The Sermon During Funsho Williams Burial

By

Jide Ayobolu

jideayobolu@yahoo.co.uk

The sermon preached during Funsho Williams burial told the whole story about why Nigeria has remained the way it is.  When people who are at the helm of affairs fail to do what they ought to do, when it should be done, and after sharing crocodile tears, they cry over split milk. The sermon by Reverend Father Ubili’s was full of fire and admonition. He warned against reckless behaviours, admonishing the dignitaries to be careful about the way they play politics, transact business, relate with one another and use power. According to him, while some people die in honour and are remembered for noble legacies, others depart the world and invite curses from the people. The Reverend Father revisited the murder of Williams and drew out the comparison between it and the assassination of Chief Bola Ige, the former Attorney –General and Minister of Justice. He said on both occasions, death met them in their bedrooms while their security aides were no where to be found. The cleric hinged such tribulations on the nature and peculiarity of the Nigerian public life, which he said, is ridden by dishonesty, deceit, manipulation and mischief. To him, the widespread insecurity is worrisome. The logic is that if the VIP’s are not safe, the commoners depend on God’s grace. After recalling, past murders which are yet to be unraveled, the man of God warned that the country is moving towards a state of nature, an animal kingdom characterized by the survival of the fittest. Where only the fittest of the fittest can survive.

The incapacity of the police to live to expectation also drew his ire. The priest lamented that 46 years after independence, Nigeria lacks good forensic facilities and experts. We still depend on Canada, United States and United Kingdom. We are a backward and underdeveloped country. He asked, should the police take all the blame for inefficiency? The police reflected the level of the country’s development. Painting an awful picture of the neglect of the vital security service, the Rev Father said, they live dehumanizing conditions where they live and work. They receive unjust salary. He, therefore, called on the Federal Government to consider a befitting police for the country as a matter of urgent national importance. He said the police deserve a fat budget, saying emphatically that security, and not the N60billion national stadium, N6 billion presidential library and N53 billion millennium towers should be immediate national priority. Paying tributes to Williams, Rev Ubili recalled that the politician embraced politics of ideas as the basis for getting power to serve humanity. The priest asked politicians to play politics of decency, honesty and sanity.

But what lessons have the political gladiators learnt from the demise of this amiable politician. Will they now know that death is the inevitable end of every man, albeit nobody knows exactly when it will come, it will come all the same, so when they get to office they should render selfless service and not help themselves by pilfering public funds, thereby denying the citizens of this country of what rightfully belongs to them. The passage of Funsho Williams should be a time for sober reflection for any perspective politician to think very deeply about their stewardship and examine their electoral pact with the Nigeria people who entrusted them with power to rule so that the country will be a better place to live for all and sundry. It is also an ample opportunity to consider their relationship with God, their maker, and iron out all the grey areas. It is also hoped that those who are seeking political office will learn to be tolerant and accommodative, this because those who are seeking political office to contribute their own quota to the overall development of the country will not go about it in a very desperate, do or die manner. Politicians in the country should learn to inculcate the spirit of sportsmanship and jettison politics with bitterness, hatred, violence and rancour. Political violence is an ill-wind that blows no one any good.

However, the best legacy this government can give to Funsho Williams is to apprehend his real killers and unravel why he was brutally murdered. Why is it that that the police has not been able to solve a single case out of all the politically motivated killings in the country since 2001? Is it coincidental or deliberately programmed to be so? Does the fact that life is so cheap in Nigeria bother those at the helm of affairs? Is it not because of this and many other ills that Nigeria has become a laughing stock amongst the comity of nations?

So, when will things change for the better in Nigeria? Like the priest rightly noted during his inspiring sermon, what Nigeria requires at this material this time of her National history and development are not grandiose or white elephant projects that have no bearing whatsoever with the needs and the aspirations of the people. Of what benefits are gargantuan projects in a situation of general insecurity and socio-economic deprivation? Is the death of Funsho Williams going to be the last one? From the look of the unfolding political scenario, with all the booby traps, landmines and all other political contraptions that are intently planted on the political terrain in the build-up to the 2007 elections at the behest of the Obasanjo government, there cannot but be political tension, conflicts and violence in the country.

The reason for this is not unfathomable; those in power today, accumulated power by all means, and are doing everything to secure it and to prevent others from getting it. As manipulation of the political process became permanent, politics became Hobbesian; power is pursued by all means and kept by all means and the struggle for power became the overriding concern. Indeed politics became the only game in town, it was a game played with deadly seriousness for the winners won everything and the losers lost everything. Development does not occur in the framework of a political style which essentially institutionalizes warfare. Having abandoned democracy for repression, our leaders are delinked from our people. Operating in vacuum, they proclaim their incarnation of the popular will; hear echoes of their own voices, and reassured, pursue with zeal, policies that have nothing to do with the aspirations of our people and which cannot therefore mobilize them. As their alienation from the people increases, they rely more and more on coercion, and become more alienated.

Moreover, important development projects are initiated for the wrong reasons; they are located in places where they are least beneficial economically on account of political considerations. We are all too familiar with cases where important contracts and licenses have been given to politically significant people who are unable to execute them successfully or who sell them to other contractors in circumstances which defeat the national interest. Sometimes well paid positions are created just to give jobs to people whose political support is considered important; the country pays for no service rendered; worse it pays for nuisance value. In some cases people are overpaid for what they do in order to keep happy, creating demoralizing disparities between reward and effort. There is high value placed on power and its concentration constrains the economy in highly undesirable way. As leaders monopolizes political power, so also they  monopolize economic power too or at least prevent opponents and potential rivals from commanding substantial economic resources for such resources easily become a source of political power. By there display of arbitrary use of power and gross abuse of office, they have brought Nigeria to her kneels, through mismanagement of the national economy. As the 2007 election is around the corner Nigerians should vote wisely for the face of hope.

Jide Ayobolu

Abuja-Nigeria.