Why Is Mr. Odi Ikpeazu, Father to Mimiy Ikpeazu, Attacking Mr. Peter Obi to the Point of Questioning His Cognitive Abilities?
A Facebook user, Charles Ogbu has expressed strong disapproval over recent remarks credited to Mr. Odi Ikpeazu — father of Mimiy Ikpeazu, an APGA candidate for the Onitsha North 1 constituency in the Anambra State House of Assembly by-election scheduled for this Saturday — in which he allegedly went as far as questioning the cognitive abilities of former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi.
The user questioned why such a personal attack was necessary merely because Obi chose to support Mrs. Justina Azuka, the widow of slain Justice Azuka, for the vacant seat. The post stressed that Obi, like every other Nigerian, has the inalienable right to support any candidate of his choice, without being vilified for it.
The Facebook post went on to highlight the long-standing political influence of the Ikpeazu family in Onitsha:
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Linda Ikpeazu, a former House of Representatives member, served for over a decade.
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Nkemdiche Ikpeazu spent years in the State Assembly and now serves as a commissioner.
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Mimiy Ikpeazu, the current APGA candidate, worked for years as a legislative aide to Linda Ikpeazu.
The user then asked pointedly: Is Onitsha’s political leadership the hereditary preserve of the Ikpeazu family? Is competence restricted to them alone?
The post argued that Peter Obi’s support for Mrs. Azuka should not be treated as a political affront, especially considering that the late Justice Azuka was brutally murdered and stripped of dignity even in death, with justice still elusive. The writer recalled that in 2017, APGA fielded Mrs. Nkoli Mmegbuanaeze in a by-election to replace her late husband, a precedent that makes the current outrage seem hypocritical.
The Facebook user further advised Mr. Ikpeazu to focus on promoting his daughter’s candidacy rather than publicly attacking others for their choices.
However, the post also criticized Peter Obi for what it described as “political reluctance” in his home state. The user urged him to return to Anambra to actively campaign for candidates he supports, warning that Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo — who backs Mimiy Ikpeazu — and his allies might work with the APC-led federal government to ensure Obi’s preferred candidate loses, just to dent his political image.
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The opinion ended with a rallying call for Mrs. Azuka’s supporters to be vigilant and ready to defend their votes this Saturday.
Excerpt From Charles Ogbu
Why is Mr. Odi Ikpeazu, father to Mimiy Ikpeazu attacking Mr. Peter Obi to the point of questioning his cognitive abilities merely because he (Obi) chose to support Mrs Justina Azuka the wife of the slain Justice Azuka for the vacant position of Onitsha North 1 constituency in the Anambra legislature in the election coming up this Saturday?
Does Mr. Obi not have the inalienable right to support any candidate he chooses? Must everyone support Mr. Odi’s daughter, Mimiy who, by the way, is as qualified for the position as the other candidates including Mrs Azuka?
Linda Ikpeazu occupied a House of Representatives seat for over a decade.
Nkemdiche Ikpeazu spent yearS in the State House and is now a serving commissioner
Mimi, currently contesting for the House of Assembly under APGA, served Linda for yearS as a legislative aide.
Is Onitsha the political inheritance of the Ikpeazu family or is competence restricted to only the Ikpeazus? Why should only one family be allowed to monopolize the Onitsha political leadership for yearS to the point that people like Mr. Peter Obi should be mentioned in the same sentence with ‘cognitive deficiency’ simply for exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right?
What sort of entitlement mentality is this?
And as I type, the state governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo is currently supporting Mimi as the APGA candidate for Saturday’s election. So what exactly is wrong in Mr. Peter Obi choosing to support the widow of the former occupant of that office who was brutally killed and stripped of dignity even in death with Justice still elusive?
Mr. Odi argues that legislative acumen is not sexually transmissible but neither is it genetically transmissible.
If it was okay for APGA to field Mrs. Nkoli Mmegbuanaeze in the August 16, 2017 by-election to replace her husband, Francis Mmegbuanaeze who passed away after participating in the primary election, why has it suddenly become a crime to do the same today especially when the competence and qualification of Mrs. Justina is not in doubt?
I sincerely will advise Mr. Ikpeazu to focus on supporting his candidate who happens to be his daughter and allow others like Mr. Obi to support their own candidate.
My only pain in this is that Mr. Obi is still reluctant in playing real politics in Anambra, his home state. He needs to come home and spend some time to support candidates for political positions, aggressively campaign for them across the state. He has the political capital. He has the war chest and he has the ORGANIC SUPPORT of the people. So why is he allowing Soludo and his group make him seem like a politician without a political muscle in his own state????
Finally, I sincerely hope the supporters of Mrs. Justina are prepared to defend their votes come this Saturday because I’m reasonably certain that Soludo will do anything, with full support from the APC led federal govt, to ensure that the candidate supported by Mr. Obi does not win just so they could say the former LP presidential candidate could not deliver ordinary house of assembly seat even in his own state
Exccerpt From Odi Ikeazu
PETER’S PITY PARTY
I write this without prejudice to the freedom of individuals to exercise their personal partisan political preferences.
That notwithstanding, Peter Obi’s rationale for declaring ADC’s candidate perfect for the vacant Onitsha North 1 Anambra State legislative seat, justifies my apprehension concerning the cognitive deficiency of much of Nigeria’s leadership.
Looking back at the intellectual character of our leaders in 1960 – Azikiwe, Balewa, Awolowo, Mbu, Ibiam and many more – one might have easily assumed that sixty years later, the new leaders should have vastly improved in cerebral terms.
By the logical extension and progression of the evolution of species, the leaders of today should normally have evolved into near-geniuses.
Unfortunately, it seems that, just as the quality of the leaders has regressed, so the civic mentality of the citizenry has achieved an optimum capacity for reverse acceleration.
No wonder when a huge swathe of them claim that some specific persons are great leaders, a meditative bystander would be flabbergasted, wondering exactly why and how on earth they could possibly have arrived at such an incongruous conclusion!
Last December, the ADC’s aspirant had the gross misfortune of having been widowed by way of the tragic and regrettable death of her husband, at the hands of gunmen.
Just before then, the hapless young man was a legislator in the Anambra House of Assembly, competently representing the Constituency that is presently in contention.
Up then steps the widow to contest the seat, which she does have every right to. This is especially so in our locality, where legislative, intellectual or political experience is almost unnecessary for people, who aspire to legislative or political service.
Nevertheless, it still makes sense that where two or more contestants are gathered to vie for any position as important as legislative responsibility, a decent measure of relevant experience or proclivity should be the prime consideration.
From my exasperated observation of contemporary Nigerian sociopolitics, it would appear that Obi is put forward by a cross-section as a front-runner for apex national leadership. This surely makes me squirm and sigh in wistful nostalgia, leaving me pining for those heady days of erudite leaders prior to 1960 and a little afterwards.
Be that as it may, since we can neither reinvent the wheel nor change the things we cannot, let us for one minute (not a moment more, please!) take it that Obi is indeed that hoped-for leader of some people’s make-believe.
In that case, any person with a modicum of cerebrum, would imagine that any utterances emanating from such a character, should tick the boxes of sagacity, rationale and at least, a little didactic sophistication.
Obi boldly and unequivocally pronounced the candidate as suitable for the Assembly by reason of the passing of her spouse, as if legislative acumen is sexually transmissible
That should ordinarily have been shocking but it definitely does not come as such to me, having been following the circus of the past couple of years, with some people so desperate for a Messiah that they have to fabricate one.
Impudently, the fictional superhero, in all his supreme vacuousness, even went on to gaslight those who pointed out the candidate’s utter lack of pertinent antecedent, brazenly suggesting that such people were ruthless, pitiless, remorseless and heartless.
It did not occur to him that such people were only pointing out the obvious and therein lies the pity.
Instead, he implicitly nominated himself as that proverbial knight in shining armour, coming to the rescue of the poor damsel in distress.
To the dispassionate observer, his assertions are typically corny, a trademark excercise in ingratiating banality.
In this reptilian manner, he has quite cunningly seduced many willing denizens, the way a number of infamous demagogues have done, especially in the South East.
By extrapolation, the wife of a murdered carpenter should immediately be handed a hammer and saw, chisel and pinches.
With that, she may proceed to complete the furniture that her dearly departed beloved had been constructing. The non-existence of apprenticeship or understudy is no object.
By the way, how about poor Jacqueline Kennedy, who was right besides her darling John, when Lee Harvey Oswald shot at his brains as they drove through downtown Dallas, Texas that fateful day in 1963?
She should surely have been sworn in as the 36th President of the United States the next day, if they had heeded in advance, the future wisdom of the Third World’s Saint Peter.
Just maybe though, the Americans ignored him because they suspected that being Peter, with his heart hewn out of rock, he would have thrice denied them before the cock crowed at dawn