Obasanjo’s ‘goodness’ Attracts Evil

By

Odesola Johnson

odesolajohnson@hotmail.com

 

 

President Obasanjo is currently at ground zero. And this is why he sheepishly went under after his Cabinet restructure failed to fly. Even one of the academician who was suppose to be educating our children is a professor of corruption, it will be shame for any University in the world to allow him near their campus because he is an agent of contamination. In my view, therefore, we should stop pounding the poor fellow as he deserves a commercial break.

 

But this does not mean that we are happy with him. In fact, the country is still in a mood of hunger and his handlers should stop trivializing this feeling: It is real. And when a country regiments into mobs and cries for food, it is because it has a leadership vacuum. In our case, this has happened because the good President has an identity crisis.

 

In his subconscious mind, he sees himself as royalty and that is why politics is posh. But the demands of his job require him to appropriate the identity of a servant-leader. The two identities end up clashing and resulting in paralysis. And that is why the question of the day is not whether or not President Obasanjo will be able to bring sanity to the rotting society of Nigeria. This matter is already concluded. Unless he performs a miracle, the man is helpless because of his corrupt team players. The issue at hand, therefore, is whether he will finish his current term with success on various issues affecting the giant of Africa or not.

 

Let us consider him positively now. In my view, the President oozes with nothing but the milk of human kindness. And like a bee is attracted to a flower, kindness can only attract evil. My authority here is based on one of my favourite books Howard Bloom entitled, The Lucifer Principle. The central thesis in this book is that every virtue has a corresponding vice. That good and evil are actually different sides of the same coin and that evil is for the most part a product of goodness.

 

This why Lucifer in his ‘evilness’ is actually a creation of God in his goodness. When you look at politics, ‘good’ men like President Obasanjo tend to attract sizeable Lucifer’s in the form of calamities while the hated dictators tend to live forever because they are intrinsically bad.

 

Now, the President has no option but to bare his fangs and fight

 

Without celebrating the badness of Sani Abacha, I submit that our good President is virtuous to a fault. And because of his goodness, his government has only attracted evil. In fact, he is likely to experience the worst eye service and hypocrisies in the history of our politics. Now that not much is working in Nigeria with all the heaven and earth promise of the President; NEPA, NITEL, just to mention two giants essential masses utilities are deadly dead, while some few opportunists are making millions. A good starting point for OBJ would be to sort out his team members that are getting fat through the national crisis once and for all and let them face the music of their evil acts. With the benefit of hindsight, it was probably wise for the President not to let them continue in their evil ways as demanded by the demons living in them. This is so because once this so called privileged team of OBJ stayed untouched in their evil, they have a way of demanding for more. A wise King, therefore, rejects the corrupt demands, but in his own time, executes a scheme that shuts everybody up once and for all. And this is how Cesare Borgia the Duke of Valentino dealt with a simmering corruption and rebellion in Romagna.

 

When he gained control of Romagna, a region governed by bandits and plunderers, he decided to appoint Remirro de Orco to sort out the place. Remirro was an energetic youthful man who applied himself to his new task with energy and being. On his part, the King gave him full powers to do whatever he wanted in the region. Within months, Remirro had established order in Romagna. And as expected by Cesare, he had used brute force to do so. This generated much resentment and bitterness, but Cesare did nothing about it. There were calls for resignations and firings, even demonstrations against Cesare. Like President Obasanjo, Cesare did nothing. He lay in wait for calm to return, bidding his time for a surprise move. On December 22, 1506 and without warning, he had Remirro imprisoned in the town of Cesena. The day after Christmas, the people woke to find Remiro’s headless body, dressed in a lavish suit and his head impaled beside it on a spike at the gates of the city. The point was made, and the corrupt and uprising killed!

 

President Obasanjo should do something as dramatic as this to quell the seething rebellion and corruption in his government and Senate/House of Assembly. He should use this lull of Senate president &Co to send a chilling bleakness down the spine of the corrupt leaders. The question is, is he capable? In my view, the altercation between him, the Senate and House of assembly is increasingly degenerating into a man-eat-man brawl. And he will either have to eat them or they will eat him. Whether the non-confidence motion passes or not, it will still hurt him. In fact, it could bastardise his presidency irreparably and set an irrevocable precedence. The question whether or not he is capable of badness is, therefore, immaterial. At zero option, he has to bare his fans and fight!

 

Johnson Funso Odesola a Nigerian from Osun State an ordained Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. He holds BA (Honours) degree in theology from Greenwich School of Theology London, Mth in Missiology/Anthropology from Queen University of Belfast, a PhD in Christian Education from Ashland University and another PhD in Intercultural Studies from Trinity International University. He is presently a missionary in Southern Africa; he resides in Zambia, from where he is doing his coordinating work and also contributing to fighting against HIV/AIDS disease and vices prevalent in the continent of Africa

 

Odesola Johnson

odesolajohnson@hotmail.com