Ugoji Egbujo
The Emperor chose his trusted Bagman. He said he did it for the good of the state. The good of the state then was perhaps to clothe a potential state witness with immunity and bribe him with power. The political merchant of Obio Okpor is machiavellian.
Some hero-hungry folks called him a strong man. He called himself a man of INTIGRITY. With gritty ruthlessness, he had his way at the polls. The people had other ideas, but the strong man trampled on law and morality, and the masses were too hungry and apathetic to fight. INEC stood and watched the spectacle like compromised bystanders.
The onus to prove the perfidy perpetrated with the connivance of the police would tire out even the gods. The people accepted their fate. The taciturn Bagman became ruler over the people. The Emperor reclined to his exotic wines and superciliousness, the state in his pocket.
To avoid the inadvertent creation of a monster while crafting a masquerade, the cunning and rapacious Emperor fixed a thousand leashes. Then, he hedged his protege with a horde of cackling hyenas. For his shiny clothes, an exaggerated sense of self-importance and attention-seeking penchant, some nicknamed him Nebuchadnezzar.
That was the only way they could get back at their conqueror. But that must have affected him. When Nebu fleshed out his structures of feudalism, wide-eyed, fangs baring, and head shaking, he strived to avoid all prospects of the long wilderness experience.
Before he allowed his young masquerade to mount the stage of the state, he invited other principalities to baptise him with tales of nightmares that could befall him from the merest of rascality. As further restraints, commissioners were forced on him and approved by the outgoing House of Assembly.
All the vital ministries were taken from him. To upstage the new governor’s insolent bemusement, the Emperor announced that he had hit the ground running by appointing commissioners before putting down the inauguration bible. Nebu is a pitless manipulator. The handcuffed dovish Bagman was supposed to be a silent and subservient simpleton. Nebu handpicked his chief of staff and chief security officer. The entire House of Assembly was filled with the Nebu’s henchmen and road dogs. The Bagman was supposed to be a happy child marching around with a lollipop, dancing to the ice-cream man’s rhymes while Nebu continued a third term through the back door.
That was what the Emperor proposed. But the gods, impatient with delusional mortals, started to betray and disappoint the designs of the wicked. They disposed of the Bagman’s timidity and disposed him towards self-consciousness. The gods seem not amused. But they have not reminded the EFCC that they have a case against the Emperor as they did against Bello. Because the EFCC can’t continue pretending without losing integrity that the Nebu’s file, which they have prepared for many years now, is not ripe for prosecution. They can start with the Nebu, even if through the rear door treatment while waiting for the immunity of the Bagman to lapse. Perhaps the gods have just started attending to Nebu’s nuisance. These stories have to be told and retold so that those who claim nobility but are wallowing in criminal ambivalence can understand their moral cowardice. There is no moral dilemma to navigate.
There is a choice between a possible road to freedom and an inevitable return to servitude and state capture. Those who have chosen to preach peace that is centred on the old arrangement include the Esaus, Judases, Pablos and Escobars, and excitable adults playing in the rain of political partisanship like children, unthinkingly, unmindful of all consequences.
The preposterous idea, in however hue it is canvassed, that a shady agreement that mortgages a state to the whims, caprices and greed of one man must be treated as an inviolable covenant is a moral calamity. The evolution or mutation of the Bagman, whether inspired by virtue or vice, must be welcomed. Perhaps the Bagman got tired of the charade. The elaborate deceptive scheme to fleece the people while fanning them with political gimmickry, media chats and overpriced projects.
The perpetuation of mob dynasty as democratic g o v e r n a n c e . T h e mischaracterisation of state capture as God’s will. The dubious normalisation of prebendalism and political brigandage as capacity and character. The elevation of political mercenarism as party politics. Perhaps he got tired of the humiliation of being used to dupe and deceive the people. Fed up with loquacious charlatanism parading as political expertise. Perhaps the Bagman is another crafty Judas, driven by gullibility or greed. This isnt, at least not yet, a David versus Goliath. His freedom from oppression might not even mean freedom for the state. But the people must back erstwhile Bagman, who has started to save revenues with all their might. Regardless of his motivations, his persistent emasculation or eventual castration by Nebu and his political buccaneers is inescapable doom for the people.
The man’s continued subservience to the narcissistic Emperor will be a definite prolongation of the collective human tragedy. His defeat by the chariots of plunder and loot will be a consummate catastrophe. The people of Rivers must support the transfiguring governor. The prevarication of the Bagman is, however, expected. He doesn’t have enough moral conviction to see himself permanently as a freedom fighter rather than a turncoat. The people must be patient with him.
After all , until a few months ago, he was the man the Capone trusted the most to protect the mafia family structure against the weak arms of the law. So, at these early stages, the Bagman must blow hot and cold until the umbilical cord of political fatherhood is severed. The people must forgive his ambivalence, encourage him, and never let him slip back into the shades to the lapping up of milk at the feet of his master. He is the present custodian of state money and power. The state treasury must be protected from the leprous and workaholic fingers of all political Fagins. State power cannot return to the diabolical clutch of a megalomaniac. Now, the pompous Emperor, suffering from a rude awakening, seeks to use the law to substitute the bag man with a plastic puppet. The people must be vigilant. The cackling horde of hyenas and overflying vultures are circling the Bagman.
After trampling on the constitution and arrogating to themselves executive powers, they are heading for the political guillotine in the name of the rule of law. Regrettably, the law is nothing without good faith. The law, being such an ass, can’t differentiate between a House of legitimate Representatives and a House of pliable crooks hired to foster Nebuchadnezzarism. The people must not slumber. The republic is a playground for political and judicial bandits. But the gods have been kind.
The hyenas who changed party colours and excommunicated themselves from the legislature must have been propelled into self-harm by the gods. The process of purging the hallowed chambers of agents of prebendalism must now be supervised to a conclusion by the people. If Rivers falls to Nebu and his machinations, the country will regress. Bob Marley would have asked the people to get up and chase the crazy baldheads out of the town. But let us say, in brotherhood, we must stand to fight. So, that justice, truth and freedom shall reign.
