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The Tragedy of Caligula By Aonduna Tondu It was the veteran Congolese opposition
leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, who, exasperated by the shenanigans and
sheer depravity of his country's dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, did remark
that the "great
conqueror" of Kinshasa was the African incarnation of that mad man
of imperial Roman politics, Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (A.D.
12-41), also known as Caligula. The perfidy of Caligula's recklessness
and megalomania was to lead to his tragic end through assassination by
members of his praetorian guard. Of course, we know that although he was
not murdered by his own people, Mobutu was forced to flee in humiliating
circumstances the country he had ruled with criminal insouciance. He
later died a lonely and despised man - in exile. Mobutu is an African cautionary tale. That
is to say that its protagonists
- on or off-stage - have very few redeeming qualities. And
crucially also, the unfolding drama is predictably a sad one. One only
needs to look at the examples of Togo , Liberia, Burkina Faso and Gabon.
Or post-Mengistu's Ethiopia, post-Idi Amin's Uganda, post-Habyarimana's
Rwanda, and post-Abacha's Nigeria. By refusing to rise and
confront their obnoxious dictators masquerading as men of the
people, Africans, and particularly Nigerians, have helped nurture vipers
in their midst. It has even become a national pastime in Nigeria for
otherwise rational men and women to pander to repulsive types in power
and their mafia allies of ex-this and ex-that. The ultimate challenge
therefore is to strive for the reversal of this self-destructive trend
which is inimical to the sustenance of civil society and democracy in
Nigeria. Now, one would have expected that with the
harvest of ghastly tyrants Africa has produced since the official
departure of the European slave drivers over four decades ago, today's
African leaders, and especially those from Nigeria, would show a higher
degree of circumspection and discipline in their commitment to
responsible governance in their respective national jurisdictions. In
his short and brutal reign, Caligula came to symbolize some of the worst
forms of reckless extravagance and impunity. But more than anything
else, he epitomized the tragedy of national political leadership. The
caligulan interregnum was characterized by moral decay
and harebrained schemes as well as extreme cruelty and
insensitivity toward the people by the potentate who, together with his
courtiers and acolytes alike, continued to indulge in primitive
bacchanals of decadence and corrupt dominion. It is a sad commentary that most African
leaders today - civilian or military -
seem to betray a Caligula-like mindset in their approach to
governance and politics in general. These so-called leaders have
demonstrated during their respective tyrannies, the relative ease with
which, if given the opportunity, patently vicious individuals can, with
the active connivance of a rogue cast of allies and a complacent media,
hold an entire nation to ransom. Invariably, the people are confronted
with the irony of having to participate in the legitimization of
mediocrity and failure as is currently the case with the Obasanjo regime
and the now morbid fascination on the part of the usual sections of the
Nigerian media with the ex-dictator called Babangida. Today, the Obasanjo regime is increasingly
exhibiting caligulan tendencies: an obsession with divine authority
characterized by sectarian
posturing on the part of a
president whose actions are quite often the antithesis of godly conduct,
the recklessness and extravagance associated with government operations
as has been richly documented by the former Acting Auditor-General, Azie,
and a human rights record
which has been made all the more terrible with the Obasanjo-sponsored
massacres by soldiers of innocent civilians in places like Odi and Zaki
Biam. The trade mark signature of the PDP-led Obasanjo dictatorship is
its sense of caligulan impunity. That impunity has on countless
occasions sought to corrupt, if not destroy Nigeria's democratic
institutions. Since 1999, unwholesome schemes have been hatched at the
presidency without any apparent concern for their ramifications on the
political health of the nation. The 2003 electoral charade popularly known
as "419" has had as footnote the Ngige-Uba tragi-comedy and
the controversial selection of the current senate president. This
pattern of imperial contempt for democratic structures on the part of
Mr. President and his party is reminiscent of Caligula's disdain and
impudence toward symbols of tradition and national legitimacy. This
early rendition of the type of relationship Caligula had with the Roman
senate is quite instructive: "He was no whit more respectful or
mild towards the senate, allowing some who had held the highest offices
to run in their togas for several miles beside his chariot and to wait
on him at table, standing napkin in hand a either at the head of his
couch, or at his feet". Nigerians
who have , over the years, watched
with dismay the president's pitched battles with key figures of the
National Assembly, should have realized that what Obasanjo has wanted
all along is a subservient body which will do his bidding, as opposed to
serving the higher interests of the nation. In that regard, it
comes as no surprise that the Wabara-led National Assembly has
largely remained mute in the face of the administrative assault Obasanjo
has ordered against the local government system. When they are not
seeking to justify some of the insensitive economic and political
decisions of the regime, our legislators are busy engaging in
self-serving pursuits which are of no benefit to the people. And most certainly of no benefit to the
Nigerian people are the orgies of self-congratulatory chest-beating we
have been subjected to in recent days by
the Obasanjo regime, its henchmen and hangers-on , and also by
the various state governors and the sycophants who revolve around them.
All that in the name of "100 days" in office! Unperturbed in
their cosy world of ambient vanities, Obasanjo and his fellow revelers
on the Nigerian gravy train are wont to treat with levity
any credible reports of wrong-doing by their associates in
positions of authority. Typically, some of these public figures accused
of corruption or reckless extravagance are shielded by a cynical regime
which would rather take refuge in haughty silence or the outright
trivialization of the issue as has been the case with the recent
allegations of scandalous behaviour involving the Inspector General of
Police and the NNPC boss. It is galling that there is hardly ever any
serious attempt to investigate such allegations. But equally galling is
the apparent resignation, if not complacency,
with which tales of profligacy and bad conduct by public figures
and governments in general are greeted by strategic sections of our
society, including especially the media and the so-called human
rights/pro-democracy outfits. A few disapproving voices are heard. The
"storm in a tea cup" soon blows over. Everybody forgets, and
life goes on. There are no consequences. No coherent efforts to
articulate a principled and sustained stand against the reckless ways of
our self-important men and women. We hide behind prayers - ineffectual
prayers - , or worse, join
the chorus of sycophancy and adulation toward the lords of Nigeria. This
situation has ensured that the country will in the foreseeable future
remain a land of eternal beginnings, with every crook dreaming and
plotting either a comeback or the imposition of like-minded retards on
the polity. La
vie est belle. Life is
good! Welcome to the world of outrageous impunity! Caligula is a story
about the tragedy of power
untrammelled in its practical manifestations. It is the tale of
political power exercised irresponsibly with little or no concern for
the long-term interests of the nation. The lesson of that tragedy for a
democratic project such as ours is not so much that Caligula met his
Waterloo in bloody circumstances. The ultimate lesson to be gleaned from
what has come to symbolize the failure of national political leadership
is the fact that any ruler who takes his people's noble aspirations for
granted does run the risk of being
robustly confronted by them. An unpalatable alternative is the
possibility of armed opposition by opportunists with questionable
intentions. The challenge for Nigeria's elites is to
work to reverse the curse of Caligula
which is the bane of our national life . Refusing to confront the ghost
of Caligula in our polity is the surest way to repeat "419" in
2007. So far, the Nigerian people have generally shown cowardice and
inconsistency in confronting the excesses of their local tormentors.
They have studiously shied away from insisting that their spineless
tyrants and politicians remain focused
and accountable for their actions. This in turn has helped fuel
the traditionally nonchalant attitude of these corrupt men regarding the
commonwealth. Democratic tools like mass protests should be employed in
a coherent and systematic manner, and not just when a regime's toadies
in strategic positions say so. It is especially critical that the
corrupt or complacent segments of the national media discard their bad
ways of playing second fiddle to rogues in high places who have nothing
but misery and turmoil to offer to fellow citizens.
Aonduna Tondu. New York. |