FROM OGUN STATE COMES THE TRUE FACE OF THE NIGERIAN POLITICIAN

The story of the Nigerian politician is the most difficult one to tell by either story tellers in the enclosure of that popular community of ‘Tales by Moonlight’ or historians. The reason for this dilemma is not far-fetched. It is imbibed in one fact of life and that is the truth of the unsteady lifestyle of the Nigerian politician. We need to break this down further to the understanding of majority.

It was in the last and final family meeting the great Patriarch; Israel [you may want to call him Jacob] held with his 12 sons, as recorded in the Bible book of Genesis 49:1-33, that what looked like, but actually became the Nigerian politician lifestyle, was pronounced. You will get the pronouncement in verse 4 of the scripture quoted above. I am not too sure you actually want to read it and attribute it to the Nigerian politician because it is scaring to do so. Nevertheless, we just have to read it.

The Amplified version put it this way: “But unstable and boiling over like water, you shall not excel and have preeminence [of the firstborn]” . . . The NIV moderates it slightly different by saying “Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel”, while The Message version put it bluntly by saying “But like a bucket of water spilled, you’ll be at the top no more”. 

Nobody should blame me for the language used in the verse quoted because, in the first place, they were not my words and in the second place, l warned earlier that the language applied is scaring, which connotes that “readers’ discretion required”.

How appropriate this portion applies to the Nigerian politician, l am recommending, should be subject to individuals’ interpretation. I however submit that we may not get the implication of the meaning if we allow the Nigerian politician to take us to the home-base of true interpretation. To depend on the Nigerian politician for interpretation will throw us to whims and caprices of the unsteadiness of the troubled waters of the Ocean.

Reuben, Israel’s firstborn; who could have wallowed in the dignity of his father’s greatness forever, lost it because of one terrifying act of indiscretion. Look at the way and manner the father [Israel] described him before the hammer of instability fell on him. “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my strength, the child of my vigorous youth. You are first in rank and first in power”.  Those entire glorious pronouncements were taken away from him and from that moment he receded into oblivion of instability and continuous retrogression.

 From that point, all those that saw and identified him as a leader, learnt regrettably to their own destruction, the futility of following him. Of course, those who were wiser abandoned him in search of a more stable person to lead them but those who were not men [and women too] of common sense followed him to their eternal peril. 

Enough on this as we must let the chicken come home to rust. What is the relationship between Reuben and the Nigerian politician?

The Nigerian politician is as unsteady as the waters of the sea in most things he does. Yes, this postulation is most likely to be subjected to much contest for some reasons.

One, and this is most prominent amongst many, is the fact that nearly every human being, if not all of us, are political ‘animal’ and as such the tendency of seeing ourselves being grouped in the Reuben’s camp shall remain one major unattractive venture to embark upon. Two, every political leader, sane or insane, has followers, and because of the Nigerian terrain for the creation of this followership: a seemingly cult-like style, which submits the latter to the totality of whims and caprices [mostly in vices and related antics] of the former, it becomes most difficult convincing people to be aware of the person they chose to follow – in this case, the Nigerian politician.

Yet, we see what they do on daily basis. But wait a little bit. The Nigerian politician being discussed today is not static. He is elastic and elaborative, occupying the totality of the Nigerian political clime. He is to be found across the length and breadth of the whole country. He is in all the political parties, registered or about to be registered. He is the man without political ideology and without a clear-cut manifesto. He is that man that has chosen politics as a profession.

He is a man of all seasons - politically. He might be in political Party A today and jump into political B tomorrow because of two things. The first being that he [the Nigerian politician] has no principle nor morals while the second being the fact that there is no difference between Party A and Party B.

The instrument with which he pries his trade is unorthodox, it is cruel and wicked because himself is sinister and carnally brutal. Yes, and because he lacks morality and sanity of holiness, he kills with joy. Life of others, in most cases and times, means nothing to him. He derives his carnal joy from the sorrow of others. He is a master in the game of the two big B of prosecuting his political end – Bullet and Blood. Oh, he is absolutely not a human being.

Above is the practical description of the Nigerian [average] politician. With what we see every day in the Nigerian politician lifestyle, can there be any argument in acceptance of this presentation? The recently concluded general elections captured the state of nature in which we play politics still, in Nigeria. It is the most relevant evidence of the Nigerian politician’s nature in brutality.

Let us draw the curtain on this work as we look towards Ogun State, one of the Six States in the South/West geopolitical zone of Nigeria for the latest likely metaphor of the Nigerian politician.

A very strong political leader, that had enjoyed the privilege of one particular strong political Party over the years suddenly announce his retirement from politics. It was an announcement that kept tongues wallowing because, as the people reminisced, that he was too young in politics to take such decision, more so when he played such a very high role; at the presidential level, for his political Party in the recently concluded general election.

While the news was yet to be fully digested, and in less than 48 hours, this same political colossus [so some people thought of him], made another announcement to the bewilderment of an astonished nation, albeit that his followers have forced him to jettison the political Party that brought him all the golden laurels, in favour of joining the ruling political Party in Nigeria.

It is all in the name of “my people”. It happens every day in Nigeria except that the one from Ogun State is the latest.

Ladies and Gentlemen, help me welcome the true face of the Nigerian Politician!  

Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

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