I just read yet another letter written by one Femi Odere in Premium Times on the lingering crisis of confidence in Ondo State APC, arising from the alleged endorsement of an aspirant, Segun Abrahams, by a National Leader of a supposed public party. It takes a cursory glance at a few lines to discern vacuity propelled by sycophancy. Adopting a mediocre literary technique to veil hypocritical and beggary disposition, this writer attacked Dr Tunji Abayomi, an aspirant in the forthcoming gubernatorial primary election in Ondo State, for writing two letters to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on his opposition to the latter’s predilection in politics.

Nothing riles the mind of deep thinkers more than hypocritical posturing by certain elements who are always eager to throw words around to mask their mendicant intention. Emotional blackmail, a veritable weapon in the hands of the intellectually lazy and fraudulent persons, often comes in handy. Issues of national importance are reduced to base arguments bordering on affinity with respect to either marriage or some undefined friendship. The best treatment for such unwarranted and solicitous meddlesomeness should have been to ignore the writer and his apparent sponsors or would be benefactors, but not at this time. These are desperate times indeed. We must contest space with the arrogant. No honest person will fault the logic of Tunji Abayomi’s  protestations at this period when aspirants had been requested to pay for nomination form and encouraged to canvass for votes. An individual does not constitute the party.

Our country faces a lot of challenges as a consequence of directionless, avaricious and mediocre leadership at all levels. The false mantra of service, liberally chanted by politicians as reason for hustling, always slips into discussions effortlessly. There are many of those who disturb our peace, routinely, who are known monsters in other spheres of human endeavour. If service, of the altruistic hue, is the prime consideration for the current hassles, we can be sure that very few aspirants will remain in the race. The self-appointed guardian angels of our collective destiny will have no reason to “endorse or impose” anyone since this type of exaction is alien in the lexicon of decent political engagement. They are in politics to accumulate wealth, tons of it, for themselves and members of their immediate families. They procure slaves who do their biddings and are willing to annihilate anyone who exhibits any streak of independence.

Mr Odere, like the inconsequential bird whose name he bears, chooses the role of a hungry palace bard, singing the panegyrics of his idol, Tinubu, who must not be criticised even if he is playing god in the affairs of men. He descended on one of the victims of overweening pride who had the temerity to challenge the god with clay feet. He acknowledges Tunji Abayomi as “a long time friend” of the emerging Emperor, who graciously visited a lesser mortal, such as he, in a remote village in Ondo State called Okeagbe from the Olympian height in Bourdillion. He reminds him of the “struggles” to “entrench” democracy in Nigeria during the military and how they both suffered privation for “emancipating” Nigerians from the shackles of the military oppressors and their civilian collaborators. He rounded off this gibberish with a foreboding. If APC loses the November gubernatorial election in the state, it will be largely traceable to the sacrilegious missive written to a god by a victim of hubris.

Since everyman reserves the right to decide his preference in life, I have little problem with the cavalier attitude of this man. He can change his father’s name to Tinubu to showcase unalloyed loyalty but the right he lacks is to attempt to teach a man, a lawyer, on the best cause to embark upon in defending his right if he perceives some manifest injustice. It is the height of insolence for someone, who claims not to know a person at close quarters, to insinuate dishonesty with regard to some money meant for legal defence allegedly converted by Dr Abayomi. This inelegant crier pretends to be distant from the political arena yet knows so much about internal workings of a platform such as the ruling party. Who else, save a rabid sycophant, will admit that two individuals share close relationship but one is permitted to violate, grossly, the tenets of friendship, with impunity, because he fought for democracy? If a fellow comrade, who shared perilous fate in the trenches with you, is deemed ill suited for a post, it is incumbent on you to explain to him and others, who equally propagate the sinking platform of dubiety, on the often repeated but unsubstantiated claim of comradely activities. We were all in this country when PDM was formed by late Shehu Musa Yar Adua. We remember those who sold their patrimonies for political relevance. Chroniclers of events have a different story to tell concerning the treacherous acts of characters who strut the political landscape with mendacious claims of valour.

This constant revisionism by simpletons is dangerous to the polity. How else can we categorise the idiotic tantrums, freely thrown at an aspirant who feels aggrieved by the nefarious intrusion of a  friend who invited party officials and promised them money if they could do his wish? In whose interest was he doing that, the party or the people of Ondo State? What manner of logic will place the burden of blame on a victim while the perpetrator of confusion is praised to high heaven? A reference was made to an unexpressed intent to lead the NBA as president on several occasions. I am very sure that the oracle at Bourdillion will not be happy at this sloppy and ludicrous claim. At no time has Tunji Abayomi declared his interest in serving the Bar at that level , to the best of our knowledge, either in remote or recent times. We are active, sufficiently, at the Bar to know. The recent history of leadership of the association is public knowledge. And who says that a person cannot contest for as many times as he wishes if he belongs to an association?

Perhaps, it is only in APC that an adult must be subjected to all asinine manipulation.  A  National leader of a public party shares no blame for disrupting a process already set in motion by the party hierarchy. He has the power to “endorse” or “coronate” an aspirant whose main qualification lies in his being pliable. But a sycophant puts the load of culpability, squarely, on the cheated and oppressed. When ignorance drops  issues, disparate and far flung, to justify hubris, knowledge cringes. Odere writes about Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama in spite of being in the same Republican Party as Senator John McCain. He also alluded to Obama endorsing Hillary Clinton when Bernie Sanders was still in the race. We can only sympathise with a country so afflicted with thick-headed stupidity and combative uppity. John McCain and Obama were candidates of two different parties in 2008. Powell did not invite delegates of a Republican Party to his house because he was the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. He served America diligently. He depended on his honest pension. He was not acting as a political merchant throwing dice on the table at a political casino. Obama is too intelligent to dabble into an issue of primary election. He does not have any business interest to protect. He had waited for Hillary to become the presumptive candidate of the a Democratic Party before his endorsement. He did not use his position as a leader of his party to sway delegates to decide either way, promising to fund his inherently subversive scheme. The APC example is only possible in a backward environment such as ours.

The APC National Chairman, Chief Odigie Oyegun, has reaffirmed the commitment of the party to conduct a free and fair primary. It is not enough to taunt Tunji Abayomi on the predictable outcome of the organised charade. We just hope that the damage done is redeemable. Buhari was not given a chance by many enemies of this country, including the major beneficiaries of his presidency. He won in spite of the dollars. People resisted the political merchants in PDM. The people of Ondo rejected Tinubu and not Akeredolu in 2012. They will be ever ready to do so again. Some leaders of APC are a menace to this country. The earlier we tell them so, the better it will be for us.

Tinubu’s predilections should not be, necessarily, conterminous with those of APC. Nemesis waits, anxiously, to punish this unbridled haughtiness.

Dr Doyin Odebowale,
Dept of Classics,
UI.