By Odimegwu Onwumere
"The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to
elicit it, for the greatness is there already,"…….John Buchan.
Showers of tribute are still being disbursed to
the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu who was interred in his ancestral
hometown of Nnewi, Anambra
State, on the 2nd
of March 2012. Nigerians have shown and are still showing that Ojukwu deserves
unfailing love, which he even showed magnanimously to Ndigbo when he was alive.
His commendable life has shown that it is better for a man to be poor than not
to walk his talk; and a rich man who does not walk his talk is invariably also
poor.
Ojukwu walked his talk and practiced what was written
in the book of Mark 8:35-37. This verse of the bible tells whoever that what
shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and loses his own
soul? Ojukwu was more careful of his conscience than of what he was going to
get from the Nigerian state. He could not be bought, even though that some
persons might have sold him for their selfish reasons without his knowledge.
It is on the foundation of selflessness that The Sun
newspaper should be commended. The Sun has shown that it is not a ferocious
wolf in sheep clothing. Rather, many people have been this wolf in the sheep
clothing during the pragramme heralding the sending of Ojukwu on his eternal
journey. A lot of people showed their quest to wear the Ojukwu’s shoe by
bloating their contributions towards the final home call ceremony of the
deceased on the radio and newspapers. But The Sun Newspaper has been calm in
singing its praise towards its own quota in making sure that Ojukwu was given a
befitting burial.
After the befitting burial given to Ojukwu, Thank
You messages have been sent out by numerous companies and individual to the
people and groups they perceived should be thanked that in their own thinking
made sure that Ojukwu was given the befitting burial. But surprisingly, hardly
has any thanked The Sun and Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu for their own selfless
contributions to this first of its kind epoch funeral.
This laissez-faire with which people treat malaria for
typhoid fever in this country when they want to score cheap political gains is
not good. This is why everybody must watch out on Matthew 7:14-16, for false
prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious
wolves. The Sun is prudently compassionate.
Investigation reveals that The Sun newspapers had
dedicated over 47 pages in its different editions for the death of Ojukwu,
which approximately will cost the firm about N25, 000, 000 (Twenty Five Million
naira) going by N500, 000 (Five Hundred Thousand naira) per page, since on 26th
November 2011 that Ojukwu gave up the ghost in London. Yet, hardly is The Sun
making noise for spending that monstrous sum of money or has anybody made out
the time to Thank this unconquerable newspaper in the Nigeria’s news
market.
By this involvement to our collective contribution in
making sure that Dim Ojukwu was sent home, The Sun and Kalu have proved
Augustine of Hippo right when he said that a good conscience is the palace of Christ; the temple of the Holy Ghost;
the paradise of delight; the standing Sabbath of the saints. While a Bishop
Robert South is telling those who are making political givens out of the
Ojukwu’s burial ceremony that all deception in the course of life is indeed
nothing else but a lie reduced to practice and falsehood passing from words
into things.
As if the book of Ezekiel 22:27-29 had some of these
political demagogues at heart, it said: Her prophets whitewash these deeds for
them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, 'This is what the
Sovereign LORD says'-when the LORD has not spoken. This is what the LORD
Almighty says: "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
they fill you with false hopes. Adding, Jeremiah 23:15-17, said that they speak
visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
While Nigerians know in earnest those who speak visions
from their Lords, some of the people today masquerading as fosters of Ojukwu
did not go to his beck and call many times he was financially incapacitated.
Kalu was the man who never abandoned Ojukwu when he was alive to writhe in
pains. The records are there. Did he not incessantly give him monetary and
material gifts of which one of such gifts was a Jeep? Kalu was not only the
rich person and politician, but such act of his showed that he had a meek heart
and that he’s not a man of questionable character. He is a man who always
recognizes that all hands are not equal. As such, poor people should not be
discriminated in the lead. What The Sun and Kalu did concerning the wider
publicity of Ojukwu’s demise without anyone hearing their trumpet shows how
good people can be to their own.
This goodness goes
farther. Any fervent reader of Orji Uzor Kalu Leadership Series will agree with
this fact that Kalu dedicated over five full page articles to Ojukwu. Some
people who have been reading would attest that he is a thrilling and
outstanding columnist. He is courageous, daring and vivacious. He is one man
who has a stanch conviction in the Igbo course, extending to Nigeria. He is
not on a course for tribalism, either.
One observer
captured Kalu recently in this language: “Like Ojukwu, you are a realist. Like
Ojukwu your solid personal achievements speak for itself. Like Ojukwu, you
possess the trademarks of a leader namely Serenity, Courage and Determination.
Like Ojukwu, you are currently sacrificing. Unlike your many colleagues who
jumped to the senate as a panacea for political relevance, you rather chose to
commit your resources for Ndigbo… Like Ojukwu you are an embodiment of the Igbo
trinity of adventure, enterprise and of accomplishment.”
A selfless
politician, showcasing Igbo people in the best light, people have to put Kalu
in their prayers for God to continue to assist him to do more for other people.
Thank you, The Sun, for your clandestine, though open contribution to the
burial rites of Ojukwu, who said the truth about the bane of leadership in Nigeria over
four decades ago. There are so many on this burial ceremony who pretend they
are for the stability and progress of Ndigbo, while in actual reality they are
for their own belly and their own pocket.
But Kalu and The
Sun never benefitted materially directly or indirectly from the course of
Ojukwu burial arrangement. They were purely on benevolence, defending the
actions of the man who never allowed the further impoverishment of Ndigbo. Keep
up the good work, The Sun and Kalu.
Kalu and The Sun
will soon take the pinnacle of their rightful place in their careers. Their
inputs have shown that there is a difference between a servant and eyeservicer.
They did their own thing without minding that there would be plenty money
for the politicians, media men and contractors during the committee to harness
how Ojukwu would be interred.
Thank You The Sun,
for your efforts in reporting about the passage of Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu
Ojukwu till today. To Kalu, if Nigeria
has many more of his kind, being a brother’s keeper will never be that
despairing.
Odimegwu Onwumere writes from Rivers State
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