Some weeks ago, the news of the torture of a teenager from Ebonyi State, Uzoamaka Chukwu, went viral with a retinue of gusto speculations, falsities and other condiments the major cooks added to it to whip up negative sentiments against Governor David Umahi and his government. The issue here is not the indomitability of the said crime visited on the 15-year-old girl, it is the other cooked-up propaganda political hunters and rumour mongers have come up with to give what would be described as a show of executive apology by Governor Umahi a bad perception to the public.
This article stands as a rejoinder to a provocative publication by The Nation newspaper on Thursday, 25th of August 2016. The piece was authored by an anonymous scribbler dubbed ”Our Reporter.” by the newspaper. The title of that piece was: “Ebonyi’s strange (human) property law.” The question every conscious-minded reader should ask is why the writer chose to be anonymous if he was sure that he had written facts devoid of public scrutiny? Or was it wise for him to tell the truth in anonymity?
In the spunky article, many issues best recaptured in bias and propaganda were raised, among which is: Was it wise for a governor of a state to say an indigene of his state is a property of the government?
He had said: “It is not clear why the government chose to describe the harassed girl as a state property, whether they mean it in the endearing sense in which great sporting or intellectual assets are described, or in the ordinary and mercantile sense in which slaves or indentured servants were described when the practice of owning humans flourished during the era of slave trade and thereafter.”
He talked about property in terms of mercantilist and slave sense and concluded that Engr. Umahi ”could not be said to be managing the problem sensibly like a governor.” What a gross disrespect for the office of His Excellency and his person. This anonymous writer needs to be educated more on the definition and classification of a person as a property. Since it is indisputable that humanity has its roots in anthropology and sociology, no enlightened mind would quarrel with the governor’s description of Uzoamaka as the property of Ebonyi State.
According to Wikipedia, in sociology and anthropology, property can be defined often “as a relationship between two or more individuals and an object, in which at least one of these individuals holds a bundle of rights over the object. I know he may want to find out the meaning of an object but to save him the sweat and time of doing so’ the same Wikipedia lists an object as a being.
Also, “the Restatement (first) of Property defines property as anything, tangible or intangible whereby a legal relationship between persons and the state enforces a possessory interest or legal title in that thing or object(Wikipedia remains a referencing tool). .
I observed that the writer willfully did not admit the governor’s sincere apology to Uzoamaka’s family, including her over 80-year-old grandmother that welcomed His Excellency and his entourage to their home in Umunaga, Uburu, Ohaozara LGA . He also failed to appreciate the empathy shown by the governor by putting aside other important state activities to visit the home of the humiliated teenager immediately he returned from his foreign trip.
The Nation’s unnamed reporter saw it abominable, the governor’s sincere assurance of his government’s resolve to take upon itself, the wholesome rehabilitation and sponsoring of the young girl to university level. He saw black in Governor Umahi’s avowal to ensure that justice ran its full course in the matter. But I ask here: Was the writer expecting the governor to have done all he had done while away? Nop, His presence was highly needed because that would signpost executive concern.
Now, it will be good to give a rapt attention to the governor’s speech while in the home of the brutalised girl: “We felt very bad as a people, as a government and as brothers and sisters of Uzoamaka. We felt that what happened was a gross violation of her right and man’s inhumanity to man. So, we feel bad about it. Government is asking wherever she is, she should come back so that we can take over her training from secondary school to university level. We will also be able to rehabilitate her. For now, we don’t know where she is, but we ask that she returns because she is the property of the state.”
Going by his posture, one would ask why the acrid writer had to be skeptical about a pledge made by a government whereupon no such pledge had been made and reneged in the past by any government in the state. One also wonders if the writer was writing with any fact to substantiate his doubting spirit.
He also continues: “Governor David Umahi has finally roused himself from his lethargy to take some tentative steps”. What did the writer mean by ‘tentative’ steps?
The truth that cannot be altered is that the governor on learning of the development immediately ordered the intervention of relevant government agencies while outside our shores.
One was that the state police command should arrest all those involved in the teenager’s brutalisation. Two, he directed the Ohaozara LGA chairman and the Ministry of Women Affairs to locate Uzoamaka and take custody of her. I know, because I personally spoke with the Governor’s Special Assistant on Women and Child Development, Emerald Akaji, a day after the video of the girl’s brutalisation went viral. Akaji had on getting the marching orders headed for Uburu where she made frantic efforts to locate Uzoamaka.
Unfortunately, the SA’s efforts yielded no positive results because some political hawks spirited the teenager away to Abuja where she was hidden until they decided to make a media show of the matter and portray the state government as uncaring. Their actions were purely to settle political scores and gain cheap political popularity. If the writer meant well, why did he not ask why such politicians did not hand over Uzoamaka to the state or any of the security agencies in the state capital. Why take her to Abuja? Before his piece, one of the politicians was part of the governor’s entourage that visited the girl’s family. It is the same politician, who is National Assembly member that he quoted as having asked His Excellency to suspend or sack Enekwachi Odii, the Uburu Development Centre Coordinator whose home was Uzoamaka’s place of torture.
Since the politician was there when the governor said his government was not aware of the girl’s whereabouts, why did The Nation’s biased writer not express surprise that National Assembly member did not disclose the location of the teenager to the entourage? Does he think that common sense required him (Our Reporter) to have done just that in his piece?
Let me inform the writer that in news stories published August 16, Governor Umahi had said:” I watched the video online and I felt terrible about it. It is very inhuman to have so acted. I personally directed the police to arrest and prosecute all those involved.”
His directive was carried out. All the suspects, including Odii, are currently facing trial by a competent court of law. Odii is on bail and is assumed innocent in the eyes of the law. Like erratic social media goons, emergency social commentators and human rights activists, what peeves The Nation’s anonymous writer the most is the governor not listening to their calls for the coordinator’s suspension or sacking. Engr. Umahi has chosen not to do either of the two for now because he believes that the police and the judiciary must be allowed to perform their duties.He definitely is not the one to pass judgement. The anonymous writer and his ilks must wait for the judiciary to pronounce Odii and other suspects guilty. It is only when the governor fails to wield the big hammer on the coordinator if found guilty that he and his co-critics, would have a justification to lampoon my boss.
I urge the Nation to be circumspect in providing pages to veiled writers. Being one of the nation’s most revered news organisations, it should constantly toe the line of objectivity like another newspaper which on Monday, August 29 wrote:”Where some other governors would have played politics, the Ebonyi governor chose the path of justice.”
.Anya is the Chief Press Secretary to Ebonyi State Governor
