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“Obi-tuary”: Sam Omatseye’s Anti-Igbo Sentiments, By Dr Sunny Akhigbe

I read Sam Omatseye’s article titled “Obi-tuary” in the back page of The Nation newspaper (August 1, 2022). I also read the expected reactions to his attack on Peter Obi. His cry that Obi should be held accountable if anything happened to him as consequence of the article, I have read too

Poetry : Sam omatseye – The Sun Nigeria

In the build up to the presidential campaigns and elections, I did not expect anything less from Omatseye. Many might not know that he harbours anti-Igbo sentiments. I have been following him for decades because of the prose and bookish references in his articles. Needless to repeat here that he has the gift of the gab. Sometimes ethnic bigotry runs in his articles. When anything concerns the Igbo, he does not mask his dislike. Sometimes, one would think he is determined not to see any Igbo politician become president of Nigeria in his lifetime. Otherwise, how come in every election season, Omatseye turns the only weapon he has in his arsenal, his “Pen-knife” on any front runner Igbo candidate?

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I once confronted Omatseye in 2004 in an article Dissecting Omatseye’s “Gang up Against Igbo” (SUNDAY SUN February 22, 2004). It was a rejoinder to yet another of his usual diatribe against the Igbo except that in the article, 2007: Understanding The Gang up Against Igbo (SUNDAY SUN November 30, 2003), he deliberately peddled half-truth and gave the impression he was fighting for the emergence of a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction in 2007. I saw through his hypocrisy and subterfuge. I wrote the article after compiling his sins which I could no longer stomach.

Omatseye once rubbished the highly revered Ikemba Odumegwu Ojukwu in 2003 in an article headlined Ojukwu: From Hero To Public Comedian (SUNDAY SUN, November 14, 2003). In the article he tried to reduce the mighty Ikemba to a mere ordinary. He spoke of the Ikemba as though he was an expired drug and dismissed him as a political clown. He described the returnee Ojukwu from exile as a “decadent personality”. He did all of this when Ojukwu turned 70.

A week before then, Omatseye had trampled on the then senate president Adophus Wabara and dismissed him as a nonentity in an article Wabara And The Religious Card (SUNDAY SUN November 7, 2003). Hear him in his opening paragraph: “I had decided to write on something else before I stumbled on Senate president Adophus Wabara interview with Champion newspaper. The man has always struck me as a comedian and until now I thought he was not worth a column as long as he entertained me with his drivel”. Sam was writing about the number three citizen of the country. It is better not to dwell on the unprintable things in the body of his essay. He literally deconstructed and de-marketed Wabara for any possible political elevation in Nigeria, his subtle motive!

What causes excessive roving of Omatseye’s pen when matters concern political leaders of Igbo extraction that he is always attempting to disparage and rubbish them? Does he have pathological hatred for the Igbo? Is it a coincidence that he picks on Igbo political leaders? Only him can answer these questions.

I am happy that unlike 20 years ago and with social media Sam Omatseye has met his match in the torrent of reactions to his unprovoked attack on Peter Obi and Ndigbo. I do not think he was propelled or acted on the instruction of his ‘in-law’ Bola Ahmed Tinubu (Senator Oluremi and Sam Omatseye are Itsekiris), the presidential candidate of APC. From his antecedents and like a lone bomber or gunman, he might have acted alone.

These days, no one can hide behind one finger of being a veteran writer to perpetrate journalistic evil. Before you drop your pen, your sins would find you out by way of multiple acidic rejoinders.

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