By Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.” ~ Sir Isaac Newton
There are betrayals that sound like thunderclaps in the moral sky, and then there are those that slither silently, like Judas kissing Christ under moonlight, pretending loyalty while preparing betrayal. Kenneth Okonkwo, a man once esteemed in the public consciousness for his oratory and supposed ideological rebirth, has elected to break bread with political locusts and mock the very ideals he once sermonised with fire in his bones.
It would have been laughable, almost pitiable, if it wasn’t so steeped in malice. His recent outburst, where he belittled Peter Obi’s iconic “we no dey give shishi” principle and promoted transactional politics as if it were gospel, is not just a personal fall. It is a moral landslide. Here was a man who once mounted the soapbox to tell Nigerians that decency, prudence, and policy fidelity mattered more than bullion vans. Today, he recants with the flamboyance of a court jester and the recklessness of one intoxicated by political perfume.
And in his moment of grandiloquent absurdity, he said, “I don’t want to hear in 2027 anybody talk about we no dey give shishi…”, as if integrity has now become a burden, and conscience a liability. He betrays not just a man, but a movement. Not just a candidate, but a generation’s hope.
In Igbo cosmology, when the masquerade begins to dance off rhythm, the elders whisper, onye mberede adịghị ama na ọ gaghị ama ọsọ. The same mouth that once preached prudence now praises the politics of the highest bidder. How swiftly the firebrand has become the fire-extinguisher; extinguishing the very flames he once kindled!
A man’s honour is not in the crowd he pleases but in the convictions he refuses to sell. Kenneth’s pivot is not evolution, it is erosion. The erosion of principles and value, the betrayal of trust, and the triumph of belly over belief.
He speaks now like one who regrets ever aligning with light. And perhaps, light exposed what he truly is, a political journeyman hungry not for justice but for the highest bidder. He forgets that history is not always written by the victors, but often by the virtuous.
Peter Obi’s “we no dey give shishi” was not stinginess; it was a statement, a creed. A rebuke of the endemic culture that believes political success must be bought, not earned. It was a moral resistance, not to giving, but to bribing. For Obi is not a miser; he is a known philanthropist who has consistently deployed his personal resources for hospitals, schools, flood victims, and struggling businesses, et al; always for just causes and never to buy votes or compromise the conscience of the nation. That principled posture, though unpopular among the corrupt, became a covenant with millions yearning for a country that works. But Kenneth now spits on that creed. He tears the flag of integrity and dances naked with the vultures.
In moments like this, one remembers the words of Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” But what happens when the “good man” becomes the trumpet of the evil he once condemned?
Kenneth, like Esau, has traded legacy for lentil. He would rather be relevant to looters than loyal to light. And yet, in this moment of betrayal, he reminds us that conviction is costly, and that only few can afford it.
History will not forget. Nigerians are watching. Posterity is recording. The movement continues, with or without its fallen apostles. Howbeit, there’s always a day of reckoning.
✍Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
Public Affairs Analyst|