Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, if one youth dares question your level of intelligence, I am sure you will take offense. But Comrade you leave many no choice but to doubt not only your integrity and maturity, but also your intelligence.
What does the ability to speak one’s native language have to do with leadership? Asue Ighodalo is contesting to be Governor of Edo State and not the head of his clan in Ewohimi. Even at that, I’m sure all members of Asue Ighodalo’s Ewohimi clan can speak pidgin English if not the Queen’s English. You were once a governor so you are aware that as a governor, Asue would interact with governors of the other thirty-five States of the Federation. I wonder if any of them speaks Esan, and if ever a situation will arise where a meeting or business would be conducted in Esan language.
Asue Ighodalo’s inability to speak Esan did not deter him from achieving success in the corporate world. It would not stop him from being a good governor.
I don’t know what is left of your retentive memory, but juggle your brain a bit and you’d remember Ambrose Alli. Don’t just think of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, and probably the young damsels that grace your parties. Ambrose Alli is the name of a former governor of old Bendel State. He was an Esan man. And like Asue Ighodalo, his mother was Yoruba and he too wasn’t proficient in speaking Esan. Alli’s full name is Ambrose Folorunsho Alli just as Asue is Asuerinme Akintunde Ighodalo. Alli’s inability did not substract from his sterling performance as governor. Asue will not disappoint because of the lack of proficiency in Esan language.
We appreciate you belonging to the same academic low level as Akpakomiza. Please don’t drag Asue Ighodalo down to your level. Leadership is about intelligence, integrity, competence, patriotism, readiness to serve, and ability to communicate in the language understood by citizens of a multilingual society like Edo State.
Dr. Stanley Omoregie is a lecturer at the University of Benin.