Maduekwe’s senile recantation

Yet another extract from Maduekwe: “Suffice it to say, (sic) that we of old Abia PDP, (sic) owe Governor T. A. Orji a duty to continue to support him and his administration. It is a matter of honour and principle.

”Gerontologists strongly believe that the two greatest challenges of senility are forgetfulness (amnesia) and descent to geriatric behavioural manifestations. This explains the emotive outburst of Ojo Maduekwe over a mutual discussion at the London Heathrow Airport between him, as Foreign Affairs Minister, and the former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu. I empathise with Maduekwe, who is in his late 70s over his inevitable inability to recollect exactly verbal exchanges made just a few years back. The conversation focused on Kalu’s calamitous choice of his successor, Theodore Ahamefula Orji, despite multifarious oppositional forces, including this same Maduekwe at the time. Kalu’s inexplicable insistence on his ultimate nemesis and his manipulatively ingenious inauguration of T. A. Orji in Lagos instead of Umuahia – to shield him from the rampaging EFCC – remain subjects of future sociological investigations.


On October 31, 2014, Maduekwe took a half-page advertorial in THISDAY, obviously paid by the Abia State Government, on grounds of the advertiser’s legendary inability to keep the wolf from the door, to shamelessly deny the discussions he held some time ago with Kalu. Such nonsensical rebuttals are not strange in Nigeria’s murky politics with a disposition for stomach infrastructure. It is easy for Maduekwe to recant because, obviously, there is no documentation or tape record of the discussion between him and Kalu. So, in the circumstance and in the current Project Dismantle Kalu by Umuahia, anything will suffice to cut him to size. And with willing and ever-ready horses of bankruptcy and bellicosity, such tasks become as easy as the reality of President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term unstoppable victory.
If I may ask, had Kalu wanted to lie, would the only possible name to invoke be Ojo Maduekwe? Come on, let’s wear our thinking caps. The last name Kalu would employ, assuming there was need for such immaturity and impropriety, would be that of Ojo Maduekwe, essentially because of Maduekwe’s instability – a weakness that is captured in the next paragraph. Kalu could not have been under any compulsion to drop names, as there was absolutely no need for that. He is merely giving a rendition of his selfless service to the people of Abia State for eight years. The good thing to note here is that most of the accounts of his stewardship, unknown to his detractors, were fully documented and archived. Anyone who reads them will acknowledge the painstaking depth of issues highlighted.
Is it not amazing that a man like Maduekwe, who staunchly and vehemently supported the crusade for the late Gen Sani Abacha’s perpetuity in office, is now a champion in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and one of the so-called PDP stalwarts in Abia State? In sane societies where one’s antecedents count in national matters, a person like Maduekwe, who participated in the Abuja rally for Abacha would have been consigned to old people’s home, especially when it is realised that all his life, he had depended on various governments for sustenance and survival! Why on earth will a man with such a pedigree be pontificating where people with impeccable character choose the path of responsibility and respect for their old age instead of being sent on vicious errands by young men in power? It will never be well with hunger that makes a man do just any dirty job for a governor in return for life-support peanuts. No matter the level of poverty, a man approaching the octogenarian age should comport himself and carry on with some measure of dignity. With no government job again, Maduekwe is hapless and needs handouts from Gov. Orji.
Maduekwe remains the worst Foreign Minister Nigeria has ever had! And to worsen matters, after his fleeting stint in charge of our external relations, Maduekwe agreed to serve as an ambassador in a country as small as Ogun State because ‘man must chop’ in government circles at all costs no matter the indignity associated with such absence of self-respect! If I were Maduekwe, I should be so ashamed of myself that I would let sleeping dogs lie. Since in any survivalist environment, oddities take place, do we, seriously speaking, need to blame this ‘government’s perpetual child’ who cannot live outside the coffers of official treasuries?
Another misfortune of Maduekwe is his law background does not translate to any professional distinction, as he had never won any landmark case, unlike his contemporaries. Even his younger colleagues have earned SAN title while he is content with being a loafer in the corridors of power most times. It is interesting to note that most of his mates, who were called to the Bar with him, have won landmark cases and contributed to the law corpus. Meanwhile, the local champion from Asaga, Ohafia in Abia State, is, at best, an off-and-on lawyer in government service – whether military or civilian administration – it does not matter as there are no scruples being loyal to the two extremities.
Gov. Orji must be given kudos for his rehabilitative latitude, which has guaranteed daily living for the select “elders” backing him and, of course, “The Patriots,” whose ad hoc mandate is to futilely diminish and deconstruct irrepressible Kalu. The only drawback is that money meant for the development of the most backward state in the world is diverted to reward loyalists, who orchestrate phantom legacies of Gov. Orji. Do you blame them really, in the wake of strangulating poverty? But there should be decorum with Maduekwe-type of interjection.
With this kind of volte-face by Maduekwe, Kalu should acquire microchips or multi-functional electronic devices like special pens and wrist-watches so that when dealing with such characters, as Maduekwe, he would generate recorded information in case of denials in the future on account of perfidy and cowardice by his detractors and their outgoing benefactor.
Maduekwe also ignorantly referred to Kalu’s “Leadership Series” in Saturday Sun, as “purported”. I just hope this government pikin understands the meaning of that word. If he is mischievously applying it wrongly to mean that the articles are not from Kalu’s fountain of knowledge, then there is need for a psychotic test for this Asaga fellow.
With Gov. Orji’s commendable (excuse the pun!) superfluous beneficence to ragamuffins, it would have been foolhardiness on Maduekwe’s part not to publicly disown Kalu since he has nothing to lose, keeping mum while the trite advertorial in question with his name and signature would enhance his monthly stipend from Government House, Umuahia! To that extent, Maduekwe’s disavowals make great sense.
According to Maduekwe, in the clownish advertorial, his greatest political achievement in life was “dismantling PPA and ensuring Gov. Orji’s return to the PDP.” As far as Maduekwe is concerned, he succeeded in routing Kalu’s political dynasty with that usual, common defection accomplishment. A little mind will always be. “There were certain assurances I personally gave Chief T. A. Orji about Orji Uzor Kalu to smoothen the former’s return to PDP, which I need not disclose here.” If this bloke is not a cowardly gossip, let him be courageous and manly enough to reveal his machinations in expectation of patronage, which is what is happening now. As an aside, dear reader, you could see the malicious contempt for irredeemably rebellious (to paraphrase Maduekwe) Kalu, who he disrespectfully addresses without any title, even if “Mr.”, but his benefactor is consistently “Chief”!
Maduekwe should be ashamed of himself for this wildcat brazenness. It is this brainless support that has left Abia in ruins while hungry elders, the so-called patriots and other nondescript accessories to the rape of Abia that has left the state in unparalleled ruin and has earned it the worst state in the world. How on earth can Ojo Maduekwe, a notorious Abacha apologist, who took part in the one-million-man national tragedy of incomparable magnitude in the FCT, be thoughtlessly ascribing “honour and principle” to himself? Do we still have psychoanalysts in this country? This Gov. Orji’s accomplice in the ruination of Abia needs to have his brain and psychological state examined.
And now, the last excerpt from the puerile and invidious advertorial: “His (Kalu) recent tirade against me, which I know will not be his last, does not require the dignity of a response.” How can it be the last after wilfully touching the tiger’s tail? If you do not have a skeleton in your cupboard, you will not be afraid of reactions. Only the guilty are always afraid! Let me assure this Abacha man that there will be more reactions, not from Kalu, perhaps, but other Nigerians and Britons, who know you more than yourself!
Red Skelton’s memorable passage is good for Maduekwe, as he takes his rantings to 80: “I don’t let old age bother me. There are three signs of old age. Loss of memory – I forget the other two!” This rationalises Maduekwe’s senility and selfish jettisoning of Kalu, who cannot butter his bread (and possibly had never!) unlike his successor, most especially now! Who do you believe his word: Kalu or Maduekwe? You already know my unassailable position.