I got a call from a guy who claimed to know the guys behind Saharareporters about six months ago asking me what the problem between the outfit and Governor Obi was. He told me that they were heavily funded by an interest group to attack Anambra State and Obi in a very coordinated manner. I dismissed the information as another attempt to attract attention by peddling of rumour. The caller maintained that he was giving me first class information and only pleaded for utmost confidentiality because of his relationship with the owner of the outfit, Sowore Omoyele. “I am telling you this because you are close to those in Government,” he said.
I did not suspect anything, until the great Ikemba, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu became ill and had to be taken to a London hospital. A friend of mine in Government told me that that was the time he got the highest number of calls in my life, everybody, from CNN and BBC to local media, according to him, were calling to find out the state of Ojukwu’s health. Sowore of Saharareporters, he said, called as well and was just interested in his informing his outfit first should the unexpected happen. “I went into a shouting match with him to the extent of inviting him to come and snuff life out of the Ikemba when he kept calling only to ask me ‘Has he died?’ Even when I assured him that Ojukwu would still live for us, he was interested in knowing how his absence would affect the performance of APGA. Clearly, he was working for a particular political party.” Then came the flood. Outline followed outline, stories followed stories, and vituperations followed vituperations. He has written and posted on his website about 28 anti-Anambra/Obi pieces. All the write-ups were wicked declamations, without any ethical pretence to objectivity.
Sowore and his Saharareporters outfit betrayed their purpose when contrary to the verifiable fact that Governor Obi sent 25 buses to evacuate Anambra Corps members stranded in the north during the post election crisis, Sowore posted on his site that the Governor did not send any buses.
What is most perplexing to the foregoing is that he refused to publish reasoned rejoinders against his falsehoods. However, when any riffraff make any negative comment on Anambra, he publishes. It was obvious that when a Senator from Anambra, who has a Gallic disdain for Obi, let out a fart, he carried it on his site and even compared it to Beethoven’s symphonies simply because it was part of the greater war against governor Obi. Why this disdain?
Before he ventured into politics, Obi was a relatively obscure but rich trader. When he started talking to the people, he was so clear and full of understanding for the intricacies of human situation. Our people believed him. While campaigning to become the Governor of Anambra State, it was a delight to behold him deflating contrived questions and puncturing all traps set against him by the sharpness of his mind. Once beloved by the people he burst forth in the political scene like the lava of Vesuvius. The efforts through rigging by Dr. Chris Ngige to cool the fires of this budding volcano were not of much avail. He enjoys the hobby of defeating Ngige in any direct confrontation. He has effectively burst open into the national consciousness by being the first to remove a sitting Governor, come back from impeachment and secured the tenure interpretation all through due process. ( Continues below….. )
Photo Above: Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu( left ), Chuba Okadigbo( right )
If you have been following the recent posts by Saharareporters, you would have discovered that with the most recent rubbish on Anambra,Sowore was part of those forces recruited to quench the fires of that volcano. Today, except those who do not visit the site, everybody knows that he is fighting a sponsored war against Anambra State Government. Even his friend and colleague that maintains a column in the Sun, whom I understand accord with him as harmoniously as dynamite with fire, is with him in that fight. In a space of three months, he has used his column to write pure and unadulterated nonsense against the Governor. They believe, forgivably that Obi lost out in the last election even when his party moved from zero to secure over 60% in the elections; they believe, less forgivably that Obi is finished, when all those that contested for the presidency in the last election wanted him as their running mate; they believe, incredibly and unforgivably that Obi is doing nothing, when the year 2011 remain the year he has done more projects as the governor of the State.
Now, the grouse of Sowore is that the Governor invited some journalists to visit Anambra State. Assuming it is true, what is the problem with that? In all the parts of the world, it is standard practice. Which Governor in Nigeria has not invited journalists to visit his state? Would it have been better to make calls to them in Lagos to write unverifiable Stuff?
Sowore said so many things to the extent of accusing the Governor of erecting massive buildings in the name of a teaching hospital without equipping it. He put words into many mouths to say this. By this singular point, he has betrayed himself. If the Governor is building structures, he should have been intelligent enough to know that if those structures were there that the Governor would not have bothered to build them. Is he telling us that he ought to have purchased the equipment before building the structures? Clearly this shows somebody who is looking for something else. Even if Obi’s only achievements are building of structures, Anambra people should pray that the person to take after him should equip them.
The Governor, because he has so many achievements on ground that one can proudly proclaim them from the rooftops.
Sowore quarrelled with the issue of Obi building 500 kms of roads. He does not want to come to Anambra even on his own to confirm this, but he is contented to depend on what those that supply him with information send to him. Sowore should better find out from the Federal Ministry of Works for they confessed themselves that Anambra has the best network of roads. These roads, according to COREN, met the standards.
Beyond roads, the Governor is doing wonders in other areas. The adverts running in the newspapers contain what the Governor has been able to do in many areas. More areas are still being compiled such as the Primary health Care Centres built in many parts of the state. If any of those advertised projects are false, people would have pointed them out. In fact, I read on the net where somebody said that the claims about Bethel Secondary School, Isulo were false, whereupon everything the Governor has done in the school were pointed out and they include, provision of internet, rehabilitation of their labs, provision of 30kva generator, 10 desktops and 50 laptops. The name and the phone number of the principal were provided for verification. Those that made the allegation ran for cover. ( Continues below..... )
Photo Above: Anambra State Governor Peter Obi
When Obi became Governor, no Government secondary school had a bus, today over 100 schools have not just buses but are connected to the INTERNET, provided with generators, boreholes, laboratories, Microsoft Academies. The Governor is working on 27 erosion sites, completed and on-going. The list is endless, some of these projects are beautifully captured in http://www.anidsinanambrastate.com and yet, to Sowore and his colleagues, nothing is happening.
Today the second largest brewery in the world is building its biggest facility in the Sub-Saharan Africa in Anambra and should Obi not be commended for that. Before him there was no peace in the State such that having such a facility was unthinkable.
Today, Governor Obi has built or is building the highest number of bridges, 15, in different parts of the State. Nobody in the State since creation has built a bridge as expansive and long as Obi has built such as the Odor Bridge connecting Awgbu communities and Amaokpala or the Otuku brige at Umueze Anam-Nmiata road. I deliberately mentioned names should Sowore want to send his sources to verify.
If Sowore is sincere to himself, he should have pointed out what those journalists wrote about Obi in terms of projects that are wrong. He still has time to do this or give himself away as a blackmailer working for some interests. When people resigned in other Governors’ Cabinet, Sowore did not mention that, once it was Anambra it was celebrated as if the ninth wonder of the world had been discovered. When other Governors sacked their aides and Commissioners that did not win elections, Sowore looked the other side, but he started attacking Obi for only planning, according to him, to sack his aides that did badly in the elections. Today, we read of Governor with thousands of aides and it was not news to Sowore, if tomorrow somebody invents the story of Obi having 100 aides it will become news to him.
What Sowore is doing today is very positive. At least if for nothing we now know that there is a grand war against the Governor. Even in Nigeria, those Sowore is working for hired canvassers who go from one public place or the other to canvass that governor Obi is doing nothing. The crime of Obi’s aides crime is to shout that these people are lying against Obi by inviting groups to come and see that their claims are on ground. In 2009, when elections were around the corner, they did exactly the same thing and Obi used project inspection to demolish their lies. I hope he does the same thing today. Let people come and see the Mississippi of projects Obi is executing in Anambra.
Reading Sowore and what he does these days, one has every reason to believe that the fame of his site has entered his head. He now thinks in terms of having the capacity to be used to destroy and create. But let him be reminded the immortal words of Napoleon Bonaparte, “From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step,” he is taking that step now. We have every reason to believe that the coarse necessities of physical existence has dragged Saharareporters from the heights of respectfulness into the mart of struggle for economic survival.
Cajetan Azubike,Esq. Chugbo Enwezor & Co. No 57 Awka Road, Onitsha
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