By Chuka Nnabuife
Since late morning of last Thursday, March 17, a lot of mischievously manipulated information have been directed at the government house of Anambra State in Awka. Scaremongers, red herring, fake news vendors, information distortionists and blatant spreaders of hatred are darting intensively at the Governor’s Office in Agu Awka with unprecedented ferocity.
It seems nobody wants to report any development factually or with decorum. If it is not a disregard or distorted reportage of the main event of last Thursday which is the inauguration of Mr Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo which they meanly rid of all it’s positive developmental landmarks to dwell on an ignorable row between two elite women that had been friends over time which they report with skew and manipulation of facts, it would be a dramatic dwell on events around the immediate past governor of Anambra State, Dr. Willie Maduaburochukwu Obiano, on his first day out of office.
Almost all the narratives are characterised by sensationalisation, one-sided presentation, bias and hatred. Every presenter strives to outshine the other in his or her report.
The devil in the development is not just the demonisation of social media space against people, arguably, out of envy and undisguised bid to settle scores because Obiano and his family have left the seat of government but a visible effort to diminish the bang-impact of Mr. Governor, Soludo’s noteworthy entry in which such things as his novel inauguration event and first day at work in Okpoko slums should have gotten more media attention. It also appears that some of the writers are working hard to sow seeds of disharmony within the fold of the ruling political party in Anambra State, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) as well as between the new government of Soludo and his predecessor.
The visible social media campaign employs bullying and mob lynching tactics to frighten anybody that could offer alternative viewpoints to the general fallacy that is being bandied.
Seek to interrogate thier slant on the status–diminishing assault and shocking trash talk exchange between the ladies, Bianca Ojukwu and Ebelechukwu Obiano under global view in live television on a day that is supposed to be of Anambra’s glory, they would rather that you praised one for slapping another, notwithstanding how it brazenly tainted the image of the state.
Remind the rabid reporters that dwelling on a said arrest of Chief Obiano by the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMA) without reporting Obiano’s successful tenure and they would rain on you. Try to let them know that they are actually doing damage to the Anambra brand by the way they are celebrating the stories without even waiting for EFCC’s lead or letting those who may be forming opinion on the new turn of events in the state, you would marvel at their response. Like obviously hired hitmen of score-settling political foes or clueless people who follow without knowing where they are being led to, they would overwhelm the social media with all manner of trash, that they allege to be monies ‘”embezzled” or “squandered” by the former governor.
They would serve their long list of Obiano’s said misdemeanors even EFCC has not released it’s charges.
You would read them celebrating their assumed jailing of Obiano as if there is no law in Nigeria because their hate-blinded minds would want him behind bars whether he committed any crime or not. They want to manipulate the court of public opinion to be against Obiano and his family less than 24 hours after he left power and notwithstanding the deluge of goowill he left behind due to the unrivaled generosity and landmark projects he left. This is not a Robin Hood kind of benevolence but a generous use of people’s funds and facility such as in the three phases of the ‘Community Choose Your Projects’, rare empathy for handicapped and downtrodden as well as affection for workers’ welfare despite executing gigantic structural projects. Terrible, the hearts of some human beings! Unfortunately, for them, Madu a buro Chukwu (humans are not God). Interestingly, that is Obiano’s middle name.
When, on Sunday morning, I saw a shot video of Obiano, dressed in red boxers’ shorts and polo shirt in a waiting room and drinking from a bottle of water being spread vastly on social media, it became clearer to me that some people are on an orchestrated plan to ridicule or tarnish the image of the ex-governor.
The video was, purportedly, taken in an EFCC waiting room, and one wonders when it became ethical practice for the agency or any of it’s agents to do sting recording of a person invited as it’s guest.
Who, in EFCC did such undercover recording, and what did he or she intend to achieve?
Has this not emerged clearly as a grand plot that is heading towards unfairness?
It will be better for EFCC to tell the world Obiano’s case and allow, as Nigerian law provides, the citizen opportunity to clear himself. Should what is budding be what it appears, EFCC should be wiser to steer away from the tidal waves of Anambra politics.
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