Our ‘Come And Eat’ Politicians
A definite pride rings through the voice of Chief Bola Ige when he swears that he will never be a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. You would hear in it the same defiance and personal carriage that often makes this man think that he is the most intelligent Nigerian that ever lived.
He has not staked a personal claim to the title. He has tried, in the past, to ascribe prime intelligence to his stock, leaving the rest of us to wonder when the Alliance for Democracy, AD, whose membership he will not deny, will handle its own matters in the prim manners that Chief Ige likes.
Chief Ige is one man, who thinks he must have the last word in an argument, if he fails, he riles the opposition with every arsenal. His admirers are many, some of them have been intimidated to love the man, for fear of falling victims of his acerbic attacks, which he reserves for all those who dare him.
Since the AD rejected him as its presidential candidate in 1999, Chief Ige has refused to live with the fact that life can go on without him at the helm. In his private moments, he may even think that he would have defeated President Olusegun Obasanjo at the polls. He has President Obasanjo to thank for offering him political relevance as Minister of Power and Steel. Where would he have been today? Who would he have been criticising without a platform?
Nigerians felt President Obasanjo pampered him by moving him to the Ministry of Justice, at a time Nigerians were rating Chief Ige a failure at reviving NEPA, the power generating mire that swallowed Chief Ige without wasting time.
Not one known for any traces of humility, Chief Ige would not admit failure. The initial "successes" he had at NEPA fooled him. In June when he resumed, the water level was high (water levels rule NEPA) and being rainy season, most un-intelligent people knew that power consumption was low.
I watched one television programme where he was in his elements. He made promises to resurrect NEPA. The whole interview was on NEPA, a pointer to the importance of that body to Nigerians.
Chief Ige was soon to start complaining to us. The same complaints that we had were issuing from him. He alleged sabotage, usually the least detraction that serious politicians expect. Two system failures, in quick successions, nailed his tenure. He became reticent on the realisation that he would be thrown into political wilderness with an ejection from the cabinet.
President Obasanjo came to his rescue again by "promoting" him to the Ministry of Justice. Should he not be grateful to such a man and the party that produced him, even if it is called PDP?
Chief Ige believes that Nigerians owe him gratitude for accepting to serve them. There is nothing for him in government, except service. I too had thought that was all government was about – service.
I have also found out that spending the people’s money without recourse to them is part of it. When some of the ministers were accused in 1999 of spending N25 million in furnishing their temporary apartments, those who were in tune with the purist political traces of Chief Ige expected to hear his position on the matter. All I heard was his silence. I am not suggesting that he did any wrong, but there was something un-Ige, an acclaimed Awoist, in that silence. His silence was not service to the people, except to politics and his strange co-travellers, who are mostly from the PDP, the party he often degrades with the most mordant words.
A measured mixture of jealousy from his opponents in the AD and PDP has attended Chief Ige’s activities. His acceptance in the AD has waned, even as he presents himself as the solution to the party’s problems. He leaves enough problems in his wake to give him suspect importance in any faction of the AD.
Unfortunately, his appointee, Governor Bisi Akande, has not come off the assignment with applause in Osun State, where Chief Ige is from. The battle for control of Osun State is at the middle of Chief Ige’s recent bump with Chief Sunday Afolabi, who in the whatever-Awo-said days was Deputy Governor of Oyo State.
How else would the duo have come from the same part of the state to rule Oyo State? The relationship did not last. By the 1983 elections, the parting of ways was obvious. Many people would not remember that Chief Afolabi, a very quiet man, was appointed Minister of Education, in the three months second term government of President Shehu Shagari.
Both were brutalised in prison when the military ruled all politicians guilty, until proven innocent. Chief Afolabi, President Obasanjo’s Minister of Internal Affairs, and one of his most unobtrusive ministers, is a key member of the Shehu Yar’Adua group, the body that first broached the presidential race to Obasanjo and helped roll him to victory. While Chief Ige was into his siddon look politics, Chief Afolabi was active in the processes that led to the various political changes under the military.
There is more to him: he was at Baptist Boys High School in Abeokuta, the President’s alma mater and the stories were that the President was his school boy. In this government, therefore, Chief Afolabi has an interest that goes beyond "come and eat". An attack on the President is an attack on Chief Afolabi, who wants to protect his boy from any outsider who forgets his manners when invited to help himself to the meal Nigerians call government.
The right thing is to smack your lips, no matter how awful the meal tastes. You can also decline the meal, which is what I think Chief Afolabi is suggesting. Government in Nigeria is one meal that meets all tastes at all times.
Chief Ige is useful to the President. He has used him to disparage the rest of the AD. The message in simpler terms: I can take anyone of you I want. I can make you as great as I want (and greater than you thought). The temptation is too attractive for many to reject.
However, Chief Afolabi still sees his former boss as out to whittle the barely existent PDP influence in Osun State. The President did woefully at the polls in Osun State. Chief Ige made that worn point in his reply to Chief Afolabi.
In the calculations for 2003, the PDP would set out to rubbish the likes of Chief Ige, wherever they are found in Nigeria. Chief Afolabi is priming himself for prominence in the politics of 2003 and so is Chief Ige, who will be 73 then.
While they are at this, I would like to thank the two gentlemen for drawing our attention to two important things – the duty of government, service to the people (Chief Ige) and the role of ministers, invited to come and eat (Chief Afolabi).
If ministers were eating and serving, Nigerians would not complain. Today, there is so much self-serving (eating), sometimes un-invited.
The PDP, rather, the President, must have an explanation for this.