Nigeria: Gov. Sullivan Chime’s Slump: Foreshadowing Yaradua’s Fall?

Much of literature, especially the narrative, is fiction it is often suggested. Many times however fiction doesn’t just mimic but predict reality in very profound ways, obscuring any such clear cut delineation. An instance? Achebe’s satirical piece, A Man of the People. Released shortly before the January 1966 putsch, the work mirrors the culmination of the imperial dispositions of many politicians of the first republic in the fate of the protagonist, “Honorable Chief Dr. M.A. Nanga, MP, LL.D.”

In the course of studying one of Ngugi wa ‘Thiong’o’s narratives some years back, I suppose it was “The River Between” Dr. Remy Oriaku drew the students’ attention to the use of a literary device: foreshadowing. It occurs where “an author drops subtle hints about plot developments to come later in [a] story,” according to Wikipedia. Perhaps no better describes the predicament of Alhaji Umar Musa Yaradua, the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Construed in the mold of a divinely scripted narrative, the events of the outgoing week in Enugu state (Nigeria) seem to prefigure not just the governor’s ouster but Yaradua’s looming electoral (mis)fortunes.

The finale of the annual Armed Forces Remembrance week came to a dramatic end when Gov. Sullivan Chime sprawled on the floor while laying a wreath. A couple days later and perhaps more consequential at least to the electorates, the state’s election petition tribunal invalidates the incumbent’s election and ordered a new one within three months. The nullification means no less than a sixth of their Excellencies nationwide have had their (s)election reversed. No mean indictment for the self adulating election arbiter, Prof. Maurice Iwu.

Since circumstances surrounding the purported victories of the governors are in many respects akin to Yaradua’s, it remains to be seen if the presidential election that instituted the commander-in-chief would not be equally quashed. Not that the president would be ruffled it appears; he has not hidden his desire to reform the electoral process.

Bitter as it may be for some to swallow, justice and injustice rarely cohabit in any egalitarian society. You can not and should not build justice on injustice. No different than building a tower on sinking sand. Time in no time reveals the folly of such avocation.

True, many would-be beneficiaries of the electoral reversals may portend no better than the current chief occupants of government houses, but if duly elected so be it! No heinous theft exists than that of a stolen mandate. Ask Kenyans why they have resorted to such violence following the recent elections.

There is a lesson in this for us all. It serves no practical end to foist one’s will on the people no matter how well intended it may be. Any victory thus acquired may only be short-lived. By goading his party to arranged victories during his tenure, OBJ has bequeathed a pervading malfeasant electoral culture. Not that one is surprised. For an individual who has scarcely been able to put his family in order he did a great job of managing Nigeria! Have you told him thank you?