BY REV FR GERALD NWAFOR
I have not seen a thief who came out on national television and informed the whole country that he was a thief and enumerated what he stole and walked away. Not only that, he walked away free but kept telling the people that nothing would happen to him. He also made the claim that he would steal more in the near future. The interesting part of the situation is that the owners of the property are not saying anything to stop the daylight robbery. The government institutions that are supposed to arrest the self-proclaimed thief are not doing anything; if anything else, they are supporting him.
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) went on national television to say that he single-handedly stopped Mr. Peter Obi from winning Rivers State. He made other serious claims about how they stopped former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from winning some states in the South-South region of Nigeria. When you are looking for evidence, and someone shows up and says he committed the crime, why are you not taking him at his word? In law school, we were told that there are some hearsay exceptions: some are when someone incriminates himself by saying something against his self-interest. How can a sitting Minister come to the national television and say that he rigged the election, and nobody has been arrested?
I remember the primary school song that says that there is fire on the mountain and everyone is running, but today, it is no longer the same because there is fire on the mountain, but no one seems to be running because the evil and danger have been normalized. The behavior of the minister looks like the behavior of a dying horse that is giving its last kick. Two days after the statement, his gubernatorial candidate for the state of Rivers was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Nigeria. I do not understand his problems with the governors of the APC, the ruling party. The governors of the APC came together to tell him that his rainbow coalition will not work in the 2027 general election. He went on the prime-time Arise television to defend the rainbow coalition and called the APC governors all kinds of names. I do not understand the comedy going on, but I am sure that none of them know where this would land. During comedy, we all expect the episode to end with laughter, but when there are too many errors in a comedy, the end is unpredictable.
The president told us he would go to UNGA (United Nations General Assembly). Those of us who know how the law works in the USA doubted the possibility, but the spokespeople were on our ears shouting that he would go. Three weeks before UNGA, the president said that he was going for a working vacation in France. We know that his visit to France has a lot to do with medicals, but we trusted him to fly from France to UNGA, only to be told 15 hours before the meeting that he was sending the vice president and some governors.
As I said earlier, when the comedy has errors, the ending is unpredictable. We were not surprised because the case file of the president was reopened this year by one of the presidential candidates to review what transpired between the president and the FBI. If the files of the drug case were to be released for the public to see what happened, maybe I would say it could have ended up in a similar episode of the Venezuelan president. That the Nigerian president went to a United Nations meeting in the USA and was arrested for drug cases of 1992 and 93. It could have been another comedy series starring Africa and the world. He avoided the calamity, but we should remind ourselves that the hunter does not weep too much about the escaped booties; he would always remind himself that there is a lot of hunting to do tomorrow (Anu gbana taa echi bu nta).
The president promised that he would not stay outside the country for more than 21 days as required by the constitution. If he planned to stay more than 21 days, he should hand over power to the vice president. When the 21 days passed, the vice president was outside the country attending the UNGA meeting on behalf of the president. The Senate President was in his village for a political rally where he said that the president can govern from anywhere and people should stop calling him to take over. The Senate President and the Speaker of the House are not available for the constitutional comedy going on, but we know that they are also fighting for their political lives since it has been made clear that some people from the governors’ forum are eyeing their seats in the upcoming general election. They do not want to mis-speak or infuriate the president, nor do they want to heat up already heated political space with the utterances of the FCT minister.
Finally, Mr. Peter Obi has defended himself from the allegations levelled against him by the government of Anambra State. I am from the Igbo extraction of Nigeria. I do not have a solution to many problems. I know I can be anything. I know I am many things, but one thing I am sure of is that I am not lacking in the words of wisdom of my people (Igbos). The fight between two brothers does not get to the bone (Iwe nwanne ada elu na okpukpu). I do not know the reason why the noise about Mr. Peter Obi is loudest here in Anambra. The noise is of two kinds: the positive one from the general public who benefited from 8 years of Mr. Peter Obi as the governor of Anambra State from 2007 to 2014. The other noise, which I will not tag, may help us to know more about how the government works and how people in charge of our public funds manage it. The animal kingdom reminds us that we should get the chicken out of the cat’s territory first before the interrogation (of why she went there): “Si chuputagodi okuku na ama nnanwuluede tupu ajubaya ife ojelu ebeafu achoo.” The political diatribe going on now in Nigeria should not encourage the political elites to discredit one another because there is a tomorrow that will judge the events of today. All these comedies will soon end by January 2027, and the truth would be told. Please do not join the comedy group: stand with the truth, for the truth will set you free.
