The Right Honorable Dr. William Malachy
Chinwuba Okadigbo
Former Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Oyi n'Oyi
Address at the Igbo Summit of January 19, 2001, at Enugu
Comments on the Kuta Committee's findings and recommendations
In defense of his senate presidency
Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Ogbonna George Nwogu: Handshake across the Niger: The legacy of Chuba Okadigbo
ON THE INFAMOUS QUOTE
From
Newswatch of December 1, 1997:
Newswatch: Did you call Zik a ranting ant?
Okadigbo: No, I did not. What happened is this: Zik wrote this long testament-like essay, after the 1983 election. And I tried to say that the problem was to find the basis of that loss in his party [NPP] and the PPA. So I used the Igbo proverb which says: [“Onye debe nti n’ani o nu ugoli agbisi”] which translates thus: “If you put your ear on the ground, you will hear the ranting of an ant.” But Guardian newspaper, in a mischief so colossal that we are talking about it today, and probably till tomorrow, simply forgot the parable and said, “Zik is a ranting rant” -- Chuba Okadigbo. Everything I have done since then to say it is not true had not worked. Maybe it is a price to pay to a leader, to find a stigma or something that they can use to remind you that he is there, that you are sorry you are misquoted about somebody you so much admire. Probably, philosophically speaking, it might be that it is a spiritual contradiction, to always bring back that part of Zik and make you reaffirm Zikism. That is how I have come to see it.
culled from MOE's "Of Owele & Oyi"
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KWENU will publish the full
excerpt soon...