By Leonard Nzenwa
We should not work ourselves up that Bola Ahmed Tinubu embarrassed himself irredeemably during his recent engagement at Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, commonly known as ChatHam House. He had never been the best that Nigeria has offered, neither will he ever be the near-best that Nigeria will propose, politically. The imperialist professionals that packaged the meet are aware of this, but only needed a high-level inter-state conversational touchpoint to broaden stealth effort that would create a rooted enabler to access Nigeria’s’ next president easily. And that Jagaban choreographed mutated imbecility and absolute benightedness during the occasion measures perfectly to this, and to their benefit. The agbado-for-all, cassava-for-the-masses proponent outclassed himself as a clodpole. Certainly, asininity arrived the meet in likeness of a man, and men clapped in unison praising a naked dance of dernier cri.
Are we surprised that we are on a journey through a lane of the sick? We need not be.
Note that with his eyes wide open and other faculties unarguably at their prime functional zenith, our statesman, President Olusegun Obasanjo turned on his political crystal ball and spotted Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and crowned him Nigeria’s thirteenth President. It was sheer magical shtick that was impassioned by pristine self-preservatory reflex. It owed its famed justification on assumed incumbency entitlement to enlist a preferred candidate based on the whims and caprices of an emperoic magistracy. At this time, it neither reckoned with the peoples ‘wishes nor held in esteem their yearning to appoint unto themselves their favoured sovereign. Baba Sege as he is euphemistically applauded waved off ailing entities that beclowned President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and made him look tired before applying himself to the presidential chore. For him, Nigerians had no choice in this matter.
But Yar’Adua was an infirmed man with a noble mind. As it is with nature and its forces, when ambushed by mans’ inordinate quest to tame it, it roars; with its roiled force clearing everything in sight. Medication becomes an unappetizing poison that produces evil venom to fast-track progression to life’s departure lounge, and adroit health engineering becomes a reverse osmosis to disarray mans’ wellbeing. Unpretentiously: when nature caves in, the heart relapses. Yar’ Adua had to hold on as long as his will could carry him. At the end, he emptied himself out as a thoroughly drained fighting man, wriggling to clutch unto life even as he strove to make Nigeria a better place for all of us.
You’d find boldly written, in that part of our historical chronicle - I mean the one they forgot to delete from the nation’s academic curricula, that Yar’adua was a sick president that governed Nigeria from clinic to clinic. These power stewards and men-savers at the presidency in their bid to mock God, and in brazen defiance to divinity’s’ ordination conspired against nature, even as they pushed to humble it. As these ensconced power brokers reeled and regaled their power to stay up his life obstinately, a seal was put. By the time they were, therefore, done with their effort their unwilled and misguided voyage to undo nature left the nation the worse for it. And, literally speaking, they triumphed in nothing. Any lesson learned - No!
You’d think that this hibernated schizophrenic overhang had dissipated, and that we would sanely stay the hand and tide of Machiavellistic power intruders on our affairs, at least, in such a subdued manner as not to stir our feeble hearts quackingly in that direction. No, this was not to be. No sooner had President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan been clobbered out of office by unguided, ill-tempered colony of right activists working with amanda of other irascible rightists and recycled power grabbers who sold to us that Mr. Jonathan was a clueless leader that misgoverned the country, they went on overdrive, assailing us with blimey of General Mohammadu Buhari, as the messiah for Nigeria. To them, Mr. Buhari, was the uncrowned king in-waiting to bring African slumbering giant to life. The proverbial promised land for the nation was just at the tip of our nose, they chorused.
And they all went to work. First, they brandished the Generals’ sterling military accomplishment(s) as what is needed to steer the nation aright, insisting that none of the ills that befell the nation would repeat itself including the vexed issue of medical tourism and the octopian-DNA-ringed-corruption that de-shaped the country and made her a laughing stock amongst comity of nations. With programmed, sweepingly coordinated all-wind multimedia media campaign never seen in the history of the country, Mr. Buhari, was transformed into a statesman with the Midas touch to save the country. His poor human rights credentials were swept under the carpet. His first outing as Head of State that saw the economy plummeting at all time low were discountenanced. His past umbrage that he would stand up for ultra-fanatical Islamic groupings if they were helmed by the state never counted. His actual age was craftily made a non-issue. But Mr. Buhari is an infirmed man. His health profile is dotted with chronic ailment(s) which dogged his step every way of his inclement administration. He was more in hospital than in the seat of power thus putting a big lie to his much-publicized trouncing of medical tourism. A few still maintain that Mr. Buhari is not the one that is in Aso Rock! This debate now is unnecessary as it is energy etiolating.
The unpleasant veracity, however, is that Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was terribly sick before he became Nigeria’s’ president and lived through as a sick leader whilst in power. Same for General Mohammadu Buhari, who obviously have outperformed Yar’adua in this downbeat area. The marked difference between the former and the latter is that the health credentials of the latter was capriciously hidden from Nigerians. We need admit that as mere mortals the crown of ill-health of innumerable description is part of our growing life that we have always worn, and no human of whatever statue has ever outgrown it, but what humanity have done is to ensure that the best in terms of not being clobbered down by it do not seek public office and are not supported to ascend these offices for in so doing will amount to collective entrusting of our fate in the hands of those who will abridge advancement of mankind.
Sadly, as it stands with weeks to the 2023 presidential election, we seem to be on a march to enthrone a certified sick one as Nigeria’s’ next president. The telltale signs are manifest.
...Dr Leonard Nzenwa is a former National ChaiInter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC). He can be reached through e-mail: @This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. NNL.
