Okorocha Outwits Ambode

Dipo’s Diary

During a training session on how to run NGO, 17 years ago, at the Goethe Institut in Lagos, I learnt some tricks on how to draw mass attention in weird ways.

The training was facilitated by the late Director of Goethe Institut, Renate Albertsen-Marton, may her soul rest in peace.

Someone mentioned raining down Naira notes with leaflets containing your message from the top of Oshodi Bridge on the multitude below. It was crazy, but it was accepted as one of the extraordinary ways of getting people to notice you.

Gov Rochas Okorocha of Imo State must have attended such training, because he has a knack for courting controversy to get people’s attention.

He must have been jealous of his counterpart in Lagos, Gov Akinwunmi Ambode, who was the focus of attention for weeks since he unveiled a controversial statue of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, near Alausa in Lagos.

In Okorocha’s case, people are not talking about the technical proficiency of the sculptor or the make-up of the composition. The talk this time is the relevance of the iconic sculptural piece of South African President, Jacob Zuma, which he has just mounted in the Eastern Heartland, Imo State.

With a population of over 4 million people, the state created on February 3, 1976, by the late Head of State, Gen Murtala Mohammed, has some world renowned citizens that could have been celebrated instead of Zuma whose people in South Africa have been in the news for killing Igbo men in their midst.

He could have even looked towards Anambra and Abia states to raise a statue in honour of the late world renowned Literary Giant, Chinua Achebe, or living football legend, Kanu Nwankwo.

Okorocha could have put up a statue for the Imo State-born track and field heroine, Chioma Ajunwa-Opara, or Our Mumu Don Do activist – Charley Boy.

Others include Pop Star, Onyeka Onwenu; trailblazing blogger, Linda Ikeji; past Imo leaders, such as the late weeping Gov Sam Mbakwe, the late Senate President, Evan Enwerem, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, or Chief Achike Udenwa, and better still, Nollywood stars like Genevieve Nnaji, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Rita Dominic, or Stephanie Okereke-Linus.

I would have mentioned Osita Iheme aka Pawpaw, but that’s not a big idea. The statue of such a diminutive figure could be passed unnoticed. Okorocha wants something that everybody will notice, whether you like it or not.

I love this saying by the Americans: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit. That’s it.

Footnote:

Thanks for reading the debut column of Dipo Kehinde, Dipo’s Diary, written in the style of a master of the art of the pen – the late Chief Victor Olabisi Onabanjo of the Aiyekooto series in the Daily Service, Daily Express and the Nigerian Tribune from 1954 till 1989. Like the Aiyekooto series, Dipo’s Diary will spare no subject. It will exhibit profound candor, concern, wit, incisiveness, and forthrightness. Watch out for more.

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