That encounter with constituted authority

These are very bad times for the growth of democracy at home and abroad. While knowledge is vast, ignorance is increasing. My cousin recalled how a Trumper was gloating over the preparatory repeal of the Obamacare oblivious that the right name for the act is the Affordable Care Act, ACA the lifeline that has kept him from succumbing to his kidney problem. An example of how ignorance hurts, even in a civilised world.

In Naija, the most populous video clip is not that of pastorpreneur David Oyedepo calling on his god to fracture the country. People are not bold enough to confront the man who has the keys to the gates of hell and curses anyone who queries the heavy fees charged by his universities. Pastorpreneurs tell us to build treasures in heaven while they outbid themselves in building multi-billion dollar empires here on earth. If missionaries had adopted their business model Christianity would have died long ago and analphabetism would have taken over the land.

Big digression. So, the most shared video clip of the month of January is that of Buoda Isiaka Ajimobi of Ibadan. Buoda Siaka has just added a new lingo to the Naija political lexicon from Ibadan - constituted authority. It dusts Adegoke Adelabu’s Penkelemesi (peculiar mess) or and the lore of Adedibu’s legendary Amala politics. It is the worst display in recent times of executhief arrogance and crash insouciance. Students of the Ladoke Akintola University which gates has been locked down for eight months had sought the intervention of their visitor who had to climb down from his high horse to address them.

Surrounded by battle ready policemen and other agents of coercion, the heckling students forgot the sayings of their own elders - ebe laa be osika, ko tu ilu re se - you have to gently prod a wicked ruler to perform his lawful duty. Unlike el-Rufai’s children who attend public schools and hospitals, Ajimobi’s indulgent daughter went to elite schools in the United Kingdom. Bouda Siaka, a multimillionaire without industry is in his second non-renewable term and was ready for them. Angry that the students were not grovelling before him as he flung his agbada this way and that; he tried to intimidate the vocal ones among them by asking his security to arrest them. Seeing that the students formed a ring to prevent that insulting assault, he gave up opting for verbal excoriation and arrogant display of the full vestige of executhief assault on a grieving population. Buoda Siaka does not know that respect is not politically transmitted; it is earned.

After viewing the encounter, Ajibola Ajimobi, Buoda Siaka’s indulgent daughter went viral, calling the students a generation of mannerless children. The lesson of this encounter is the old dictum that evil servants beg to apply conscious that the public would need to beg them to perform their lawful duties well, add Naija politricians to that group. Whereas, Ajimobi in his quest for political titles to fill the void that his millions couldn’t give him would grovel for his mandate the man in the last throes of a non-performing second term has no more use for official decorum or tact. That is why he is more concerned with the privileges conferred on him as a ‘constituted authority’ than the responsibilities that comes with it.

Buoda Siaka has no shame or regrets for not paying the salaries of civil servants nor was he worried that his lack of tact was stagnating the future and careers of the generation he is supposed to be grooming for leadership. To those who see this as a new low, they must walk down memory lane to when Obasanjo told survivors of the 2003 Ikeja Cantonment blast ‘I don’t have to be here’. They should remember that Goodluck Jonathan would not visit Chibok after the mass kidnap but found it safe enough to visit during the campaign. Ex-governor and incoming minister Adams Oshiomole once angrily told a hawker whose wares and means of livelihood was confiscated to ‘go and die’. Sai Baba reportedly stormed out of #BBOG meeting.

Politicians are like hungry carnivores, they could address cows as daddy just to lead it to the slaughter. The shame is, after all said and done, if Ajimobi wants to become a minister or even run for president in future, this monumental act of insouciance would not prevent him. Once Naira changes hands and hot amala is served to the hungry, either Ajimobi or his daughter would always have the popular votes. We have recycled unconscionable characters in public office if you check out the array of the men and women now in public office. They have groups of defenders who believe that they are God’s untouchable anointed. As long as we empower them the way we do, nothing is going to change. Yes we know the power of our votes, but we have not realised that power actually belong to us. In a civilised world, Ajimobi would have been impeached or recalled by now. It won’t happen in Naija.