{"id":8008,"date":"2016-07-29T14:48:53","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T13:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=8008"},"modified":"2016-07-29T14:48:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T13:48:53","slug":"okonjo-iweala-and-cheap-publicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/okonjo-iweala-and-cheap-publicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Okonjo-Iweala and Cheap Publicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Uzoma Ngozi<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.\u201d \u2013 Benjamin\u00a0Disraeli, one-time British Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen your success hovers from one person to the other, it will definitely\u00a0get to someone who will regard it as failure.\u201d \u00a0\u2013 Michael Bassey\u00a0Johnson, an uncommon Nigerian penman.<\/p>\n

In a publication titled, \u201cThose Calling for Okonjo-Iweala\u2019s Sack Are\u00a0Detractors\u201d, The Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Transparency\u00a0in Governance, described those calling for the sack of the former Minister\u00a0as people who did not want the economic good of the country.<\/p>\n

From what I see, they are not just detractors; they are popularity seekers.<\/p>\n

Since Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Minister of Finance of the Federal\u00a0Republic of Nigeria, left office over a year ago, her name remains visible\u00a0across local and international media. While Nigerians and the world still\u00a0celebrate her, these arm-chair critics seeing that stories about her\u00a0generate huge readership devised a means to gain cheap publicity. They now\u00a0earn a conspicuous mention in the media by constantly linking her name to\u00a0every known allegation, even those that have little or nothing to do with\u00a0her, just to earn cheap popularity in the media.<\/p>\n

The chief accuser of course is a group with a name almost homophonic to\u00a0Sarah; in fact, for the purpose of this article I would refer to them by\u00a0that name.<\/p>\n

These unrepentant detractors \u2013 Sarah and the gang \u2013 disguised as\u00a0accountability and transparency advocates, flooded the media with press\u00a0releases, interviews and stories which were nothing but a hodgepodge of\u00a0lies, false allegations, defamations and sentiments.<\/p>

\r\n
Advertisement<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\r\n \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

Beneath their unending drama, of course, lies their motive.<\/p>\n

From dragging Okonjo-Iweala to court, calling on the President to probe\u00a0her, they escalated their drama to asking her to apologize, requesting for\u00a0documents which she no longer has access to, and even accusing her of \u2018no\u00a0answers, no apology\u2019. Sarah and the gang have achieved their Number One\u00a0goal; they have become popular.<\/p>\n

Sarah\u2019s misguided \u2018missing N30 trillion\u2019 allegation, and other closely\u00a0related, but certainly unfounded, accusations have made them one of the\u00a0popular \u2018groups\u2019 in the country today. Certainly, their like-minded and\u00a0myopic followers have increased. Maybe they are even up for some potential\u00a0grants \u2013 there is always that possibility.<\/p>\n

In this day and age where every group, organization or setup must do\u00a0everything to stay ahead, it appears that Sarah may have struck gold by\u00a0using the age-old gimmick of defamation. It is somewhat ironic that trying\u00a0to make someone unpopular should make you popular, but that is the nature\u00a0of things.<\/p>\n

Whatever their gains though, they seem to have picked on the wrong person.\u00a0Despite their best and most desperate attempts at ruining her name, Ngozi\u00a0Okonjo-Iweala always rises out of the ashes of their lies and slander like\u00a0a phoenix.<\/p>\n

Uzoma Ngozi is an entrepreneur and a social commentator who resides in
\nLagos. Facebook:https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uzoma.ngozi.52<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Uzoma Ngozi \u201cHow much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.\u201d \u2013 Benjamin\u00a0Disraeli, one-time British Prime Minister. \u201cWhen your success hovers from one person to the other, it will definitely\u00a0get to someone who will regard it as failure.\u201d \u00a0\u2013 Michael Bassey\u00a0Johnson, an uncommon Nigerian penman. In a publication titled, \u201cThose Calling …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[594],"coauthors":[2392,2393],"class_list":["post-8008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-feature","tag-ngozi-okonjo-iweala"],"yoast_head":"\nOkonjo-Iweala and Cheap Publicity - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/okonjo-iweala-and-cheap-publicity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Okonjo-Iweala and Cheap Publicity - National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Uzoma Ngozi \u201cHow much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.\u201d \u2013 Benjamin\u00a0Disraeli, one-time British Prime Minister. \u201cWhen your success hovers from one person to the other, it will definitely\u00a0get to someone who will regard it as failure.\u201d \u00a0\u2013 Michael Bassey\u00a0Johnson, an uncommon Nigerian penman. 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