BETWEEN A SLAVE AND A FREE BORN

Few weeks ago, the member representing Oron Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, Hon. Robinson Uwak advised the self-acclaimed uncommon transformer of Akwa Ibom State, Gov. (Obong) Godswill Akpabio not to send slaves to him but rather deal with him directly on issues he raised on the uncommon marginalization of Oron ethnic nationality, the third largest ethnic group that made up of Akwa Ibom State.

The word 'slaves' did not augur well to some people. Since then, there had been attacks and counter-attacks from different angles. Though sounded funny to our hearings, but many did not understand what Hon. Uwak meant by slaves, while some understood but decided to twist it to suit themselves, while some seized the avenue to seek for cheap popularity and identifications. Even some so-called graduates failed to understand the real meaning of the word "slaves", may be due to poor learning culture in our education system. Some paid journalists/agents diverted from the real issues and decided to compare the CV of Mr. Aniekan Umana with that of Hon. Uwak.

Ben Carson says in his book, and I quote, "there are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everybody go along to get along, but that's not going to be very helpful for us in the long run, in terms of solving our problems. And somebody has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to, you know, the bullies," end of quote.

Be it as it may, after seven years of marginalization, somebody still have the courage to speak out. The legislator, who happen to be the political head of Oron nation has made his point and sounded clear to the kitchen cabinets of Mr. uncommon transformer to stay clear of the ongoing rancor between him and their paymaster. The challenge was long overdue, we expected such fearless spirit from a man who was mandated to lead Oron, politically. According to Martin Luther King Jr. "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."

Back to the term 'slaves'. According to advance learner dictionary;

 -A person who is strongly influenced and controlled by something.

 -One that is completely subservient to a dominating influence.

 -A person held in servitude as the chattel of another.

 -A situation where a public officer cannot exercise his official obligation freely without the influence of the paymaster, he's referred to as slave.

 -A process where public office holders are afraid to uphold the truth due to influence from some angles, are referred to as slaves.

 -A situation where you are mandated to say yes where the answer is no, you are defined as slave.

 -A process where you are dancing to the tune of your paymaster against your will in order to save your job, you are equivalent to slaves.

Then, what's wrong with the word 'slaves' that the lawmaker tact some cabinet members of the self-acclaimed uncommon transformer?

It's high time these kitchen cabinets save themselves from further future embarrassment of answering slaves by being bold enough to tell their paymaster the truth on issues that matter, because what goes around comes around.

 Goodluck Umahaodoho

 Abuja-FCT.