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| Comrade Jude Imagwe |
The acutely corrosive, deeply disheartening and mindlessly
damaging practice of sycophancy which is the untrammelled and unrestrained praise
of another person for favours or pecuniary reason is endemic in our society and
permeates all spheres of the societal framework.
The issue of sycophancy is a systemic problem in our
society which requires some radical and drastic measures to resolve.
How to resolve this malaise is a discussion for
another day since this article essentially bothers on the forth coming Bye
Election in Etsako Federal Constituency of Edo State and the nomination of
Comrade Jude Gabriel Imagwe (M.O.N.) as the Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP)
standard bearer for the election.
Now, let's proceed with our discourse.
On seeing that
the sycophants and the genuine admirers of Jude were gaining ground and
massively selling the sterling qualities of their preferred candidate, the
other groups, the envious, the ingrate, the urchins, the wicked, those who feel
they have an axe to grind with Jude and every other group except of course the
sycophants and the genuine lovers of Jude became jittery and hysterically
launched cyber attacks.
The attacks came from all corners. They fired from all
cylinders. Lolz...
Mundane, comical, false, ludicrous and obvious insane
issues were raised on various platforms against the PDP candidate.
I carefully followed all.
I also made frantic calls to those I considered as
relevant and who were visibly angry at the choice of the PDP with a view to calming
frayed nerves. Some of them are sincere sympathisers of the P.D.P; others are
full blooded members of the Party or other political parties while others belong
to the Civil Society Organisations.
Some immediately simmered down, others fire more
vitriolic missiles.
While some had reasons to be genuinely aggrieved in
view of what they told me, others were just unnecessarily insensitive, wicked, mischievous
and envious (read jealous too) of the intimidating credentials and profile of
Jude Imagwe.
I observed clearly that some of those attacking Jude's
personality have never had any direct contact with him.
They just flowed with the bandwagon. The ‘Pull him
Down’ (PhD) syndrome was unleashed on the Etsako East Local Government Area
born stout Comrade.
It became quite intense at a point and I was utterly
amused, when one fellow who goes by the name Ajayi Peter on Mark Elliot
Zuckerberg's Facebook wrote:
"hmmm,
Jude Imagwe and Damisa, I can't forget in a hurry wat doze guys did to us way
back".
I smiled and I quietly sent him a short mail. "Peter, I read your comment on a
facebook post. What exactly did I do to you please? Kindly state it there. God
bless you bro".
As you read this, the unknown fellow has not replied
to my message.
That is the level some mischievous elements can go in
order to slander and destroy others.
No wonder ex President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan opined
on the 8th of October, 2009 while receiving members of the Future Nigeria
Project in Abuja that "if we don't engage the energies of our youths
productively, they will be exploited by mischievous elements for destructive purposes".
Quite clearly, on this issue, some people have been
enlisted my benighted and unscrupulous individuals for destructive tendencies.
Do I blame
them? No I don't. I would rather sympathise with them because some of us have
become too idle that we can even quarrel with an insect.
Is it not amazing that the majority of us (including
yours sincerely) running our mouths like the waging of the tail of a dog on
Jude are not even from his primary constituency and as such we do not have any
direct influence on the aftermath of the election results other than posting
comments on the social media in which a large percentage of those who will vote
in that election may never read?
Sometimes, some people just overestimate themselves on
issues that do not concern them and will never add to their bank accounts or
heights.
Is it not also curious that those now castigating and
making impugnable comments have themselves hitherto served in one capacity or
the other and came out wanting both in character and in disposition?
I have it on good authority that some of them have in
fact benefited one thing or the other from this same man they are now seeking
to be put in the gallows.
A summation of all the allegations made against Mr.
Imagwe points to two issues.
Firstly, as the Senior Special Assistant to President
Jonathan on Youth and Students' Affairs, it was alleged that he was never accessible.
(the word 'accessible' is quite ambiguous though)
The second issue was that he was not sharing money and
that he did not reject the policeman attached to his office as the security man
was always seen with him at functions. Some said he attends such functions in
jeeps. Funny isn’t it?
While the first issue may be given consideration, the
second one was borne out of greed, mischief and the lack of basic understanding
of the workings of government and its officials especially at the Federal
government level.
This issue is therefore totally ridiculous and laughable.
Leadership is not a tea party affair and that is why
it is extremely difficult to please everybody when in position of authority.
However, one
must seek to always protect the interest of the majority at every point in time
because those you meet while on your way up are the same people you will meet
on your way down. You must always meet people and they can make or mar you.
In all of this, unlike some of those making divisive
and slanderous comments, the man Jude has never been accused of stealing or the
misappropriation of public funds. So what is the hullabaloo all about?
With the nomination of a young, intelligent and
vibrant Comrade Jude Imagwe, the leaders and delegates of the PDP have 'set us
up' as young people.
Since there is an ongoing agitation for youth
inclusiveness in governance, they have thus given us a real youth in a major
election and they have stepped aside to watch how we will rally round our own
and make him a member of the House of Representative.
If you call yourself a youth, the ball is now in your
court. Let's see how we will play this out for according to Martin Luther King
Jr. "The
time is always right to do what's right".
I conclude this article today by aligning myself
completely with the potent words of President Jonathan who once said "If
this country will achieve greatness, it is in the hands of the youths"
Nigerian youths, let's do what is right now and always
for it is in our hands...!
To be
continued....
Itote Damisa
is a Lawyer and a youth Advocate.
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