By Osugo Moseti.
Mid this week the arrogance of Presidential Strategic Communications Unit again reared its ugly head when it purported to respond to Opposition demands that President Uhuru tell Kenyans how Eurobond – a sh140 billion loan – was utilized.
In an egregiously personal rejoinder, way beyond the decency that even politics itself accord combatants, PSCU attacked the character of the opposition leaders, dubiously dragged their past in the pigsty of shamelessly cooked ‘corruption incidences’ which reminded me of the tiff between Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka and Rivers State (Nigeria) Governor Ezenwo Wike.
A little background here: In Nigeria, Prof. Soyinka supported the Gen. Buhari’s All People’s Congress (APC) party which last year captured power. In the Rivers State, however, APC lost to PDP but contested the election which a tribunal in 2015 ruled in its favour and nullified the election. So there is a by election on course. Soyinka supports the APC candidate which is expected to take on Gov. Ezenwo Wike of the PDP.
Nigeria academics, unlike their Kenyan counterparts, are visibly involved and engaged in the politics of the regions. Soyinka, therefore, is an serious opinion leader in Rivers, where he hails, and cutting him down to size wil be necessary.
Enough with the background.
When Wike accused Soyinka of being beneficiary of one of the many scams of the former governor (also APC) Rotimi Amaechi who hosted him to N84m birthday party. The Professor responded in no uncertain terms: Â “Those who flounder in the sewage of corruption”, he said, “ensure that they splatter sewage in all possible and improbable directions”.
“This morning, I saw only the headlines in one or two print media regarding the 80th Birthday dinner to which I was hosted by the former governor of Rivers State, the Honorable Rotimi Amaechi, now Minister of Transportation. I ignored them. It was not, and remains not my business to probe into the catering and logistical implications of the hundreds of institutions and governments all over the world to whom I acknowledge an immense debt of unsolicited recognition over the years.
“Since then however, I have learnt of some unsavoury statements by the insecure incumbent of the Rivers State government Lodge. These included a loose invitation to anti-crime agencies to investigate the potential crime of being honoured through any occasion. The unprecedented call by this governor is prescient of a warning I recounted in my recent pamphlet publication THE REPUBLIC OF LIARS, and was taken from my address to an anti-corruption global conference that took place in Tunisia two years ago. Those words were: CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK. In this ongoing instance, that expression translates most vividly as “Those who are neck deep in the sewage of corruption ensure that they splatter sewage in all possible and improbable directions.â€
“I do however fully support the Wikileaks call for multi-directional probes. I recommend further that he involve the services of INTERPOL to guarantee its extension to all international organisations and governments to whom I owe uncountable events of recognition – including birthday luncheons, dinners, cultural receptions and events of real, fictitious, or simply opportunistic flavoring – to which I have submitted myself.
“The descent to this present level of abominable distractions makes one truly despair. It is one that even I did not envisage when I warned – CORRUPTION STRIKES BACK! Whether it brings honour or dishonour to the nation is another matter – I am saddened, but indifferent. “EFCC and company – over to you! You all know where I live,†noted The Nobel laureate.
Note, EFCC is the equivalent of Kenya’s EACC.
Perhaps, CORD should made such a response. Over to you, Mr. Odinga!
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