The Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Broderick Bozimo and Col. Kayode Are, the Director-General of the Nigerian SSS, wants us to believe no one is above the law. They and people like Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, wants us to believe there is a level playing field in Nigeria when it comes to law & order; and so they want the great Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu to report to the State Security Services in Abuja (on a way-way ticket). And even the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — the largest depository for all illegalities in the Third World — is now taking sides with the SSS over the agency’s face-off with Ojukwu. How convenient? How insulting? How entrapping?
Where was the head of the SSS, the PDP, the Police, Aso Rock and other pseudo-constitutionalists when former military henchmen Ibrahim Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari and a host of others were “abusing” the Courts? Where were all those now trying to cajole Chief Ojukwu to report to the SSS when other lesser Nigerians were thumbing their nose at the Courts and at other duly constituted authorities? It is true no one is above the law. No one should be above the law. But when the federal government introduced nepotism, clientelism and tribalism into the game — all bets were off. Therefore, if the government is serious about maintaining any shade of probity and legality it must bring the “first offenders” to court before going after the latter and “lesser-offender.”
Come to think of it — the Ikemba has not said he would not obey the courts; and neither has he said he would not honor the SSS’s invite. All he wants is his duly earned respect and a level playing field. That’s all! However going by its antecedent, asking this government and the current SSS for evenhandedness is an impossible task. Indeed, equity and probity is a foreign concept to this government and its agents.
It should be made clear that behind all these charade is the true story behind the “Ojukwu versus SSS” drama: There is a cross-section of Nigerians who are still obsessed with the Ikemba of Nnewi, the great Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. They have yet to come to terms with the fact that it will take them three lifetimes to be half the man Ojukwu is. They have yet to come to terms with the fact that they were unable to achieve their untold injurious intentions towards the Ikemba. They have yet to come to terms with the fact that Ojukwu is a national hero and a man for all ages. He is not a modern day hero. He became a hero when men were men; and today, he is first among his contemporaries.
He is also a role model to millions of Nigerians. His detractors and vociferous opponents — feeble minded boys, charlatans, and ants — have yet to rid themselves of their fixation and their irrational resentment of the man. When it is all said and done, they would still be reeling in the dust and gnashing their teeth while the great one attend to higher and noble callings. Ha, God bless Ojukwu!
Norman, Oklahoma
Sabidde@yahoo.com
