Nigeria’s political elites and the convenience of ‘vile’, by Mohmood Tunde Hassan
To pen this piece, I looked up the meaning of “vile” and behold, it carries such confounding weight; Morally low; base; despicable, mean, ignoble…Causing physical or mental repulsion; horrid. In other words, to be “vile” speaks not well at all.
I really do not want to seem like gloating, nor diminish the existential, almost puritanic merit of “forgive and forget.” I also wouldn’t shrug off the really positive sociology of Nigerians who often chose to humour away, even the most serious situations… though rather simplistic, perhaps, that way, even the most dire circumstances, hurt less.
Otherwise, what do we make of the glaringly trite, flippant and hypocrical display of convenient amnesia at public preservation of the autobiography of the “evil genius,” Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in Abuja, February 20, about the events of 1993 (annulment of a free and fair election) that almost threw Nigeria under the bus?
People died, livelihoods were ruined, the nation tipped to the precipice only for the main dramatis persona in that misadventure, to say, over 32 years later, I was in Katsina when the election, was annulled and that Abacha did it.
All of us waited 32 years to hear that? And it’s ok? Over three decades, 32 years, only to be told what was already known in a trite too-little, too-late manner!
What’s more; for Babangida to be audacious in finally, confessing that he knew all along, MKO Abiola did win the election, going by the ballot returns from the about 110 polling centers in that epic election…and all the cream of Nigerian political elites in the hall, could do, was to clap. Was that confession, a trophy?
For the record, IBB did some wonderful things by the Nigerian standard.
No doubting the fact that the IBB days, were most-defining in many ways, enigmatic, audacious, ingenious and near revolutionary just as they were deceptive, cunning, and inflicted tremendous, and perhaps, irreversible damage to national psyche by elevating the ‘unscrupulous’ to ‘national normal’ and literally lighting the inferno of transactional leadership and intractible corruption/sharp practices which the nation has been unable to put out nor recover from.
What played out at the book launch, was as if offering the nation, a weighing barometer between the ‘IBB good’ and ‘the IBB bad.’ From the disposition in conduct, temperament and open expressions, the Nigerian political elites, seem to have settled on a choice: the expediency of pretence…laugh it all off as a blot in the past, not minding that the damages, linger.
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Now, why is that? Is it a function of these political elites being as complicit in continuing on the trajectory of deception as Statecraft? Or is it a case of some wrongs getting medals while others, get condemnation, depending on the political expediency?
Perhaps, it’s a guilt-thing, given that these present crop of elites, have done and are still doing much worse and have, over the years, given a more heinous redefinition to whatever IBB did.
For instance, beyond annulment of election, these crop of elites grap, install and impose themselves in office. Beyond subtlety of deceptive use of state apparatus, they are more predisposed to blatant vandalism and arrogance. Beyond surreptitious access to the Treasury, these fiendish fellows, have redefined the stakes to outright impunity and theft of public funds with reckless abandon.
While the great erudite review of IBB’s autobiography by former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, celebrating the Nigerian spirit of “moving on” irrespective previous “adversarial” circumstances, may seem convenient, and perhaps, worthwhile, can this nation, afford to sow the seeds of vile where we, now and in the future, have blurred lines between villains and hero?
Prof. Osinbajo’s inferences on “former president Babangida who played a key role in the coup that brought president Buhari to power in 1983, and later in another coup that removed him and brought Babangida himself into power.
Yet President Buhari was represented at this occasion celebrating the man who overthrew him.” or the scenerio of “When Babangida annulled the 1993 elections and Abacha took over, dissolving the Senate, that senator (Tinubu) tried to reconstitute the Senate in resistance to the dissolution. He was detained, faced charges in court, and escaped into exile but there to celebrate with his former tormentors as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”…all attempted to present conviviality. Good and fine!
You can’t cause chaos that led to someone’s death, his wife’s death, the collapse of one of the biggest business Empires in Africa, the deaths of thousands, and the collapse of democracy, and now be rewarded with ₦17b and be feted as an over pampered dictator.
The IBB years and mis judgement in end days caused democracy regression, robbed the nation of legitimate leadership, generated social unrest, ethnic divisions, a legacy of impunity, economic sanctions, triggered the cycle of the IMF induced debt trap…the consequences of the IBB days continue to linger and haunt the nation.
As I sat in the Hall, all I saw was vile. After awhile, I asked myself, what was I doing here, I got up, walked to the car, and drove off. I almost threw away the IV, tucked in a tamper-proof black envelope, I was given but decided to hold onto, at least, for the moment, as a reminder of how debased Nigeria’s political and economic elites are.
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However, this is NOT just about IBB, who despite admitting to the “truth” of the error of judgement, cannot be absorbed. This is about a societal choice, for now and for posterity. What value standards; moral, legal, generational, institutional, historical, and ethical, do we hold ourselves up to? Can this nation ever hope to attain even residual societal accountability, when we parry life on a degenerate “business-as-usual-basis?”
Despite the flurry of attention and frenzy generated by the IBB years as now self-documented in his authobiography, the conduct and display by the cream of Nigerian Elites, seemingly elevating vile, to convenience, must be treated with descernment and concern.
It didn’t speak so well of sufficient appreciation of the sobering reality of the leadership decadence and debasement that the country, has suffered through the years. A retrospection is needed urgently!
Mohmood Tunde Hassan writes from Abuja
mbhtunde@gmail.com
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