"How good and how pleasant it would be, before God and man to see the unification of all..."
- Bob Marley, Africa Unite.
That a man is amongst many connections a son, a brother, a friend, a classmate, a colleague, an uncle, a community leader, a tribesman, a state man, a country man... His many affiliations are brought into play at different levels of his life but let me share this experience of mine with you.
I know a big farmer. His primary goal is to ensure everything works not because his other investments are not yielding good returns but he made me understand that if he closes down the farm the aftershock will be greater than what ordinary eyes can behold. That made me cherish his ingenuity and zeal in ensuring that everything works even though it wasn't that smooth running; such a large farm, especially with the diverse expertise that he needed to run it efficiently. So he sent his relatives to acquire skills in one field of agronomy or the other so they may in turn help him to run the business smoothly. He just must make sure he continues providing produce for the immediate community and by extension other communities.
The relatives returned from study, acquired the title of expatriates and started working on the farm. Each expatriate with his and her ego would come to the farm, work and leave, most times, without interacting with the other; and when they did, ended up in one fracas or the other. The dearth of cooperation amongst the expatriates started trickling down to the labourers working under their supervision; inadvertently an overall insubordination began to brew so strongly it got the farmer worried. One day, he thought of balkanizing the farmland with each expatriate working his or her fraction but after thorough consideration, he concluded that it will never work as his agronomics sense pointed out. The production was suffering, people were becoming emaciated. The farmer was dying inside as his dream of ensuring that people feed well was being eroded not because of lack of manpower or expertise, but because of ego that was driven by selfishness on the part of the expatriates fueled by the belief that the childless farmer would in turn yield control of the farm to one of them since he was entering geriatric; hence the power game.
The farmer consulted an oracle and returned home happy.
He summoned his relatives. Those he sent to school and those that grew under his tutelage. He said to them "whoever tells me the main goal of this farm of ours will gain control of the farm here and now". Trust brilliant, over-ambitious proletariat, and scheming lettered criminals; they each gave varied answers that pointed to rent-collection; capitalism. None of them even scratched the crux. This got the man worried but just as divination had it, another relative who nobody expected would even know the color of the gate to the farmland as he lived in a far away town, and without any fore knowledge of the meeting, decided to visit the farm on that day. This relative raised his right hand and told the old man, "the goal of this farm is to ensure continued production for the benefit of the host community, the extended communities, the state, the nation and the world at large".
The old farmer fell on his shoulder, blessed him and handed control of the farm to him.
Meanwhile, the expatriates that were scheming and tearing at each other all the while, came together all of a sudden and said he is not qualified to be on the farm at all as he had not gone through the training that would qualify him as one of them. The old man asked them, "What makes you more qualified than he is?" One of them answered "because we have been part of the farmland and we know the hinterland better than he does". The old man smiled and looked at them, "fine you know the hinterland because you are from the hinterland. But do you know this guy is one of you by blood, hinterlander or not?" They went hush at their foolishness.
Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, what you have before you is far beyond the ethno-maelstrom being drummed by some undignified bigots, neither is it a sinecure. It is a service to fatherland. Remember,"When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up." Ps 27:10.
I hereby baptize you Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. (*Importer, exporter, general contractor" in Ibo tone).
The social media is a ground for all sundriness. I took a long break from that land before my return few days ago and expectedly nothing changed. Never would there be any effective modulation, this way or that way. In all, the speed of information dissemination is unparalleled. However, vetting the 'sanity' of some of the news peddlers on those platforms is a different kettle of fish. At times one gets miffed when some supposedly enlightened individuals are the originators and promoters of some of this misleadingness; all for self-service. When some people and media houses circulated the news that Shekau is missing in the recent video of Boko Haram I yinmu at such news! Whether Shekau is part of the cast or crew of any Boko Haram video shouldn't be of interest. What is paramount is stopping the making and propagation of such videos at all cost.
I follow The Senate President via his twitter handle. His post on his visit to Maiduguri as well as his donation to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the many Thankyous that followed got me asking questions. Please do not get me wrong. I cheer the motivation and moral responsibility of the visit of The Senate President to the troops fighting insurgency and the victims thereof, but my question is: when will Dr. Bukola Saraki 'reimburse' his old customers at Societe Generale Bank Nigeria? I know a VERY loyal Ilorin man who had his life's savings in SGBN because the bank belonged to "Baba Oloye". The man had practically gone under as I write because 'Baba Oloye's' son ran the bank aground. When is such a man going to get at least a Letter of Apology, from Dr Bukola Saraki who is the sitting Senate President, even if he is going to be given another never-to-be-defrayed assurance that his money will be repaid through Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation(NDIC)? When? I leave you, his blind followers, to your conscience. I address you, his followers, because I see a soulless 'form' holding on firmly to his Machiavellian dagger in your Senator.
The teeming unreasoning followers of these politicians are usually pawns that would maul one another just to get the minutest bite from the minutest crumb thrown at them like undeserving beggars by the looters of their destinies and commonwealth. Yet, they go praise- singing, even killing on behalf of their oppressors. Read #Pausibility: Thank You! For What?!!! and be wise.
No doubt Fayose is a man sitting on a high chair of opprobriousness. When such a man falls, he can only get worse but just as I have heard stories of able-bodied men with predilection for lotto thronging madhouses looking for lunatics to give some 'divine' predictions of the day's winning digits, so also should we not cast a vagabond out into the cold without extending the graciousness of God by offering him a cover; especially when such castable could be useful in future. The Yorubas would say "omo buruku lojo tie"; listen carefully to a drunk and you will find a bit of sense in his gibbers. I am sure the anti-corruption light is rotating and before we know it will reach full cycle. There is no way it will bypass Ekiti, just as Lagos, Rivers and other states will also come under that beam. Fayose, go, drink and be merry some more: the light is approaching...
‘Adebayo Coker is a wordsmith. Societal Fragments, A Man Like Me: Noteography Of A Father To His Son and Wobbled Words are his published works.
