OPINION ] ] Idang Alibi The pharaohs and us (III)

While reading about the lives of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, Mr Idang Alibi stumbled on the quite interesting fact that some historians choose to identify the pharaohs with some significant negative incidents that happened during their reign. That is why one of them is known as the Pharaoh of the Famine. This is the pharaoh of the seven meagre years and the seven rich years whose story is told in the book of Genesis 41:1-36. There is another called the Pharaoh of the Exodus, the last of the 12th Dynasty pharaohs who was not buried in a pyramid because he, along with his soldiers and their chariots, perished in the Red Sea in their pursuit of the Jews in order to return them to slavery.

There is still another called the Pharaoh of Annihilation, the one who issued an evil decree that male Jewish children should be killed to eliminate all potential sources of threat to his throne.

In the times of the ancient pharaohs, historians also seemed to take delight in coining titles and honorific or horrific names to tell the story of certain figures. Take Nefertiti who was a wife of one of the pharaohs. She had many titles including Hereditary Princess; Great of Praises; Lady of Grace, Sweet of Love; Lady of The Two Lands; Main King’s Wife, his beloved; Great King’s Wife, his beloved, Lady of all Women; and Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Mr Alibi thought he should share the lives of some of these fascinating and some horrible pharaohs with you his dear readers for information, entertainment and some education by drawing some parallels or similarities between them and their modern day imitators who have ever sat on the ‘throne’ of Nigeria. He started doing that three weeks ago in the first and second parts of his three-part series on the subject.

The first part was an overview; in the second, he began by identifying the Nigerian ‘Pharaohs’ who have reigned and ruled since the birth of the country with the most significant negative incident(s) of their time. Today, Mr Alibi concludes his cheeky tale of the parallel between the pharaohs of ancient Egypt and the modern day democratic and autocratic pharaohs that have ruled the nation of Nigeria.

In the second part of this discourse, Ironsi was designated the Pharaoh of the Unwise Law; Gowon was called the Pharaoh of the First Bazaar Days; Abacha was designated Pharaoh the Cruel, the Pharaoh of Annihilation and the Pharaoh of Affliction who afflicted his people with fear of the bullets and of pestilential rule. Babangida was identified as the Pharaoh of Subversive Generosity and Abubakar, the Pharaoh of Decimation of the National Till, to mention only a few. Abubakar was the last pharaoh we treated last week. In this concluding part, what similar names can we give to complete our unique designation of the long line of the ‘pharaohs’ that have happened along in Nigeria’s chequered history?

General Abubakar, whom we called complimentarily as the Pharaoh of Transition, was succeeded on the throne by the second coming of General Olusegun Obasanjo. This time around, the Owu warrior did not come wearing the brass hat of a general but the native cap of a traditional chief. In more ways than one, his cap represented what became politically known as ‘’power shift’’ during his reign. During the rule of the second coming to the throne of this pharaoh, there were many communal uprisings across the country and political agitations for the righting of some ancient wrongs. Pent-up anger and feelings of marginalization that had built up all the several years of autocratic rule sought expression. Terrible atrocities were committed by various tribal groups in their agitations to be heard and for justice to be done. Incensed by some of these senseless atrocities, this pharaoh unleashed his forces that sacked a whole village and severely depopulated another one. In order to send a clear message that he would not brook any nonsense, he clearly over did the attempts to put down some of the more militant of the uprisings. Although he built some of his nation’s monuments he also destroyed a lot of things. We shall call him the Pharaoh of Communal Uprisings, the Pharaoh of Pacification and the Pharaoh of the Third Term.

Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua: we will call this one the Tongue-tied Pharaoh. He spoke very little and did very little. He should be known complimentarily as the Pharaoh of Amnesty. The greatest achievement of this pharaoh is that he used a very soft approach to solve a major political problem that his more able predecessors had failed to achieve with sticks and guns. He is however to be known uncomplimentarily as the Pharaoh of the Cabal. Because he was enfeebled by a wasting ailment, this Pharaoh left a huge vacuum of power for courtiers, carpet baggers and all manner of power mongers to fill. And they were very desperate to indeed fill it. A very powerful cabal ruled in his name. It was a reign of cluelessness. His rule was mercifully terminated in the third year of his reign when he joined his ancestors and he was buried in his family sepulchre in Katsina.

He was succeeded by another pharaoh known as Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. He was still on the throne of his fathers during the recounting of the tales of the various pharaohs that had ruled Nigeria so it was not prudent to place a verdict on the days of this pharaoh. However, if you choose to be kind to him you will call him Pharaoh Goodluck for in his time his nation witnessed unprecedented good luck in the harvest of laurels on the football field. If you choose to be otherwise, you will call him the’’ Illserved Pharaoh’’ or Pharaoh of Unwise Counsellors. Of all leaders that have ever ruled modern Nigeria, he is the least well served by the aides and advisers he has surrounded himself with.

And this is quite unfortunate because the business of governance is so arduous that no matter how brilliant you are, no matter how wise you are, no matter how strong and hard working you are, you need the services of others who are competent and supremely loyal. You need their wise counsel on what needs to be done in some specific cases. You need their strength to help you execute your programmes. You need their frank talk to take you off a wrong course. But this amiable pharaoh seems to have surrounded himself with men and women whose goal is only to serve themselves and not their principal or their nation.

Unkind historians may identify him years later as the Pharaoh of the Missing Trillions; the Pharaoh of Humongous Allegations, the Pharaoh of Defections; the Pharaoh of Unwise Counsellors for if he had had the benefit of wise counsellors he would not have allowed the kind of political trouble he had in Rivers State to have taken place at all and for the length of time it took place and the consequence it brought him and the nation. He also would not have allowed the troubles that led to the massive defection of key members of his party to the opposition. He would have astutely nipped them in the bud.