At the screening of President Shehu Shagari Ministerial nominees in 1983, a man appeared before the Senate to state why Alhaji Ali Baba must not be cleared for appointment as a minister. The next day, the same man appeared before the Senate to state why Ali Baba must be cleared as a Minister. When he was asked why he changed his mind, he said; “Yesterday I was hungry, today I’m not hungry.”
This 1983 experience flashed through my mind when recently a former committed spokesman of ex- Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Daniel Bwala denounced his former bread winner, Atiku and crawled to President Bola Tinubu who was the dart for his arrow when the soup pot of Atiku was full of assorted meats.
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It is very queer what politics have become to many practitioners; devoid of candour, colour, and integrity . Just recently as well the reinstated Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, protegee of Senator Adams Oshiomhole, ex Governor of Edo State, returned to his mentor, on his knees, begging for forgiveness to rejoin the APC, still holding the PDP Umbrella. One does not know the signal people like him are sending to the junior ones by such public show of what the Romans would call “tanti dedecoris.”
Talking of integrity in politics, Senator Arthur Francis Nzeribe had won an election to the Senate on the platform of the Nigerian People’s Party in 1983 only to cross carpet to the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He was, however, unanimously ejected from the Senate for flouting the provision of the constitution, preventing that and still in operation. Nzeribe appealed to Justice Fred Ayeagbunam’s Tribunal to ” restore his honour.” But in his judgement, Justice Anyeagbunam told Nzeribe that “You are not entitled to the honour you do not possess having taken the mandate of your people to the party they had rejected”. Shamefully, Nzeribe walked out of the Tribunal. It’s doubtful if the judiciary could still live up to that standard of judgement.
Afterwards, the celebrated British jurist, Lord Denning defined law as what the judge says it is. This to me means a judge should go beyond merely interpreting the law to ensure that what is right is justice.
Yes, we are still on Bwala, who I always admire for his unique selling point, eloquence, in the modern day politics.
President Bola Tinubu has always been a personification of progressive politics and Atiku, the conservative. So Bwala is wearing the cap of ex-President Babangida’s “a little to the right and a little to the left politics.”
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But this takes me to the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible and the implication it has for the president. A father has two sons. The junior one asked their father for his own inheritance before his death.
The father obliged, and after squandering it in a foreign land and became poor to the point of struggling for food with pigs, he returned to the father in tears begging for forgiveness. The happy father gave him the best reception to the consternation of the steadfast senior brother.
Since Bwala has been treated to a red carpet reception at the Presidential Villa and made a kitchen cabinet member so swiftly, one may wonder if Mr. President ever thought this could dampen the morale of loyalists who were repelling the arrow Bwala was sending from the camp of Atiku.
If Bwala can betray Atiku, what is the guarantee that a leopard can change its colour? Shuaibu has just returned to his vomit in Edo politics. It can also happen elsewhere. No doubt, President Bola Tinubu has a unique reputation for transformational leadership.
He discovers talents and mentor them. This may account for why perhaps he sometimes leaves his flanks open as his weakness leans on the virtue side. It’s very unusual for a presidential speech to leak out, but where friends and foes live together, anything can happen.
After all, King Duncan says of Lady Macbeth that “The love that follows us is sometimes our trouble which still we thank as love.” Take it from me. Soon there may be “trouble in form six.”
(An unpublished article but prophetic in view of today)
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