Chuks
Iloegbunam tells Sam Omatseye to cleanse his journalism
*Peter Obi
Some
have called you foolish, dear Sam Omatseye. Others insist that you are plain
stupid. There are those who hold you to be beneath contempt. Their howls of
execration upon you are in reaction to your August 1, 2022 article entitled Obi-tuary. For me,
however, you are a dear friend. Our friendship started in the 1980s at Newswatch magazine where both
of us practiced journalism before you travelled to the United States for
further studies.
It continued upon your return and strengthened
to the point that, sometimes, you get the producers of your TV
Continental programme to connect me to field questions live. Besides,
living in different states, we often chat by telephone. I demonstrated our
amity again last May when I was in Nigeria’s commercial capital for the Lagos
International Book Fair. I phoned you and, within the hour, you were at my
stand where we spent quality time reminiscing about the good old days and
prognosticating on the future of our dear fatherland.
Armed
with this handle of friendship, I have just the one advice for you: Be careful.
It is in elaboration of this counsel that I write all that you read hereon.
Please look back to the time of the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967 to 1970. You
will find that, military or civilian, none of the political actors of that era
is still in a position to fight elections today. The final curtain long fell
for most of them. Of the lot that remains, some have become vegetables, or are
propped up with a suffusion of drugs or would not find their way to the loo
unless hired attendants or swearing relatives point it out. Together with the
handful that is still blessed with something close to robust health, they have
one thing in common. They are seated, restless or restive, in various
existential departure halls, clutching fitfully at their boarding passes and
waiting for that inevitable voice that cannot be disobeyed, to announce their
flights into past tense.
