Nigerian politics: Foolery is better than viciousness

By Ugoji Egbujo

Superficiality has become the main stay of Nigeria politics. Often politicians announce their works and grandiosity on billboards. In many states, pictures of governors litter the streets announcing messianic missions. The people, it appears, have to be cajoled to believe that their lives have gotten better. Salaries also are now celebrated as dividends of democracy.

The Federal Government gave Julius Berger money to patch the runway of the Abuja Airport. Julius Berger finished the Job on schedule, like my new tailor does. Paupers went delirious. They were celebrating a renaissance. Yes, some called it the birth of a new culture. The Minister of State for Aviation, who had sworn that the job would be finished on time or he would resign, is now a folk hero. The Port Harcourt Airport, that is the shabbiest in the world, must be laughing at him.

But no where is this malady more virulent than in their flirtation with God. A decidedly unscrupulous politician succeeds in hoodwinking his people into believing a certain accomplishment. He is offered the profusion of praises that motivated the scam. He piously deflects the glory to God. And walks away looking pious,modest and hardworking. Once an election is concluded a politician will assemble all those who helped him stuff ballot boxes and intimidate opponents. They will gather in front of the altar, to thank God for letting them pull it off. The need to pull the wool over the eyes of the people again and again never ceases. The Bishops are always there to assist.

If this absurdity limited itself to disguised and conspicuous self-glorification then it would be tolerable nuisance. Because the poor would have as much peace as hunger can allow. Let the children have their pacifiers so their parents can get some peace. But when malice and viciousness contaminate frivolousness and delusions of grandeur, the society is in peril. And political trouble never confines itself to government houses. It actually, almost always, locates the slums and consumes them.

Crates of dollars were dug out of a flat in Ikoyi by the EFCC. An avoidable confusion set in as curious official silence literally begged fingers to point in all directions. While people spoke in hushed tones, one man wouldn’t.

The very man who had once, in ostensible defense of the rule of law, physically obstructed the execution of a search warrant, took to the podium. From that high ground, he confirmed that he heard voices telling him the money was a leftover of what was stolen from Rivers State, by the past governor. The era when elders spoke tongue in cheek, to avoid being labeled mischief makers, has long gone. They now walk crotch in hand. And they casually light fires, as they go. Like Alsatian dogs, their tongues hang out permanently, drooling lies.

No nation, however, is brought to quick ruins by the innocent ignorance of clowns. Nations die precipitously when viciousness and bitterness become politics. Sprouting everywhere in the nation, like water hyacinths, are leaders who have not just taken to frivolity but to indiscriminate cruelty. Police officers, INEC officials, no one, is spared their telling brutality.

There is political gimmickry. And there is this politics of spear and swords, of blood and death. We saw it in Osun. Then Ige was killed. The brandishing of bitterness and terror in so many words always, invariably, waters the ground for a major calamity. Reckless brinksmanship is now standard political conduct. A threat was issued directly to the Federal Government, “Return the money to Rivers State Government or else…. “ In the mind of the average market woman in Opobo that threat makes what could otherwise be a wild allegation very credible. And when it comes from where it came from it should be believed.

But before the courts could re-open, a literal backpedal into the church had become necessary. The church is the play ground for politicians. It is where the people’s blindfolds are tightened. Its sacredness has since been vandalized by wily bishops who rent it out to politicians for jobbery. They come there to dance, cry, roll on the floor, entice dispossessed people with choreographed emotional outbursts. It is where the people are finally disarmed. Churches, and Mosques!

It is where this governor, trying his hands at divination, handed those whom he accused of stashing the money in that flat in Ikoyi to God. With wide eyes of inebriation, God can be stared at, and lied to. Conspiracy theories are now concocted and fed worshipers dying of spiritual thirst. A state Attorney-General is not a statue. Prosecutions are not initiated by the Federal Government alone.

The nation space is filled Janjaweed supporters. Their fanatical devotion can be explained only by absorbing ignorance. They possess and flaunt a striking disregard for evidence. Their inflammable religious and ethnic sentiments are easily stoked with mendacious bellows. Every politician is now such a craftsman. Beating into shape not dilapidated roads but forging and carving baits for the rabble. They stop by roadside to roast corn. They are therefore down-to-earth. They stand by the road and distribute pennies to school children. O their magnanimity, and love for the poor.

Poor divided nation. They could all just have remained simpletons. Now, many are pulsating bags of bile. And many others are descending into pyromania.

 

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