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Mantu: The Squealer of Our Time By Muhammad Bashir In the midst of frenzied constitutional manipulations in country to give a third term opportunity for President Olusegun Obasanjo and the so – called presidential errand boys among our governors and other political office holders, the ring leader of the senate who swore by the villa to promote Otta farm agenda, Nasiru Ibrahim Mantu has become the hottest cake in the nation, the headline of Nigerian dailies as he inches forward-with Nigerians watching him with their eyes to make Obasanjo a lifelong president. Since the Abuja political reform conference failed to produce desired results Mantu in collaboration with his boss and other crooks in the house have no option other than embark on a not-for-public good constitutional amendment to give the false impression that democracy still exists in Nigeria as every action taken by government goes in conformity with the Nigerian constitution. This is why the Nigerian people were recently treated to a stage-managed show officially said to be a public hearing procedure for sampling collecting and collating public views vis a vis the proposed constitutional amendment. In his blind political calculations, Mantu does not believe that the hidden political agenda can be unearthed by the Nigerian people. Similarly, if the PDP with all its larger-than life criminality could go unharmed in the wake of 2003 elections then a worse crime by the party will not attract the anger of the Nigerian messes. The charade came to an end in a matter of two days and Mantu made for Port-Harcourt with the doctored outcome for deliberation and possible submission of the final report to the National Assembly to take the final decision. Mantu is perhaps playing the role of squealer in Orwellian Animal Farm of 1945, for the benefit of the reader, it is a novel set towards the end of the world war (II) which exposes totalitarian rule in Russia under the tyranny of Stalin Orwell used the animals’ living condition to highlight the misery of the oppressed people of Russia. The animals’ welfare remained in total negligence as Mr. Jones a human being managed their affairs. Mr. Jones travails stemmed from a woeful failure in a long-running court case which drove him into unabated drinking making him forget the plight of the animals. The old major, a pig whose age old experience made him their leader brought the animals together and incited them to stage a rebellion. Their suffering according to him could only be terminated with the violent overthrow of the human race. This idea easily went down the throats of the animals and they consequently sallied forth for action. Unfortunately, However, old Major, the inventor of the formula was not to live long to see it carried out. His death barely three days after the preaching was followed by mounting frustration and the animals took the bull by the horn and chased Mr. Jones, their manager out of the Manor farm. As they celebrated their victory, three big pigs led Napoleon took over the mantle of leadership with snowball as voice president and lastly, squealer as the fixer-in chief. The name was changed from “Manor Farm” to “Animal Farm” to mark the liberation and seven commandments were written to direct and guide their future conduct in the kingdom. It was tarred in green white letters on a wall that : whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend; no animal shall wear clothes; no animal shall sleep on bed; no animal shall drink alcohol; no animal shall kill any other animal and finally all animals are equal. Except for the pigs, the dogs, Muriel, the goat and Benjamin, the old donkey, none of the other animal was able to read or write anything. Clover learnt the whole alphabets but couldn’t put the words together and boxer couldn’t get beyond the letter D. he would trace out A,B,C,D in the dust with his great hoof, staring at the letters with his eyes, so sometimes shaking his forelock trying with all might to remember what came next and never succeed. On several occasions, he did learn E,F,G,H but by the time he knew them, it was discovered that he had indeed forgotten A,B,C and he finally resolved to be content with the four letters writing them out once or twice everyday to refresh his memory. Although Mollie could only read the six alphabets spelling her name, the stupider ones namely; the sheep, the hens and the ducks could not even learn the seven commandments even by heart. Against that backdrop, the pigs led by comrade Napoleon embarked upon the treacherous Mantu-mentality known as constitutional amendment, through the evil machinations of squealer, their fixed in chief. That was in addition to the teleguided status quo in Animal Farm where the other animals toiled away at the farmland everyday only to live in near starvation, receiving food ration worst than before the rebellion as the pigs which daily stint was mere instructions made exclusive use of the cow’s milk. At one turn, napoleon engage in a timber trade with human beings from pinch field, a neighboring farm through the mediation of whimper a human diplomat and after that it was learnt that the pigs had begun to take their meals in a kitchen, using drawing-room as recreation resort and worst of all sleeping in a bed against the earlier resolution. Clover thought of a ruling against that and since she couldn’t read a word, she fetched Muriel to read her the fourth commandment. It said: no animal shall sleep on bed with sheets. Squealer their Mantu had changed everything in the night! Similarly, when dissenting animals were forced to make false confessions that earned them execution in cold blood, the sixth commandment was found saying: no animal shall kill any other animal without cause, by that time the surviving animals had begun reflecting about their past existence under the leadership of the human race which was for better, seeing this was not honestly what they fought for. For the pigs have now assumed an uncomfortable dimension where, as the PDP is now doing you either obey or meet the wrath of the supreme emperor. At one extreme, clover took Benjamin to the site of the big barn where the seven commandments were written; they said something completely alien, reading: ALL ANIMAL ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS! It did not seem strange, when the other say napoleon appeared in a black coat rat-catcher breeches and leather leggings while his favourite sow appeared in the winter silk dress which Mrs. Jones wears on Sundays. That was Animal Farm by George Orwell which satirically markets the climax of oppression in Russia under the rule of Stalin. One needs to make comparison between the time and what is currently happening in our country. Where opposes of the Abuja political agenda are being whipped for money laundering offences. And where as recently gathered immunity clause is planned to be the exclusive preserve of the president. The move towards constitutional amendment is becoming a desperate one in the National Assembly but the whole issue revolves around the fear factor. Obasanjo is simply afraid of leaving office in 2007 since he knows the multiple crimes he committed against Nigerians will not give him a safe-conduct. He may be treated the same way he is treating the late Abacha family and their cronies alike. Otherwise, what good has the men done in his last seven years of power that Nigerians will want him to carry on? Dashing the hopes brought/raised by democracy or dividing the people along ethnic and religious lines? Destroying the fabric of the nation’s economy through the illegal selling of our national heritage to foreigners and chronics as well or etching unprecedented corruption in the Nigerian system? One does not need to be an educated person to see how corruption takes its toll daily on the Nigerian society. I have been to government hospitals nowadays and can tell how nurses collect bribe from patient and take their carts straight away to a doctors table. You just have to be corrupt or watch corruption take place in Nigeria today. So it seems. For poverty however, take a stroll to any of the census training centres and see how Nigerians mostly, unemployed destitute and desperate spend day and night striving to get job in order to make a living. What a horror! As a reporter who goes round the centres looking for news I’ve seen so many with the word poverty written in their faces. Worse still they may not in the long run be lucky to get it. Still, Obasanjo wants to continue and Mantu is working day and night alongside Tafida and other charlies in the National Assembly to give him a third term. Imagine! This simple confirms the saying that even if you forgive a crook, he would not forgive himself. Since they rigged the 2003 elections and Nigerians folds their arms watching democracy being torn to shreds they are once again heating towards subverting another public mandate, come 2007. And as the National Assembly debates the outcome of the Mantu report, it is not impossible that these people will come up with another crime saying the third term treason has been approved through constitutional majority. When that comes opposition will move to the centre stage as accosting to Bugaje, the battle will shift from the national Assembly and Nigerian s will fight them on the streets, chanting slogans that Obasanjo must go-- in 2007! Who is Fani Kayode deceiving? In reaction to recent Appeal court ruling in Anambra nullifying Chris Ngige’s victory in 2003 elections and allotting the governorship seat to Peter Obi of APGA, presidential assistant on media affairs,Femi Fani Kayode said there is no place for election riggers in the fast emerging Nigeria. Many Nigerians, since then, cannot grasp the subtext of that nonsensical statement. Who is the living rigger between Uba and Ngige, who according to the former in Audu Ogbeh’s letter to the president last year, did not even know how the massive rigging was carried out? One fact the Villa Charlie does not seem to know and that which we need to tell him is: That Chris Ngige is found stealing a mandate is a confirmation that the PDP did not win any election in Nigeria in the 2003 elections! Muhammad Bashir is an editorial staff of Kaduna Chronicle newspaper,Kaduna. Email:bashirsenior@yahoo.com
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