Class, today’s lesson
is on elementary democratic practice, so repeat after me: the mace, class: the
mace; is for order under constituted authority, class: is for order under
constituted authority. The mace, class: the mace; is not for the skull, class:
is not for the skull. Clap for yourselves. Pai, pai, papapa, pai!
This is where we
should start. We started from the top and 14 years after, the fundamentals
aren’t learnt yet. So procedure is wrong and outcome dangerous. What our
lawmakers do well is relish USA trips to learn presidential democracy, cash the
cash, wear the toga ‘honourable’ but leave what’s learnt behind. At the least
democratic test, they flunk.
What happened in
Rivers State is the outcome of people who are where they should not. They got
money, connection or both and muscled their way to power. All sorts of things
are done to get power, including killing. Otherwise, how could someone use a
rod weighing some kilograms on the head of a fellow lawmaker, not once, but
times over until his victim screeched in pain like a trapped rat? He definitely
has done worse things before and now got the opportunity to showcase the art.
This they didn’t learn in America; there it’s argument and a superior one; but
when you don’t have it, you call in logs, gas, glass or gun. We who took money,
bales of cloth, bags of rice and stockfish to usher them in now have our receipt.
As long as eye-for-lucre politics persists, these occurrences will thrive. So
saying ‘it’s a shame’ is telling the story from the middle. We caused the shame
by not instituting a non-partisan mechanism to screen and drill would-be
political officeholders and keeping them under watch.
Report has it that the
man clubbing down others is himself the ‘Majority Leader’. You heard right.
We shouldn’t see just
the fight but the unspoken things that led to it. Sometime ago, this column
reviewed the political attitude of the south-south and cautioned against
desperation and viral ambition. In the Eastern Region, they often saw
themselves as the dominated but rather than develop traits that are superior to
those of the so-called principal, they resorted to sabotage to pull the house
down. But, Cardinal Rex Jim Lawson was one man that conquered the Eastern heart
with music. The political compatriots didn’t come up with any ingenuity to
build bridges that could destroy perceived domination. Rather, they chose the easy
path of ‘they-us’ to get the house down. Now, it’s the south-house.
Regrettably, within the ‘us’ there’s another ‘they’, meaning that
bridge-building is the superior approach, not endless they-us mutation. The
real reason is that there’s an anger point: it’s that this is the first time in
the history of Nigeria that the so-called minorities are having a go at the
presidency. Like others, they want to have a full go of it and it’s
justifiable. Suddenly, one of theirs is seen to be the one drilling a hole in
the pillar that holds the house. That’s the anger and it’s believed they may
not get it again if they wobble now. Not just that, the ensuing frustration of
failing may lead to internal disorder within their fold.
This column cautioned
against taking steps capable of bringing everyone down like in the Eastern
House and all in the pursuit of personal ambition. It therefore counselled
Governor Amaechi to go soft and find ways to close ranks; at the same time, he
should not be humiliated or threatened. It’s something that needs more
appropriate communication. If he understands it, he won’t go as far. He has a
right to his ambition but it must be weighed in line with the interest of the
collective. That’s balance. The way it’s going is wrong. The principals are
behaving like gladiators, testing their power and ego on the turf, and as a
result surrender the initiative for peace to their subordinates who dwell in
slippery places. These do anything not to slip away.
The call for the
president to caution his wife is seeing a ray amid a beam of anger. Wrong. It’s
not a Pe-Pe fight (pet name for Patience). It’s a broad-based people’s anger
caused by strategic misunderstanding. Amaechi hasn’t seen the larger picture of
a south-south strength, those who see it want to teach it by force. Wrong too.
This is something that needs a withdrawn and private explanation/persuasion by
neutrals who have the interest of the people at heart. Such a body can come
from the gathering of south-south/southeast institutions, be they traditional/gubernatorial
or economic/intelligentsia. Theirs is to find an acceptable solution.
But always pulling the
house down isn’t a wise way to be a people. Letting it stand is better.
By: Onyebuchi Onyegbule
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