Lately, some writers who are obviously impoverished of better lies to tell in order to reduce the raging popularity of Emeka Ihedioha, have resorted to the most puerile and insulting blackmail out of understandable frustration. Before, I go on with this brief essay, I will appeal to you to read this essay and agree or disagree with its contents based on its merit or demerit. You will be deceiving yourself if you go ahead to think that I am writing this because of my preference for Emeka Ihedioha as the Governor of Imo State. I will be waiting for matured minds to take me up on the issues I will be raising on this essay, going outside the issues will clearly portray you as unfit for the business of matured polemics and political discourses. Truth is: if you can bring up credible facts against the candidature of Chief Emeka Ihedioha, I will gladly help you to promote it. That said, we can roll.
The green cap is a brand style which Chief Emeka Ihedioha has tactfully and consistently created for himself. It is his trademark. He has been so consistent in maintaining this style that there are so many people who do not know his name, but will refer to him as that man with the green cap. Having heard varying things about this green cap and what some people think it represents, I decided to carry out special investigations on what informed Ihedioha’s choice of the green cap. I deliberately avoided seeking for any form of audience with him on this matter, because I was careful not to write from a subjective perspective. I wanted to do my observations and come up with my judgement without the dent of subjectivity. There is nobody who is Ihedioha’s staff who is aware that I will be writing this, there is also none around him, who knows that I have been observing him and his statements with particular interest on knowing what is inside the green cap. As a college student, my school principal wore a cap always, and some of us concocted several dreary stories around our principal’s cap, with the most popular one being that our principal hid a snake under his cap. This snake may be physical or literal. Therefore, in the case of Emeka Ihedioha, I was not looking for any physical snake, because his cap have at several times left his scalp. I was interested in finding a literal snake or a literal dove. I found one and not the other, but before I tell you which it is, let me tell you what I understood, informed his choice of green as against blue, black, white or even red.
One of the major reasons that he chose the colour green is because of his undying Nigerianess. He is a lover of Nigeria, a patriot to the core. He breathes and lives Nigeria. Green is Nigeria and Nigeria is green. While the colour of our National flag is green, white and green, green is our identity. white is more or less a decoration. This explains why you cannot see any of our sports teams wearing a complete white outfit without specks of green, but they can wear a complete green without the slightest peck of white. Therefore, I observed through these months of observing Nigeria’s Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, that he uses his green cap to preach Nigeria and celebrate Nigeria. His green cap is an insignia of his undying love for and belief in Nigeria. Listening to him talk about Nigeria, you will observe an unfeigned and passion filled dream for the best for Nigeria. He does not see himself as being different from anybody from any part of Nigeria, he sees himself as a brother to every Nigerian, irrespective of tribe, religion and political dilections. Ihedioha’s green cap is also a reminder to us that he is one of us, since the colour green is the colour of commoners. For instance, during the Rennaissance and Middle Ages when colour was used to depict social status, the colour green was worn by merchants, the gentry and bankers, while the colour red was reserved for the nobles. In Nigeria’s National Assembly, the lower House is regarded as the green chamber, while the upper House is regarded as the Red Chamber.
No matter how much you may want to hate Emeka Ihedioha, you will agree with me that his choice of green as his best colour says a lot about who he is, and what he thinks. Green is the most positive of all colours, it is the colour that is hardly associated with anything bad, not just in Nigeria but the world over. Etymologically, green is gotten from a middle English and Anglo-Saxon word ‘grene’ which has the same Germanic root with the words ‘grass’ and ‘grow’. This explains why the colour ‘green’ is the colour most associated with springtime, nature and growth. It has been scientifically proven that the highest contributor to green in nature is chlorophyll which is the chemical responsible for the photosynthesizing of plants, thereby converting sunlight into energy.
Across the world, the colour green is hardly associated with anything bad. In a survey carried out across Europe and the United States, green is the colour most associated with nature, youth, spring and hope. In China, like in Nigeria it is the colour used to represent fertility and prosperity. It is also a colour used in telling the story of wealth and other good things of life.
Religiously, I am yet to come in contact with any religion that uses the green colour in a negative sense. It is the most important color in Islam. It was the color of the banner of Muhammad, and is found in the flags of all Islamic countries, and represents the lush vegetation of Paradise. It is also often associated with the culture of Gaelic Ireland, and is a color of the flag of Ireland. Because of its association with nature, it is the color of the environmental movement. Political groups advocating environmental protection and social justice describe themselves as part of the Green movement, some naming themselves Green parties. This has led to similar campaigns in advertising, as companies have sold green, or environmentally friendly, products.
I can go on and on to tell you the beauties of the green colour and it is only the mischievous oriented that will pick the slightest dirt in the green colour. It is the colour of vibrant health and unending wealth. Climate change advocates have adopted the green colour as their colour, they preach green and recommend a green environment as the surest way out of the depleting ozone layer. Green is also the traditional colour of progress, safety, approval and security. When the traffic light turns green, it is the clearest signal for you to move ahead, in the United States of America, the Green Card is the most treasured document of any immigrant. The Nigerian International passport is green. I can go on and on and there won’t be the slightest negative about the green colour. Hence, I can authoritatively recommend that everyone who wants the best for Imo State and Nigeria, should think GREEN.
