Our Leaders Have Gone Mad Again

By

Udeme Etuk

etuk_udeme@yahoo.com

Students of African Theatre should be very conversant with the plays of the late Playwright, Prof Ola Rotimi. What will readily come to mind is his classic, “The God’s are not to Blame”. His other notable plays are Ovarenwen Nogbaisi, Kurunmi, Our husbands have gone Mad again etc.

Ola Rotimi’s plays constantly explore the issues of class, gender and sometimes cultural tensions in the history of the times they are set. In Kurumi, the class tension becomes so pronounced when the wives of the dead warriors asked about the welfare of their husbands. Kurunmi’s response that “where elephants are being slaughtered in thousands who will think about the death of a house rat”. exposes that feeling of superiority and insensitivity almost to the detriment of some of the more serious issues Rotimi tries to explore.

 Prof Wole Soyika’s “Death and the King’s Horseman” is also one play I cannot stop reading. What fascinates me most are the benefits of being the Eleshin Oba. Every carrot is dangled at his beckoning. So much so that the man refuses to die when it is time.

These two cases do not only refresh one’s memory, they point at different periods of our lives when we began to question the very essence of our existence.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the Ladies had questioned Okonkwo of “Things Fall Apart” about the death of their husbands or the Eleshin Oba had refused to die in Okonkwo’s time? He would have sent them to meet their dead husbands and personally strangled the Eleshin oba to death so that the cosmic imbalance would be averted.

I have sat back and looked at the way we play Politics in the last few years and what readily comes to mind are the lead characters in this two plays. The only difference is that in Nigeria one person wears the garb.

In 1999, we had the Late Evans/Evan Enwerem as the Senate President of Nigeria. He was presented as the new face of Politics in Nigeria until the great revelation- The Senate President of a Nigeria was actually an ex-convicted armed robber. The stories that finally indicted Speaker Buhari were the icing on the cake. We were headed for Armageddon. Unfortunately, both of them had to be persuaded to step-down and eventually granted amnesty. Thus, we lost the opportunity to retrace our steps. The Question I wanted to ask then was: Have we gone so low that only robbers and cheats could represent us?

Late Senator Chuba Okadigbo did not fare better. He was removed on allegations of corruption. He is best remembered today as the Politician who gave Whisky and Brandy a pride of place in the Politics of Nigeria. That he was convicted for stealing was no news. What would have been news was if he had voluntarily left power and apologized to a hapless nation that had been further impoverished by a legislator who did not come to Abuja to legislate over poverty.

 The case that also suits this analogy is that of Senator Adolphus Wabara. Senator Wabara had lost the election to the senate but thanks to the maradonic style of NEC.The collaboration between NEC and the Election tribunal saw him to the Senate and later, the Senate Presidency. What happened afterwards is known to all of us. It was a case of a yoga king dying of consumption.

In all these cases, the point to note is that we are dealing with people that have grown bigger than the system that brought them in to prominence. They have assumed such a larger than life posture that no mortal could dare stand to look them in the face and live. That was why Kurunmi could not understand that the death of a poor soldier is as important as that of a General. The Eleshin Oba on the other hand could not understand why he needed to die for the atonement of the sins of everyone and miss the good things of life. He would rather the people go on with their sins as long as it does not deprive him of his hedonistic life style.

I was not surprised that when Okadigbo and Enwerem died, there were no comets seen. Their impact had waned so much so that they were waiting to die to salvage what was left of a name.

Unfortunately we have continued the same march if feelers from the Houses are true. At the assumption of President Yar’ Adua, Nigerians had expected a great departure from the amala/Ghana must go politics in to the realm of serious legislation. We had seen the quality of men and women in the two houses and had concluded that with the standards set by Bello Masari and Ken Nnamani, they could only get better. Alas, what we have witnessed in the last 5 months is a reversal of fortunes. We have gone so low that the days of Enwerem and Okadigbo could be remembered with nostalgia and relish. At least we did not have hair dressers and coup plotters directing the affairs of the house. We had solid intellectuals and learned men whose past just decided to catch up with them at their time of Prominence.

Today, we have men and women who have distinguished themselves in the various spheres of expertise being led by a woman who should be running a saloon at Abeokuta or Ibadan. She lacks every credentials to lead any serious debates talk less of a whole House of Assembly of a vibrant nation like Nigeria. She can hardly string up a few sentences in English much less participate in a good intellectual discussion. If the PDP wanted a woman to lead the House, it had them in numbers.  Mrs. Etteh could have saved the PDP and this nation the embarrassment we currently face by declining the Speaker position. Now that the cookies have crumbled, no resignation could undo the damage. A dog that has tasted pooh and enjoyed it will go back to it no matter the number of times you brush its mouth.

I have heard cries of resignation everywhere. Yes, that is only a first step. The next step is for her to quietly serve out her time without ruffling more feathers. The important step however, is the Electoral reforms that we have been promised. We need to make sure that credible people seek elections and, or voted in to power from now henceforth. Cobblers, Saloonists, Tailors etc are reasonable and respected vocations which would do better when they stay off terrains that are not quite suitable for them. In the more advanced world, Politicians are intellectuals, businessmen, professionals of various fields etc. They are people who have been successful in their trade and are well grounded all round. If we need to imitate them, let us do it well and stop the recycling of mama iyabos. A mad man knows no shame but his relations.

For those clamoring for a female Speaker, I have no objection to it because the Nigerian woman has the competence and intellectual stamina to hold her own. In a country which produced the likes of Professor Dora Akunyili and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, anything less is tantamount to committing suicide.

Udeme I Etuk wrote in this piece from Lagos.