DAKKADAMACIN has made me mad with Uncle Musa over Nsibiet John

BY ASSAM ABIA

This is the second time I am writing a public letter to a public servant under the influence of drugs. The first was an epistle to Governor Udom Emmanuel June last year. DAKKADAMACIN is a powerful stimulant manufactured by a first class banker, an astute manager, a great patriot, a Deacon, an Akwaibomite, a governor who does not stomach nonsense from idiots, my amiable Governor Udom Emmanuel. The stimulant, better known as action enhancement drug is the only doping medicine that cannot be detected by FIFA against sports men.

I took 400 miligrammme of it last night, an overdose, because I felt so bad. My mood last night can best be described as egregious. Why could I have sank into such a depression, to warrant me to succumb to hard drugs such as DAKKADAMACIN.

It is about the deputy Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Moses Ekpo. I prefer to call him uncle Musa. The reason is best known to me. He may need to arrest me to explain to the police why I prefer to address him as Musa and I will tell those guys that we should go and stare at each other in court. Modernity indeed.

What has he done wrong to depress me, you may ask. I got a call from a friend few hours before I drugged myself. Barrister David Augustine on the other side of the line had called to remind me that the alleged libel case between whoever and Mr.Nsibiet John, Publisher of the INK Newspaper comes up on Monday February 13, 2017.

Immediately he draped, torrents of thoughts flew past my mind, invoking memories of how Mr. MoseEkpo ordered thearrest of Nsibiet John penultmate week and arraigned him in court the following day for writing a story of 250 million security vote. I remembered the dehumanizing experience Nsibiet reportedly went through in the hands of the police while in detention for performing his constitutional duty.

Then I remembered the call by His Excellency, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State who asked me to RISE in defense of truth, in defense of rule of law, in defense of freedom of the press and in defense of democracy. So, I went for DAKKADAMACIN and took more than the prescribed 200 milligrame. As I write this piece, I am high. I am sanely mad with uncle Musa.

In 1992, during president Babangida’s militancy administration, uncle Musa, now a veteran journalist wrote a brilliant piece castigating the military junta for their insincerity of returning the country to civilian rule.

He nicknamed Babangida as a “Maradona” and even fell short of calling the military president murderer of Dele Giwa. Uncle Musa had been a fearless journalist in his hare days. He had never for once been arrested for performing his constitutional duty even when there was no press freedom then as we have it now.

The deputy Governor is a seasoned journalist, a veteran like me. He has to his credit wealth of knowledge in governance spanning over three decades. He knows how to handle issues relating to perceived libel without raising suffocating dust. He knows how to “Play the ball” when one is in a tight corner.

He knows that no tyrant has ever fought the media and won, He knows that Abak is Annang and that Annang and Ekid are brethren. The man seems to know all but fail to know that by arresting Nsibiet John, he has arrested well over 500 pen pushers in Akwa Ibom State for nothing. 

Nsibiet John is one of the finest journalists we have in Akwa Ibom. He does not swim in shark-infested waters of speculation and hear-say. His brand of journalism is anchored on the ethics of the profession. If he had written that the deputy Governor goes home with 250 milliom security vote monthly and the number 2 citizen of the state finds the story misleading, what he should have done was for him to put his media team in action to prove the story wrong or he goes through the media council of Nigeria.

However,the deputy Governor has exonerated himself from the matter but it is hard to believe him. If truly Mr. Ekpo does not have a hand in the matter, what legal right does any other person has to question the authenticity of the story?

The arrest of Mr. John has irked people like me to want to dig into why the story has sent fears in the spines of “an old woman when dry bones are mentioned”.

2019 is around the corner, and I think Oga Musa will definitely want his boss go for a second term. If so, he should do everything possible to clear the coast including mending fence with his “former constituency. The pen is mightier than physical might.