Veteran Nollywood actor, Kenneth Okonkwo, has slammed his colleague, Okey Bakassi, over his remark on the political approach of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi.
Naturenex recalls that Kenneth Obi had, a few weeks ago, severed ties with Peter Obi over claims that he is too weak and indecisive to confront national issues.
However, in a recent interview, Okey Bakassi said Kenneth does not know politics more than Peter Obi and is not in a better position to tell the former Governor of Anambra State how to act.
Making several illustrations in Nigerian politics, Okey Bakassi said, “I don’t think Kenneth Okonkwo is in a good position to make any comment about Peter Obi’s political method. Kenneth Okonkwo is my colleague, and he has never won any election. He is an actor, lawyer and engineer.
“Peter Obi has won election twice, he was a two-term governor of Anambra State, and he has survived trial and tribulation of the electoral process. He has proved himself as a fighter and people mobilizer, wining the two major states in Nigeria, Lagos and Abuja, so he does not have anything to prove to Kenneth.
“Forget Peter Obi’s soft voice he is as strong man. When you approach Nigerian politics, you do it with wisdom, and history will tell you, that Bola Ige and many others died and stories about Nigerian politics have not changed.”
Reacting to the remarks, Kenneth Okonkwo, in a statement via his X handle, questioned the whereabouts of Okey Bakassi while he (Kenneth), alongside others, were defending the mandate of LP after the 2023 election.
The movie star stated that his colleague is intellectually lazy and unaware that he had never contested any election.
Reiterating his stands about Peter Obi’s approach to politics, Kenneth said he is interested in supporting politicians of integrity, who can’t defend the people’s votes, and he is unbothered about what opportunists like Okey Bakassi and other people may say about it.
He wrote, “No wonder he was hiding under his mother’s bed during the campaign while we were risking our lives fighting for the votes, which were later on not defended.
“For this young man who was attracted to Nollywood after our sacrifice in starting Nollywood with the first movie I acted – Living in Bondage, where I acted as Andy Okeke to come out publicly to open his mouth to disrespect my name is really unfortunate. First of all, in all his movie life, I am not aware of any movie where he played the lead role that ever made a hit. It’s not unusual for failures to try to get traffic in their interviews by twisting facts about notable names. Little minds discuss people, and they do it dishonestly
“This hypocrite said I have not won any election. His intellectual laziness may not allow him to know that I have not contested any election at all. I aspired to contest elections, and when I saw the level of incompetence and corruption that were going on in our electoral system, I withdrew because even if I won, they would steal my mandate. I believed I didn’t have what it took to defend my mandate if people suffered to give me their votes, and I stepped aside and never contested.
“I practise what I preach. Seeing those abnormalities in our elections and not wanting to participate in them, I decided that my first step in my democratic journey is to fight injustice and corruption in our electoral system to enthrone a just and democratic society. This is why I am interested in supporting politicians of integrity who have the capacity to defend our votes. I repeat, no politician should contest if he can not defend our votes to avoid making people suffer in vain. We are dealing with corrupt election riggers who snatch mandates, and the winner must be ready to fight them through protest. I stand by my decisions and words, and I don’t care what hypocrites and opportunists like Okey Bakassi say. Pretenders and sycophants say and do the worst at the back.”
