Victor Umeh: Time for Confession of Sin By Ferdinand Ekeoma

SOURCE:http:///yGVbpCNg3f

A renowned statesman once declared, “If by omission or commission the right people are not allowed to occupy public offices, the wrong people will assume such positions and turn back to enact a law, mandating the sane to go naked, with stiff penalty on defaulters”.
If there is one character who has done a great disservice to Ndi Igbo in recent times, it is the controversial factional National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Chief Victor Umeh, who by all negative standard fits into the description found in the first paragraph of this piece.

One has to be qualified for discuss before becoming worthy of criticism. Chief Victor Umeh knows how unqualified, unworthy and unimportant he is for discuss, and in his desperation to be mentioned and discussed in the midst of credible people, he has dedicated himself to confusion, mischief, and mediocrity, hopping that his anti people and anti progressive outbursts and other vices will always attract replies and responses from worthy minds whose sensibilities are being recklessly assaulted.

Recall how timid, unrefined, and unknown he was before Chief Chekwas Okorie picked him up, brushed and gave him a place in APGA.
The thought by Chief Chekwas Okorie that Victor Umeh would be a worthy and reliable servant to both Okorie and APGA, the way Okorie had been to Ojukwu, APGA and Ndi Igbo, turned out to be a big miscalculation, and a risk too costly.

While Chekwas Okorie and others were strategizing to cement the place of APGA in the Nigerian political circle, Umeh the usurper was seriously but secretly plotting to dislodge his master, hijack APGA, and negotiate for his stomach. The result of that Umeh’s unprovoked and selfish coup, is the mess being witnessed in APGA today.

Because Umeh is coming from the path of greed and insincerity, he doesn’t cherish the value of truth, else he would have made a flash back to 2003, and compared the now divided and deserted town union called APGA which he is presently leading, and the APGA of his predecessor.

Having seen the intensity with which the fire he ignited is razing down the once solid and United house, Umeh and his little mind sponsors have turned their attention to their nemesis, Owelle Rochas OKorocha, the Executive Governor of Imo State.

We don’t need to dissipate energy recalling the efforts of Governor Okorocha in ensuring that APGA didn’t disintegrate, of course such explanations are of little importance since Okorocha’s progressive flight is already mid air, but we have chosen not to allow innocent Nigerians, especially Ndi Igbo suffer disinformation in the hands of Victor Umeh and other moribund minds whose vision centre only on their pockets.

Need we remind Chief Victor Umeh that Owelle Rochas Okorocha was the only available politician with the charisma, acceptability, and followership to dislodge the Imo political cabal in 2011, and that his people inspired victory was propelled by his Nationally and Internationally acclaimed goodwill which the people reciprocated, not as a result of the support of an unknown and inconsequential Victor Umeh.

When Rochas Okorocha stood firmly against the clandestine move to sell APGA to a rival political party, he wasn’t a traitor. When Okorocha sustained Victor Umeh and APGA, for the sake of Ndi Igbo, he wasn’t a traitor. When Imo state Government House literarily became Ume’s house and hiding place, Okorocha wasn’t a traitor. Now that Okorocha’s progressive ship has left the shores of River Niger for a voyage of Igbo rediscovery and empowerment, Victor Umeh and co are still trapped at Upper Iweka, searching for a tricycle and singing the traitor song; what a pity!

Umeh knew from day one that Owelle Okorocha worked assiduously and was very much open to any alliance, integration or merger that would make APGA a stronger force. Umeh also knew from day one and was not opposed to Okorocha’s merger ideology, but as a corny tortoise with self centered philosophy, he kept calm and only waited to know the outcome of the case in court. If he had lost, he would have carried his faction to join the merger of the progressives, and now that he got a temporary victory in court, he knows how important his faction of APGA could be in extorting money from unsuspecting politicians, of course his victims in Anambra are still telling their painful stories, because he is a professional extortionist, whose conscience is dictated by the volumes of available naira notes.
Even without a choir master by his side, Umeh is now singing the song of the saint, yet he is happily putting on his sinful apparel; what a contradiction.

Victor Umeh had no problem extorting money from Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and others, but threw morals into the Dustbin by insulting this distinguished Igbo son, in the name of disqualification, just to justify the Egunje given to him by his recently reconciled pay masters; who says they will not chase him away again? Of course he will not see a Rochas Okorocha to run to for economic sustenance, because his Egunje has no Ofo na Ogu, and therefore does not last.

Victor Umeh’s anger, pains, and frustration would have been understandable if he had toed the path of reasoning and civility in expressing this great loss, because no political party would want to lose a beautiful bride like Rochas Okorocha, whose administrative vision and political sagacity remains a big asset to those that cherish meritocracy, but who told Umeh that he has got what it takes to lead a political party to success. Who told him that OKorocha is suffering from the same myopia with which he Umeh contributed in destroying APGA?

Umeh needs to be reminded that leading a political party goes beyond putting on the respected Igbo traditional red cap which Umeh wears as a symbolic strategy to appear a patriotic Igbo man, while indulging in anti Igbo activities(Umeh ochedi na ndi Igbo bu Ewu)

The hard truth is now staring Umeh in the face. He knows what the exit of Rochas Okorocha from APGA means, especially with the exodus of other decampees. He knows that he Umeh is one leg away from absolute political relevance, and he feels the only way to express his disapproval and frustration is to resort to mischief, distortion of facts, and verbal venoms, but does Okorocha know that a Victor Umeh exist at all?

We know how much Victor Umeh cherishes his stomach that he can dance naked in the market place as well as prostrate to pick the discarded grains under the table of the slave masters, but he should know that the attention and cheers he desperately seeks can only come from the vultures.

We are very much aware that this cash and carry factional chairman of APGA and other mischief makers now see the Rochas Okorocha brand as an avenue for economic survival, since every attack, defamation, and falsehood against him is handsomely rewarded by their paymasters, but we make bold to remind these anti democracy and anti Igbo elements that Okorocha represents a progressive dawn that cannot be tamed by self seeking non conformists.

We do not preach repentance to a Victor Umeh that is yet to confess his sins, but we advice that he meditates on the words of the great Martin Luther King Jnr. that, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity”.

If Umeh can shun sincere ignorance and avoid conscientious stupidity, he will admit that he has neither the vision, the passion, the credibility, the acceptability nor the sincerity to lead a political party to success and greatness, so the earlier he retired to his hut of hallucination for sober reflection and confession of sin, the better for him.

Ferdinand O. Ekeoma
Is of the Igbo Youth Rescue Mission.

This is an open truth but most Rochas critics kept deaf ears for mischievous reasons. A search through google will give a complete insight to the history of APGA.