WHEN A MONDAY MISTAKES HIMSELF FOR A MOUNTAIN : A REBUTTAL TO GOV. OKPEBHOLO’S OUTBURST
By Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
“When the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for battle?” ~ 1 Corinthians 14:8
A governor spoke, and Nigeria wept. Not from the fountain of his wisdom, but from the drought of his reasoning. Not from the clarity of vision, but from the deafening vacuum of his voice. Monday Okpebholo, whose emergence as Edo State governor owes more to judicial arithmetic than democratic legitimacy, has confirmed what many feared: that sometimes the gavel may stumble, and what the bench elevates, common sense and conscience must interrogate.
“Peter Obi is not welcome in Edo. If he comes here again, I cannot guarantee his safety. We don’t need his type. He came here to donate to a school without informing the government. Is that how it works?” ~ Gov. Monday Okpebholo.
That chilling utterance, far from a mere gaffe, unveils a deeper malady, a decay of reason and an erosion of democratic decency. That a sitting governor, vested with the responsibility to protect all within his state, would dare threaten a presidential frontrunner, a former governor, a global thought-leader, and, by many accounts, one of the last moral titans left standing in Nigeria’s defiled political temple, simply for an act of goodwill, is not just shameful; it is a tragic descent into political barbarism.
Let us be unequivocal: Governor Monday Okpebholo’s statement is not just uncouth, it is criminal. Section 41(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) provides:
“Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any part thereof…”
No clause empowers Monday, or any mortal, to suspend that freedom based on political paranoia. So, who crowned Monday the gatekeeper of Edo? Who bestowed upon him the unholy power to revoke the rights of Nigerians? Even the jackboots of the military era respected the illusion of liberty better than this.
Is this hubris a symptom of desperation, inferiority complex, or medicinal interference? For the sake of governance and his own psychological balance, Governor Okpebholo must seek clinical attention, lest this episode becomes the first in a long string of delusions. These are not the words of a democratic leader, they are the uncontrolled shrieks of one frightened by the shadow of excellence.
And all because Peter Obi, a private citizen with a public heart gave from his own resources to a school in need? A gesture that should earn applause, not abuse? That, in the immortal words of Chinua Achebe, is “the arrogance of ignorance.”
Today it is Obi. Tomorrow, who? Shall all acts of kindness now be routed through party handlers? Must generosity wear party uniforms? Are medical outreaches, educational grants, and economic interventions now considered insurgencies if they do not bear APC insignia?
Governor Okpebholo must be reminded: Nigeria is not his village courtyard, and Edo State is not a family inheritance. His seat at Osadebe Avenue was not earned by the thunder of popular mandate but granted through the cautious mathematics of the Supreme Court; a verdict many Edo citizens still regard with a chilling, unspoken disquiet. But he appears to be basking in the euphoria of that judicial somersault, mistaking courtroom arithmetic for electoral affection.
A word to Monday: when you find yourself among lions, do not bark like a hyena. Peter Obi is not your peer in record, stature, or public affection. He is the moral lodestar in a political nightfall, the only one whose name evokes hope, not dread.
To threaten him is to insult a generation; to mock his goodwill is to pick a fight with providence.
And to the security agencies, this is your test. A serving governor has declared a citizen “unsafe” in a region of the federation. This is not politics. This is a constitutional crisis. If no consequences follow, then silence becomes complicity, and the state itself becomes suspect.
As it stands, Governor Okpebholo has outed himself as unfit for office. When hospitality dies in a Government House, tyranny rises in its place. History, as always, is taking notes.
And the people will remember.
“The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.”~ Wole Soyinka
“No matter how tall a tree is, it cannot reach the sky.”~ Igbo Proverb
“The day the monkey is crowned king, every tree must learn to bow.”~ African Proverb
Let Monday descend from his unearned pedestal, book an appointment with a psychiatrist, and relearn the ABCs of public decency. Nigeria is a democracy, not a jungle republic. And no day of the week, not even a court-certified Monday, should presume to play Caesar.
Ugochimereze Chinedu Asuzu
Public Affairs Analyst | Friday, July 19, 2025
