Jonathan’s Loss And The Transiency Of Power

Opinion

By Tayo Ogunbiyi

The 28 March presidential poll has come and gone with its resultant tension, hiccups and drama. As for drama, the poll had its fair share of comedy that would make famous Nollywood actors, ‘Aki and Pawpaw’, grin with envy.

Take the back seat ‘Aki and Pawpaw’; enter Elder Orubebe, the newest grand master of comedy. In a Nollywood style fashion, Elder Orubebe caught the attention of the Nollywood world when he forcefully grabbed the microphone from INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, while the latter was about to commence procedure for the announcement of more presidential poll’s results.

Orubebe added some colour to his act by sitting on the floor and threatening to halt proceedings permanently. It is all about a character interpreting the script according to the instruction of the director. If the pay is good, actors could appropriately interpret any role. In this instance, perhaps, the pay was good, and actor Orubebe’s performance was top notched. That particular day at the INEC Collation Centre inside International Conference Centre, Abuja, was rich in drama. As soon as Orubebe and co. got off the scene, a more intriguing performance ensued. Enter Professor John Etu-Efeotor the INEC Collation Officer for Rivers State who was saddled with the responsibility of collating and announcing presidential election results for the state. If the Orubebe act was fascinating, that of the Professor Etu-Efeotor was much more action-packed. With the election results and figures, that were appropriately collated and tallied by him in his hand, the Professor told a bewildering Jega that he couldn’t read what was written on the paper properly. Despite being in a well illuminated hall, a rechargeable lamp was brought in to aid the Prof’s seemingly poor sight, but all to no avail. When he was asked by Jega if he was not the one that authored the content in the paper, the professor answered in the affirmative but with a caveat: He wrote them under ‘special circumstances’. Perhaps, in the typical Nollywood style, this highly captivating movie would, one day, come up with a season 2 episode and the professor would be able to properly amplify what made the circumstances that special. In the meantime, let’s watch out for ‘Jega and the Professor Part 2’. It promises to be a blockbuster.

Now, the main pre-occupation of this piece is not actually to highlight the theatrical content of the recently concluded presidential poll. The goal is to draw attention to the transitory nature of power. According to John M. Pfiffner and Frank P. Sherwood, politics involves the pursuit, acquisition, and exercise of political power.  Ideally, the ultimate purpose of political power is to shape and control public policy primarily for the betterment of the society. Thus, acquisition of political power should not be an end in itself but a means to an end. Unfortunately, however, in this clime political power actors see power as the ultimate end. Their perception of power is wrong and faulty. This explains why most of them behave condescendingly while in power. Their motive for seeking and acquiring power is, at best, self seeking and parochial.

Since the attainment of independence in 1960, the procedure of acquiring political power in Nigeria has been through democratic process and military intrusion. Hence, we have experienced political leadership spearheaded by a combination of both civilian and military political power actors. It is, however, sad that most of these political actors, from their conducts, seem to hold the view that power is an end and not a means. In his famous book, ‘1984’, English novelist, essayist and critic, George Orwell was,  perhaps, inadvertently referred to the power perception of the average Nigerian political power actor when he stated that: “the Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. Power is not a means; it is an end. The object of power is power.” How awful!

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The picture painted here by Orwell, to a great extent, perfectly describes the power image of a typical Nigerian political power actor. Orwell’s reference to pure power could be interpreted to mean absolute power.  In this clime, pure power stands for various things ranging from liberty to driving against traffic, in utter disregard for traffic laws, to cordoning off a whole city for hours because a ‘powerful’ political power actor or his wife is in town. In this current dispensation, a governor was alleged to have publicly slapped a judge. That, of course, is his own understanding of power. In Nigeria, six members of a 26-man House of Assembly could ‘impeach’ a Speaker and send the others on exile. That is pure power! At the height of his fascination with power, a police Commissioner once called himself a leopard that tamed a Governor whom he referred to as a tiger. The police Commissioner over acted the script of his paymasters as he insulted the Governor beyond every sane imagination on quite a number of occasions. He, indeed, made the state ungovernable for the Governor.

In another show of power, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal,  was instantly stripped of his security details by police authorities, who were prompt to interpret the law, on the account of his dumping the ruling PDP for another party. In Nigeria, for obvious reasons, security agencies often act in most ridiculous fashion as appendages of any government in power. Political appointees are equally not different from security agents in their perception of power. They seem to forget that political office, like political power that births it, is transient. They often act in manner contrary to the expectations of the people whose interest they are supposed to protect. Where the personal interest of their principal runs at cross purpose with that of the larger society, they would rather encourage him to dare his people by satisfying his parochial desires.

In what can be termed the height of sycophancy, a minister, in the current dispensation, once referred to the wife of the president as his Jesus Christ. One vital lesson to be learnt from the loss of President Jonathan at the poll is the temporary nature of political power. If only we could allow this to properly sink in, no one would substitute God for a political leader who is here today, gone tomorrow. Also, political office holders would, perhaps, put the common good of the people as their main concern while in power.

Sycophancy thrives in our politics because many see office holders as their meal tickets. Very soon, President Jonathan would know who his true friends are. Very soon, he would know the difference between real friends and fair weather friends. That is why men in power should be mindful of those they surround themselves with. Professional sycophants easily make unsuspecting leaders to lose focus. The very men that vowed to die for President Jonathan are already queuing behind General Buhari. Political leaders need to learn from Williams Shakespeare that “All the world’s a stage and the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances…”

•Ogunbiyi is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

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