Kenneth Okonkwo And The Fuss Over Nothing

So much fuss has been made over Kenneth Okonkwo’s series of uncomplimentary remarks about presidential candidate Peter Obi. What is mainly provoking the whole sensation is the fact that these remarks are being directed towards a man who in 2023 was being praised to high heavens by Okonkwo. As a spokesperson of the Labour Party then, the Nollywood star was one of the strongest marketers of the Obi-Datti candidacy, going about this with such elegance and swagger that could never have gone unnoticed.

Okonkwo’s critics consider his volte-face as a mark of unprincipled politics. They expected him to maintain consistency of opinion and action in carrying on with his political career – alas he disappointed!

But if not for our usual shallow mentality that is completely blind to history, there is no basis for setting such a high standard for Okonkwo. There is no reason for the apparent alarm at the action of the actor-turned-politician. His political antecedent does not justify such an expectation. He started with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) where he aspired for the ticket to run for the Nsukka/Igbo-Eze South Federal Constituency seat in 2014. After resigning from the party, he joined the All Progressives Congress (APC) in December 2016. He remained in the party and spoke in favour of President Buhari’s re-election in 2019. Fast-forward to 2022, Okonkwo’s political journey brought him to the Labour Party. As seen with other politicians, any time he defected, he had something negative to say about the party and people he was leaving behind. This is intended to give some kind of legitimacy to such defections.

Truly, looking at the above antecedent of Okonkwo, no one should have expected with complete certainty that his alliance with Obi and the LP in 2023 would stand the test of time. I find it somewhat perplexing that some of our people appear to be shocked by something very predictable about our politics. Regarding Okonkwo in particular, I cannot understand such an apparent expectation of political fidelity.

When he defected to the APC in 2016, he was so much maligned on social media with many commentators lamenting that the much beloved “Andy” had finally joined the plunderers’ camp. In one online group I belong to, some members were sure that the popular actor had forever engraved his name on the plaque of infamy. I responded by stating unequivocally that Okonkwo’s public standing would suffer nothing significant; whatever seemed to be happening then was mere fuse arising from the emotions of the moment. I argued that our value system is neither firm enough nor reasonably consistent to seal the fate of anyone on account of whatever public wrong they may be perceived to have done. I stated that Okonkwo stood to lose nothing by joining the APC. Rather, it might be all gain for him – appointments and also access to resources which can allow him to metamorphose from a mere actor to an industry entrepreneur releasing high-budget movies. On the political front, he will be able to instantly convert his critics to admirers once he strategically aligns with any popular candidate or party in future.

Fast-forward six years later when Okonkwo joined the LP; boom he became the darling of everyone. His sins were instantly forgiven. His admirers became too captivated to remember to ask questions based on his recent antecedent. The same was true of many other political profiteers who trooped into the LP to profit from Peter Obi’s popularity. They suddenly became “good” politicians for identifying – nay seeking to profit – from a popular cause. But the rest is history.

Fact is that in this country, we always delude ourselves, living in the pretence of having high moral values. However, reality shows that we are merely swayed by the buzz of the moment. What often masquerades as moral censures is mere anger and frustration at our situation. Beyond that, everything goes.

Anyone who identifies with an unpopular government is pronounced irredeemably evil but once they defect to support a popular candidate or cause they automatically become saints. Who could have imagined that El-Rufai would so quickly reinvent himself as a fighter for good governance and change after eight years as a key protagonist in the much despised Buhari government and playing a firm role in the emergence of the Tinubu presidency? Is it not sobering that today Obasanjo is being applauded as an advocate of democracy after having been so much maligned in the past for presiding over a party (PDP) that became a rigging machine and for subverting fair primary elections in his party – with Imo, Rivers, and Edo being outstanding examples of imposition of governorship candidates in 2007.

If Buhari were alive today and decided any time to support a popular candidate, he would no doubt have reinvented himself as a hero. Predictably then, we will begin to hear things like, “he has realized his past mistakes and now wishes to correct them” – the sort of excuse I have read being advanced for Obasanjo on social media.

Because we do not have any real consistent standard of moral judgement, anyone, just anyone, can become our hero depending on how we are feeling at that point in time. Politicians know this and are always ready to exploit our collective naivety.

Okonkwo, in his political steps, is merely applying a strategy which our political culture rewards. Our politics does not reward consistency of conviction and action. This is why those who switch camps like a chameleon changes its colours are the more likely to be successful politically. Thus, the likes of Wike, Femi Fani-Kayode, Reno Omokri, and Daniel Bwala will always get rewarded no matter what we think of them or how many curses we place on their heads. Many who became electorally successful wouldn’t have been so if ours is one of those climes where fidelity to ideology and political platform is truly valued. In fact, a politician who embraces such partisan fidelity will in many instances realize how bad their strategy is.

Okonkwo is a politician in search of success. I read somewhere that his defection to the APC in 2016 was because he was promised an appointment which the PDP could not offer. Whether this is exactly true or not, the bottom line is that he, like every other politician, is acting based on personal interest. His defection from the LP should also be viewed in the same vein.

The only point to be made, however, is his strategy of consistent attack on Peter Obi. This is where Obi’s supporters have a reason to be angry, and they have the right to return the gesture in kind. While attacking one’s opponent is always to be expected in politics, it must have been particularly irritating to Obi’s supporters watching someone who just three years ago was one of them – a high-profile one for that matter – now joining forces with the enemy. The anger is understandable, but outside that, all the fuse about Okonkwo’s action is largely founded on imaginings that do not align with the realities of our prevailing political culture. It is indeed much fuss about nothing. If, during another electoral cycle, he manages to pitch his tent with a popular camp, he will emerge a hero once again and his sins will be forgiven once more. This will not be the first time; he was previously forgiven for dinning with the APC prior to his 2022 defection to the LP.

A people without a consistent value system will continue to be treated to a drama like the present one in which Kenneth Okonkwo, that gifted star of the nostalgic “Living in Bondage,” is the protagonist.

Henry Chigozie Duru teaches journalism and mass communication at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria.