Shame on you, ‘Elegant Stallion’
Onyeka Onwenu has had a brilliant music career beginning from 1981 when she released the album “For the Love of You.” She had obtained a Bachelor in International Relations at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, United States of America as well as a Master’s degree in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research in New […]
Onyeka Onwenu has had a brilliant music career beginning from 1981 when she released the album “For the Love of You.” She had obtained a Bachelor in International Relations at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, United States of America as well as a Master’s degree in Media Studies from The New School for Social Research in New York. She worked for some years at the United Nations in York before returning to Nigeria, specifically, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) where, as a youth corps member, she had quickly developed reputation as a courageous, hardworking and outspoken reporter.
However, as a politician, Onyeka has not had a successful run. For years, her attempt to be elected as Chairman of Ideato Local Government Area failed to materialise and to mollify her, the former Imo State Governor, Ikedi Ohakim, appointed her Chairperson of the Imo State Council for Arts and Culture.
Her membership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) eventually paid off and on 16th September, 2013, Onyeka was appointed the Director General of the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD). She had a tug of war and a frustrating experience with some of the management staff during her tenure though. Additionally, she didn’t enjoy a harmonious working relationship with the Ministry of Women Affairs, which supervised the NCWD.
The tension between Onyeka Onwenu and her adversaries boiled over after she was dismissed from her post last week. In a widely circulated but badly written article (she penned low moral instead of low morale, create was spelt creat, we’re written in place of were), Onyeka claimed that she was mistreated at the point of hand over of the affairs of the NCWD because she was an Igbo woman. “I was targeted and abused for being an Igbo woman who came to give jobs to and elevate my people while side-lining them.”
It’s such a shame that rather than blame herself for mismanaging a simmering crisis in NCWD, Onyeka used the cheap and ever handy ethnic card to explain her predicament. The same Onyeka that had straddled the national stage and seized a spot for herself in the limelight all these years decided to employ the divisive and hate filled expressions of “my people… and them.” Onyeka had the all-powerful kinsman of hers, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, to thank because he convinced former President Goodluck Jonathan to sign up for her appointment as DG, NCWD. But can Anyim himself say that he left his job because he was Igbo? Can the dismissed Managing Director of News Agency of Nigeria (an Ijaw) and the Directors General of Bureau for Public Procurement, Industrial Training Fund, Standards Organisation of Nigeria, etc. who are her folks say they were “targeted and abused” because they are Igbos? And if they were not “targeted and abused” because they are Igbos, why would it happen to Onyeka only?
I don’t know if Hajiya Maryam Inna Ciroma, the former Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) is Igbo or not, however, in May, 2015, Hajiya Ciroma resigned from the leadership of NIWA. Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, had appointed her on 13th May, 2016 but Ciroma, a former National Women Leader of the PDP and wife of one of the founding fathers of the party, voluntarily left her post, saying that it was “honourable and the right thing to do.” I had thought that our “Oyingbo”, ex-DG, NCWD, would blaze the trail!
As a card carrying member of the PDP, Onyeka had clearly overstayed as DG, NCWD. Nine months after he was sworn in, President Muhammadu Buhari had allowed the appointees and sympathisers of the defeated Presidential candidate, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, to remain at the helms of national institutions despite the outcry from his own supporters. All the other dismissed CEOs, 26 in all, had handed over the affairs of their offices and left quietly, but not Onyeka.
Onyeka Onwenu, singer, songwriter, actress, journalist and politician, is aggrieved. She had all sorts of complaints against her subordinates – they had cannibalised three electricity generators the night before the visit of a Senate Committee, apparently a calculated sabotage; they had issued Fatwa (a religious call for sanctions against her) etc. Unfortunately, Onyeka didn’t state the disciplinary measures she took against those involved. She also refused to say if she truly gave jobs and elevated her own people and side-lined others while she led the NCWD.
It is trite of Onyeka to tell us that the NCWD didn’t make her, we know that already. Onyeka is a household name on account of her music and wonderful acting roles in Nollywood which we love. Do we then stop listening to her music because we are not Igbos? A few years ago, she sang “One Love, Keep us Together”, wasn’t it heartfelt? Wasn’t it genuine? Wasn’t it real? What happened to the one love?
Onyeka has featured in Conspiracy, The Tyrant, Different World, The Trinity, and many other films. Lately, she starred in Half of a Yellow Sun, do we stop watching her on the screen because we are Hausa or Fulani?
Well, if Onyeka Onwenu, alias “elegant stallion” is so inconsolable by her dismissal as DG, NCWD, she can go and do “Nigeria, A squandering of Riches (2)” to chronicle the monumental corruption and degeneration witnessed by Nigeria under Dr Goodluck Jonathan and if she feels so strongly about the primacy of her Igboness, she is free to join Ralph Uwazuruike in MASSOB or Nnamdi Kanu in IPOB to fight for Biafra.