Are Esan People Allergic to Brilliance? Part one By Rev Olu Martins

 

Every coach knows well enough to hit a challenge with his best team because you may never have another opportunity to make a first impression. 

Whilst we are still explaining to people that we are better than what the man at the State head represents, there is another surreptitious agenda to impose another intellectually bankrupt individual on an otherwise intelligent race.

Very soon, people may soon begin to ask us if it isn't the same Esan people that produced Chief Anthony Enahoro who moved the motion for Nigeria's independence at the tender age of 26 years. 

Or whether it is not the same Esan people that produced the duo of Chief Tony Anenih and Chief Tom Ikimi who were simultaneously party chairmen of The National Republican Congress and the Social Democratic Party? 

Is it not the same Esan people who produced Professor Ambrose Alli, a former governor who was easily judged the best governor so far in Edo State? 

Time would fail me to mention the Egbadons, the Okojies, the  Uduebors, the Agueles and several other brilliant Esan sons and daughters who shone brightly nationally and globally by sheer intelligence.

A time was when an average Esan man was considered as the harbinger of intelligence and progressivism. We were hated by our neighbors and envied amongst our peers for our ability to express ourselves intelligently without fear of contradiction.

Today, it is unfortunate that the reference to the Apex leadership in the state is now with uncertainty especially when it comes to intellectual endowment, a characteristic freely abundant among the Esan people. 

Thankfully, God has given us the opportunity to mend and remedy that seemingly porous public perception. The entire Esan land can now show the world that the emergence of a lesser at the state leadership was a fluke and that we still have sound, Intelligent outspoken people among the Esan people. 

In a constitutional democracy, it is the part that represents the whole and not the other way round. We must therefore send a worthy ambassador of who we are as a reflection of our true identity as mentally enabled people. 

Fortunately, Hon Joe Okojie, a prince from the Royal family more than fit our yearning and aspirations for brilliance in the place of law making and advocacy for the betterment of a people. 

There is no doubt that Prince Joe Okojie is brilliant, astute, well read and well exposed. His pedigree is something to be proud of and his frame and looks just says it all: handsome and suave. 

Make we dey even  try get person wey fine and presentable to represent us sometimes, not some old relic that looks far more suited for a pensioner's scheme than for the hallowed chambers of a Federal Legislature.