By Steve Egbo
Mr Oseluka,
I have listened to your speech and I can attest to the fact that you speak well. With a modulated foreign accent and all the complimentary frills that went with it. Your speech made a lot of sense too, and the illustrations you drew did fit in.
But I wish to remind you of the old saying: “a gold fish has no hiding place”. You seem like one goldfish that thought it could find a place to hide. But your personal life may not just be as personal as you thought. Or would wish.
As the son of a prominent man, a big time politician, your life, your style, your friends, your temperament, your sexuality, indeed everything you do, is subject to critical public attention and forensic scrutiny. You should therefore be careful, very careful what you do or fail to do. Words are powerful; but our actions are far more powerful and much more impactful.
This is not just for you. Same applies to celebrities all over the world – whether they are in the theater, sports, politics, royalty, etc etc. The greatest pain of the late Queen Elizabeth was not the collapse of the British Empire under her reign; or the sun setting on Britannia. It came from the indiscretions and recklessness of her children. These were the deep, private pains the grand old lady carried to her grave.
You do yourself a lot of damage, including your family, especially your family, when you allow what you do in private to become public knowledge. You spoke about personal life, but you forgot to keep that personal life personal. The society will judge you, not necessarily because you do certain things, but because you allowed yourself to be found out. And the judgement of society is often harsh and brutal and unsparing.
Benito Musolini once said, “gossip is sweet, except when you are the topic”, and he was right. We all enjoy gossip. The more sallacious and grissly the better. So let those in delicate positions – the high and mighty, the stars, the top fliers, the golden fishes, the Oselukas of this world – let them guard themselves and their conduct. Let the “Eleventh Commandment” be your abiding code.
Mr Oseluka, you can sleep with whomever you want to sleep with, that’s your business, but don’t let us know about it. Don’t flaunt it under our noses. And don’t let the world know about it otherwise the backlash will be scorching and bristling and upending. This is the best thing you can do for yourself and your family. Humanity is full of hypocrisy and petulance. And it will hurt you and your family, especially your father, political career or not.
Steve Egbo, Consultant/Resource Person, NILDS, Abuja