By COLLINS Ughalaa
Comedy, like music, is food for the soul; but
bad music could be very nauseating. Likewise a bad comedian, instead of
entertaining the audience has the tendency to annoy, to irritate; and what the
comedian gets most of the time is that while he is shouting himself hoarse on
the stage, the audience is withdrawing home, and those who perhaps do not want
to go home begin to sleep. In all, a bad comedian is bad business; he does not move
anybody and he is usually deserted by the same people he thinks he is
entertaining.
This irritating comedy is what Chima Anozie,
aka Home Base, is engaging in. This irritating comedy has become his trade,
yes, his trade mark. He is behaving like one of our masquerades called Mgbagbo. Mgbagbo, a masquerade in
Obudi Agwa Autonomous Community has the notoriety of having no respect for
anybody, including respect for the young, women, elderly, and even his own
“parents”. He draws no difference between the natives and the strangers: he
bulldozes anything and everything on his way and what he enjoys is the shouts
of praise from the people; from the same people who cannot dare come close to
him, who cannot tame him, and who do not like him and what he does, but only
cheers him on; for his nuisance value. That is what I see Home Base doing: he
is destroying everything and anything in sight just to gain political relevance
in Orji, and like the masquerade described above, he is doing so without
respect to anybody, even to his own “parents” – those that made him.
And this attitude is also reminiscent of the
proverbial nwanza that had his
fill and challenged the gods to a duel. The consequence? It did not live to
tell the story. Again, there is lesson in the fable of the hen that swallowed a
needle. It too did not live to boast about it. Then came Chinua Achebe’s ever
green warning, that those whose kernels are cracked for them by the gods should
not be ungrateful. In this era when many people shy away from assisting others
grow, those who have benefitted from other people’s philanthropy should not
despise those who are their benefactors. It has serious consequences.
For the sake of those who do not know, Home
Base comes from Orji in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State, and by
profession he is an Estate Surveyor. I hear he is a brilliant chap, but what he
seems to have in quantum is lack of respect. He is arrogant, and this has not
gone on well with him. Yes, he is a Lawyer too, but some people said he attended
night school; that may not be relevant. What is relevant is that he has
acquired the said knowledge, and we can’t take it from him. But my people have
a saying that when Amadioha begins to misbehave the elder would disclose the
tree from which it was made. The issue of Home Base attending a night school
might not have surfaced if he had not been disrespectful to his elders and
benefactors, to those higher than him and those who made him.
Home Base was the former Managing Director of
Owerri City Development Agency (OCDA), an agency of government that takes care
of development issues in Owerri, and by all measures, the MD of OCDA is a
powerful person. But like every other transient thing on earth, Home Base lost
his job. Yes, no condition is permanent, even though I am forced to agree that
Home Base thought that his appointment as the MD of OCDA would be permanent. He
did not believe he could leave the office. Such thinking belongs only to the
insane. And of course, he had not seen such power and influence in his life, so
when he woke up and found himself to be the MD of OCDA he saw himself as the
biggest thing and person in Orji. And as characteristic of him, he began to
raise his shoulders and to see himself as the beginning and the end and to talk
down on every other leader in the area, including those that paid his school
fees. And by the way, Home Base’ entry into OCDA was the Governor’s strategy to
continue to hold influence in Orji following the exit of the member
representing Owerri Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Reps, Hon
Ezenwa Onyewucchi, from the Governor’s All Progressives Congress (APC) to the
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The search for continued relevance in Orji
produced Home Base as the MD of OCDA.
And of course, power corrupts. A story is
told that Home Base, upon assuming duty as the MD of OCDA began to brag that
the Governor brought him to OCDA to help redeem the agency; that he would talk
about the agency as failure and that only him could fix things there. There is
another story that he did not show any respect to the Commissioner for Land and
Survey, Hon Uche Nwosu, the Governor’s in-law, and by implication, the
Governor’s first son. It was said that Home Base would go to the office of the
Commissioner and cross his legs while talking to him. It was also said that
Home Base bragged that he made the Commissioner and that it was him that saw
the Commissioner through school; and it was said that the Commissioner took
exception to that but refused to confront the MD who was one of his staff.
The story did not end there. There was
another story that he picked quarrel with the Chairman of the OCDA Board, and
that it was this quarrel that led to his inglorious ouster. First, it was said
that he did not show respect to his boss, the OCDA Board Chairman, Hon Chris
Ubah. It was also said that he never listened to Ubah and did things the way he
wanted. For example, it was said that he went on vacation abroad without
informing the OCDA Board Chairman and without getting the Governor’s approval.
While he was gone the Governor asked about him and the Chairman said to the
Governor “that is the kind of man we have as the MD; he went on vacation
without anybody’s notice.” The Governor, it was said, did not take this
lightly. And while Home Base was still vacating abroad, his job slipped off his
feet. And now he is out of the government circle. He thought that in the event
of a quarrel between him and Ubah the Governor would chose to kick Ubah out. He
thought to be more relevant to the Governor that Ubah. But that is a naked lie.
Ubah is a strong politician in Imo State and he has his followers. Ubah was the
state Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN); and what was
Home Base? Ubah has played major roles in the politics of the state over the
years, and it is only a neophyte that could kick Ubah out and retain Home Base.
And of course, the Governor saw that it was better for him to keep Ubah and
kick Home Base out. He did that just, and nobody was there to plead for him.
Not even his claim of being the leader of Orji politics could save him or stop
the Governor from kicking him out. And truth be told, the Governor knows that
his claim of being the leader of Orji is nothing but a ruse. It is a booboo
trap. The Governor knew that he could sacrifice Ubah for Home Base. There was
no reason for doing that. Even if Ubah commits all the sins in the world there
is no way the Governor can sacrifice him for somebody like Home Boy. What
for?
Since losing his OCDA job Home Base has been
going about raising all manners of threat against the state government in the
form media publications and he has secured the services of some media houses to
launder his image and make him appear so important so that he could be
considered for another job or for reappointment in OCDA. He is going about
insinuating that he would defect from the APC to another party in a bid to get
the arms of the government twisted. But the Governor is not swallowing this
pill. But from which party does he want to defect? Form APC? Is he actually a
member of the APC? Does he have APC membership card? Is he APC in the day and
another party at night? Is he APC in the flesh and another party in the spirit?
Was he not the same person who helped fight the APC in Orji? Was he not among
the persons who distributed money for the PDP against the APC in Orji?
Home Base thinks his attachment to the Chief
Of Staff, Sir Jude Ejiogu, will save him. But he goofed. His antic is that of a
desperate man seeking nothing but relevance in Orji and in government circle.
He insinuates he is defecting from the APC and debunking same, to give the
impression that his “defection” could be of some consequence. Who cares what
party he belongs to? Home Base claims to be the leader of Orji politics when he
has nothing to show for it. As the leader of Orji politics, which politician
has he made? Which politician has he helped get to power? Which politician has
he sponsored? What is his grassroots influence? Who are his followers? What
structure does he have? When Home Base contested election under the platform of
the All Nigeria Peoples party (ANPP) he did not win, he lost.
You don’t become a leader by proclaiming to
be one; you become leader by concrete actions taken which are recognizable by
the people who then recognize you are their leader. A leader is recognized,
accepted and not proclaimed. If leadership were by proclamation we could have
just everyone as leader because everyone could just come and proclaim his own
leadership. Leadership is not is not sold in Ekeonunwa Market! It is serious
business. How can Home Base be the leader of Orji politics in the midst of the
people like Hon Ezenwa Onyewuchi, Prince Lemmy Akakem and others who have
become king makers and rain makers over the years? Yes, they make the rain, and
for people like Home Base who show ingratitude and disrespect, they make the
rain fall on their day.
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