The Unintelligent Blogger as Opposition

 

It is patently clear that a syndicate that specializes in defamatory writings has converged on Anambra as a scene of desolation. They have come together to vilify the government of Anambra State with so much hate. Their malignant pieces are fast metastasizing and if unchecked, with equal rage, may debilitate their target.

This piece, in a sense, is not a rebuttal as there was nothing to refute in all of their claims against the government of the state. The track record of the same government which, they are bent on making of no reputation, will surely take some beating. As I read some of the deleterious pieces like Obiano being ill-prepared to be governor or his wife slapping the wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Oby Okeke at a Church service and more recently, an alleged crisis that has hit APGA, tearing Obiano and Umeh apart among others. I couldn’t but shudder at the type of scheme which the mind can be stirred.     

The bulk of the defamatory essays find greater expression on the net possibly because, unlike the print media, this medium exacts no responsibility on offending bloggers. It also allows for mediocre writing which hardly survives the rigours of the print media. More than that, the vast profusion of the stories published in the blogs comes from the same stable with slight alterations to give the impression of varied authorship. Unbeknown to many, a serial liar writes the offending pieces without byline, while a discourteous publisher brazens out the odious publications. It does not matter to these men the level of odium which their activities have brought upon them. With mindless relish, they distort facts and publish them as news stories just to score cheap political point. Even when it is obvious they have run flush out of idea (which is often the case) they still upload lies on the net just to slake a primitive desire for lucre.  Nothing can be more brazen.  

Take for example the alleged altercation between the First Lady, Mrs. Obiano and the wife of the Deputy Governor; Mrs. Oby Okeke. This story came on the heels of many other rehashed lies told by the same syndicate without compunction. But for the rebuttal from the Anglican Bishop of Awka, Rt. Rev. Dr. Alexander Ibezim, in whose church the alleged slapping took place, most readers might have believed the concoction. Appalled by the development, and not wishing to accord it any iota of credibility by remaining silent when rebuttal should suffice, the Bishop made the following statement: “I was with the wife of the Anambra Sate Governor, Chief Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano who also represented her husband. We were together with the Deputy Governor, Dr. Nkem Okeke and his wife Oby and no such thing happened until I escorted them when they were going. It is all lies. You can imagine my surprise when people were calling my wife and I over something we knew nothing about or any person at the event, that such happened at the dedication service for our son, Joshua. I can’t imagine the shock and revulsion felt by the wife of the governor and the deputy governor over such fabrication. My advice to them is that they should see it as one of those things that come with being in public office and ignore that and move on”.

I decided to quote copiously from the cleric just to buttress the ridiculousness of the blogger and his story. Determined to walk on the highway of perdition, the writer failed to realize he was almost bringing the institution of the Church to disrepute. I blush at this queer obsession to distort every story and present same as credible. It beats me as to how a decent mind can tell lies with the ease of breaking wind. What could be responsible? Is it lucre or vengeance? Or even both? Even the story on APGA crisis and the parting of ways between Obiano and Umeh was not told any better. Preliminary elections by parties, for the selection of candidates for elective offices, often bring about disagreement. It is not peculiar to APGA. Reporting same to mean that crisis has sundered the party, pitting Obiano against Umeh, is vintage stories from the syndicated bloggers. The story must be tailored to sully the image of the government of the state. Any other reporter would have told the story with a measure of disinterestedness but not the syndicate. They have since disobliged the good people of Anambra State by abandoning news dissemination for bruiting of lies on the net.          

Lest the reader misconstrues this piece to mean that Obiano’s government is beyond reproach. Not in the least. No government is without shortcomings. None ever will be. I admit of no such government, but opposition must be seen to be constructive otherwise it becomes a bit imbecilic and history will be most unkind. “No government”, wrote Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister in the mid-Victorian period of anti-imperialism, “Can be long secure without formidable opposition”. So far all the attempts made by the syndicated bloggers to cause the government down, rather than achieve that objective, have advanced it. The target audience - the good people of Anambra state – is not rash. They can easily tell a capital B from a bull’s leg. There is still time for the syndicate to change course or risk their readership because nobody wants to be on the net just to read trash.    

Ejike Anyaduba writes from Abatete