₦airaland Forum

Dear readers, kindly permit me to seize this open access to congratulate Nigeria’s Governor par excellence, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, for the rare privilege and distinguished honour of shaking hands with the President of the United States of America, Mr. Barack Obama, last week.

And, at the White House for that matter!

Oh, my Governor! You are truly a great man.

Tears of joy welled in my eyes as I watched you on television stretching the golden right hand, your head tilted a little to the right while President Obama offered his right arm too, his head dangling to the left. With President Muhammadu Buhari’s approving smile at the background, my day was fully made!

I am sure every true born of Imo State must have shed a tear of joy, seeing the people’s Governor doing them proud at the world stage. It does not matter that the occasion was not for you to display before the global community Nigeria’s great advancement in space technology, stem-cell research, or anything that cerebral. Shaking President Obama’s hand is the perfect gift to humanity for which generations unborn will remember my able Governor.

It is not easy, dear readers, to have an opportunity of a handshake with a US President – a sitting one, for that matter. For our Governor to get such a rare opportunity is simply the Lord’s doing.

How best do we silence those ingrates called civil servants at home who were agitating for the payment of arrears of salaries of few months when those being owed nine months in other states are not making any trouble? The billboards of the great handshake, of course!

It will surely make the enemies green with envy.

The economic benefits that came to Imo State from the famous four-day official trip to the United States? Please don’t ask me. That handshake was enough.


Who wrote President Buhari’s Washington Post article?


It is safe to assume that the article published in the Washington Post newspaper last week, in the first person singular narrative, under the name of Muhammadu Buhari, was written on his behalf by a presidency aide.

Since the article must have had the consent of the President before it was forwarded to the US news medium for publication, it is safe to conclude that they were his words.

The writer goofed at the world stage.

Granted that this is a young administration, we must be charitable enough to concede that certain mistakes cannot but creep in, to spoil the joy of a great outing. Just note, our dear President, that kind of embarrassing error should never be repeated.

Communication experts have little difficulty overlooking speech errors, especially by non-first language speakers who most probably have to think in their local languages and translate before expressing themselves.

The process can be understandably laborious and error-prone.

It is a different ball game for written materials, because the writer has the time to cross-check his views from so many sources that modern day provides for every serious communicator. It is the age of the Internet, remember? You can get information about almost everything at the press of a button.

The written howler by “President Buhari” in the article led many to accuse the president of lying.

Justifying his decision to be thorough in picking members of his cabinet and delaying the announcement till September, the “President” wrote: “When cabinet ministers are appointed in September, it will be some months after I took the oath of office. It is worth noting that Obama himself did not have his full cabinet in place for SEVERAL MONTHS after first taking office; the United States did not cease to function in the interim”. (Emphasis mine).

That article was published in the US with American citizens as primary target readers.

An enterprising young Nigerian author, Okechukwu Ofili, whose ofilispeaks.com blog reads: “Addicted to truth … allergic to shit,” simply punched his computer and came up with these facts that contradicted Buhari: President Barack Obama was inaugurated on January 20, 2009; Hillary Rodham Clinton assumed the office of Secretary of State on January 21, 2009; On January 26, 2009, the U.S. Senate confirmed Geithner’s appointment as Secretary of the Treasury; On December 1, 2008, President-elect Obama announced that Robert Gates would remain in his position as Secretary of Defense during his administration; On December 1, 2008, Obama announced that Eric Holder would be his nominee for Attorney General. Holder was formally nominated on January 20, 2009; Ken Salazar assumed the office of Secretary of the Interior on January 21, 2009 after a unanimous voice vote on the floor of the full Senate; Tom Vilsack assumed the office of Secretary of Agriculture on January 21, 2009; Hilda Solis assumed office as Secretary of Labor on February 24, 2009; Shaun Donovan was confirmed as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on January 27, 2009; Arne Duncan was confirmed as Secretary of Education on January 21, 2009; Eric Shinseki assumed the office of Secretary of Veterans Affairs on January 20, 2009; Janet Napolitano assumed the office of Secretary of Homeland Security on January 21, 2009; Steven Chu was unanimously confirmed as Secretary of Defense by the U.S. Senate on January 20, 2009; and, former Republican Congressman Ray LaHood was confirmed as Secretary of Transportation on January 23, 2009.

Simply put: Obama appointed 13 cabinet members out of 15 within a week, not SEVERAL MONTHS.

PhockPhockMan:
Waiting for Masturbating masturbators to come and shout wailing wailers.




Mumu people.

Ngokafor:
....Okorocha and 419 moves did not start today..wayo raised to infinity


..Imolites have entered one chance vehicle with this guy honestly ..


..'My people my people'my left foot

jamace:
Rochas is very corrupt: https://www.nairaland.com/2208303/imo-journalist-lists-okorochas-corrupt

brize:
I never believed effects of juju until okorocha used it on imolites

Chubhie:
LOL. The first day I heard Rochas chant his “My people My people” I knew the dude got jokes.