By C J Okoli Akirika Esq
The right to freedom of expression and opinion is of transcendental and enormous significance. By scholarly accounts, it is one of the earliest in the emergence and the generation of rights of man. Without a doubt, it is as inherent as it is inalienable. Thus, when properly deployed, it engenders a wholesome effect. Contrariwise, it eventuates unpleasantness.
In the obvious exercise of this right, two Professors of apparently no mean pedigree, one before the 2023 general elections and the other, after the said elections, for skewed reasons, volunteered vainglorious obtuse prognosis concerning Mr Peter Obi.
One was pedantic while the other was chimerical. However, both were demagogic and driven by intentions far from nobility and reasonableness.
The first Professor who confessed that he granted Mr Peter Obi private audience in the sanctuary of Government House, quite bizarrely and without any modicum of prompting, wrote an unsolicited open letter to “a headless mob” and prognosticed that Mr Peter Obi would not only lose the 2023 election but will “manage” to score 25% of the votes cast in his state of origin. Not a few Nigerians, irrespective of class, orientation, creed and sophistication, righteously excoriated the exuberant Professor.
Contrary to this extravagant claims and characteristically undaunted by the effusive and obviously abrasive vituperations of the errant Professor of Supply and Demand, Mr Peter Obi carried on with his sublime campaign of migration from consumption to production, fiscal prudence and prioritised scale of preference that contextually coalesce with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy as stipulated in the Nation’s Highest Code.
Ultimately, Peter Obi’s message and candour resonated with Nigerians regardless of tribe and creed and this was reflected in the outcome of the election which demonstrated seismic shifts in election paradigms that suffered calculated miscarriage due to an isolated glitch in transmission. No thanks to the acts and antics of the electoral empire that subsequently received judicial imprimatur.
We are living witnesses. The rest is history. The effect is extant. That is why we are in this miasma.
Here comes the second Professor.
In his weird conjecture, Mr Peter Obi is “unfit” to contest the 2027 election. REASON: Mr Peter Obi failed to control the writings and actions of his “Obidient Supporters” in the Internet. Like his predecessor in prognosis, this Professor reacted to Mr Peter Obis “supporters” in the Internet.
This Professor, no doubt, expressed his opinion which he was eminently entitled to just as the targets of his salvo were robustly entitled to their opinions.
Perchance this Professor was wrong (after all perfection does not inhere in humanity), would that make the Professor’s preferred candidate unfit to stand an election. This writer does not think so and there is no tenable reason to think otherwise.
Why was this Professor fixated with election that is more 36 months away from now when Nigeria of today is evidently collapsing in face of all indices of governance: insecurity, unstable currency, hyperinflation, misplaced priorities, ineptitude and cronyism. Worst of all, lack of hope and expectation on the part of the citizens.
The Psalmist would query: How are the mighty fallen.
Years back, this once cerebral Professor was in the forefront of agitation against misgovernance. He was remarkable not only for intellectual brilliance but also for stoic defence of truth, honour and candour.
Today, the Professor is struggling with paid, depraved, debased and unabashed trio of barking Bayo, deranged Daniel and a peripatetic Mocker in hunting vice and sycophancy.
Many rational Nigerians, home and in Diaspora, are aghast as to the motive behind the demeaning conduct of this Professor.
The general consensus is that the Man Died in that Professor who maintained disgusting neutrality in times of moral, economic and political dysfunction in Nigeria but opted for obnoxious expedition unbecoming and unexpected of his exemplary but now beleaguered reputation.
What is troubling is that by public estimation, these Professors are presumably epitome models deserving of emulation. But by their actions and utterances, they appear not too far from the maddening crowd and the ignoble strive.
It is human to err. It is also human to accept errors. Therefore, when opportunities avail, these Professors are expected to manifest the greatness of character for which sound minds are known, tender requisite apologies and guide their admirers aright. The reason is not farfetched: They are expected to act as navigating compass for Nigerians in times of moral, socio economic and political challenges.
C J Okoli Akirika Esq is an Awka, Anambra State based Attorney