By Gabriel Atumeyi
The Abia State Government has described the Senator representing Kogi West at the National Assembly, Smart Adeyemi, as a ‘village idiot’ and a ‘legislative misfit’.
Adeyemi, while contributing to a motion on the floor of the Senate during plenary on Tuesday, February 23, said, “In some states of Nigeria today, where we have highly intelligent people, highly educated people, very enterprising people; like Abia, they are governed by drunkards.
‘’The Governor of Abia is a champagne-drinking man. Abia people are impoverished more than ever before. Abia people are unfortunate.’’
In a swift response, the Abia State Commissioner for Information, John Okiyi Kalu, said Adeyemi’s utterances confirmed the saying that “every time a fool opens his mouth he advertises his absence of intelligence.”
He said the Senator’s antecedent left nothing to be surprised about, advising that he should direct his judgement towards his home state’s management of the COVID – 19 pandemic.
“The Holy Bible acknowledges in Proverbs 17:28 that ‘Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues’.
“Sadly, it appears that the hallowed platform provided by the National Assembly is now a village square for confirmed village idiots to open their mouths, thereby doing great disservice to the great men and women, past and present, that have been elected to serve as Senators.
“For the records, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu does not drink alcoholic beverages of any kind and I make bold to invite ‘Undistinguished’ Smart Adeyemi to appear at a place of his choosing with the Governor for test for alcohol in the blood system. He should also not forget to bring along his own state Governor for the test.
“We know that only confirmed drunks will see and call even saints drunkards and we want to give Adeyemi the opportunity to prove that past allegations of drunkenness induced misbehaviour against him are false.
“Sadly, a man like Senator Adeyemi who is described by his professional colleagues as the most despicable NUJ President in history who engaged in dubious project tours allegedly to siphon the resources of the Union is the one abusing the privilege of being elected a Senator in a constituency where the more erudite and socially justice conscious Senator Dino Melaye also contested is a sad commentary on the situation we find ourselves as a country, especially at a time of national security crises requiring serious and focused actions by all arms of government.”
The statement further described how the state has been a leading destination of investment and science, while enumerating the achievements of governor Ikpeazu.
“While we have no reason to disparage the Governor of Kogi state for the actions of the misguided Senator, it is important to point out that Abia enjoys the rating of being one of the safest states in Nigeria under the watch of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu who is well known to have invested in technology and hardware to support peace and security in the state. If only our village idiot has taken time to study development pattern in Abia State he would have seen that Governor Ikpeazu’s Abia has maintained first position in the performance ranking of states by the West Africa Examination Council,. To date, Governor Ikpeazu has constructed 538 new classroom blocks across the state with 4 new model schools. Under his watch, public school enrollment has improved from about 150,000 to more than 650,000 and Abia School teachers have undergone training by local and international educational service providers.
“Recently, reports from NBS confirmed that Ikpeazu’s Abia was the 3rd highest investment destination in 2020 among other States of the federation only after Lagos and Abuja and at a time Smart and his masters could not even understand the science of Coronavirus disease pandemic.”