Our attention has been drawn to stories published in some National Dailies which Declan Emelumba, the Imo Commissioner for Information and Strategy, embarked on a silly, raving rant of bitter, acrimonious and apoplectic garbage against Governor Nyesom Wike, like a recalcitrant school boy, confronted with his irredeemably dubious antecedents.
The reason for this furious, hysterical frothing by the discomfited Mr. Emelumba, is anchored on the charismatic, exciting presence of the Rivers Governor and indeed, the simple truth which Governor Wike delivered to Imolites on Wednesday February 23, 2022, during the reception organised by the PDP, in Owerri, to welcome home the National Secretary of the party, Senator Sam Anyanwu, along with the National leadership of the PDP, led by the National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu.
What has irked Emelumba to the point of irreverent obduracy is contained in the telling and instructive excerpts of Governor Wike’s electrifying comments, during that earthshaking reception viz: “Ordinary convention, a party in power cannot hold one. Look at how we did our own convention. That is to tell you that PDP is the party that should rule Nigeria. This is the party that will rule Imo State too.
“The only mistake that we will make to allow the man to come back is for us not to work together, and we will not make that mistake. Let nobody fear, nobody can intimidate us. Can you be intimidated? All that time has passed when somebody that carried fourth will come first. It will never happen again.”
This simple home truth, already domiciled for posterity in the public domain was what triggered the often ambivalent Mbadiwe Declan Emelumba into a raging fit of verbal apoplexy, spewing all manner of incongruous and malodrous assumptions, allegations with infantile authority.
Suffice it to say that the Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, has often been described as a man, who seems to take pleasure and delight in controversies, one who seems to have a penchant for speaking from both sides of his mouth and the most damning of all is that many in Imo State now see and regard him as a shameless purvey of falsehood.
Indeed, feelers within Imo State suggest that many discerning Imolites may have since concluded that Declan Emelumba’s profile and mindset may not be too diverse from that of the infamous Joseph Goebells, who himself was a German Nazi politician and the Gauleiter (district leader) of Berlin, just like Declan was his constituency representative in the Imo Assembly.
Today Emelumba is the Imo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, just as his doppelganger was chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda and also one of the Furherer’s closest and most devoted acolytes, just as Declan has been with his own boss from as way back as the late 90’s, all through the period his master was in the Senate and until he became Governor.
By virtue of his antecedents, one is not quite surprised that such garbage like Governor Wike squandering the goodwill of the people while chasing shadows and meddling in the affairs of other states in the last seven years, would drop from his uncouth tongue.
Emelumba who also uttered complete tripe claiming that the Rivers governor is synonymous with unmitigated failure and crass recklessness and even went further to state that he is a complete failure in governance and leadership and therefore such a man is unfit to asses Uzodimma, has inadvertently made himself a laughing stock by even attempting such improbable comparison between a champion thoroughbred like Governor Wike and a lame gift horse.
Let us even concede, in recognition of the dubious political propaganda which the likes of Emelumba thrives on, that he has the right to his warped and skewed opinions, one actually wonders whether as Commissioner for Information and Strategy, he even reads Newspapers or listens to the news on Television and Radio, otherwise how did he even conjure the hallucination that “In many states of Nigeria including Cross River, the man has been declared a personal non grata. Let him not test our will”.
Did Mbadiwe Emelumba not see or hear or read of Governor Wike’s monumental feat, triumphant entry and superlative performance in the same Cross Rivers State he has cited as example, just recently? Has Emelumba not read or heard how Governor Wike’s visits to states in Nigeria are heralded with pomp and celebration often reserved for royalty and other outstanding citizens?
Or perhaps Declan Emelumba has not seen or heard how respected and highly distinguished political leaders from across party divides have showered encomiums and unprecedented accolades on Governor Wike for his outstanding performance not only in providing leadership excellence to both Rivers State and the PDP, but indeed his outstanding achievements and accomplisments in the delivery of quality projects for which he has won multiple awards and has been appropriately christened “Mr. Quality Projects”?
Indeed, as the parlance in local slang puts it, “Wike and Uzodimma no be mate” and both Declan and his master who even had to display the kindergarten pettiness to sue both the National Judicial Council, NJC and the Attorney General, to stop people from calling him “Supreme Court Governor” know that Uzodimma will not and can never be a match for Governor Nyesom Wike anyway, any time.
Finally, we advise Mr. Declan to try as much as possible, in his capacity as Commissioner of Information and Strategy, to be careful over who he listens to and to also ensure that he reads Newspapers and listens to the News to be updated, especially in matters that concern and involve Governor Nyesom Wike, so that he will not let himself down so badly and embarass himself with avoidable ignorance, next time he chooses to comment about “Mr Projects”.
In the final analysis, Imo people will be the ones to vote and like Governor Wike has rightly declared, the “affliction of fourth becoming first” will never happen a second time to Imolites again. Amen.
Nsirim is the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Rivers State
