In the course of this week, BusinessDay has received a number of bogey representations relating to the ground breaking and forthright stories published by this newspaper on the misery inflicted on the hapless people and businesses in Aba and its environs.
Some of the representations have come with veiled threats but thankfully, many more have saluted the exceptional courage shown by this newspaper and its editors in breaking the story of how a high wire web of conspiracy linked to the highest level of government ensures that the people of Aba remain in the dark for as long as the perpetrators have their way.
None of the representations have in any way contradicted the crux of our story or swayed our editors from reaching a different conclusion from that which led them to focus on the story of the misfortune of Geometric in the first place.
And attempts to question the motive of this newspaper in publishing these stories are trite at best. If we have to say it, our only interest is Nigeria and it does not matter who is involved. We are beholden to no one and that should be clear by now.
When BusinessDay published a number of stories in the days leading to the unplanned departure from office of Professor Barth Nnaji as power minister, some of those hurt pointed to our intervention as being responsible for the sudden turn of events that followed.
If our stories in recent times have tended to push the case of Geometric of which Professor Nnaji is the major promoter, it is because we are a newspaper with a conscience and our editors know this so well.
If the federal government is failing to protect the investment called Geometric and one made by arguably the nation’s leading light in the area in question, what business has the government going round the world canvassing inward investment into Nigeria?
BusinessDay is quite aware how these pressures can be unsettling to put it mildly.
However, we are comforted by the fact that the editor whose name the newspaper bears daily and who has full charge of making the call day by day, story by story, is unmoved.
BusinessDay will not shirk in its responsibility to Nigeria.
Whereas it has become commonplace for government functionaries to govern by rejoinders and denials, the best form of disclaimer or denial any one can present against the stories published by BusinessDay in the last three days is to contact the editor with proof that Geometric is working, that power has been turned on in Aba and finally that its peaceful people have been saved from needless misery.
