Friday, February 14, 2014

A GOOD FRIEND IS BETTER THAN A BAD BROTHER Aniekan Umanah’s Buffoonery Cum Hallucination


As a Commissioner of Information and Communication, one expects Aniekan Umanah to do a proper home work on issues that concerns his image before going out to the public to avoid embarrassing himself and the reputation of Governor Godswill Akpabio-Led government.

Since managing his image will not attract financial benefit to him, he could not provide answers to the 14 questions I asked. In his usual hypocritical disposition he would have taken the matter up if it were to concern the name of the governor whose avenue he uses to feed fat.
The truth is that Aniekan Umanah has wound in his conscience on account of his role in the TELL magazine libel saga and his deceptive manner in fostering the image of the Akwa Ibom State government. The picture shown in the make-belief press conference of February 5, 2014, is that Aniekan Umanah is hallucinating and on a rigmarole voyage instead of telling the truth. Perhaps he has lost memory of the memorable words of Othman Dan Fodio that “conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it.”
Aniekan Umanah has what it takes to know that no matter how entertaining and captivating fiction might be, it cannot be substituted for facts. Facts, after all, are, and will remain sacred forever. 
The only reason Umanah has decided to wage a war with me from all the response I have read so far is because I refused to “pay tithe” to him after seeing the governor. I told him privately in one of our meetings that I would have paid tithe to him if his name was “Pastor Aniekan Umanah”, until he changes his name, tithe are meant to be paid to pastors in the pulpit.
So far, Commissioner Umanah is confused and contradicting himself. He seems to be behaving like a man stricken with Alzheimer disease that has seriously affected his memory.
In the first place, he accused me of being used by his political detractors because according to Umanah I “cannot write that English because he cannot construct what is written there” (referring to my letter). “I know his thought reasoning. He is a tool who has decided to append his signature in a script by certain people…sic”. Shame!!!
That Aniekan Umana hires people from all over the country to manage the image of Chief Akpabio-Led government because he cannot write gives him the impression that no other person can do better than him. Let him bring out his credentials placed closed to mine let the world see who can write or not.
If he is not suffering from Alzheimer disease, he would have remembered I was the pioneer Editor of the State-owned first ever insert Magazine: Pioneer Extra/Pioneer Applause for three (3) years, 2008-2010. My countless articles and contributions in major papers in the State and beyond are testimony of my articulate writing acumen.
Come to think of it, what are his credentials? Was Aniekan Umanah a journalist before July 8, 2008, when he was appointed as Commissioner? Working in a media house does not make one a journalist. After all, there are many departments in a media house of which, marketing, which he belonged while working in Newswatch Communication Limited is one. Being a government spokesman does not make one a journalist. Professor Jerry Gana and Frank Nweke Jr are some of the renowned former Ministers of Information of the Federal Republic of Nigeria yet they have never claimed to be journalists and that has not erode their footprints in the sand of time as far as managing government image in Nigeria is concern. Why is Umanah claiming to be what he is not? If he is so fascinated about journalism, let him quit the Akpabio government and seek job as a reporter in any media house of its kind where his credentials fits. If truth must be told, Umanah, if not for the benevolence of Chief Godswill Akpabio would have still been a vendor selling Newswatch magazines under Oshodi Bridge in Lagos.
Commissioner Umanah alleged that I am a serial blackmailer without knowing the meaning of serial. I had given him the opportunity to tell the world who I had blackmailed before but he has continually goofed. Does Umanah meant that I was blackmailing TELL magazine (I have always emphasized that he does not believe in the innocence of his boss and my mentor, Chief Godswill Akpabio) who TELL called a murderer and terrorist?
Let me state it very clear for the records. I did not usurp the TELL case from anybody. (Check paragraph 19, of my 10-page letter). Let the so-called author prove that he was the originator. Those who know Uwem Umanah closely are aware that he has a mental disorder condition and as such, not qualified to “use” me with my qualifications and educational background to institute a case against TELL at the risk of my life. It is however clear from
Umanah’s response that he has been arranging his younger brother Uwem Umanah to impersonate me and perhaps collect my lawyers’ legal fees. Aniekan Umanah and his brother, Uwem Umanah claimed that they have been paying my house rent; so pitiable! How can our stiff-fisted Aniekan Umanah pay my house rent when he could not pay that of his younger brother, Uwem who lived in the Timber Market at Uruan Street for four (4) years? Uwem, who have been surviving by the benevolence of Barrister Emmanuel Enoidem had confided in me and others that his elder brother has not assisted him or any members of their family, cannot claim that his brother has been helping me.
According to a response conscripted by Commissioner Umanah in the Radar Newspaper, February 9, edition, and signed by one Mr. Emmanuel Etim who happens to be the aide Umanah sent to collect all document relating to the TELL case from me, Umanah alleged that I am idle and jobless. Let me state it on record that there has never been a time that I have been idle. Though I may not have short-changed people and amass wealth like Aniekan Umanah, the opportunist, I have been involved in one job or the other to make a living. As at when I took TELL magazine to court, I was the publisher of RealNews Newspaper, Pioneer Applause magazine and editorial consultant to Akwa Ibom Today Magazine, Tourism Impression among others. And I solely sponsor my case against TELL until I met the governor who urged me on. In between my case against TELL, I declined publishing RealNews because it was tradition then in 2010 that any paper that does not insult the governor with damaging cover story will not sell and I could not condescend so low and out of my principle to join the bandwagon so as to sell my paper. Currently I am a Part-Time lecturer at Uyo-City Polytechnic where I have been teaching since last year and also the Editor-in-Chief of The Light Newspaper.
Meanwhile, Umanah lied that I have been “obtaining money from Chief Assam Assam”. Since he has mention a name of a former government official, it will be better to use chief Assam Assam whom Umanah has mentioned to prove my innocence in the allegations of extortion he leveled against me. That Chief Assam Assam is still alive and in this same planet is cheer news to behold. Since the world has become a global village I challenge the highly investigative Akwa Ibom journalists to contact Chief Assam Assam and ask him if he knows my name or I have asked him for 10 kobo before. If Chief Assam Assam who I respect as a man of principle concurs that I have at any time begged him for money or he had given me a dime, I will apologize to Aniekan Umanah and surrender my self to the security for prosecution but if he says the contrary, I demanded for the immediate resignation of Mr. Aniekan Umanah as Commissioner for Information and Communications of Akwa Ibom State.
My sms to Aniekan Umanah intimating him of his interest in my lawyers’ legal fees was sent as a banana peel in front of my lawyer, and as expected Commissioner Umanah could not resist the temptation. He fell for it. I have his reply in my inbox and elsewhere, intact.
Let me reemphasize here that I can proof of all what I wrote in my letter to Aniekan Umanah especially his role in thwarting people that have worked for the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio. He may succeed in intimidating the likes of Ndueso Essien and Sampson Akpan to distort the truth but cannot deceive Akwa Ibom people who know Mr. Commissioner too well. What would anyone expect from Essien than his rebuttal, even though he has forgotten all what he told people about Mr. Commissioner, some of which were tap-recorded? From the statement made by Akpan about me, I strongly believe he was misquoted by reporters but if he was not, he is a coward to have said something like that. Everyone has his or her bounds. Let him look for his.
For yesterday’s man, Mr. Nkeneke Efo who has decided to dabble into a matter that does not concern him, an adage says that you cannot cry more than the bereaved. I confirmed my details before and after my letter to Aniekan Umanah. My proofs are intact. If he wants to impress Mr. Commissioner so as to fit in into today’s men, he is on the wrong expedition.
It is time that Aniekan Umanah stopped wasting Tax Payers money to suppress the truth as well as making the use of hiring for his image laundering media briefing.
Aniekan Umanah may feel too pompous to admit the truth so let him continue in his gorilla media war against me but one thing is certain, with the likes of Aniekan Umanah posing as a brother from the same Local Government Area: a good friend is surely better than a bad brother of his kind.
Until I read the reply to the 14 questions I raised in my last rejoinder, Aniekan Umanah should as a matter of fact start writing his resignation letter.
God bless Akwa Ibom State.

Tom FredFish
(Youth Activist)

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