No Apologies, Mrs Obiano

How far away is Nigeria from the gates of hell?  Here is one measure:

Last Sunday, I published an article about Ebele Obiano, who is married to the Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano.

Two days later, someone published an apology he claimed I had made.  Here is the text: “Following the mixed reactions trailing my piece entitled ‘Mixed metaphors: Anambra’s Ebele Obiano’, I hereby wish to publicly tender my unreserved apology to the Firstlady. Lately, I have perused the US healthcare policy, and discovered that the Firstlady of Anambra is emminetly qualified to be administered the Covid-19 vaccine, contrary to my earlier report. I sincerely apologize for any inconveniences the story might have caused the Firstlady. – Soala Olumhensee”.

The bogus apology is an indication of how close to the gates of hell we are.  As a syndicated writer, when the fake apology appeared, I asked my principal publishers—Daily Trust in Abuja and The Punch in Lagos—if they had received such an apology from me.  They each stated—and I have the written evidence—that they did not.

I had neither given an interview nor penned an apology, and if I had, I would not have made the awful spelling errors in the copy, especially of my own name.  Whoever was lying for Ebele must take off the mask and produce evidence of my purported “apology”.

My story is not complicated.  I wrote last week’s column because I was aghast that, abandoning the six million people her husband governs, Ebele had appeared in Texas and—callously ignoring sick and qualified locals—somehow helped herself to a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The coronavirus vaccine is free in the United States if you can get it.  Ebele is unqualified, and here is why: because the vaccine is in short supply, and American states began distribution with specific demographics.  After a few weeks, some of them added older people and persons with specified health conditions.

In New York State, for instance, this is how grim the situation currently is.  No vaccines.

In Texas, America’s second largest state by population, Phase 1A of the distribution plan focused on health care workers, while Phase 1B added Texans 65 and older, as well as adults with chronic medical conditions.

In other words, at the time Ebele took the shot, people 65 and younger could only get vaccinated under certain stringent conditions.  Even state governors could not take it simply because of their position or power, or send their elderly parents to the front of the line.  The rich could not buy it.  Foreigners were certainly not expected to snake-oil their way into distribution lines.

A key part of the success of the advanced democracies is that privileged people do not shove the rules aside, as they might in Abuja or Lagos or Awka, without repercussions.   Take Hasan Gokal, a Houston doctor who in December collected one vial of the same Moderna vaccine because it was going to waste and administered the doses offsite.  He lost his job and faced prosecution, although the case was later dismissed.

Similarly, in Canada, a couple, Rodney and Ekaretina Baker flew nearly 1500 kilometres from Vancouver to the remote village of Whitehorse in the Yukon, an area ravaged by the coronavirus and—without quarantining for two weeks as required by law—obtained a vaccine intended for vulnerable and elderly Indigenous people.  The Bakers, who are millionaires, perpetrated the scam by pretending to be local workers.  In addition to fines, they now face up to six months in jail and possibly much more as popular outrage grows.

Remember: these are questions about violation of the rules and of people probably seeking to manipulate the process.  But at least they happened within their countries, even with a county of a state.  Ebele perpetrated a more insidious input: travelling over 10,000 kilometres from another continent—paying between $7,400 and $15,000 for a First-Class air ticket—to insert herself into a local American distribution, while denying a qualified person the shot in her arm.  That vaccine was not free, it was expensive on either side of the Atlantic, perhaps fatally.

What was worse, she celebrated by publishing the video, captioning it, “Osodieme becomes the First public servant to take Covid19 vaccine on a live video.”  They added the legend, “Our courageous First Lady, Her Excellency Mrs Ebele Obiano takes Covid19 vaccine on a live video.”

Yes, some people call Ebele “Her Excellency.”  I do not.  By nature, I do not flatter high society people or inflate their egos.  Excellence is something you demonstrate or earn.  This is one such opportunity, and I challenge her to demonstrate the excellence she seems to crave.

On that video, she exults, “This is necessary…Coronavirus is real.  Coronavirus is killing people.  We have to take this vaccine.  This vaccine will save us. With God’s help, by His grace, it will save us.  It will not harm us in any way or manner.  God is on the throne.  He is in charge of everything, including medicine.  God will see us through.  I advise people to take this vaccine.”

“We”?  Who are “we”: the eligible person in Houston—possibly a Nigerian—whom she denied the vaccine just because she could, and who is probably now dead?  Or was she referring to a helpless Anambra trader or farmer who needs and desires the vaccine but to whom she declares, “Nothing like vaccines in Nigeria, talk less of Anambra State…”

The apology attributed to me last week affirmed that I had “discovered that the Firstlady of Anambra is emminetly (sic) qualified to be administered the Covid-19 vaccine…”

Really?  I stated clearly that Ebele took what belonged to someone else.  That is stealing, as she is an impostor in the process.  As she waits to obtain her second dose on February 13, she is merely waiting to steal again.  And if her husband, Governor Willie Obiano did take the vaccine, as she announced on the video, he would have to demonstrate that he, too, has not stolen.

Ebele declares, “This vaccine will save us”?  But who are “us”?  Ruthless, unqualified impostors?

“…I advise people to take the vaccine,” she says.  Really?  If she is preaching to Anambrarians, does she intend to import them into the US to take the vaccine?   Should she not at home talking to them about how the vaccine “will save us”?

All of this is also important because Ebele repeatedly cites God in her video.  But God does not sponsor theft or inspire thieves.  When God empowers people with power, it is to serve, not exploit.

That said, I am ready to offer to Ebele my congratulations.

I will congratulate her if she confesses that the vaccine she took in Texas in January, invoking the name of God, belonged to someone else.

Otherwise, she must demonstrate how she—the second citizen of a state in a nation across the Atlantic—properly obtained the Moderna vaccine barcode on her phone in the US.

Do not just pray for the world, Mrs. Obiano.  Do something.

This column welcomes rebuttals from interested government officials.