News, Commentary & Social Media from African Perspective

The Pawns on the Nigerian Chessboard

8 comments

Posted by: Omotaylor on April 29, 2009 Under: Nigeria, Opinion, Politics & Policy



And now for a game of chess, not that I am a good player.

Chess is a popular pastime worldwide and it is acclaimed to be a good brain teaser/developer. It has been played since the 15th century as a recreational or competitive game and meant to be fun. Chess is now taught in secondary schools to enable our youths learn the game of strategy and resilience. In Nigeria, I cannot really assess the importance or popularity of the Chess game. But I can state that Chess is not a game new to Nigerians.

The Nigerian Chessboard is very similar to the original chess board with its black and white squares. The Nigerian Chess does have all the Chess pieces and these vary in ability and importance just like the ordinary Chess game. For the intending Chess player, it is worthy to note that Chess is played by two people, and the Nigerian Chess follows suit. There is the Black on one side and the White on the other. (Good vs Black). Each side plays the game with 1 King, 1 Queen, 2 Rooks, 2 Bishops, 2 Knights, and 8 PAWNS. The game is very strategically played and involves defined movements on the Chessboard as permitted.

For this post, I am more interested in the role, position, elimination, survival moves, control and most importantly promotion of the 8 PAWNS on each side of the Chess Board. It is interesting to see the Chess Line up with all 8 Pawns covering each of the other 8 pieces that are placed behind the black or white pawns.

Ayoka Adebayo, INEC Resident Officer in EkitiThe recent happenings on Ekiti State and the political governorship rerun fiasco makes me write this post. The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Ekiti State is the latest Pawn on the Nigerian Chessboard. Mrs Ayoka Adebayo like all other Pawns on the Chess board has had to suffer the normal treatment melted on Pawns on the Nigerian Chessboard. And like any Pawn that decides to start with a double step has met with the expected onslaught and has had to succumb by taking flight. But like other Pawns, even this is not accepted by the opposition and is expected to face what Pawns on a Chessboard ultimately faces when very weak; and this is SUDDEN DEATH.

The Pawns on the Nigerian Chessboard are highly controlled and dictated to. They are not allowed any freedom of thought or conscience or even movement. They are forced to remain the weakest and lowest ranked piece on the Chessboard. There are many of them on the same level and considered inferior to all other pieces e.g. the King, Queen, Rooks, Bishops and Knights. They have to fight hard for their survival and they have to ensure that they are not easily captured thereby sacrificed unwittingly.

Politically speaking, these Pawns are seen and treated as toys and they have a hard struggle, a big fight to ensure that they become powerful by making it to the end. Not many Pawns make it to the end on the Nigerian Chessboard though. We hear all the time that “when the going gets tough, only the tough gets going”, but on the Nigerian Chessboard, when the going gets tough only the evil King gets going except by Divine intervention. For on the Nigerian Chessboard, the better and strategically more advantageous the one at a time move of the Pawn is for progress, the more open to attacks, abuse, demotion, or subsequent elimination they are.

I have over the years battled with this idea of placing names of Nigerians who have made the news big time on the Nigerian Chessboard, even in the political field. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Shehu Shagari, Asiwaju Tinubu, Moshood Abiola, Tunde Idiagbon, Sanni Abacha, Gani Fawehinmi, Wole Soyinka, Nuhu Ribadu, Olusegun Mimiko, Dora Akunyili, Farida Waziri, Raji Fashola, Chinua Achebe, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Comrade Governor Adams, Mrs Adebayo (just to mention a very few spanning the years). I am not saying that all these names have been Pawns only on the Nigerian Chessboard, but I am of the opinion that they have had to play the Pawn role one way or the other along the line. Now the reader can decide how well they advanced and how many were able to really make it.

In conclusion, it is most important to note that PAWNS OF CHARACTER AND STRENGTH AND PURPOSE will make it to the end. What is the end on the Chessboard? To make it from their placed position to the 8TH RANK and then get promoted, whereby they could be exchanged for any of the other pieces – King, Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight. On the Nigerian Chessboard, the Pawn is supposed to SURVIVE the onslaught, the treachery, the lies, the commands and dictates of unscrupulous leaders, and what have you, to make it to the 8th Column (Rank). Nigerians in general i.e. the ordinary commonplace people are all Pawns on the Nigerian Chessboard. Some have started their journey and fighting hard and fit to advance to next ranks. Some have been eliminated along the way, while many others have just remained put and kicked down.

YES WE MAY BE PAWNS ON THE NIGERIAN CHESSBOARD BUT THE MORALE BEHIND THIS POST IS SIMPLY THIS: WE PAWNS MAY BE OPEN TO ATTACK AND THREAT OF ANNIHILATION, BUT WE ARE BECOMING MORE AND MORE RESOLVED TO FIGHT ON AND ADVANCE TO THE 8TH RANK. WE HAVE AN OBJECTIVE AND THIS WE WILL MAKE A REALITY. WE AIM TO SURVIvE ALL ATTACKS, GET OUR WELL EARNED PROMOTION AND CHANGE THE STATUS QUO IN OUR COUNTRY. FOR WE ARE AWARE THAT THE MORE WE PAWNS SURVIVE, THE LESS PAWNS WE HAVE ON THE NIGERIAN CHESSBOARD. WE WANT TO HAVE A STATE OF EXISTENCE IN NIGERIA WHEREBY ON THE NIGERIAN CHESSBOARD WILL HAVE 9 QUEENS OR 10 ROOKS, OR 10 BISHOPS, OR 10 KNIGHTS.

MR CHESS KING BE WARNED. THE PAWNS ON THE NIGERIAN CHESSBOARD ARE GETTING TOUGHER.

Alluta Continua.

Omotaylor
29th April 2009.

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8 comment(s)

  1. Akin | Apr 29, 2009 | Reply

    Hello OmoTaylor,

    This has to be one of your best write-ups on issues in Nigeria, thanks for crafting this.

    Your analogy is sound and we all know that on the Nigerian chess board many start off as pawns – we also have choices, if you don’t want to be a pawn don’t allow yourself to be used.

    We cannot continue to have pawns knocked off the board as battle fodder if they do not respond to the whims of higher ranked pieces and indeed, pawns always need the support of higher ranked pieces to survive to the 8th rank and be promoted to an ranked piece.

    In this case, Mrs Adebayo was a pawn with the ability to take a higher rank but she sacrificed her position at the 7th rank – As Electoral Commissioner, this is one position you could not trifle with in Nigeria when the person who wields it is in office – she could give the results as she saw them in her office.

    Pawns are sometimes the only critical line of defence or attack in the end-game of chess when most ranked pieces are gone in the battle of chess – in my view, if you are a pawn and have not been sacrificed to an end, don’t knock yourself off the board

    We need to get to a point where we stop singing the praise of martyrs who die in the process as an end in itself and start seeking heroes who live to savour the glory of victory – we have had enough people who have tried, we need ones who would excel to do.

    Remember, in chess, it is the king that surrenders, not the pawns.

    Thanks for taking this discussion to a new level of analysis.

    Regards,

    Akin

  2. solomonsydelle | Apr 29, 2009 | Reply

    “WE WANT TO HAVE A STATE OF EXISTENCE IN NIGERIA WHEREBY ON THE NIGERIAN CHESSBOARD WILL HAVE 9 QUEENS OR 10 ROOKS, OR 10 BISHOPS, OR 10 KNIGHTS.”

    Powerful. Just powerful.

    The rhetoric from our people is crescendoing and I for one am happy to read this. Please, continue to speak on the issues!

    Thank you for sharing this with the rest of us.

  3. CareTaker | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply

    Interesting piece! There are many angles to this, particularly now that the Pawn-major (Adebayo)has made a come-back. Is she still a pawn that stepped off the board, or one that made a strategic retreat?

    Whatever the answer is, I think the resignation of Adebayo brought to the fore the ugly dynamics behind electoral matters in Nigeria. She was pushed to do the unjust and she resisted by resigning. On the other hand, she could have stayed and make the announcement as required and conclude her assignment as mandated by the constitution, but Nigerians would not have known the extent of power-play at work.

    Now that we know, what happens?

    Would there be some debriefing of Adebayo to unravel and identify the forces against her?

    At the end, I think her resignation was a good thing in disguise. What is needed now is the ability to ask the right questions and get answers.

    Some related notes…

    Adebayo is a grandmother in her 70s — a bit too old to handle the challenges of her assignment, I think. Are there no younger blood within the ranks of INEC capable of doing the job? But her age may be another blessing in disguise…

    That the Police Inspector General Okiro still has a job is another indication that the man mandated to oversee Nigeria’s affairs is not really home. The Ekiti drama was a case of security breakdown. Simple. The Police had enough time to plan and perfect their strategies to keep the peace, but it could not do that. The buck stops with the head man; Okiro and his lieutenants in Ekiti should be fired!

    Thanks!

  4. Omotaylor | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply

    @Akin & Solomonsydelle, THANKS. I mean the words and declarations on this post. We need to come together to fight for our Pawn rights. We must not surrender to an apathetic, apologetic and abysmal state of being in Nigeria. The shame of our Nigerian leaders are our shame for we all bear the name Nigeria together. I feel sad, down, awful, blue but thank God ANGRY at what our Nigeria has become. I, like many others, am a Pawn but this Pawn needs to make it to the 8th Rank and this Pawn is calling on other Pawns of intent and intellect to dilligently fight together to get to the 8th Rank. “Agbajo owo ni a nfi soya” – Together we stand.

    Since:

    “WE WANT TO HAVE A STATE OF EXISTENCE IN NIGERIA WHEREBY THE NIGERIAN CHESSBOARD WILL HAVE 9 QUEENS OR 10 ROOKS, OR 10 BISHOPS, OR 10 KNIGHTS.”

    How do we get this done? Not by just writing about it and no action to follow. Why cant we start something powerful that will be effective and change oriented, so that by October 1, when Nigeria becomes an old miner (forty niner), we could launch a world acclaimed rejection of this shame and house of horror called Nigeria? If we do it for Democracy, it is good enough. If we do it for all Nigerian Pawns, it is even better. Is it just me? I feel angry, frustrated, castrated (pardon the pun pawn). We have millions of Pawns and the ratio of the other pieces (King, Queen, Rook, Bishop and Knight)to the Pawn on the Nigerian Chess Board is even less than the ordinary chess board. I could have written more in the post, but I wanted to ensure it is short, catchy and thought oriented.

    Help me guys, Help me AfricanLoft. WHAT CAN WE DO AS A GROUP?

    AKIN – Madame Ayoka has old age as a disadvantage. She has really tried for her age and I still respect and applaud her decision. From the outside it is easy for us to see things lighter but on the inside, they who are directly affected know better. Matyrdom is not what we would call it if she fights and loses her life. It would be a waste and some would say she was stupid to fight on. But then yes, you are right. She has been forced to fall on the 7th (or 6th rank). Queen Dora Akunyili (who has decided to switch sides to survice), Bishop Iwu, Rook Okiro, and Knight Yaradua (sorry but no King on this game), are all ready for the Kill. Madam Ayoka’s resignation has been rejected. She is to report to the police or declared wanted! Na wa o, this pawn don see…

    We wait for end results in this matter but we cannot afford to just wait for end result on the Nigerian National Front. It will be dissastrous.

  5. Omotaylor | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply

    @Caretaker, we must have been typing at the same time. Madame Adebayo is being pushed unwittingly but she may end up being the winner in this game if the generality of Nigerians support her. Yes her “move” is a blessing in disguise. Guess there are many ways of “exposing” attrocities. She could unfortunately be a loser (see Ribadu et al for political reference). She could be bullied, and have the table turned against her with unwarranted/unsubstantiated allegations… Anything could happen. Now this Pawn is given the opportunity to make it to the 8th Rank, let us see what she does with it. But remember there are so many wolves and too little sheep in the political top echelion in Nigeria. The most dangerous are the wolves in sheep clothing.

    We do not have a G.O. in Nigeria. What we have is an altarboy trying to call the shots. We put or allowed him to be put there.

  6. Omotaylor | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply

    Dear All, the report by Nigerian Nation Online about Mrs Ayoka Adebayo’s “comeback” is not only interesting but loaded… There is the feel that she may not be safe, she is definitely being pressurised if not bullied into action, and dont be surprised if she succumbs to pressure and announces the candidate of powerplay choice as winner in Ekiti.

    http://thenationonlineng.net/web/articles/1975/1/Ekiti-INEC-boss-Ill-return-to-conclude-rerun-election/Page1.html

    All is not well in Nigeria. Judging from some “Nigerian normal” reactions as contained in the report, Nigeria is becoming more and more a puppet on the string nation, tossed here and there at will. Hope she doesnt get blown off by lesser storms.

  7. Omotaylor | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply

    Dear All, the report by Nigerian Nation Online about Mrs Ayoka Adebayo’s “comeback” is not only interesting but loaded… There is the feel that she may not be safe, she is definitely being pressurised if not bullied into action, and dont be surprised if she succumbs to pressure and announces the candidate of powerplay choice as winner in Ekiti.

    http://thenationonlineng.net/web/articles/1975/1/Ekiti-INEC-boss-Ill-return-to-conclude-rerun-election/Page1.html

    All is not well in Nigeria. Judging from some “Nigerian normal” reactions as contained in the report, Nigeria is becoming more and more a puppet on the string nation, tossed here and there at will. Hope she doesnt get blown off by lesser storms.

  8. Omotaylor | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply

    One comment in the report as mentioned above caught my attention and I commend the writer:

    Imodoye said this on 30 Apr 2009 9:42:49 AM WAT

    “I sure weep for this country. We all had great hopes at the inception of Yar A’dua’s administration. But these hopes keep receeding by the day. First it was ‘the rule of law’, then we were talking about ‘the 7-Point Agenda’ (which if properly anchored upon morality and patriotism could never have been more than the popular Awolowo’s ‘4-Cardinal Programme’). I wonder which of the 7-Point Agenda had been achieved 2 years into the life of this adminstration. Then we suddenly came to the issue of rebranding. By who? Another leprous professsor!!! who probably would have done better improving in the medicare sector in Nigeria, rather than doing the dirty job of an errand girl for an ailing and morally bankrupt government. It’s a shame that the issue of religion is being introduced to the Ekiti debacle. From today’s report, I hope the woman has not been effectively arm-twisted to giving the diadem to a non-performer like Oni, especially given her relationship with Olusegun Obasanjo. I have a strong feeling she’s being forced to reverse her decision by the same powers that sent Okiro to go and declare her wanted. On these hungry professors, I remember how the glorious Dr Bala Usman once described a one time VC of ABU whom he called a ‘VC without a CV’, most of these hungry Professors cannot profess anything. What then do we expect when some empty professors continue to fraternize with a group of discredited personalities, making up what Wole Soyinka aptly called the ‘nest of killers’? Nothing good can come from the PDP. The best of their intellectuals has the intelligence of a baby. What can Iwu, Alkali, Dora, Ebenezer Babatope, Omisore, Oyinlola, Bankole, Okiro, and those other noise makers offer, except shame and infantile intellect? They’re all of their father the devil, in the guise of Olusegun Obasanjo. I have this strange feeling that soon and very soon, Nigerians will begin to go back to the trenches. The only way to avert this is to begin to be humble by the fact that power belongs only to God and is effectively given through the will of the people. The Ekitis demand their freedom NOW. Let their voices be heard and let their votes count!!!”

    I do not know who this Imodoye is, but I do respect his/her comment.

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