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Still on Emmanuel Ogebe's Laundromat

March 15, 2009

Image removed.I have followed with keen interest the exchanges between the respected columnist, Professor Pius Adesanmi, and Mr Emmanuel Isha Ogebe in Sahara Reporters and I wish to weigh in on the side of the implications of Professor Adesanmi’s submissions for national discourse. It is not entirely surprising that Mr. Ogebe left issues unaddressed and resorted to unwise personal attacks in his rejoinder to Professor Adesanmi’s well-articulated piece. It just so happens that I shared the Professor’s sentiments when I read some of Mr Ogebe’s essays in The Guardian last year. Apart from the fact that he signed some of those essays as a “legal consultant” to the Nigerian government – a most unwise thing to do given the public perception of his father’s role in the tragedy of the 2007 elections – I also found it amusing that Mr Ogebe actually seems to take himself seriously as a contributor to national discourse rather than the family laundromat that Professor Adesanmi describes him to be.



For as long as he refuses to see issues in proper perspective and for as long as he refuses to confront the reality that his father sold his conscience and the future of Nigeria for a paltry pot of porridge, we the people must continue to drum the truth in his ears. He is welcome to hide in America and write rubbish in the vain attempt to rewrite history. He will fail in that endeavor. We must remind him that Ibrahim Babangida has spent millions trying to smuggle himself into a nice corner of history. He has hired more competent writers than Mr Ogebe to write books, articles, and organize all kinds of symposia to lauder his image. He has failed woefully because he mistakes the legendary short memory of Nigerians for stupidity.

Mr Ogebe is making the same mistake. He seems to believe that Nigerians are fools. My advice to him is to face his business in America and forget about trying to launder the soiled name of his family. If it is any consolation, it was not his doing. His father is responsible for his own tragic actions. Mr Ogebe should take Professor Adesanmi’s advice and respect the emotions and hurt feelings of Nigerians. He is only adding more to his father’s sins by trying to tell us that white is black and black is white. It is an assault on our psyche to have anybody named Ogebe lecture us the way Mr Emmanuel Ogebe has been going about it and very arrogantly too.

His lame attacks on Professor Adesanmi only serve to underscore and concretise the points the Professor is making. Besides personal abuse, I just did not see any meat in Ogebe’s rejoinder. Nothing whatsoever that could dent the solidity of the Professor’s argument. Like one other commentator has said, readers of Sahara Reporters will put essays side by side and conclude that Mr Ogebe has no point. He is just a spoilt brat trying to launder Daddy’s soiled image. Mr Emmanuel Ogebe should find better use for his time in America. It’s no use trying to convince anybody that his father’s Supreme Court slot was not a reward for the sale of his conscience. If Emmanuel Ogebe wants to rant and rave, let him get mad at his Daddy for ruining the Ogebe name. They are on the wrong side of history.

 Jide Adebola, Lagos.
 

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