Of ants and elephants
By
IT is not only deregulation and decentralization that have things in common when we look at control as a mechanism for entrenchment, promotion, sustenance or change of a system. Yes, they are on the same side of the divide. Across the ocean are monopoly, centralized control, social stratification, even dictatorship.
Different colours of the rainbow emerge when you look at the economic, political and socio-cultural profile of control. There is something external about control - the one to control and the one to be controlled. Where elephants and ants dwell, the size of the elephant corners the controller role for it, even without any effort; and the ant, because of its stature, is sentenced to the status of the loyal one who must be controlled, who must bear the brunt of the wrongs of the elephant.
Unfortunately we hardly ever give a thought to the one who controls, to the elephant. For he may well be the most in need of control, of self control. In spite of the fact that there is nothing the ones in control can do about daybreak and nightfall, about rainfall and the sunshine, about being born and dying, they come across in their manipulation of control mechanisms as if the world was created for them, even by them.
Their self-confidence is not borne of a sense of achievement. It is a product of the type of scheming which the Chief Security Officer of Gen. Sani Abacha spoke about at the Oputa panel when the disappearance of Bagauda Kaltho was being discussed. Hamza Al-Mustapha hit the nail on the head when he told the panel: "I am the ant in the midst of elephants and it is this ant being accused of eating all the wood in the bush". He was painting a picture of the diversionary tactics of those in control. It is these big ones that dream dreams, that double-deal, that plan and execute coups, that, wherever they are, tighten the screw of control of the economic, the political, the socio-cultural lives of their fellowmen. They are military and civilian. All that is of interest to them is to take over the ilegezami of the polity and tether those they are supposed to serve. But they need ilegezami more than those they tether. This word is not English but it has a picture that the word ‘control’ cannot fully describe.
Ilegezami is more in evidence with horses and carts , and is thus visible. It shows in the rein for the horse and the ox. Apply the rein when the horse is charging and it comes to a stop, willy-nilly. It cannot bear the pain of the rein. Is its mouth, is its tongue not under the threatening grip of metal? Ilegezami is a breaking mechanism of profound effectiveness in taming the recalcitrant. In its invisible form, it is audacious in its ability to win converts. It is a hypnotic weapon of control and is driven by ignorance, exaggerations, media news and views through patronage, even blatant lies. Ilegezami is an unguided missile in the hands of one who has little if any self-control because he sees himself as the centre of the universe. He needs counselling, and opts for it in other climes. But in Nigeria, there is a problem. No one will ever tell him that he needs help. He is told that he is the greatest, the wisest that came directly from God, the one made to break the record of Solomon in the amassment of wealth, the building of structures, the worship of God.
In spite of what he thinks, he is not like that Solomon who was the blessed son of David and who built the most beautiful temple to the honour and glory of God before he set about to build his royal mansion. The Nigerian Solomon would not answer the questions of the Queen of Sheba, nor return the gifts she brought in more number and delicacy than she ever saw in her life. The Nigerian Solomon would tell the Queen that beautiful women do not have problems and that asking questions is a weakness no goddess as beautiful as she is should let people detect.
As the most beautiful woman God ever created, someone must tell it to her people that in her, the Queen of heaven was walking the earth. Our Solomon, with his demonic penchant for control, would visit the Queen in her domain in Ethiopia, talk her into marriage, and take over her wealth and her domain. He would then, without shame, flaunt the wealth in the face of the people.
With this picture of the Nigerian, it is most unfortunate and narrow in the extreme to go to town on so-called Owambe governors and Owambe parties. I am saying that all of us, elephants and ants, are all Owambe people and that Owambe parties go on as much with the elephants as with the ants. The ants need help, and the elephants need help more. The bush has provided the venue of our experiencing and Mustapha sees it as blaming the ant for the ills of the elephants. We must make the bush safe for the ants and the elephants so that both can live in peace, and provide a trading ground for the animals that come from other bushes in the vast forest of the earth plane.
The Nigerian bush which is home to its Owambe people has a lifespan which can be prolonged or shortened. All roads are pointing to the fact that we want to shorten this lifespan. But I plead for long life for our fatherland. My plea has meaning in what we are ready to do to prolong the life of the bush, so that the ant, the elephant and others can dwell in it, in peace. We have been thinking that the peace we need will come through economic deregulation. I do not agree. Economic deregulation, though it decentralizes control, is the second stage. The first stage is deregulation of government.
Six zones have emerged quietly in this country and they can be the sectors of the deregulation effort, of decentralization of government so that we can have viable, autonomous federating units in the practical sense of the word. It is unhealthy that Mutsapha, a security operative at the centre, in the office of the head of state, could, as he claimed, hand over to an incoming head of state a hefty N500 million that may never reflect as a withdrawal from the consolidated fund of the federation or even a contingency fund. In the name of security, it is there for the spending, and the spending seemed to have been more in the direction of eliminating those who paid taxes and needed protection than those whose only preoccupation was robbing he treasury.
With these facts and factions emerging at the Oputa Panel, I begin to wonder whether it is that much a circus. How would we have known so much about the struggle for power, that fight for the control of ilegezami of Nigeria’s economic, political and socio-cultural life? We must see, for once, that what we have today as our chosen dispensation is a transition to what we need, to the road we want to take if there must be peace. And I so much want peace in this country, for this country.
We must deregulate government and leave for the federal government only those functions that unite us so that all other areas will go to the Zones, and the states that comprise them. The ilegezami of governance needs attending to, fast, for peace to reign between the ants and the elephants of the Nigerian bush.
December 2001