shown him as evidence of the touted investments, speaks volumes.
If the advertised image of the president as a strict and forthright man is anything to hold on to, then he must have chosen his words carefully. And there are reasons to so believe. His reservation was clear and he was heard loudly and clearly. It does not require interpretation or misrepresentation.
The attempt by Adesina to cover up the obvious indictment in the president’s closing remark, collapsed like a pack of cards as it failed to address the substantive issue on which the president predicated his reservation. As to whether he had reservation on the visit outcome, yes. What the issues are, were not addressed. Was he going to be careful with Uzodimma’s future invitations because he was overwhelmed by the reception and the quality of those gathered? Or has it got to do with the fact that he did not see the bridges and was not fully satisfied with advertised roads and innovations?
How do we situate the president’s observation that the governor did not tell him he was ‘going to get the whole Igbo land here? Is there nothing untidy about it to deserve reservation?
These questions are raised to underscore the futility in the impression being conveyed that the president’s statement did not amount to an indictment. It did. And there are reasons to support the indictment apart from the ones obvious from the president’s statement. I am yet to hear of bridges commissioned during the visit. The roads we hear about are largely inner roads and roundabouts. Admittedly, work is on-going in portions of some roads including federal roads but it is not substantial to deserve the attention of the president. There were no legacy projects commissioned. The visit was put together in a hurry. Reservations could arise from these.
Even then, the president arrived to meet empty streets as people of the state stayed in-doors following a sit-at- home order by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB. Though it is customary to clear the streets through which the president intends to pass of traffic and movements, but the president would have noticed that Owerri was a ghost town on the day he visited. That is a clear message that should have been of serious concern to any elected leader.
The governor played down this fact when he was inviting the president for the visit. He told State House correspondents after his last visit to the president that IPOB has no influence on the people of the state to order sit-at-home and people of the state do not obey IPOB. The governor further claimed only his “government can give order on when people can stay away from work or businesses and they will obey”. All this is within the public domain.
Assuming the president asked him during the tour why the streets were like graveyards, what possible answers would he have offered? That he declared a public holiday; shut down all businesses and banned movements while the president’s visit lasted?
He lied when he told reporters the people of the state do not obey IPOB. They obeyed the organization the day Buhari visited and on Monday and Tuesday after he left even as the IPOB has severally said it has cancelled the sit-at-home order on Mondays. The truth is that the IPOB is competing with the state government for the loyalty of the citizens with the former having a clear edge.
As the controversy generated by attempts to misread Buhari’s reservation was yet to peter out, Uzodimma was again embroiled in another. This time, he was captured in a television interview saying they support the president because he “has shown sufficient interest in terms of pragmatic approach, in listening and being insensitive to the yearnings of Imolites”. Instead of his media people admitting it was a slip of tongue; an error or malapropism, they embarked on futile attempts to inject the word ‘sensitive’ in place of what the governor actually said. Yet, his statement was captured in a video clip for all to see.
Constant recourse to obfuscation of reality and denial of the obvious is harmful to any government desiring the trust of the people. The impression gaining ground is that the regime in Imo State is averse to admitting mistakes and coming clear on issues. It is fast acquiring notoriety for going to ridiculous and amazing lengths to invent all manner of subterfuge to defend the indefensible.
What propels the serial recourse to distorting obvious facts, tricks and deceit is a matter of conjecture. Or can it be located in legitimacy and credibility issues arising from how that government procured its mandate? Whatever it is, the image of the government is not better for it.
“These questions are raised to underscore the futility in the impression being conveyed that the president’s statement did not amount to an indictment. It did. And there are reasons to support the indictment apart from the ones obvious from the president’s statement. I am yet to hear of bridges commissioned during the visit. The roads we hear about are largely inner roads and roundabouts. Admittedly, work is on-going in portions of some roads including federal roads but it is not substantial to deserve the attention of the president. There were no legacy projects commissioned. The visit was put together in a hurry. Reservations could arise from these.
Even then, the president arrived to meet empty streets as people of the state stayed in-doors following a sit-at- home order by the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB. Though it is customary to clear the streets through which the president intends to pass of traffic and movements, but the president would have noticed that Owerri was a ghost town on the day he visited. That is a clear message that should have been of serious concern to any elected leader. The governor played down this fact when he was inviting the president for the visit. He told State House correspondents after his last visit to the president that IPOB has no influence on the people of the state to order sit-at-home and people of the state do not obey IPOB.’’
