By Sunday Adigun
True to his character, Steve Osuji left the issues and descended into his accustomed habitat (the gutter) in his latest column entitled “Femi Fani-Kayode and Tinubu’s hollow strategists”. Though ashamed to properly introduce himself, Osuji’s present menial job is marketing Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party. That hatchet job of his was supposed to be a response to an unflattering essay earlier written by Femi Fani-Kayode on the chances of Obi in the forthcoming general elections.
As an occasional contributor to The Nation newspapers, I found Osuji’s article completely in bad taste and a study in betrayal and perfidy, given the little I know of the writer who quite admitted in the said piece that he sat on the editorial board of the newspaper for ten years (!) and yet his conscience still permitted him to spew such cruel things about his former colleagues. I shall return to this later.
To start with, there is nothing illegitimate in joining issues with a commentator in the tradition of public debate. As it is increasingly getting clearer, marketing Obi has virtually turned a lucrative enterprise for a horde of idle or unemployable folks like this provincial clown from Imo State. No problem at all. But even on such a demeaning errand, Osuji’s own predilection for incompetence, treachery and perfidy again shown through. First, let us expose the drooping rump of this poor hatchet-man on the issue of professional competence. The thrust of FFK’s piece essentially was to showcase Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s impressive testimonial from Lagos (where he had the privilege of serving as governor between 1999 and 2007) as a better equipped contender to the presidential perch on the platform of All Progressives Congress.
To contest FFK’s claims, what a competent salesman would simply do is highlight Obi’s own records in such an adroit manner that projects a far superior argument. Of course, there is no sterling records to flaunt here, other than insults, threat, vitriol, virulence and verbal diarrhea. Hence, Osuji instinctively shifted to the default mode of fallacy, slander and libel. When, for instance, fourth-grade media spin doctors like him assembled by Obi reportedly floated the idea of staging a “mobilization talk-shop” named “Nija Lives Matter” in Lagos, the big puzzle is why they chose Lagos and not Obi’s own Anambra or Osuji’s Imo State where innocent Nigerians get killed daily by suspected IPOB/ESN militants. As a matter of fact, a Senator representing Obi’s state at the National Assembly, Ifeanyi Uba, narrowly escaped death only last weekend, with no fewer than his eight persons (including his security details) callously butchered. Relatively, Lagos could not be said to have recorded as much wanton killings lately or in a long time for that matter. So, shouldn’t such “Nija Lives Matter” advocacy not have been kickstarted where we have witnessed more killings motivated either by perverse politics and pure criminality?
Of course, the answer is, to borrow Bob Dylan’s metaphor, blowing in the wind. It is all illustrative of the campaign of hypocrisy and lies Obi and his media hirelings are seeking to wage against the nation.
Rather than address the real issues being canvassed by Tinubu’s supporters, Osuji, the miserable clown and obviously a failed journalist, chose to launch a scurrilous attack on those he conveniently chose to tag “Tinubu’s media strategists” but who I choose to see more as the source of Osuji’s bitter envy. In his fertile but warped imagination, this “dibia”(native doctor) claimed (or divined?) that a “strategy media meeting” held where it was agreed that an “offensive” be launched against Obi, his paymaster. I am glad respected journalist, Dele Momodu, whom Osuji also listed to be among “Tinubu’s media strategists” already released a terse statement where he debunked this, pointedly accusing the writer of continuing a campaign of calumny against him borne out of malicious envy. The widely regarded Ovation publisher cited Osuji’s similarly jaundiced article two years ago when he turned 60. I can’t agree more.
One, Momodu is known to have contested for PDP’s presidential ticket at their convention held in May in Abuja. So, how could Momodu at the same time be one of “Tinubu’s media strategists”? With this obvious lie, it can be seen that Osuji, who turned 60 recently, is driven more by psychotic envy of his age-mates who have achieved more in life out of hard work and being men of stable character unlike him. Look at Dele Alake who became editor of a national newspaper in the 80s (when he as about 30-year-old) and similarly acquitted himself creditably as two-term Lagos Commissioner of Information and Strategy (under Tinubu). Or is it Sam Omatseye who, at 60, was already a recipient of the much coveted National Productivity Award, a member of the prestigious Nigerian Academy of Letters, a prolific author whose prodigious writings cut cross novel, drama and poetry and is arguably Nigeria’s newspaper columnist with the biggest haul of awards in the last decade? These are the great achievers that underachieving Osuji tried to belittle out of petty envy!
In his poorly executed hatchet job, I think Osuji only succeeded in exposing his own despicable character as an incorrigible ingrate and serpent. I shook my head in great shock reading all the nonsense Steve wrote on Asiwaju in the said article, the same man who owns The Nation where he worked for ten years and received salaries without fail, simply because he has a new paymaster in Obi now! When I also read his wicked line on Sam, I shuddered to imagine, if it was not the same Sam that gave Osuji a financial succor sometime last year when he was broke. I challenge Osuji to deny this, because I was with someone who called Sam to thank him on Steve’s behalf for his generosity. While working at The Nation, Osuji had the reputation of a compulsive and shameless beggar. To the extent that many colleagues began to wonder whether he was squandering his salaries on women and booze.
In the aforementioned article, he also viciously attacked Segun Ayobolu, his erstwhile colleague on The Nation editorial board. But I have it on a good authority that the same Ayobolu who he now called unprintable names once took him to Asiwaju for financial help. By the time Asiwaju finished hearing his lamentations of how he could not feed his family bla bla bla that day, he reportedly angrily put a call through to the Managing Director of The Nation to explain why the management could not support a senior editorial staff in need; only to be told that Osuji just got a big loan he had applied for. Regardless, Asiwaju typically still gave him some financial support that day. Now, look at what he is writing on not just Ayobolu but also Asiwaju!
It is important to add that The Nation had offered Osuji rehabilitation in 2011 after he became jobless following the defeat of Governor Ikedi Ohakim of PDP by Rochas Okorocha of APGA in the Imo governorship polls. Of course, even before Ohakim lost the governorship, Osuji had fallen out of favor with his boss as a result of his dubious and treacherous character. Whereas fellow professional journalists like Dr. Amanze Obi and Ethelbert Okere performed creditably and were generally respected by the family of journalists in Owerri back then, Osuji was a corrosive and divisive element. Reason he was kicked out of the Douglas House in Owerri as Chief Press Secretary and given a soft landing with reassignment as General Manager of the state-owned tabloid called “Statesman”. Typically, the fortune of the newspaper only further nosedived as soon as Osuji took charge. Apparently, Ohakim did not know that his hire had similarly performed as a mortician and undertaker at Lagos-based New Age newspaper where he was the last editor before the publication was buried.
I choose to save the story of Osuji’s misadventure in Owerri for another day.
Mr. Adigun, a freelance journalist, is based in Lagos.
