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I have taken time to watch the video below on what Distinguished Senator Uche Ekwunife (Iyom) said at the flagoff of the PDP presidential campaign in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. I decided to get the video and watch it against the stories making the rounds that she called Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party a “kindergarten president”.
Many ObiDient followers have latched in on this falsehood to lampoon Senator Uche Ekwunife and say without facts that she ran down their principal and as such she “will lose her Senate return”.
I’d always insist that facts are sacred while opinions remain free. That is what I was taught in Mass Communications school. I always insist on seeing with my two eyes before I conclude. Call me Thomas, I’d remain doubtful until I’m completely convinced by available facts.
I am glad I did on this issue because I had started wondering why Iyom should make Peter Obi the center of her campaign speech when the two of them are not competing for the same office. Watching this video has assuaged my feelings.
Now, before I analyse what she said at the campaign, as contained in this video, let me remind folks that Senator Ekwunife has the inalienable right to campaign for her party’s candidate and for herself. She’s of the PDP and has every right to take on all the party’s opponents if that will give her and the party electoral advantage. It is politics and not ‘nzuko Umunna’.
On this video, Senator Ekwunife spoke about the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and said what the country needs is “someone that (who) understands the economy of this nation, someone that (who) understands all sectors of Nigeria, someone who understands the diversity…we have total package in (the) Atiku-Okowa ticket”.
Continuing, she said “we don’t want a kindergarten president. We want a strong president. Stop telling us the problems – we know the problems – tell us the solutions. Atiku has the solutions to Nigeria’s problems”.
Now, if I were the ObiDient people, I’d feel insulted that some people took the name of Peter Obi and infused it in Senator Ekwunife’s speech and assumed by using the word ‘kindergarten’, she was referring to Peter Obi. This is insulting, not just to Peter Obi, but to all rationale people who support his ambition.
Senator Ekwunife never called Peter Obi “kindergarten president”. There is nothing she said in the speech that alluded to Peter Obi as being a kindergarten.
Folks should stop this campaign of calumny and what we refer to as social media lynching. I am not, will not, be part of it. It is sickening, to say the least.
We are in a season of campaign and everybody has the right to support and campaign for their preferred choices. It breeds anarchy when we troll and profile opponents hoping to gain some electoral advantage.
Senator Uche Ekwunife never called Peter Obi’s by name in her speech. She never alluded to him either. She spoke like the politician she is and folks are taking her speech out of context.
Stop it!
