AFEGBUA AS “ALAROKA”, MY RESPONSE, BY KASSIM AFEGBUA

I was laughing so profusely when I read the very empty rhetoric of one clown called Femi Alaka, who claims to lecture at Edo University, Uzairue. My first instinct when I read his diatribe was to blame this indolence to the perennial ASUU strike that has suddenly turned lazy academics to attack dogs. It was not an accident of history that both attack dogs that were let loose from their cages, are both Lecturers; Isaiah Osifo and Femi Alaka. My quarrell with their positions is that both of them have shown signs of lazy scholarship.

They draw very anomalous references and espoused the wrong thesis. The information contained in their diatribes shows visible evidence of poor scholarship.

Fact is, from 1999 till 2023, the North would have stayed in power for 11 years and South would have spent 13 years and not 14 that Alaka lazily exhibited. When an academic wants.to please his paymaster, he will hurriedly concoct rhetorics to score cheap points lacking in merit and depth. The difference between the number of years is two. Do we have a 2-year tenure in our constitution? The answer is NO. So how do we balance the equation if by political accident a Northerner succeeds President Buhari? A 16-year unbroken run?

Secondly, Alaka erroneously stated that I was little unknown before Oshiomhole appointed me to serve in Edo State. And that I was recommended by General Babangida to serve. How hollow?. It will make some sense to remind Alaka and educate his warped intellect. In 2009, when Oshiomhole initially offered me the Chief Press Secretary position, I refused until members of my community prevailed on me to please take the appointment. I barely spent four months when I resigned my position. I could not contend with the style of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole at that time. He’s alive around your corner, you can ask him.

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It is true that I had a bubbling fashion outfit in Garki Area of Abuja peopled by 14 tailors drawn from different parts of the country, including Cameroon, Senegal and Cote D’ Ivoire. I was also publishing “African Statesman” monthly magazine as well as other media consultancy under Correspondent Communications.

I am proud to be an employer of labour till date and can look into the face of Alaka’s paymaster to tell him the bitter truth. It will also interest Alaka to know that I have been in active politics since 1996 under the Grassroots Democratic Movement, when I joined Late M.D Yusufu to confront late Abacha for the ticket of the GDM party. Other political parties graciously endorsed Abacha without contestation. It was only GDM that featured late MD Yusufu to contest against late Sani Abacha at the Elkanemi stadium in Maiduguri. The rest of that story is left for another day. On August 31st, 1998, I joined the PDP as a foundation staff to join in prosecuting the 1999 election. Let me stop at that for now.

Talking about not knowing me before Comrade Oshiomhole appointed me is cheering news which again exposes the lack of depth of this turncoat academic, who has shown a remarkable appetite for shallow references and background. Needless to drum my praises but it is public knowledge that I have been a Spokesman for IBB since 2002/2003 and by August 22nd, 2006, I was attacked by assassins in my house for what they called, my vitriolic attack on the government of Chief Obasanjo. My attack was widely reported by all mainstream media across the country. If Alaka did not know these details, he ought to seek knowledge rather than advertising such manifest ignorance often the hallmark of hirelings; always in a hurry to please their paymaster.

Talking about my family as unknown in Edo State, still goes further to show the sheer hollowness of this armchair hireling, who cannot connect the dot about my family history. This is a family that produced the first democratically elected female Senator in Franca Afegbua, in the entire black race in the ill-fated second Republic. If that history does not make meaning to an Alaka, such an unknown quantity of a name, I wonder what name would. As family members, we are proud of such political feat by one of our own, who was one of the recipients of Edo University award last year; the same university that Femi Alaka supposedly teaches. Aside from that and just to educate the sixth sense of Alaka, the Afegbua Royal Family of Okpella derives its progeny/family tree from Alhaji Abdulmalik Afegbua, the Ekaifona of Okpella who ruled over Okpella as a King, married 54 wives and fathered more than 300 children.

The records are there in our family archives. We are in the seventh generation of a family that has produced many illustrious sons and daughters across the globe in different fields of human endeavours. Our present population is over 5,000 to put it mildly. If such a family is not known in Edo State, then something must be mortally wrong with a so-called academic who teaches in Iyamho, a nextdoor community to Okpella.

He talked about the misinformation that I wanted to become Deputy Governor to Godwin Obaseki, and that Oshiomhole refused my request. What a pity. Alaka, are you truly an academic? Because I fear for the kind of knowledge you transfer to your students and the content. If truth be told, and you can ask from any of my former colleagues, all that I predicted came to past on the Obaseki Gubernatorial contest. From day one, I openly supported Engr. Chris Ogienwonyi, even as an appointee of Comrade Oshiomhole.

I openly cautioned him when I was being sworn-in about his choice of candidate and my love and support for Ogienwonyi. Given another opportunity, I will take same position. I also cautioned the power operators of the PDP when Obaseki hurriedly joined the party in 2020, without extracting a commitment from him in form of power sharing.

My position has vindicated me because no sooner he was elected, than he started suspending his benefactors and wanting to desperately become another tin-god. No regrets over my action. I wanted to be a running mate to Hon. Ogbeide-Ihama and went round to consult with leaders of the party. That was the only time I sought to be a running mate all my life. Even if the Obaseki slot was given to me on a platter of gold, I would have turned it down.

I have taken time to educate your mind and enrich your knowledge about the political dynamics that factorised the politics of Edo State during the four years of my service so that you are not misled by beer parlour gossip which seems to be your pastime. The point must be made that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, your paymaster, should not attempt to usurp the opportunity of the South in the 2023 presidential contest.

The reason why I raised dust over Uche Secondus was primarily because he ran the party aground and allowed three of PDP Governors and some Senators to defect to the APC without making effort.to arrest the depletion. While this was going on, Alhaji Atiku, your paymaster, who ought to be the face of the opposition was hibernating in Dubai, away from the “maddening crowd” back home. As soon as he heard that the whistle was blown for political contest, he sneaked back to the country. That exactly is my quarell coupled with the fact that it is the turn of the South in 2023 to produce presidential candidate in line with the provisions of Article 7 of the PDP constitution. Alhaji Atiku should support any of the Southern aspirants to prosecute the 2023 election instead of presenting himself again for primary. That is the only way posterity will be kind to him.

Femi Alaka, when next you are sent on errands such as the hireling job you were given, look well, dig deeper into the mould, to get your facts right so that you won’t expose your ignorance in such bare-faced manner. It won’t take away any percentage from what you were promised since you have to survive under ASUU strike. Rather than concoct tales by the moonlight, you will do yourself proud by the depth of your research and knowledge of the subject-matter.

I will recommend Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to reduce your pay on account of your drab and unsubstantiated concoction of an essay. That is how not to be a Lecturer and hireling. Those of us who are driven by our convictions present incontrovertible facts of the matter without minding whose ox is gored. It is the reason you were unable to dissect my statement or controvert my conclusions on Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. I will come your way again.

PRINCE KASSIM AFEGBUA IS A MEMBER, PDP WARD 5, OKPELLA, EDO STATE.