I was not afraid in 2023, when I stood alone against the machinery of incumbency with nothing but my own resources and my own convictions. I am not afraid now.

SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: THE LIES THEY TELL ABOUT A MAN WHO FOUGHT WITH HIS OWN BLOOD AND SWEAT

There are moments in a man’s political journey when silence becomes complicity. This is not one of those moments.

I have watched with quiet patience and growing disbelief as a vicious and coordinated campaign of lies has been unleashed against my name and my integrity. Whispers have become rumours. Rumours have been weaponised into propaganda. And propaganda, if left unchallenged, becomes the history that destroys innocent men.

So today, I speak.

The Lie They Are Telling

Some people and I use that word loosely for those who traffic in falsehood for political hire are circulating the claim that I was paid by the family of the incumbent to contest the 2023 state assembly race. That I was a sponsored candidate. A puppet. A tool.

Let me be unmistakably clear: I did not collect a single dim from anyone.

Not from the incumbent’s family. Not from his associates. Not from anyone who had any interest in the outcome of that election. Every kobo I spent in that contest came from my own pocket — earned through my own labour, my own sacrifice, and the sweat of a man who believed in a cause greater than himself.

What It Actually Cost Me

Those who have never run for public office do not understand what it demands of a man. It is not a hobby. It is not a pastime. It is a total, consuming act of sacrifice of time, of resources, of personal comfort, of family peace.

I gave everything I had to that race. I travelled roads that broke my body. I stood before crowds who tested my resolve. I carried a message not of ambition, but of conviction to every corner of Arochukwu, because I believed then, as I believe now, that this constituency deserves better than what it has been given.

And when it was over, I walked away with nothing but the truth of what I had done. No regrets. No compromises. And certainly no dirty money in my hands.

A Challenge That Cannot Be Ignored

To those spreading these lies, I offer not a threat, but a challenge, the kind that only the truth can answer.

Produce your proof. Name the person who gave me money. State the amount. State the form cash, transfer, cheque. Name the location. Name those present. Produce a single credible witness. Produce a single shred of evidence.

If you can do that if anyone in Arochukwu or beyond can substantiate this fabrication with verified facts, I will surrender my APC ticket without hesitation. I will walk away from this race and never look back.

That is how certain I am.

But if you cannot and you cannot, because it never happened then I call on every right-thinking son and daughter of Arochukwu to ask themselves: why are powerful people so afraid of this man that they must destroy his name to stop him?

What This Is Really About

Make no mistake. This is not about 2023. It never was.

This is about 2027. This is about a constituency that is waking up. This is about an incumbent who knows that his record of failed boreholes, of abandoned promises, of violence against his own party members cannot withstand the scrutiny of an informed electorate.

When a man has nothing to run on, he runs against his opponent’s character. When he cannot defend his performance, he attacks the integrity of those who dare to challenge him. This is a tactic as old as politics itself and it is the last refuge of a leader who has nothing left to offer.

They are not attacking me because I am weak. They are attacking me because I am dangerous to a system that has grown comfortable with mediocrity.

My Answer

I am not afraid.

I was not afraid in 2023, when I stood alone against the machinery of incumbency with nothing but my own resources and my own convictions. I am not afraid now.

I am answerable to two authorities only: the people of Arochukwu LGA, who deserve a representative who serves them rather than exploits them and my God, before whom every lie will one day be exposed.

To those who believe they can silence me with slander, I say this with the full weight of a man who has nothing to hide: prepare for the truth. Because the truth does not tire. It does not negotiate. And it does not lose.

Arochukwu ga adị mma but not if we allow integrity to be strangled by the politics of fear.