A man’s soul may argue with his quiet at certain points in his life. He is pulled to the edge of reality by a sort of spiritual unrest that grabs his chest in the middle of the night. You toss and turn because the weight of guilt becomes too great to ignore, not because the mattress is hard. Sir Kenny Okolugbo, a former Commissioner under Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan who currently serves as a strategic communications consultant to Senate President Senator Godswill Akpabio, appears to have experienced the same thing.
During the Salah season, Sir Kenny made a confessional speech on his social media page that shocked the nation’s conscience in what appeared to be a divine battle between truth and lies. He abruptly started to make public what many Nigerians had long suspected but were still too scared to acknowledge: that the string of vicious, well-planned, and coordinated attacks against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan were not random incidents but rather the result of a well-thought-out political conspiracy orchestrated by influential men who view Nigeria as a tool for illegal manipulation.
He acknowledged that he was a part of the screenplay, not merely aware of it. He was a performer on the stage of this malevolent drama, not just a bystander in the audience of betrayal. He brought up covert meetings in London, made reference to Sandra Duru, and revealed how Senator Natasha’s voice was distorted and duplicated in order to undermine her reputation. He acknowledged that her public image was targeted, her privacy was infringed, and her phone was hacked. Each dot made contact with the accuracy of a malevolent genius. This was a political assassination of character rather than a political contest. Kenny claims that “Godswill Akpabio,” the Senate President, was in charge of it.
That unvarnished and damning confession was not penned by mistake or made under pressure. It was a man who was pushed to the edge by a guilty conscience that wanted to find harmony with God. The same man returned to throw up a disclaimer, saying that his account was hacked, hardly having the confession become part of the public conversation or even in the minds of Nigerians. He placed the blame on the “hackers,” who only seem to show up in Nigeria when politicians are exposed for their deceit. He now wants Nigerians to think that his fingers did not type what his heart knew to be true, that his soul did not speak. We weren’t born yesterday, though. Even our nation’s gods are able to distinguish between a poorly constructed deception and a voice of confession. Nigerian politicians and their goons have previously concealed behind the pretext that “my account was hacked.” It has happened to senators, governors, and even presidential advisers. When the truth slips out of their mouths more quickly than their lies can catch up, it has become the lazy escape route, but this one is unique. For a random hacker, it had too much depth, too much precision, and too much detail. The chronology coincided with a period of national stress over Senator Natasha’s ongoing political conflicts, the grammar was constant, and the structure fit his typical tone. The purported hack only lasted long enough for a single post to be made before conveniently disappearing. Is that the way hackers act? Does cybercrime operate that way? Or was it just a man who knew too much and had been silent for too long, hearing the Spirit of Truth whisper too loudly in his ears? As a matter of fact, such confessions are not made by chance. They are the result of conviction. They originate from the shame that a guy feels after realising he has been used as a pawn in a sinister scheme. There is a possibility that Kenny Okolugbo was misused.
He was not honoured, shielded, or protected by the men he covered for. They left him to bear the cross by himself when the flames started to burn. Maybe he believed he was essential. Maybe he believed they would protect him if he safeguarded them. He is currently embroiled in a controversy so corrupt that he is unable to distinguish between their lies and his own truth. This abrupt change in storyline must not mislead the Nigerian people. Kenny wrote from the bottom of his heart. That man was looking for atonement. The person wasn’t a hacker. The threats around him were overshadowed by the whistleblower’s voice. Those who ultimately decide to speak up should not be intimidated by strong males. We must not allow fear to bury an already-born reality. “When a man spits into the sky, it will fall back on his face,” as our forefathers once said. Since Kenny Okolugbo spewed forth the truth, it has been dripping down like rain. He attempts to run as fast as he can, but the ground is already damp. This confession has been documented in history. Even if he tries to remove it, the internet remembers. Let the president of the Senate speak.
Give Sandra Duru a chance to speak. Let the APC demonstrate their willingness to go to great lengths in order to defend Godswill Akpabio, who is making a concerted effort to quiet a lady who dared to rise from Kogi Central. Let Kenny struggle with his guilt for the time being, and let Nigerians stand up with their eyes wide open. We may not have justice in this country, but we do have remembrance. And when memory is roused, it turns into a revolution.
By: ILUO DePOET
Lawyer | Writer | Political Analyst | Public Speaker | Pan-African
