By Ifeanyi Chijioke
To the critics, let me remind you that you don’t need to deviate from the concept that the tongue can kill faster than a bullet. Let me also remind you that political differences shouldn’t come into a matter capable of destroying family, reputation, and years of hard work. This is a smear campaign aimed at destroying family harmony, father-son relationships, reputation, and family pedigree built over the years. It’s not politics, and if we don’t condemn evil, that evil will live with us.
We all rise and condemn when we hear a man killed another man for a money ritual but now feign ignorance when a man attempted to kill a man’s family with fabrication to make money. Ejike Ofoegbu said the purpose of his smear campaign is to make money; it literally means to kill or destroy His Excellency Governor Soludo and make money off the kill. It’s synonymous with money rituals, and I call it “blood-pen money.”
In the field of journalism, there is what is called yellow journalism, and this kind of journalism is protected by law, but there is a thin line between it and defamation, so one must be extremely careful. Yellow journalism can have sensationalism, exaggeration, scandal, rumor-mongering, etc., but it must be guided because it’s not always true or fact-checked.
In modern journalism, this practice is also called clickbait. The aim of yellow journalism is to attract traffic and circulation of content. While it’s protected by the freedom of the press, civil liability or libel suits can be initiated. The court often focuses on intent and style of reporting rather than the content itself.
Unfortunately, this case is not yellow journalism but a smear campaign. It’s not professional, and it’s not unprofessional; rather, it’s a dirty, devilish, witchcraft-like, and dark act of hatred.
For Ejike Ofoegbu, journalism is the ability to open a website and say whatever pleases oneself. Ability to prey on the ignorance of the public. Ability to spell words and make sentences. Ability to handle keyboard and blog. Above all, the ability to destroy.
What Ejike Ofoegbu engaged in is not even fake news but a smear campaign. His fabrication is raw with the intent to destroy Governor Soludo’s family. His fabrication could end Soludo’s marriage. It could end the father-son relationship. It could destroy a reputation of many years of sweat. It could lead to depression and death.
When we talk about mental health, we focus on personal actions and reactions without putting into consideration the third-party triggers. Being a family man, I know the enormous love I feel toward my son, and I know the implications of anyone tearing down my son’s happiness or family harmony.
Fake news has been flying in Anambra State, but the government constrained itself. Ejike Ofoegbu didn’t circulate fake news; he fabricated and engaged in a personal attack aimed at destroying a public figure, his family, and his relationship with his son and wife. It’s a direct attack against a person’s reputation, not even a government issue.
Before being the executive governor of Anambra State, His Excellency Charles Chukwuma Soludo was a father, a family man, a young boy who started from nowhere, struggled, went to school, stayed awake to make his results, focused on his career, deprived himself of vices, paid his dues, and earned his accolades. For Christ’s sake, nobody has the right under any guise to destroy a reputation built over the years with pains and tears.
If you are critical of any legal action taken against the Igbo Times publisher, you are simply being a heartless and soulless opposition. You have lost the humanity in you to a political malice. You have lost every commonsense left of your tattered being.
However, the bad news for you is. The prosecution is going smoothly. Your hatred for someone you should empathize with doesn’t change his resolve to get justice. Your High Court and Magistrate Court jingoism have no effect whatsoever. You are simply destroying yourself and the society we live in when you side with evil today.
If Ejike Ofoegbu and his likes are not deterred, those of you who are looking for the slightest opportunity to blame the victim of this smear campaign could become a victim tomorrow. The Anambra State Government’s decision to arraign Ofoegbu is borne out of deep patriotism to save you and me and also our society from destroyers.
If you have a pen, broaden your skills to get clicks and traffic; you must not engage in the destruction of another to rise.
