The Sun Newspaper published an opinion article by a certain Robert Obioha, titled “Peterside and APC Fantasy” on September 2, 2016. Reading this article, one can easily adduce his pocket is a motivation for penning; a paid piper plays no tune except that called by his employer.
Otherwise, how does one explain the blatant disregard for issues raised by Hon. Dakuku Peterside, flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 Rivers State Gubernatorial elections? Or a poignant lack of discuss in the article about critical issues bordering on the economy and security of Rivers state?
Let’s even forego the fact that Robert’s pocket has been lined and for a minute, pretend that he seeks the best interest of Rivers state and her people. What were the issues raised by Dakuku in the statement that sent the camp of the Governor Nyesom Wike and the PDP scampering? Peterside had in the statement said that “I have a message for you all; the end has come. Rivers people cannot be deceived by lies and propaganda, no matter how well crafted. Which government has borrowed more money under one year than all previous governments from 1967 to date put together? Which government withdrew nearly 400 undergraduates sent on scholarship abroad by ex-Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi to different countries? Which government deceitfully wanted to take credit for projects conceived and delivered by the Amaechi’s government?”
Robert should have at least stay on course and dwelt on disproving them. He would have shown the errors in Dr. Dakuku’s “verbiage” as he succinctly puts it, and brought forth numbers to indicate how prudent the administration of Governor Wike was. This would have been quickly followed with showers of praise on the present administration to highlight how previous administrations were spendthrifts compared to the present one.
If the above was so much of an arduous task, an easier one would have been getting soundbites from a few of the over 400 undergraduates on scholarship in different parts of the world. These would have served as testaments of the administration’s irrefutable belief in education as an enabler of modern society.
And if he really just wanted to choose the easiest path, he would have attached pictures as evidence of projects conceived and executed by this administration. At least, he would have proven that Dr. Dakuku’s statements that most, if not all, of the projects commissioned by this administration, are expensive makeovers of the projects of previous administrations.
So, because there were really no evidences to the contrary, Robert chose the least honorable path in writing his article, by referring readers to statements ascribed to the Governor’s media aide. If the entire body of evidence of the article rests in unquoted statements and unproven facts, what then is the point? It comes down to nothing better than a lousy opinion.
I guess it’s time to stop pretending and just call Robert what he is; a pen mercenary often available to do the bidding of the highest bidder. He has a well-documented antecedent, predicting a landslide for the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) administration at the 2015 presidential polls, in the face of contrarian evidence.
The decision by the Governor Wike camp to contract Robert Obioha to write such slur is also indicative of the many errors of the administration. A simple google check on the character of Robert Obioha would have uncovered his misfit for the purpose. He has a short stint of writing articles that criticize the present APC administration, bereft of constructive criticism, and turning out no better than a child throwing tantrums. It’s almost as if Robert keeps trying to pacify the ghost of his past for the fakery of his fortune telling in predicting a landslide at the polls for the GEJ administration.
How will the people of Rivers trust the Governor Wike administration if it can’t even get simple things right such as selecting a brilliant and non-partisan character for her propaganda. And that, Mr. Obioha, is the crux of Dr. Dakuku’s statement, “an administration that loses the trust of its people will come to an end, sooner than later”.
Ovunda Okogbule writes from Port Harcourt
