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A Falling Out of
Thieves or Old Men Behaving Badly?
By
Akintokunbo A Adejumo
Newsdiaryonline Frid Aug 19,2011
akinadejum@aol.com
‘When rogues fall out, truth is revealed, and honest men get
justice.’
(1838 A. Jackson Letter 26
Mar. in Correspondence (1931)
V. 545)
The rogues have fallen out, and honest men may come by their
own.
(1866 C. Kingsley Hereward
the Wake xv)
When thieves fall out, honest men come by their own
(Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs)
While there is
said to be honour among thieves, an inequality or a sharp deal
in the distribution of booty has often cast the apple of discord
into the midst of a band of formerly seemingly harmonious
plunderers. Of such
a nature seems to be the present falling out of two owners of
Nigeria, twice-leader, (military and democratic) Olusegun
Obasanjo (OBJ) and former military dictator and strongman, the
self-styled “Evil genius”, also popularly known as “Maradona”,
Ibrahim Babagida (IBB).
Actually
they have never been the best of mutual admirers or friends, and
this is not really the first time they’ve fallen out. In fact,
they’ve fallen out since birth. What had actually bound them
together were the military “esprit de corps” and their mutual
plundering, raping and negligence of Nigeria in which they have,
more than any other past and present rulers of Nigeria combined,
plunged their people into despair, poverty, untold hardship and
misery. They would do well to acknowledge and repent their
culpability in this allegation.
Looks like all is not well
between two members of the Axis of Evil, and like I opined, all
has never been well between these two dinosaurs of Nigerian
politics. I call them dinosaurs because, like these extinct
animals, IBB and OBJ are excessively big and the next course in
their lives will be to become extinct, because earth, and
indeed, Nigeria, has no room for them. Is the world missing
dinosaurs these days? No. An empathic No; all they are good for
since they became extinct is to teach us lessons in survival.
Were dinosaurs ever any use to
the world? Well, this is arguable; I suspect in those millions
of years ago, with hardly any human around (so the
archaeologists and scientists told us) dinosaurs were ruling the
roost, brainless brutes rampaging all over the land without any
defined purpose. However, I guess they must have served some
purpose in the evolutionary development of Man and the Earth. So
all their existence was not totally useless, if you ask me.
Have you seen the comparisons to
these our two former leaders? While the exchange between IBB and
OBJ should not be considered mainly for its puerile and
repugnant conformation, it confirms to us the minds (or
mindlessness) of the leaders we have, unfortunately, allowed us,
willingly or unwillingly, ride roughshod over us for over 50
years. It is not a pretty sight.
Compatriots, it
is not a laughing matter! It is very serious. We just don’t
stand back and enjoy these two dinosaurs hammer each other. We
have to look at this from another angle? Somebody told me they
were putting up an act, and that we will soon see Babangida rush
over to Otta to make up with Obasanjo, and say all kind of words
to the effect that, “Obasanjo is my Oga, I mean no disrespect,
and I was misquoted by the irresponsible Nigerian Press”.
Such miserable and shameless act in public? From two
leaders recognised (or perhaps not?) all over the world, who
ruled with iron-hands over 150 million people for a combined
total of 18 years? I don’t think so!
Have the two descended so low?
Like hell no; they have been descending low for a long time.
Leaders who steal from their people have always descended into
the lowest part of the human cesspool.
I say it is no
laughing matter to us; the only people who will be laughing are
the newspaper editors and owners, who are selling papers because
of the reprehensible antics of two corrupt and unrepentant old
foggies.
Can you imagine
Bill Clinton and George Bush Jnr having a go at each other this
way? It again shows the immaturity and senseless personality of
our African leaders. These are not statesmen as they would like
us to perceive them, but outright rogues, opportunists and
charlatans, who found themselves in power because of our very
own apathy and carelessness. Yes, we must share the blame.
A digression
here: Admiral Augustus Aikomu, who was Babangida’ one time Vice
President or Vice leader or whatever they called themselves in
those days, died a couple of days ago. Like we always do, a lot
of encomiums were heaped upon the man. Sorry, I am not one to
dance over a dead man’s grave, but I suppose that whenever
anybody dies in our society, we tend to be sentimental and
totally ignore that person’s life and his works when he was
alive. Apologies to my good people of Edo State, where Aikhomu
hailed from, but what exactly did the man do for the progress
and welfare of the people of Edo State, except perhaps his
family and close friends? Incidentally he was part of the
corrupt administration of the same IBB, wasn’t he? As far as I
am concerned, people like him (and we have so many of them in
our dear country) are not missed at all.
The evil that men do
lives after them, the good is oft interred with their bones,
so let it be with him, to paraphrase Shakespeare in Julius
Caesar.
Back to my dinosaurs: This is
again not just a matter of old men behaving badly and calling
each other names. Apart from not respecting themselves and being
shameless or not ashamed of the evil they perpetrated against
their countrymen and women, as former Presidents, they obviously
know a lot of secrets about each other.
I am more
interested in knowing what these secrets and the hold they hold
over each other are. But, unfortunately, being Africans, these
secrets will probably go with them to their graves, because to
spill them out will hasten their demise. And as a matter of
national interest and security, spilling those beans might well
cause a disruption in the polity. So I don’t see them doing
that. Their advisers and those who tremendously benefitted
financially under them will call them to order. I can already
envisage emissaries going to and fro from Otta to Minna, trying
to patch things up. I am sure by now; the two dinosaurs are
already regretting opening their mouths at each other.
That tells you another thing or
two about the intellect and wisdom of our leaders. And why we
have been unfortunate to have this ilk of people ruling us for
so long.
Look at it:
Obasanjo calling Babangida a “fool” – one thing Babangida is
not, despite all his shortcomings, is that he’s a fool. However,
it could be that in his old age, he’s becoming senile.
Unrepentant, he is, of course. Then Babangida calling Obasanjo a
“plunderer” – well, I have no defence for Obasanjo here, but he
is not the only plunderer of our nation, Babangida is too.
Whatever, the
plain truth is that both of them are not telling us the truth of
the matter, and they probably never will. If Babangida is
insinuating that Obasanjo wasted
the petrodollars that came his way by not addressing the needs
of the country, and Obasanjo said Babangida should bury his head
in shame for not building a single power project plant during
his eight years in power; let us ask both of them – what needs
of the people were addressed by both of them when they were
respectively in power for 8 years each; where is the $12 billion
that Nigeria made as a result of the Kuwait War windfall that
accrued to Babangida, and also where are the $16 billion power
projects of Obasanjo?
Talk of the
kettle calling the pot black! For me, it is okay for them to
wash their dirty linens in public, but of course, they have also
shamed Nigeria. According to football parlance, the two of them
should be charged for putting the country into disrepute (but of
course, they already have, anyway). These are leaders not
trusted by other world leaders, who look upon them with
contempt. I am not absolutely sure about this but the general
rumour is that Babangida will not be issued any visa to enter
the United States (He was only allowed to enter the US on
compassionate grounds to see his dying wife, Mariam, just over a
year and a half ago)
That Nigerians, their own
people, hate them is not a fault of anybody, but theirs alone.
And believe me, we do really have good and just cause to hate
our leaders, past and present, be it Federal, State, Local,
Lawmakers, and civil servants. We do have just cause. When you
see our neglected and under-equipped hospitals, underfunded and
neglected schools and universities, our death-traps called
roads; our corrupt authorities; unnecessary deaths, hardship,
poverty and misery on the streets; high unemployment, crime,
insecurity of life and properties, overpaid and underworked
lawmakers; arrogant, corrupt, brainless, visionless and thieving
government officials and politicians; decayed infrastructures;
who wouldn’t hate our leaders?
My opinion is
that Obasanjo and Babangida are birds of the same bloody
feathers. They are both rogues in power, or as the late Fela
Anikulapo-Kuti sang, Vagabonds In Power (VIP), and I am not
mincing my words, though I know, according to our traditions and
culture, we should respect our elders/leaders. But elders must
also respect their juniors too. Leaders must also learn to
follow too. Not these people. They don’t respect us; they don’t
follow anybody except themselves. But they want to be followed
always. On the total, they came, saw, looted and left their
people counting the cost, the counting of which may be for a
very long time.
On the human perspective of this
shameful act, I suspect all this “bad belle” is because IBB is
angry and that OBJ failed to hand over power to him as
previously agreed amongst them. Remember, IBB “stepped aside”
because of June 12. Stepping aside means he had the intention of
coming back later, but OBJ checkmated him effectively. IBB had
the misplaced confidence that Nigeria is there for him to take
anytime. Wrong, boy!
For Obasanjo, he
hated younger people to disrespect him. (Nobody is even sure of
how old he is) He is senior to Babangida in the Army and in age,
and that IBB could be so bold to disrespect him or go against
him is anathema to his sense of tradition and culture.
Moreover, a very SHAME ON THEM; after visiting prolonged poverty
and misery on their people, they now want to entertain us with
more of their idiocy and irresponsibility. Nigerians do not need
this kind of entertainment; we are already judged one of the
happiest people in the world, despite the hardship and
sufferings we undergo in our daily lives as a result of the
irresponsibility, depravity, selfishness, greed, idiocy,
arrogance and negligence of Obasanjo and Babangida and their
ilk.
But, my people, it is not enough to call them names and be angry
with them; it is not enough to chide them and slap them on the
wrists like little children; it is not enough to laugh at their
antics and say, waoo, let’s wait till they burn themselves out;
we need to take them and others remaining of their ilk out
permanently. These people are still breeding like-minded,
corrupt, arrogant, despicable and brainless future leaders like
themselves; we need to nip them in the bud before they grow.
How do we do this?
We tell them we’ve had enough of them.
I just have to say the Truth as I see it
always.
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