By Chris Akhabue

The realm of Social Media is rife with superfluous lamentations of inexperienced commentators bemoaning the sack of Fred Itua, the former Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Executive Governor of Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo.

Two of such misleading conjectures caught my attention.

One of the baseless and unfounded pieces titled, “Sir Owaen Fred Itua: A Vital Asset Needed For The Full Actualization Of The SHINE Agenda” authored by one Osatofoh Aitolo sponsored to launder the unredeemable self inflicted damages on the sacked CPS is unfortunately an exercise in futility and a vexatious affront on the highly esteemed personality and integrity of the state governor and all well meaning Edo people.

‎ It might have been wiser not to dignify the undignifiable piece with any response, as it is not solicited, but silence in the face of such drivel would risk allowing his fabrications to fester unchecked and ultimately add a semblance of validation to such emotive reactions devoid of truth, knowing full well that the truth must be defended, as lie has many variations, the truth none.

Let me start by saying that there are two kinds of people in the world; peacemakers who have something to say with a view to profferring solutions so as to save situations and the other group are the troublemakers who think they must say something, plainly loquacious individuals with verbal diarrhea who just want to be heard, saying things before thinking and in the process causing much problems for society.

The two writers of the vacuous articles on the sack of Fred Itua and the subsequent appointment of Dr Patrick Ebojele as the Chief Press Secretary to the Edo State government qualify for the latter group of loquacious vainglorious rubble rousers who just want to be heard.

Edo State governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, in the onset of his administration made some key appointments, including that of the now sacked Chief Press Secretary, Fred Itua who presided over that office as the information gate keeper until he was relieved of his appointment recently.

The governor has now fully settled down after rigorous election tribunals and court cases and is in the process of deepening and expanding the scope of governance which includes making adjustments and changes to accommodate suitable individuals with inherent capacities to cope with the rigors such engagement demands and the governor obviously has discovered some voids and lapses which he deemed needed to be filled with appointment of a more competent hand.

Insinuations by Osatofoh Aitolo “that Fred Itua is an indispensable asset, an individual whose experience, loyalty, and intellectual strength Senator Monday Okpebholo needs urgently for the full actualization of the SHINE Agenda,” is not only laughable but viewed by many as a plausible judgement by a jaundiced mind not able to extricate itself from the rungs of pedestianism in his thought processes.

To start with, who employed the Fred Itua? Was it not the same Governor Okpebholo? Is Aitolo now more intelligent than the governor? Is he insinuating that the Edo State governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo is incapable of identifying competent hands? Aitolo in his quest to futilely elicit emotive transactions ended up insulting the sensibility of all well meaning Edo people who, in their collective wisdom used their votes to entrust Edo State into the able hands of Governor Okpebholo.

The second vexatious stinker by a faceless author clamouring for the reinstatement of the sacked CPS was a pictorial showing the newly appointed Chief Press Secretary, Dr Patrick Ebojele (PhD) and some few of his professional colleagues at the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists at the Press Center at Number 1 Igbinedion Way GRA, Benin-City in a convivial mood with colleagues on the day of his appointment as the new CPS which was mindlessly, maliciously and erroneously falsified as “being seen at Mama-Put”.

The faceless hatchet writer whose grouse is that the new CPS is not loquacious and not churning out inanity which he called “strategic communication” is unable to draw a palpable line of demarcation between professionalism and AI generated rubble.

The coming on board of the information master-strategist, Dr Patrick Ebojele, as the new information gate keeper of the Edo State government is a blessing not just to burgeon government only but to Edo people as a whole as sanity and professionalism is taking root.

Ebojele, a thoroughly bred professional journalist, is always at home with his colleagues, hence they all gathered together, less than 24 hours after his engagement to celebrate his appointment.

Their celebrations stem from the realisation that the NUJ will no more be bifurcated by the government’s gatekeeper, but will carry all of them along in the state information management and in the arduous task of bridging the information gap between the government and the governed, a gap that burgeoned during the tenure of the sacked CPS.

Dr Patrick Akhere Ebojele is a seasoned professional in the communication industry, a research expert and an educationist who, prior to his appointment as the CPS to the Edo State government was a lecturer at the Federal Polytechnic, Auchi. He once served as a Correspondent at the Government House. So, he is in a familiar terrain.

This needlessly contemptuous misrepresentation etched by the perception of an idle emotion flooded mind, an egregious and unconscionable futile attempts to besmirch the reputation and impugn the integrity of the Dr Patrick Ebojele are a deplorable affront to the principles of good governance and transparent leadership which the administration of Senator Monday Okpebholo represents.

Therefore the reprehensible and scurrilous campaign of misinformation against the choice of the governor is replete with specious arguments and deliberate misrepresentations, which serve futilely to obfuscate the undeniable gains the engagement of Dr Patrick Ebojele is expected to engender and therefore the whole unfortunate and needless cry of losers should be disregarded.