TDYou may call it the “casus belli” – the true cause of the war that Kenneth Onuku Okonkwo has declared on Mr. Peter Obi, which recently entered an anti-climax.
At its core, the entire dispute appears to rest on a rather petty grievance: the issue of a house.
The very moment Kenneth went on air to launch his tirade against Obi, my immediate impulse was to expose the truth behind the so-called housing saga. In the past, someone like me would have approached this matter as I once approached my opponents – like a game of pankration.
Pankration, one of the most demanding events in the ancient Greek Olympics, was a combat sport that combined boxing and wrestling and allowed almost every form of fighting, including punching, kicking, grappling, throws, chokes, and joint locks.
It had very few rules, with the principal prohibitions being biting and eye-gouging.
There were no rounds, no time limits, and no weight classes; contestants fought until one submitted, was rendered unconscious, or became unable to continue.
Although deaths occasionally occurred because of its ferocity, the objective was not to kill an opponent but to compel surrender through superior strength, skill, endurance, and determination.
However, age has mellowed me, and an improved perspective has taught me restraint.
Besides, Mr. Peter Obi himself would recoil at the idea of turning such a personal request – however misguided or unreasonable it may have been – into a public weapon against the person who made it.
Yet truth has a way of outgrowing the shadows.
It is almost poetic that, after their meeting, Onuku- apparently frustrated that his demands were not met according to his expectations – went about telling anyone who would listen that Peter Obi is “stingy.” His grievance?
That Obi refused to buy him a duplex, or at least rent one for him, and instead offered to pay for a flat – an offer Okonkwo reportedly considered an insult to his exaggerated status.
It is equally telling that the very people he confided in, in an attempt to impugn Obi’s character, are now the ones making the story public. They saw the entitlement for what it was.
To understand this story more vividly, visit this link.
This entire episode serves as a textbook illustration of human nature and the greed that often drives public officials to plunder the commonwealth. You are no Croesus, yet you aspire to live like Dangote without regard for sustainability.
Obi’s refusal to fund an unsustainable and extravagant lifestyle does not diminish his generosity; rather, Okonkwo’s resentment merely exposes the inner conflict of a man who is yet to fully understand himself.
