Beyond the Radiance at the Square
Thebareconcreteparadeground ofEagleSquarewilltomorrowbe animated by the symbolism of stateritual.Likemoststructures inAbuja’shomelessarchitecture, Eagle Square was originally designed by soldiers in power as a tribute to the legacy of parade grounds, a venue for rehearsing their trade. It has now become a favourite open air theatre for political drama of a democratic variety.
In the periodic rituals of party conventions and changes of governments after elections, Eagle Square has found a new meaning and a conferred symbolism. Endings and beginnings of dispensations and administrations are now staged here every four years. With the passage oftimeandthegradualconsolidationofNigeria’s quirky democracy, Eagle Square parades and succession rituals are fast assuming the status of resonant festivities of state survival. In the process, a hitherto useless concrete open air afterthoughtbyJuliusBergerhasbecomeaplace where elected leaders go to hand over power to theirsuccessors. Assymbolismsgo,EagleSquare isnowincompetitionwiththeequallymeaningless assemblage of concrete slabs called the Abuja Gate. There is another one: the lifeless concrete floor where our presidents go on Armed Forces Remembrance Memorial Day to lay wreaths at the grave of the Unknown Soldier!
Old and new statesmen, dignitaries of all hues, emissariesfromthecourtsofkingsandhelmsmen from far and near will gather there tomorrow to see Buhari go and Tinubu come. An impressive displayofNigeria’spermanentsenseofceremony will see soldiers march in countless formations. The air force may risk sending up pilots into the air to fly in formation. Assorted dance troupes from all corners of the country will showcase our rich variety and diversity. It all comes down to onething:theuseofceremonytoconsolidatethe legitimacy of democratic leadership succession and a display a sense of order.
Gradually, by the sheer force of repetition, we areseeingthecultivationofatraditionoforderly power succession. People contest elections and eitherwinorlosesomehow.Thosewhowinprepare toassumepower.Thosewhomaynothavewonbut feel entitled to a victory song are asked to ’go to court’!.Thecourtstaketheirtimetodowhatever they wish with the instruments at their disposal.
Itdoesnotmatterhowimperfecttheelectoral contests are or the quality of leadership that emerges in each season, the order of state and society as well as the continuity of the nation are sustained in an emerging tradition of rites of state passage.
As part of the banality of seasonal shifting of statefurniture,theoutgoingpresidentshowsthe newmanofpowerroundtheofficeandresidence of the presidency. The incoming First Family measures new drapes and arranges to write off the palatial furniture in the Villa. The incoming presidentandtheoutgoingoneagreeatransition arrangement.Thenewpresidentlearnshowtobe presidentbymovingtoDefenseHousewherehe getsusedtotheritualsofdailypresidentialroutine. Themonthsoftransitionallowthenewpresident time to choose a team out of the multitude of lobbyistsandhustlersswarmingaroundhim.The ritualsandroutinesofpowersuccessionarepart and parcel of the orderliness that distinguishes aworkingdemocracyfromthedisorderlypower grabs of anarchic successions.
Above all this, however, the ceremonies that will take place at Eagle Square tomorrow must beunderstoodforwhattheyare.Theyarerituals in the service of order. Order is in turn the surest guarantee of the survival of the state without whichallourstrivingsasasocietycouldevaporate in the swirl of anarchy and a descent into a state of nature. As A. Kaplan puts it in his new book, The Tragic Mind, “It is the panoply and mystique of power and hierarchy that reinforces order.”
EventsliketherecentcoronationoftheBritish kingortheinaugurationoftheUSPresidentevery fouryearsarenotpointlesshollowrituals.Theyare instead part of the consolidation of the tradition oforderandcontinuitywithoutwhichasocietyis swept away in the vortex of disorder and casual pedestrianism. The British writer Tony Tanner puts it more pointedly, “Authority requires awe from which emerges legitimacy.”
Yetourceremonymustgobeyondtheossified conservative variety that we witnessed with
either the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II or the coronation of her son as King Charles III. While museum type adherence to tradition serves to maintainandsustainextantmonarchicaltraditions, a republican democracy still needs the ceremony and pomp of statehood for a different set of reasons. A republican democracy such as ours forged from an amalgam of disparate national traditions needs the ceremonies of an artificial unifiednationhoodformanyreasons.Ourcitizens need to look forward to periodic ceremonies of leadership renewal. People need to get used to certain fixed rituals as emblems of nationhood. We need the ceremonial reaffirmations of the bonds of community. We need a consolidation of the symbols and rituals of oneness so that national unity becomes second nature.
Through the military parades and displays of strength, we are reassured that the sovereign is in tact and strong enough to protect us all from dangerous compatriots and hostile adversaries. Watching the march pasts, the parade of armed servicesemblems,thetidyuniformityofstepsand formationsofservicepersonnel,theaweofstate overwhelms the onlooker. On sober reflection, it dawns on you that the ceremonies of statehood are a consummation of the idiocy of the nation state as an artificial construct. They dress it up to appear powerful, frightful and coherent. But in reality , it is all make belief!
Nonetheless, as a celebration of order, the ceremonies of state reassure the citizenry that leadershipisintactandalivetoitsresponsibilities. Orderisdisruptedwhenleadershipisdoubtfuland sovereigntyisshaky.Anarchyisnotnecessarilythe absenceortotalcollapseofresponsibleleadership. Italsoincludeswoefulgovernance,afundamental departurefromcivilizedcodesoforganizingsociety. Disrepairordisequilibriuminthestateofaffairsin a nation marks a departure from order. When the normal order of things is replaced by pervasive abnormality, disorder becomes the new normal.
Theoriginsofsuchdisorderdatebacktoancient times. Greek tragedy is our readiest showcase. WheninSophocleantragedythekinggoesastray, the polity and society are unhinged. Anarchy ensues. Epidemics and curses rage unhindered. The angry gods are only assuaged and ordered is restoredwhentheoldreignendsandaneworderis emplaced.Aneworderensueswhenthemonarchy isrestored.Therestorationoforderiscelebrated through ceremony, dance and displays.
Tomorrow’sceremonyofsuccessionisperhaps notquitelikeanyotheroneinrecenttimes.Butthe outlines are familiar and resonate with classical models.Intoday’sNigeria,orderasafeatureofour national life is on recess. Very few Nigerians can bearwitnesstonormalcyasweonceknewitinthe last eight years. As we speak, our nation dangles on a precipice between treacherous survival and a perilous anarchy.
The place we once called home is not quite like what we all used to know. Fear lurks in every street corner and every highway. Our urban neighbourhoods have become the abodes of violentgangsanddangerouscults.Ourruralareas are swarming with militias of no nomenclature. Ourtertiaryinstitutionsestablishedforlearning thesecretsthathavetransformedothernations into abodes of sweetness are now hotbeds of cybercrimes and dark bloody rituals. The faiths that ought to prepare our people for salvation through brotherhood and fellowship on earth have been invoked by devilish power mongers to divide us along all known lines.
Mr.Buhariaspresidentforeightyearsmayhave givenofhisbesttothenationashenowrepeatedly insists. But the results on the ground speak of a yawning gap between what was promised and what has been delivered. Maybe the odds were against his best efforts. Maybe some numbers justfailedtoaddup.Itisevenpossiblethatheand his crew hardly knew the landscape well enough. Inordertochangeagivenreality,youmustmaster it in order to dominate it let alone bend it to the popular will. We expected. We waited. And we hoped.Weremainedpatientalongtheway.Butat thishourofexitandrenewal,thereisnosweetness here or anywhere in the vicinity.
As we await the parades and fireworks tomorrow,thistragicanddepressingrealityisthefierce urgency of this hour. This dark sack cloth is the backdrop for the elaborate ceremonies that will regale dignitaries and guests tomorrow. But the essenceoftomorrow’sinaugurationmustnotbe lostinthesymbolismofthemomentofceremony.
Therefore,beyondthepompanddisplaysthat will happen in Abuja tomorrow, both our leaders andcitizensmustseebeyondtheglitzoftheday. We expect to hear in the words of the presidential inaugural address definite take -aways and memorable words to hold on to. The day belongs totheincomingleadershipofMr.TinubuandAlhaji Shettima. Perhaps this is the moment that Mr. Tinubu was anticipating when he exclaimed “Emi lokan”-Itismyturn.Itishisturntorenewourhope, toreactivatethecommitmentsthathavekeptus togetherdespiteodds.Heneedstogobeyondany suggestionsofapersonalitycultinthemakingto utter words to kill the mocking bird of campaign season animosity and madness.
Beyond words, we need deeds to redefine our nationhood. It is not just a restoration of a semblance of order in our normal daily existence thatisurgentlyrequired.Thatisanecessarystarting point. Nigerians now need to step out of their homesandbesuretoreturnsafely.Peopleneedto travel our highways and be certain to get to their destinationswithouttheriskofbeingkidnapped or murdered. The poor of today need hope that tomorrow will uplift their situation. The next generation of Nigerians must not continue to live life encaged in the helpless knowledge that even they too will bequeath poverty to their own children.PurposemustreplacefutilityifMr.Tinubu is to justify his feeling of entitlement to aspire to presidentialpower.Otherwisehewillhavewasted his time and that of every other Nigerian.
Ourschoolsneedtobeopenyearroundtoimpart knowledgeandnotdisperseignoranceanddeepen superstition. The sick and infirm must seek and find succor and healing in clinics, health centres and hospitals that cure rather than kill people who seek their help. All these and more are the minimum irreducible demands of the moment to begin reversing the disorder that the departing dispensation unleashed on us as a legacy.
But beyond these immediate and choking challenges, a serious new leadership must take another look at the Nigeria in which tomorrow’s successionceremonyistakingplace.Afterabrutal civil war, Nigeria was remade in accordance with a new national order in 1970. Structurally, the nation was reconfigured from regions into states. Psychologically,anewsenseofreconciliationand renewed unity was inaugurated. Economically, the oil boom was born to empower government and people to tackle the things that money could buy- infrastructure, human capital development, international sagacity etc. The new Nigeria was oneinwhichyoungNigeriansembracededucation because there was a job waiting at the end of the road. While that order prevailed, it seemed as if there was indeed a Nigerian dream which was attainable in a life time. The honest worker knew he would earn enough to save for his children’s educationandperhapsamodestretirementhome in the village.
Ournewpostwarnationalorderwasguaranteed by a strong federal might presiding over states that could hardly pose a political threat to that authority.
Today,thatorderhasliterallydissolved.Separatist pressures from ethnicities, regions and communitiesnowfreelythreatenthedwindlingmight of the federal guarantor of a receding national order.Thatpreviouslyoverwhelmingmightisnow easily outgunned and overrun by all manner of fierce contenders. Guns and uniforms that used toconfersuperiorauthoritybyfrighteningcitizens intoconformityarenowtwoakoboattheroadside market and readily in the hands of casual thugs and free ranging cultists.
The monopoly of control over economic resources has been burst as marauding gangs of thugs and official armed agents help themselves toresourcesrangingfromoiltopreciousminerals in far flung locations. There is a thriving separate marketspecializingin‘Zamfaragold’inGuangzou, China!Ourentireungovernedspacesaresquarely in the hands of vicious armed non state militants. Sometimes,theofficialsecurityforcesequipped with costly weapons of war have had to seek the help of local hunters armed with charms, amulets and Dane guns to ward off roving gangs of marauders and killers armed with AK-47s and GPS devices.
Thepowerofthesocialmediawithacacophony of millions of loud discordant voices has drowned the previous authoritative voice of the government which is now often lost for direction and message. The alternative power of information carriedbycheapcellphonesinliterallyeveryhand portends a transfer of the power of information from the high and mighty to the low and many. A new society has been born complete with its own values and powers of choice. The youth that Nigeria can hardly provide for are redefining the Nigerian dream through the immense creative profitability of technology as well as its potential for devastating criminality. Our children are now being taught to count money in billions. Anything lessglamorousdepressesthemintoopenrevolts.
The power of overwhelming corruption has blurred the distinction between government coffersandprivatetreasurevaults.InNigeria,both are literally one and the same. In some quarters, the state and its treasures have been privatized. As a defining force of the Nigerian political and economic ecosystem, corruption defeated and humbled Mr. Buhari and even took him hostage without a whimper. How Mr. Tinubu defines corruptionandapproachesitwillperhapsbethemost interesting engagement of his presidency.
The beauty of tomorrow’s ceremonies is that they will quickly yield place to the stark realities of a new era: Nigeria AB, Nigeria After Buhari. Interesting days indeed.