Silence is not always the best response to a fool, so that he or she does not continue to wallow in abject foolishness, because fools don’t find the truth behind any situation before they open their mouths and talk, due to they suffer from ignorance and arrogance combined. This is evident in an interview that one James Okpara, who was credited to be the Special Adviser to Abia State Governor T.A Orji on Public Relations, granted most national dailies freshly. He felt that since he’s a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Bende Local Government Area of the state, he had the right to join his fellow wrong co-travellers to talk against Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor of Abia State, who was re-admitted into the party, and this has made the co-travellers to expose themselves to public ridicule.
Okpara talked in that interview like a man whom a woman trained and whose credence of being a jurist is in doubt, hence he is challenged to tell Abia people whom his father is. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) should also set-up a panel of inquiry that would look into the law degree that (Barrister) James Okpara parades, because there are many people in this country that can quote the law efficiently, but parades fake certificates. Ordinarily, people like James Okpara are not supposed to be responded to, but to expunge them from their fool’s paradise. It is surprising that it is only in Abia State that Special Assistants who are paid (N40, 000) as salary monthly build houses that amount to millions of naira.
Like his infinitesimal group who has shown that they don’t understand Kalu, because of their prejudiced kind of politics against the majority who love and adore Kalu, it was not a surprise to note that Okpara would also not understand Kalu even after the sinking government that he is serving is out of government. This group that Okpara belongs to and serves its negative agenda is just afraid of one man – Kalu – which has made Okpara’s interview unenthusiastic in its entirety to the reading and listening public.
What Okpara won’t understand is that Kalu is not gluttonous like people can read gluttony in-between Okpara’s lines. Imagine that Kalu founded the PDP, yet left it to found the PPA, but people like Okpara said that they do not want him back into the PDP. So, between Kalu and Okpara and the latter’s co-travellers who is negative, selfish, conk, and bunkum?
How could Okpara say that Kalu was supposed to dissolve the PPA before joining the PDP? Like earlier said, James Okpara’s posturing as a jurist is in doubt. The humane Kalu won’t do that evil proposal. And if Kalu must do, he would have also dissolved the PDP that he founded before founding the PPA, and James Okpara wouldn’t have known the PDP he is in today playing crass politics. Does Okpara know that political parties are not run like a private company? Yes, Kalu founded the PPA, but there is a Board of Trustees that will continue to man the affairs of the party even though that Kalu left or perhaps he didn’t leave.
Although, people like James Okpara who behave like they know it all don’t learn anything new order than what they think they knew. Anyway, a fool is at his or her best paradise. What he won’t understand about Kalu is that Kalu is a tree that little-brains like Okpara can’t climb; they only play around it, because he is a great leader. Today, Kalu has started mobilising Ndigbo at home and in the Diaspora for the number one seat in the political echelon of the federation while Okpara and his light featherweight politicians are just playing Bende/Igbere politics, not even the state’s politics. It might not be out place to let Okpara know that Kalu’s brand of politics transcends what Okpara thinks. When would this Okpara travel to a place like the USA and take a picture with a notable American, let alone, dine and being endorsed?
While Okpara is wallowing in Bende/Igbere politics, does he know that Kalu was in the USA and Europe mobilising Nigerians to make sure that Ndigbo achieves the presidency in 2015, while Governor T.A Orji of Abia State was running to the Northern part of Nigeria lobbying to be Vice President to an Hausa/Fulani flagbearer? Can Okpara explain what shame is? Okpara reminds me of one Alice Walker’s quote which says that people do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.
When Kalu also, once visited Chicago, a man like Jesse Jackson endorsed Kalu at his (Jesse) Rainbow Coalition in Chicago and had pictures with the entourage and the visit was celebrated. This is one of the epitomes that Kalu is a man of the people, a visionary leader and a patriotic Nigerian. Kalu has a unique sense of judgement and boldness. People have said and would continue to say that the mammoth voices of the people about Kalu expressing their gratitude to him, is the voice of God. They are of the opinion that the deceitful Abia stakeholders are just afraid of Kalu, because of his forthrightness. Nigerians believe that Kalu will assist in bringing Abia state back on pathway from the grip of yesmen. But till then (Barrister) James Okpara should declare his paternity and present the law degree he is parading before the Nigerian Bar Association.
Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, contributed this piece from Aba, Abia State. E-mail: apoet_25@yahoo.com