I read with pity, a poorly written piece by one Sufuyan Ojeifo on NewsDairyOnline (newsdiaryonline.com/marks-house-of-indolence-a-thesis-redolent-of-dishonesty-by-sufuyan-ojeifo/) and an edited version in the Nigerian Compass newspaper of Sunday 19th of May, 2013 where he attempted to defend his pay master, General David Mark.
The said article was a rejoinder to my widely published treatise on the Nigerian Senate titled David Mark’s Upper House of Indolence. It can be seen here http://t.co/XHjjGWhSZ5.
…Mr. Sufuyan refused to comment on issues with logical points, nor offer counter arguments with strong evidence to refute my publicly accepted postulations on the senate’s lackadaisical attitude towards issues of national discourse. He abandoned reason in a bid to hurriedly satisfy his benefactor – David Mark- who he claims to have been ‘covering’ since the subject got (s)elected into the upper legislature house. Ojeifo resorted to name calling and made nonsense of public discourse.
In opening his sentence, Ojeifo labored to take my name to the gutters with remarks like “I am not sure he ranks among the money men and women in Nigeria…” as if that has got a baring on the issues I raised in my piece. I would normally not join issues with such petty characters, but if we allow this kind of balderdash to continue, men who earn their daily bread by throwing mud for political office holders won’t look for respectable vocation to earn them a honest living.
Having drawn a wrong inference from my preferability of a single legislative house, the writer (though not worthy to be called one) illogically concluded that I was sponsored by Hon. Tambuwwal’s lower house of representative. He stated inter alia that “he was simply not smart enough to conceal the identity of his sponsor.” Bad news for his camp, I have no sponsor, save for my conscience and the dream of engifting a better Nigeria to my children.
I am yet to meet Hon. Tambuwwal, neither are we related in anyway. In fact, we are not from the same geopolitical zone. Between, men of good conscience must rise up to defend a good cause and speak truth to power.
Considering the ‘bunkum’ Ojeifo strewn together in both articles published so far, I owe the general public a duty to educate them against the likes of Ojeifo who is bent on spreading their ‘senatorial’ propaganda.
The writer stated in his rejoinder that “his mission was to unjustifiably INCITE the public against the institution of the senate by trying to establish a negative nexus between the funding of the senate and the alleged non-performance that reside only in his imagination.” One good question begging for answer is does Ojeifo knows what it means to ‘Incite the public’?
Incite according to the Oxford Dictonary means to encourage or stir up (violent or unlawful behavior), urge or persuade (someone) to act in a violent or unlawful way.
How did my article incite the public against the institution of the senate? Does it change the fact that at the end of Mr. Mark’s tenure as the senate president, a total of N2.4billion would have been spent to service him alone? Or does his paymaster believe this is still the military era where the law of sedition can be used to muzzle journalistic efforts? Apparently, the Benue senator presently wishes his dream of censoring the social media is very active.
By stating an as achievement, the fact that David Mark’s upper house has had less friction with the executive arm compared to his predecesors speaks volume of the mind of those who rule us.
Really, I think it’s folly replying such unreasonable piece.
Lastly, it behoves on political office holders to ’employ’ intelligent opinion writers…
Kikiowo Ileowo is a public commentator and the Editor of The Paradigm. You can follow him on twitter via @ileowo4ever