Ex-Delta Commissioner to Utomi: It is unfair to describe those who disagree with you as ‘ignoramuses’

Sir, I am able to deduce from your submissions that you are not averse to offering your services to our people on a political level. I truly commend such noble disposition to public service.
Evidently, it would afford the state a wider range of options from which to elect our best. Your globally acclaimed professional qualifications will, no doubt, illuminate the process of governance.
As I said in a related post, I do not intend to explore the details or veracity of the various claims and counter claims between you and your friend, former Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan. You are both masters of your vocations. So, I defer to you such knowledge and mastery of your crafts as lesser mortals like me could only peep from afar.
However, I read your response to Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan in today’s PUNCH newspaper, and I must say it is regrettable that the argument degenerated to that level. Prof sir, As much as I acknowledge your excellent mental power, I am constrained to take exception to some elements of your language in the said publication.
Honestly, as I perused the report, I was captivated by the exemplary lucidity with which you raised some very vital issues. In fact, I believe many persons would be prompted by the depth of your submission to expect a commensurate response from the other side of the divide. Sadly, I was taken aback when I began to see in the text, words that, ordinarily, shouldn’t be products of your revered faculties.
I admit that you may have been hurt by the remarks of the former governor. But when you deployed such intemperate words as “silly controversy,” “the ignoramuses,” “people who couldn’t think,” “these morons,” and “that person is really stupid,” I began to wonder if they truly came from the Prof. Pat Utomi, whose cerebral pedigree I so much admire.
Sir, please permit me to say that in the political arena, the leadership of which you are currently in contemplation, it is not everyone that has the capacity of your intellect. Neither does everyone in the field think all must follow the same pathway to the promised land.
I am inclined to believe you know that the position of governor or president also makes you a political leader.
Accordingly, politics and governance are theaters where, whatever your convictions, you are compelled to work in agreement with persons and institutions that may not share in your vision.
It, therefore, means that considerable political skills are required to galvanize such competing demands for optimal service delivery.
No one is in doubt of your intellectual power. We all have seen it flourish in the academia and the corporate world. Even the said PUNCH interview would have been a masterpiece, were it not for the offensive portions that constituted a drag to its fluidity.
Let me restate that the fundamental plank of your submission was sublime; laced as it were with very unsettling revelations.
But the language of politics is of a different vintage. Many a time, the best of intentions have been diminished by poor political communication.
My learned brother, I think it is uncharitable when you describe people who disagree with your position as “the ignoramuses,” “people who couldn’t think,” “these morons,” and “that person is really stupid.”
To my mind, such unguarded outbursts tend to question not just your temperament for political leadership but the sense of humility upon which great inter-group exploits are founded.
Incivility of such complexion could be the pastime of lesser endowed characters, but definitely not for a man of unimpeachable intellectual and moral habitudes like you.
I can tell you, sir, that the reactions of Dr. Uduaghan and Chief Akpeki to your statements, are about the mildest you would find in the terrain you are now going into. Criticisms in the political field fly around in the most vile and vicious manner. More painfully, they mostly turn out to be unjustified. Yet, the victim would have been maligned and his feelings seriously injured. That is the nature of our politics.
But Prof, sir, having an eye on the apex of political leadership which, who knows, providence may bestow on you, it is expected that you try to absorb every such criticism in good faith, not minding how irritating and unfair the attacks may be. And, when you decide to respond, please marshal your points with such class and candour as you are widely renowned, bearing in mind that your fiercest critic today could be your greatest supporter tomorrow. In our political climate the wrong choice of words could be irretrievably damaging.
Therefore, sir, I wish you could endeavor at all times, to rein in the tendency for retaliatory language in responding to public criticisms, or the use of such rustic words as could diminish your standing before the people. Toleration and fortitude, my dear Prof, are indispensable tools of political leadership.
If your natural disposition is not compatible with the rudiments of partisan politics, I’d rather you focus on your noble vocation of raising a worthy generation of leaders, than smear your magnificent garment in the murky waters of Nigerian politics.
The foregoing, sir, is just my humble advice in the circumstance. May God engrace you all in the continuing strive to improve our society.
Dr. Tony F.E. Nwaka.
Former Commissioner for Education, Delta State.