“Ex-Governor
Storms Capital; Declares Intention to Return to Government House”
By the way,
the above caption is mine. But I will not be surprised if many newspapers have
this as their caption anytime.
Yes, former
Governor of Oyo State, Otunba Dr Adebayo Alao-Akala “stormed” Ibadan, the Oyo
State capital recently, 4th September 2014, with thousands (I will
actually say, hundreds) of his supporters (possibly rented-crowd or just plain
deluded) driving crazily and in flagrant abuse of both traffic laws and public
decency, in cars, motorcycles, vans and buses, waving flags (I even saw some
with cutlasses and guns), accompanied by several police escorts all over Ibadan
to declare his intention to return to the Government House, Agodi, Ibadan for a
second time, or is it, third time?
The amiable
ex-governor himself was in an open-topped van, waving to imagined or imaginary
“supporters”, mostly hapless onlookers like me who just happened to be on his
campaign route at that particular instance or time, not particularly because we
wanted to see him and hail him on his quest, caught in the abuse of traffic
laws. All in all, it would seem to him, perhaps, with the whispering of his
retinue of sycophants and flatterers, that he’s enjoying tremendous public
support to stage a comeback.
Well, as a
Nigeria, I will always accord everybody their right to association, and
especially in this political and democratic environment, the right of any
citizen to contest for any elective post. The sky is the limit for any Nigerian
for this.
But what has
happened to our sense or perception of morality, and our sense of remorse; or
maybe conscience, in this our downtrodden society? This is a man who still has
a case going on in court brought by the toothless EFCC for massive fraud and
mismanagement when he was a governor (the last time I heard, the case has not
been dismissed nor has he been acquitted, has he?)
So has he
been cleared by INEC to contest? No, of course!
But wasn’t it the same INEC and other “responsible” authorities in
Nigeria, who allowed Mr Fayose to contest and win the recent Ekiti State
gubernatorial election, despite having a fraud case in court with the EFCC and
a murder case against him in a criminal court? Yet, nobody breathed a word
about this when he declared his intention to contest. Last time I heard, these
cases have not been dismissed, but as soon as he is sworn in as governor next
month or so, he will be covered by the Immunity Clause, and at least he will be
able to breathe easier for the next four years, knowing nobody can prosecute
him or bring up the old cases.
I later
passed in front of the PDP Headquarters or Secretariat in Mokola area, towards
going to UCH, and there are the campaign posters, pictures and intentions of
all the PDP gubernatorial candidates in Oyo State. It was not a pretty sight or
thought at the ambition of some of them.
It is a right
old Rogues Gallery of some of the most undesirable and undesirous political
elements one can think of in Oyo State.
I dare not mention some of the names, but one thing for sure, if some of
them were to get to power, the developmental gains and progress of Oyo State
(and even the South West Zone) in the past fifty years will be wiped out in one
day. That is how bad it is. Again, please, I am not denying them their right to
aspire to be anything. But I would not be proud to be called a citizen under
most of them if Oyo State were to be unlucky to elect some or any of them as
Governor, or even as any kind of leader.
Nigeria is
debased completely. And the people are folding their arms and looking and
waiting for their fate tamely, crying to God for help, while not doing anything
to help themselves; in fact, we are aiding and abetting the politicians in
perpetrating their evil deeds on us, knowingly. All because some of them are
going to benefit from the injustices being perpetrated. The attitude is “What
concerns me? As long as I am benefitting personally from the tenure of Governor
X, what do I care about the rest of the people?” That is the mentality of the
majority of the supporters of these incompetent and corrupt politicians. We
know they are doing the wrong thing, but our blind and misplaced partisanship
will not allow us to criticise or even oppose them, because of our own selfish
interests.
Human nature
is naturally good. At least it leans decidedly toward an awareness of the good,
and a preference for it, over evil and injustice. If we are so ideal deep down,
why are we such disappointments everywhere else? Why do we fall so
characteristically short in our characters, societies, organisations,
governments and communities, showing all manner of vice and corruption, and
making a cruel and violent mess of our immediate society and the general world?
Either the
outside world corrupts us—a world we cannot well control. Or the inside world
corrupts us. The human part of our aspiration comes weighted with, and mired
in, the lustful, grasping, animal portion of our culture and legacy, a portion
not only difficult to control but bent on running us morally out of control. Or
most ironic, we corrupt ourselves, conspiring unwittingly with these other
corrupting influences (and other people) due to the imperfect state and
function of our all-too-slowly developing capacities.
There is
always, in every nation, a body of citizens more intellectual than the average,
who see the issues between their own and other bodies in the same nation more
clearly than the ignorant patriot, and more impartially than the dominant,
elite and political classes who seek special advantages in national resources, discourse
and political matters. The size of this group varies in different nations.
Although it may at times place a check upon the more extreme types of national
self-seeking, it is usually not powerful enough to affect national attitudes in
a crisis. And such is the way it is in Nigeria. The larger, noisier, wealthier
ignorant, largely unpatriotic, self-seeking group have taken over the country;
always thought they are the right and only competent group to rule the country
or have a monopoly of knowledge and ability to determine the country’s future.
There are two
things that should be of concern to right-thinking and truly patriotic
Nigerians. First is the fact that our rulers are oblivious of their misrule of
this country, or if they are not, then they do not have enough conscience or
remorse to give a care about it. In other words, they do not give a damn about
the way they have been running and ruining this country. It is apparent to us
in their everyday utterances and actions, both past and current rulers. Our
past or ex-rulers often come out and give often late advice, criticism and
suggestions which they themselves did not heed or acted on when they were in
power. But outside of power, they now see the light, but often ignore, or
perhaps, do not recognise their own failures, incompetence, corruption and
misrule.
Secondly, the
concern is about members of the society who are political jobbers, sycophants
and flatterers who spur evil and bad leaders on and make them think they are
the next best thing to God. This group of people never tell or advise their
principals that what they are doing is not right. They will never see the evil
in the ways of those who appointed them into positions simply because of their
own selfish agenda and lack of care for other people, as mentioned above. The
people of this ilk abound all over the place. They have suffused every area of
the society and government in many different guises. They know what is right to
do, but will turn a blind eye to wrong-doings. They are in the same category as
hired thugs who do the evil biddings of their hirers.
We do not
want saints or sanctimonious do-gooders brimming with righteousness to rule our
country. In fact, we don’t want rulers; we want leaders, the right, truly
God-fearing, competent, honest, sincere, compassionate leaders who will take
bulls by the horns and do the needful; for their people, without self-seeking
or self-gratifying consideration for themselves or their families, ethnicity or
religion.
I have always
maintained that in world history, saints, be they Moslem, Christian or other
religions, have never ruled nations. If they do, they will be poor leaders and
bad rulers. Someone once disagreed with me on this and insisted that in the
Moslem world, Caliphs are regarded as saints. But if they are, then caliphates
are not really nations, are they? And caliphs are not religious leaders, only
political leaders infused with Islamic wisdom, much like Christian Popes and Hindu
or Buddhist gurus.
So, really,
it is sinners who have ruled majorly in the nations of the world. And several
of them turn out to be good sinners, if we can call them that.
Am I not a
sinner? Are you not a sinner? Are we not all sinners? In fact, most of us the
followers commit more sins and more heinous sins than those ruling us and that
we are castigating. So what is wrong with our own sinners in Nigeria, and
indeed in Africa? Our own sinners have no sense of remorse; they do not even
recognise or admit their own frailty, failures and shortcomings, they lack
conscience and compassion, and we know it is only when a sinner admits to being
a sinner that he gets redemption and forgiveness. People who lack compassion
are often evil and murderous. They can never want the progress or welfare of
other people. They will be selfish, corrupt and inconsiderate. So they will
never make good leaders. It is impossible for them.
It is
possible to forgive mediocrity, cluelessness, incompetence; these are human
traits which may be innate, such as certain forms of disability; but what
should not be forgiven are outright evils like greed and rampant materialism,
lack of compassion to fellow human beings, selfishness, corruption, flagrant
misuse and abuse of power, authority, resources and common wealth.
We must reject
these ex-rulers, who did not perform, stole our money and now want to come back
to government. Some of them have even stolen back into the thick of governance
as Senators, making laws for us. These are people, who when in power, disobeyed
the laws of the land and ignored the constitution they swore to defend and
uphold with impunity, and now they are in charge of making laws. How can that
be possible or progressive for us?
They looted,
they raped, they embezzled; some of them even committed murder, and yet they
forgot something in the Government House, or they feel the Government House
belongs to them permanently. They feel it is their exclusive right to remain in
government; they feel they have a monopoly of knowledge and experience in
ruling their people.
I know power
is addictive; it is more dangerously so with the jobless and the mediocre who
suddenly find themselves in power or who cheated, maimed or rigged their ways
into power. Examples are replete in Nigeria. And that is why we may find our
way out of the political mess we have created for ourselves.
These
recycled and utterly selfish, greedy and corrupt politicians must be rejected.
They must not be encouraged to think they are the only ones who hold the key to
our progress, our welfare. They don’t!
To us the
followers, search deeply into your innermost conscience, put political
partisanship, religious and ethnic affiliations aside and weigh whether what
you are supporting or promoting is the best, NOT for you personally, BUT for
the general good of your people. This is where God and Man will eventually
judge you for what you have done for humankind during your lifetime. It will
not be based on what money and power you get from evil leaders and politicians.
Tell them the
Truth (as I know it) always!
Akintokunbo A Adejumo MSc, Dip Mngt, CIHM, MCMI, FITP
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