FEATURE ARTICLE

Abiodun KomolafeMonday, October 15, 2007
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Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria

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THE BURDEN OF MORALITY

n putting together this piece, the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, provided the groundwork. Awolowo had, in a speech he delivered at the then University of Ife Convocation Address on July 6, 1974, warned General Yakubu Gowon, then, Military Head of State, of the dire consequences in not willingly relinquishing power to civilians, come 1976, as he had earlier promised. Hear him: "� But, if our Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, is able to bring his characteristic courage, dedication and self-sacrifice to bear, and is also able to overcome the lower but powerful natural instincts and inclinations which must occasionally well up in him as a human being; if he is able to resist and neutralize all the external pressures and influences with which he must have been constantly assailed on all sides by evilly-disposed as well as well-meaning Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike; and, if above all, he is able to carry his military colleagues with him right up to the last moment of fulfillment �, he will go down not only to Nigerian history but also to world history as, to borrow Hegel's graphic expression, 'A Hero', The Man of Action' and 'The World Historical Individual.'"


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Suffice it to state here that, before this prophetic advice, Awo, as he is still fondly referred to by his followers, had defined for the-then Supreme Commander three of the greatest words that have historically bedeviled world leaders. They are: [Moments of] "Decision", "Fulfillment" and "Tenacity" [of Office]. What the late sage said as well as what he did not say about these three momentous words are well documented in appropriate books and journals. However, for the purpose of this piece, he defined "Tenacity" [of Office] as "a political monstrosity whose characteristics are an inordinate and shameless love of power for its own sake, and a morbid tenacity for public office even when all the legitimacy for continuing in such public office has completely disappeared."

Patricia Etteh's pleasant travails in the House of Representatives herein refer. Though time and space may not permit me to again review [the] latest messy events in Lower House, the importance of the House to nation-building must not be lost on Nigerians in that it was the [Federal] House that, on January 16, 1960, unanimously passed a motion authorizing the "Government of the Federation of Nigeria to request Her Majesty's government in the United Kingdom as soon as practicable to introduce legislation in the Parliament of the United Kingdom providing for the establishment of the Federation of Nigeria on October first, 1960, as an independent Sovereign State �" It is the name of this House that is being sullied by some self-serving individuals.

In as much as there is no gainsaying that leadership is a collective responsibility which produces resoundingly encouraging results when crusted in an atmosphere of communal objectivity but ends in resonant failure when dramatized arrogantly or ignorantly, a leader worth his salt neither brags nor claims monopoly to wisdom but, as far as he is - and should be - concerned, his worth is residable in his ability to add value and prevent a cycle of failure. This why the 'Show of Shame' in the Lower House calls for concern by right-thinking Nigerians!

I have time and again argued that, in other climes, people resign from - or quit, or take a bow and leave - office whenever and wherever their integrity is (being) called to question but, in Nigeria, come what may, Nigerians don't quit. It is not in our character! Here, we neither resign nor retire but we, like water, in total submission to the will, whims and caprices of temperature, only tergiversate. We have had an instance where the World Bank Chief resigned his appointment on the allegation that he influenced his girlfriend's salary and, in Great Britain and United States of America, we recently had top government officials resign their appointments over what we in this clime would scandalously categorize as mere allegations.

Herein lies the essence of Awo's lecture! Check through Nigeria's leadership nomenclature and name one leader who willingly left office when leaving was expedient. To the best of my knowledge, no, not one! Nnamdi Azikiwe, that Ceremonial President, was unceremoniously edged out with the 'loss-in-transit' demise of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, his more powerful Prime Minister. Aguiyi Ironsi went the way he came into office and Gowon didn't fare any better. Murtala Muhammed was murdered before he could find his feet and the now-rested 3rd-Term catastrophe provided Nigerians with the surefire reasons why General Olusegun Obasanjo left willingly in 1979 and why Chief Olusegun Obasanjo left reluctantly in 2003.

Lest I digress, Shehu Shagari was removed by Mohammadu Buhari and he in turn was booted out of office, twenty months later, by His Maradonaic Majesty, Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida murdered sleep and had to shamefully "step aside" in 1993 and Earnest Shonekan became the beneficiary, not victim, of circumstance but, before the old man could even stammeringly pronounce his name, he was already gone. Then came Sani 'the Dark-Goggled' Abacha. Abacha ended up gluttonously killing himself in office and Abubakar Abdusalami, who history has so far credited with leaving office on his own volition, was in the first place too timid to stay on beyond the appointed time. Such has been the sad history of Nigeria! Sadder still, such has been the generationalism associated with leadership deficiencies in our dear country. Incredibly, posterity has once again conferred the life membership award of this cluttered band on our dear 'Madam Speaker.'

It is interesting to note that 'Madam Speaker' and my very 'Unspeakership' self are from the (same) 'State of the Living Spring' (forget the Ettehnization of her name). I can therefore conveniently confirm that she, alongside 'Wole Oke (of 'Odu ni e' fame), among our other 'Honourables', are (expected to be) representing us and our interests. Not that alone, I am very well familiar with Ikire, Madam's hometown, and I doubt what development she has been able to influence to that tranquil town in all of her nine years of representation for, while she revels in spending our commonweal on 'renovation' and 'total upgrading', her kinsmen of productive age back home have become either 'Okada Riders'; or Bricklayers; or are simply hawking 'Dodo-Ikire' around and about town for no fault of theirs.

But 'Madam Speaker' has a companion in one 'Peter Power' whose sole competency is in practically littering our state with nebulous billboards, unmindful of the truism that good wine needs no bush. Well, this is not to say that other constituencies of our dear state have fared any better. For example, in my own constituency, our 'leaders' have successfully turned our young brains into Adubi and Agbekoya warriors and their quest for charms and allied munitions are now unmatchable. And our youth are happy with their newfound professions. After all, they are (being) 'salaried' in hundreds of naira!

But for the fear of personalizing issues, I can mention names of prominent Nigerians who I either wrote letters to or met personally on my way up the ladder of life, passionately pleading with them on the need to teach (people like) me how to fish. I can recollect - and I still have evidence of - those who either tactically snubbed or brusquely dumped me. Again, but for Oba Oladele Olashore's intervention, the story would have been disgustingly different! Without doubt, even with the appreciable level of formal education, enormous challenges still abound but the hope is ever brighter than a hitherto bleak future. I have told those who cared to listen how much saw me through the fist degree. And that was as close as the late 90s! In all honesty, even, quadrupling my total subvention, I do not need my profession as a Statistician to compute how many intelligent yet indigent students some N500million can conveniently see through University and associated education as well as successfully procure hairdressing equipment for.

I have so spiced this piece to acquaint readers with the plight of the haves and the have-nots in a land that is repressively flowing with milk and honey. It is a pity: while the former want to covet and convert to personal use, if possible, the whole country, thereby leaving the have-nots neither breathing nor flourishing space, the latter deride living and dying in indigence. It is this battle of wits that has practically left the country prostrate. It is the same country of uncertainty and gloom that some folks are connivingly mortgaging as if a sister planet is there for them to inhabit.

Honestly speaking, in times like this, one cannot but wonder what those who claim leadership birthright over us have consistently forgotten in government that they again and again think that 'governing' us is a must. Government has been their profession; in fact, they eat and drink government. To them, government - and, "verily, verily �" governance - in Nigeria is an investment and anyone who invests in it must be criminal in nature and time-conscious in approach. For instance, Ahmadu Alli was the 'Alli-Must-Go' of the 70s, the "Distinguished Senator" of the 90s, and the outgoing "Garrison Commander" of this ridiculous dispensation. Still, he is a potential "Ambassador of the Federal Republic." Adamu Ciroma is as old in government as Nigeria's pre-independence era and, many decades after, he is still in government, if not in flesh, then, by proxy.

Essentially, Ojo Madueke reminds Nigerians of Gowon's regime when subornment, cajolery and blatant intimidation conjugated with "sadism, arrogant greed and brutal indifference" to give birth to a nation in darkness. At a stage, Madueke became so 'irritated' with 'experimental politics' that he vowed to make use of everything in his power in ensuring the transmutation of Abacha from a military dictator into a civilian despot. In the end, Abacha died before his time and Madueke shifted (his) allegiance. Now, Madueke and fellow jobbers are to mirror our image to the outside world. The irony of this certified dubiousness is that, despite laying perfidious claim to the proverbial 'Wisdom of Solomon', these failed politicians have always ended up neither solving "the problems of the nation" nor empathizing "with the masses when they get to power."

From the feeding of Christians to the lions in the Coliseum, to the burning of Rome; from the persecution of Jews during the Middle Ages, up to the religio-ethnic cleansing that once pervaded Bosnia Herzegovina; even to the suicidal bombings of Bali and Indonesia, and, now, the Ettehnization of Nigeria's political firmament, deciphering the difference between the slave trade business of the ancient times where fellow human beings were sold as slaves to fellow human beings and the modern acquisitive absurdity of mortgaging Nigerians to 'Made-in-Nigeria' poverty under some 'hairdressing' bravado has been a tricky task. Curiously, two centuries, three decades and some five years after Lord Mansfield's historic judgment, declaring and decreeing freedom "for any slave setting foot in England", interestingly, the place of the colonialists, and one hundred and fifty five years after the First Treaty with Lagos for the abolition of slavery, Nigerians, the once-colonized are still (behaving as if they are) slaves, especially as their geo-political as well as socio-economic situations still remain precariously droll.

Forty-seven years after independence, Nigerians still remain jobless; and, as such, are hungry; and are angry; and are arrogant. In a word, since an arrogant man is an irrelevant man, wealth and weapons therefore become the vitalizing features for recognition and supra-humanity. And, because the political class perfectly understands the manipulative ordinariness and the 'boy-boy' peculiarities of the ordinary Nigerian, while the manipulators contemptuously rejoice to the bank, the manipulated become captivatingly consigned to licking the wounds inflicted on them, to some extent, by acts synonymous with their own cowardice, and, to every extent, as a result of a cabal's sheer disregard for posterity.

Close watchers of events in Nigeria will readily attest to it that politicians in this clime have learnt so little and can therefore give in return so little for the electorate's trust. With the past characterized by failure of state, unfulfilled promises, culture of blackmail and, with the future replete with anxieties, bleakness and circumspect sincerity, these looters who call themselves leaders come back to 'their constituencies' to slap our faces and even snatch our wives with their ill-gotten wealth. And, our 'wives', probably, due to greed or, because of the obtainments of the time, more often than not, end up making themselves willing victims. Incredible! While our votes as individuals no longer count, the few ones among us who ever brace the storm to exercise their civic responsibilities are either ill-prepared or not prepared at all to defend their votes, no matter the circumstance. Therefore, when one looks back at the Nigeria of 47years ago, one cannot but wonder why those Independence-time leaders were more believable in their promises, dedicated to humanity and committed to Nigerianness while today's impostors, though, potbellied in stature, rumour-mongering in behaviour, arrogant in status, power-thirsty in pursuit and bestial in execution, still joy in nationalizing personality and personalizing nationalism.

In our own clime, a policeman will arrest an innocent man under questionable circumstances, pull off his clothes under questionable circumstances, destroy all forms of identification in the suspect's very eyes and parade him as an armed robber for questionable reasons. Our detectives are so defective in the pursuit of their duties that they have over the years found it difficult to determine the culprits behind the dastardly murders in the land and what they have not paraded as suspects are pests and rodents. Indeed, the only area where Nigeria has probably won laurels is in her moving up the ladder from the world's second most corrupt nation to the thirty-second. The painful part of it is that we have at the helm of affairs 'See Me', 'Know Me' and 'Feel Me' political Pharisees and Sadducees aptly described by Maxwell James as a "summary of a vaulting ambition, hyper-galloping hypocrisy and unvarnished sycophancy" who thrive in the ambiance of gauche jamborees. True! They (may) know what we don't know and (may) see what we don't see but, regrettably, they certainly don't feel what we, against our desire, feel. Even former President Obasanjo met Lagos-Abeokuta Road under construction and left it, eight years after, under construction. Undeniably, these are achievements!

Frankly speaking, while Obasanjo deserves garlands for the choice of the operators as well as the manipulators of this dispensation, those who opine that the expired Khalifa was such a saint who never ruffled a feather while in office are simply being mischievous. This is because, while he held sway, Obasanjo not only exacerbated frivolous principles with comical affinity but also aggravated principled frivolities with combustive equanimity. He would, with competent impotency, choose those court orders to obey and those he would not only insidiously disobey but also invidiously misinterpret. He would personally choose his preachers for spiritual edifications, and, where and when he was not so privileged with options of choice, he knew where and when to feign fatigue. In all of this, while the political class is busy tormenting the masses, the religious class is not only oppressing but also making the congregation believe that divine protection is not enough security in a land already overtaken by self-induced duskiness. And, since our lords temporal and spiritual have ostensibly given preference to pecuniary innuendoes and terrestrial persuasion over celestial supremacy, they have magnificently lost out in a society where, naturally, they are expected to temporally set the pace and spiritually dictate the tune.

It is on this premise that I wholly concur with Etteh's submissions that she has practically done nothing unworthy of philosophy and that those calling for her head are simply being unpatriotic; or are being used; or are simply jealous of her achievement - that a 'bloody' hairdresser could scheme her way through to the fourth position in a country where eggheads can no longer hold their heads. Anyway, if and when she survives these 'undeserved' attacks on her person and office, Speaker Etteh should sponsor a Bill legitimating infighting and related hooliganism as the surest and sincerest way of resolving issues. After all, had this Bill (been) in place in the first place, no ad hoc committee would have been constitutional to sit in judgment over her.

Back to the brass tacks, that Obasanjo has not deemed it fit to openly condemn the 'dogs and horrors' of corruption in the Lower House is a dent on his stand on subject. Well, Oyo and Anambra States are only repeating themselves here. Of course, this is yet another in the series of the many principled differences between Awo and 'Balogun Owu', interestingly, Etteh's purported mentor. For record purposes, for four years, Awo served in Gowon's government and had three years before the above-stated dignified advice voluntarily resigned his posts both as Federal Commissioner for Finance and Vice-Chairman of the Federal Executive Council. What prompted him into accepting to serve in Gowon's government despite his distaste for authoritarianism as well as what informed his quitting when he did are issues for another day. However, history has it that Awo accepted the offer in order to help rescue the nation from the brink of collapse and, so, the end of the civil war literally signaled the end of his romance with Gowonism.

Another school of thought posited that he left, probably, to get prepared for the proposed popular democracy or, better still, as a result of Gowon's insincerity. Whichever option, being Gowon's former 2nd-in-Command never for once deterred Awo from voicing his mind whenever and wherever opportunities beckoned. Even, some commentators were of the opinion that his ceaseless attacks on Gowon's government by way of "public lectures and press statements full of pungent words, strong arguments and unassailable facts" actually prepared the grounds for his eventual overthrow in 1975. It is therefore rather disgusting that, instead of calling the spade by its authentic name, Obasanjo and fellow Tsunami juggernauts, certainly, for reasons other than national interest, are busy hiding under one finger, even in the midst of daunting revelations and damaging allegations.

Nonetheless, it is commendable that President Umar Yar'Adua has, within this very short period of his assumption of office, openly admitted that the April 2007 General Elections which gave him tenancy rights to Aso Rock Villa, Nigeria's seat of power, was damaged and has officially promised - and has actually initiated steps - to right some of the many wrongs of our immediate past, especially, those associated with, and traceable, to former President Obasanjo, his table-banging mentor, insults-hurling predecessor and the now-fatigued lord of Nigeria's immediate past. However, while the ongoing 'dog-eat-dog' drama is long-awaited, Nigerians must not be deluded that it represents the dethronement of corruption. Sure! There is an urgency of building a stable, peaceful, purposeful, corruption-free and God-fearing society but there is also an accompanying necessity of bearing in mind that a stable nation may not necessarily be peaceful, purposeful or God-fearing. A country may be stable in chaos and peaceful in vice but a God-fearing nation abhors oppression, mediocrity, covetous externalism and other socio-economic incongruities, whatever their nature, contents or intents.

Again, we need to understand that there are striking differences between performance and corruption. In other words, being a performer is not an antidote to corruption. In fact, being the two is more worrisomely pathetic! This is why those who are of the view that the ongoing cleansing in the polity might polarize the constituent parts of the country should realize that, until and unless some internal and external cleansings are religiously done, Nigeria may be heading for a crisis that may even be more calamitous than the hypothetical polarization of her constituent components.

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