Connect with us

News

OPINION: KWAM1, KWAM2’ And Their Holy Water

Published

on

By Suyi Ayodele

If you don’t belong to the upper class in Nigeria, stay off crime. If you are not close to any man-in-power or man-of-power, be law-abiding.

In Nigeria, a man of privilege can take the entire crew and passengers of a plane hostage and get home within the hours. The friend of the powerful can stop a plane from taxiing, and he takes the next available flight home.

Advertisement

In the same Nigeria, if a daughter of Mr. Nobody assaults air hostesses. She gets half-stripped by airport security. Within the hours, the gates of Kirikiri prison are opened to receive her. Our laws here are not blind; they distinguish the privileged from children of commoners! We sink odiously; only that we are not oozing maggots yet!

Know our ways and be guided! Here, a lion kills children of the poor. It gets commendation for cleansing the land; the same lion kills a prince and is accused of genocide! Children of the privileged are always treated preferentially here. It did not start today.

At the funeral of an elderly man about 38 years ago, a young man was detailed to entertain the other elders gathered for the rites of passage for the departed.

Advertisement

Part of his assignment was to serve the elders with palm wine. He did that successfully, filling their calabashes more than twice. Custom also demands that he has a taste of the palm wine. He who feeds a child must not clean his hands on the bare floor (anu omo kò ní fowó nu’lè), goes the saying. But that would be after the sacred elders must have had their fills.

By the time the young man checked the keg of palm wine, what was left could barely fill a cup. So, he turned the remnant of the palm wine into his own calabash and drained it in three gulps. The elders saw him and exchanged glances without saying a word.

He packed the empty calabashes and the keg. One of the initiates stopped him. The old man commanded: “Now, pour the dreg of the palm wine into this calabash (Ò yá, da ìdí emu tó kú sìnú igbá yî)” Stalemate! There was nothing to pour from the empty keg. There was a deep silence.

Advertisement

One of the elders broke the silence by asking who drank the dreg of the palm wine. Before anyone responded, roared: “Has the tradition changed that the dreg of palm wine belongs to the elder?” He shot a fierce glance at the young man. The loudest silence followed, a pin drop! The man who spoke was the oldest and the most senior of the attending initiates.

Glances were exchanged, heads nodded. In the Yoruba worldview, only the oldest man in a gathering drinks the dreg of palm wine. Except he gives it out, nobody dares touch the last drop of the substance. The young man knew the implications. They can be unpalatable, especially when the initiates are gathered! A sacrilege had been committed, everyone waited.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Tinubu And His Northern Teachers

Advertisement

An uncle to the young man, a senior initiate himself, stepped in. He announced that the young man drank the remnant. The other elders called for the appropriate punishment as prescribed by tradition. The uncle emphatically said that would not be applicable in that circumstance. Almost everyone asked why. He explained.

The boy who drank the dreg is a privileged child, the uncle said. The passage of rites in progress was for the departed father of the young man, he added. The deceased, he reminded them, was not just an initiate, but the lead initiate in the clan -the one we call Àòrò in my Ekiti dialect or Àwòrò in Modern Yoruba (chief priest).

He adumbrated the age-long tradition that the child of a chief priest cannot be treated like the child of a non-initiate. He backed his traditional advocacy with one of the panegyrics of the departed Àòrò thus: When the child of the chief priest stumbles and upturns the sacred water pot, the chief priest turns it to a laughing matter; if the child of a non-initiate does the same, the chief priest collects rat, he collects fish; he asks him to bring several pieces of brass- sacrificial items for appeasement (Omo Àòrò subú d’omi akòkó nù, Àòrò mú s’òrò èrìnrín; kó s’omo olòmúrìn, ha gb’eku, ha gbe’ja; há so’hun wéréwéré bí ude).

Advertisement

The uncle sat down. The meeting went silent. One after the other, the initiates stepped out to the sacred court to perform their last rites. Prayers were offered for the deceased, his family, and particularly, for the young man assigned to see to their welfare. Funeral rites over. Everyone went home. Case closed!

This incident is no fiction. It happened at the final rites of my father, Baba Daniel Falade, in 1987. My family produces the chief priest for our clan deity, Òràngún. The panegyrics above belong to us. The young man in the narration, my elder cousin, is a lawyer today. Every child in our family is an ‘Omo Àòrò’ (child of the chief priest).

That ancestry confers on us some certain privileges. As Omo Àòrò, we get away with the most sacrilegious offence such as tumbling on the sacred water pot (omi akòkó) and spilling the content. Omi akòkó belongs to the deity. Only the chief priest or anyone he delegates can touch it.

Advertisement

Spilling the water or breaking the sacred water pot is too grievous a taboo to commit. The consequences are terrible! Only a member of my family gets away with it because we are privileged children! We don’t answer Òsínbôn (male), and Aríé (female) for fun!

Incidentally, no single Òsínbôn or Aríé has ever stumbled on the sacred water pot. It is part of our training, part of our orientation from the cradle to reverence omi akòkó. Other children can spill it and get severely punished. A typical Omo Àòrò would never do such. The discipline runs in the family. We know we have the privilege. But no child of ours has ever abused it. How our forebears achieved that, only the Cosmic knows!

In Nigeria today, we have so many spoilt brats running around the landscapes. We have so many privileged individuals who get away with the most heinous infractions. Once you know someone in power, or you have access to the corridor of power, you can do anything and get away with it.

Advertisement

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:[OPINION] PDP: A Prince And A Pastor’s Son (SENT)

I once saw a complimentary card by an official of Ogun State Government. The designation on the card is: “Office of the Friend of the Governor.” I am serious! The owner, I was told, was a complete nuisance throughout the tour of duty with his governor-friend.

In our contemporary time, we have had the Office of the First Daughter of the Federation. The Privileged abound here. The son of the president attended the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting for weeks until sanity prevailed. The same son is accorded airport receptions whenever he ‘tours’ states! We all saw the videos of such receptions and just moved on. The son of the president is as good as the president himself in Nigeria.

Advertisement

One of General Muhammadu Buhari’s daughters once commandeered a presidential plane and flew to Kano to shoot photographs. Her father, we were told, was our generation’s Bayajidda and epitome of discipline and integrity. Nobody reprimanded the girl, at least not to our knowledge!

As an Omo Àòrò, I could barge in on the esoteric in their meeting without consequences. But I would never do that because from the cradle, we were trained to know that nothing kills a child more than taboos (ohun tó únpa omo bí èèwò kò sí). Taboo or abomination, our elders say, is eaten in small bits like the tip of a needle. That saying holds no water in the Nigeria of today where the father is the president, the mother is the First Lady, and the daughter is the Ìyálójà General of our universe!

Privilege! It is an intoxicant. Only the disciplined and properly well-brought ups can handle it with the care it deserves. Nothing is more fragile than privilege; it breaks without prompting the carrier! If you doubt this, just check what happened to the Official Musician of the President (OMP), King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, popularly known as KWAM1, last Tuesday in Abuja.

Advertisement

Our OMP also holds one of the highest titles in Ijebuland today as the Olórí Omo Oba Akilè Ìjèbú (Head prince of Ijebuland). Ceteris paribus, the man may be the next Awujale of Ijebuland. Do not say God forbid. When you are the official griot or bard and percussionist of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, you can become anything here! But for public outcry, a beautifully decorated ocker would have been made a king in Lagos. Even now, the matter has still not been settled. This is a country of anything goes.

Go to Osun State and see the mess a scallywag has made of one of the most traditional stools in Yorubaland. Any town mentioned in Ifa Corpus is sacred. That is the throne someone powerful people gave to an American fly-by-night. Today, His Royal Rascal (HRR) changes the title of the throne in a manner that makes the chameleon envious. It is only in that same Osun that you get first class kings who divorce their Oloris as if divorce has been listed as a sport in the Olympics! Those ones got enthroned because they were privileged to be close to people-in-power and people-of-power!

Akure Oloyemekun once had a privileged Deji, who pursued his Olori from the palace to the streets and emptied a can of hot ashes on her. Someone high up in the power equation got the wife-battering Kabiyesi to the throne. Thank God for the then Governor Olusegun Mimiko who waded in immediately, dethroned the Deji, banished him to Owo and installed a new Oba for the Akure people.

Advertisement

Enough digression. We go back to the OMP, KWAM1, Omo Anifowose himself. He needs no introduction save to say that he is one of the most popular music talents this nation has ever produced. He crowned his voyage in the nation’s entertainment industry by becoming the number one musician for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Any ‘Appropriate’ Rites Of Passage For Yoruba Kings?

And KWAM1 is more than being the OMP. He is also a spiritualist to the President. Anything President Tinubu needs to go esoteric against his perceived enemies, KWAM1 is readily available with his Àyájó (evocation). Don’t ask me how I know. Search for the videos of Tinubu’s campaign in 2023. You will understand what I am saying. KWAM1 is the only one who holds the trophy of recording and sharing his conversation with the President to the public and got away with it. Privilege!

Advertisement

KWAM1 set the internet buzzing since last week, when, possibly drunk by the privileges he has as an OMP, he held an entire crew and passengers of a commercial plane hostage on the tarmac! He was selective and deliberate. Wasiu Ayinde committed that sacrilege in Abuja, our Federal Capital Territory. And guess what: he did not see it as a big deal. How do I mean?

Four days after his failed hostage-taking incident, he was on stage in Ikorodu, Lagos State, at the gig for the Ayangburen of Ikorodu who marked his 10th years anniversary on the throne. While ‘apologising’ for the infraction, our OMP wondered why such an “ìsèlè kékeré se wá di únlá” (why should a small matter turn to a big issue). Standing before a taxi-bound plane is no big deal here. That’s how we roll!

The issue that led to the Abuja airport incident has been over-flogged. I saw KWAM1 and his golden flask. I wonder why a man who carries a golden flask would have the character of a common street urchin. But I stopped wondering when I remembered the saying that Aso únlá kó ni ènìyán únlá (a big apparel is not an indication of responsibility). Character is like a smoke (èéfín nì’wà), says the adage. Our elders complete the wisecrack: no matter how one covers it, it must exhale (bí a de mólè, rírú ní rú).

Advertisement

I am amused by those who said that KWAM1’s apology should be assuaging enough. What a nation! If Wasiu Ayinde had committed the same crime in a saner clime, would he apologise using a teleprompter the way he did? Would he tender the apology from the comfort of his home or from a detention cell? Only a privileged rogue elephant would hold people hostage in an international airport and would go home the same day to apologise on a teleprompter!

Even his Ikorodu gig for the Ayangburen and the so-called apology was a malarkey, a complete tosh! He sang in Yoruba. Those who understand the language would agree with me that what Wasiu Ayinde did in Ikorodu is nothing but a continuation of his esoteric àyájó (evocation), a double-Dutch, to hypnotise the public. Holy Moses! Am I the only one familiar with these evocative lines: Mo já’wé gbégbé, kó’mí má gbé mi lo/ Mo já’wé tètè, kí’lè má tè mi rì/Mo já’wé akóyoyo, èrò léhìn mi (I pluck gbégbé leaves, let the sea not wash me off/I pluck tètè -sinking-leaves, let the ground not sink me/I pluck akóyoyo – crowd-pulling – leaves, let the crowd follow me).

That is exactly what KWAM1 did in Ikorodu when he sang: ewé oríjì mo já/ewé oríjì mo já o/eni ‘ùnbá sè/eni ‘ùnbá sè kó f’orí jì mî/ewé oríjì mo já/ (I have plucked oríjì -forgiveness- leaves. Whoever I offended must forgive me. I have plucked oríjì leaves). Only the òpè, the ones Gen-Z refers to as ‘Jews’, will consider those evocations as an apology. This is, I daresay, without paying any attention to the arrogance that oozed out of him on stage.

Advertisement

I have asked KWAM1’s fans spreading his ‘apology’ to go and watch the two videos again. I equally asked them what would have been their reactions if the pilot of that plane had been their wives. How many men would take kindly to another man pouring a substance on their wives because the assailant has a bogus entitlement mentality?

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Federal Republic Of Loans

And how are we sure that what our OMP carried in his golden flask was water and not the street monkey tail (mixture of ògógóró and weed), or sùngbalaja (sleep anyhow) gégémú (fermented seed) fònàgáu (cross road anyhow) or jékánmò (let them know), the street stimulants associated mostly with people in KWAM1’s trade – Fuji. If the claim that he sipped the content before the air hostesses and other officials asked him to hand it over, and he claimed that what he had was water were true, may we then ask how intoxicant is the OMP’s holy water?

Advertisement

The excuse that Wasiu Ayinde has a health issue that requires him to sip water by seconds is as funny as it is doltish. Are we saying here that with the numerous hours he has had flying, KWAM1 is ignorant of the fact that on board the plane, he could easily require water, more so that he is on Business Class of the flight? And if truly he is easily dehydrated as he claimed, can we know how many times he took time off the stage in Ikorodu to sip water?

It is noticeable that the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, immediately placed him on a no-fly list. But the measures, to me, are like a slap-on-the-wrist given the nature of the crime committed. What KWAM1 did was pure hostage taking, terrorism and false imprisonment, all rolled in one! He practically hijacked the plane for the minutes he prevented it from flying!

If he is an easily dehydrated patient as he claimed, he should know that on board that plane he held hostage for close to 40 minutes were patients who probably had appointments with their doctors. There were businessmen and women who had dates to keep but were held down by an analphabetic bumptious fellow! That he got back to Lagos, hours after the incident, probably aboard another plane (chartered or public) sends dangerous signals to the flying public and undermines discipline in the aviation industry.

Advertisement

Now, another KWAM1 episode played out on Sunday when a female passenger attacked crew members of another plane. If, for instance, the news out there is that KWAM1 had been remanded in prison custody pending the determination of his case, KWAM2’ would not have attempted such an infamy within one week! This is what happens when the right steps are not taken in good and right measures to address indiscipline.

The sane world is appalled that the privilege that covered KWAM1, who committed a more heinous crime of hostage-taking and terrorism, but was only cautioned and released to fly home, is denied a less-privileged ‘KWAM2’, Comfort Emmanson, who assaulted hostesses of an Uyo-Lagos bound Akwa Ibom Air, and within the hours, she was dragged before a court and was railroad to Kirikiri prison!

We have scored yet another low in our preferential treatment of citizens with the way we rushed to prosecute offender number two, without prosecuting offender number one, who is a friend of the president. These actions and inactions will haunt us for a long time.

Advertisement

In closing, I want to say that I deliberately left out the pilot of the Value Jet plane, Captain Oluranti Ogoyi, out of this narrative. Why? I have read comments about how badly the lady behaved or how she should have acted otherwise. I have set a search for what a pilot, who gets clearance to fly, should do when a nyaff stands, like the popular Àgbà Ìnàki (King kung), to hold the plane down.

After the clearance to take off, is it part of the standard practice that the pilot must come down to check who is standing on the tarmac, or if the tyres are well inflated like they do at Okota Motor Park? If it were to be so, there wouldn’t be cases of stowaways. Or, in the alternative, should Captain Ogoyi have called Aso Rock to get President Tinubu to come and move his official bard out of the way? If the pilot was not sure that the tarmac was clear, how come KWAM1 was the only one who had to ducked under the plane when it taxied? Until I get convincing answers, I have no opinion about Captain Ogoyi and her ‘anger management’ as many are claiming.

We are lucky that KWAM1, at 68 years old, still has the dexterity of a typical Ajegunle street boy to duck under the moving plane. The story would have been different today. In his sober moment, when he does not sip from his golden flask, may KWAM1 imbibe the wisdom of our elders that abusing one’s privilege is akin to a child who eats taboos like the tips of needles. Our elders say: Bí orí abéré, bi orí abéré laa je èèwò (one eats taboos like tips of a needle); tó bá ti tó ro’kó ní hun ní (when it is big enough to be smitten to a hoe is when it comes with its consequences). He may not be lucky next time!

Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments

News

JUST IN: Okpehbolo Appoints New VC For AAU

Published

on

Edo State governor, Monday Okpehbolo, has approved the appointment of Professor (Mrs.) Eunice Eboserehimen Omonzejie as the new Vice-Chancellor of the state-owned Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma.

A statement issued late night by Secretary to the State Government, Umar Musa Ikhilor, said her appointment takes immediate effect.

According to the statement, Prof. Omonzejie was appointed amongst the three names submitted by the Governing Council of the university to the state government.

Advertisement

READ ALSO: Okpebholo Approves Construction Of 500-room Hostel For AAU

The statement partly reads, “Professor (Mrs.) Eunice Eboserehimen Omonzejie
Professor Omonzejie is a distinguished scholar of French and Francophone African Literatures and a long-serving academic in the Department of Modern Languages at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.

“She is a prolific researcher and editor, with contributions to African and Francophone literary studies, gender studies, and cultural studies.

Advertisement

“She has served as the President of the Ambrose Alli University Chapter of the National Association of Women Academics (NAWACS), where she has championed mentoring, research, and advocacy for female academics and students.

“Professor Omonzejie has co-edited several seminal works including French Language in Nigeria: Essays in Honour of UFTAN Pacesetters and Language Matters in Contemporary West Africa, and is the author of Women Novelists in Francophone Black Africa: Views, Reviews and Interviews,” the statement added.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

OPINION: Every democracy ‘Murders Itself’

Published

on

By Lasisi Olagunju

In ‘Jokes and Targets’ by Christie Davies, a Soviet journalist interviews a Chukchi man:

“Could you tell us briefly how you lived before the October revolution?”

Advertisement

“Hungry and cold.”

“How do you live now?”

“Hungry, cold, and with a feeling of deep gratitude.”

Advertisement

This sounds like Nigeria’s malaria victims thanking mosquitoes for their love and care. Between democracy and its opposite, reality has blurred the lines.

Last week, a group of White House pool reporters travelled with President Donald Trump on Air Force One as he returned from his U.K. state visit. At the beginning of the journey, actor Trump sauntered into the rear section of the plane, the traditional part for the press. He granted an interview and ended it with a morbid wish: “Fly safely. You know why I say that? Because I’m on the flight. I want to get home. Otherwise I wouldn’t care.”

Ten years ago, if a US president said what Trump told those poor reporters, his presidency would suffer immediate cardiac arrest. But this is Colin Crouch’s post-democracy era: the leader, whether in the US or in Nigeria, in Africa or elsewhere, is the law; whatever he does or says, we bow in gratitude.

Advertisement

I live in a Nigeria of gratitude and surrender. In the North-West and the North-East, traumatised communities are grateful to bandits and their enablers. They invite them to the negotiation table and thank the murderous gunmen for honouring the invitation. A grateful nation anoints and weeps at the feet of terrorists. In emergency-weaned Rivers State, its remorseful governor is effusive in appreciation of a second chance. The reinstated is ever thankful for the favours of a six-month suspension. From the North to the South, on bad roads and in death-wracked hospital wards, sonorous hymns of appreciation for big mercies ooze. The legislature and the judiciary, even the fourth estate, are all in congregation, singing songs of praise of the benevolent executive. Is this still a democracy?

American political scientists, Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman in 2020 wrote ‘The Fragile Republic’ for The Foreign Affairs. In that essay, they list four symptoms of democratic backsliding. Prime among the four are economic inequality and excessive executive power. “Excessive executive power” is a three-word synonym for autocratization of democracy. It is a by-word for a democracy hanging itself.

The second president of the United States of America, John Adams, saw today; he warned of democracy decaying and dying: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Adams was not alone. There was also William Blake, 18th/19th century English poet, who said “if men were wise, the most arbitrary princes could not hurt them. If they are not wise, the freest government is compelled to be a tyranny.” This reads like it was written today and here. If you disagree, I ask: Is it wise (and normal) for the tormented to thank the tormentor?

Advertisement

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: A Minister’s Message To Me

Listening to what Trump wished the reporters, we could see that big brother America now leads in democratic ‘erantship’, the Third World merely follows. An enormous country, strong enough to appropriate the name of an entire continent, America, in 2025, is blessed with a strongman that is armed with a licence to rule as it pleases his whim; a president who does what he likes and says what he likes or ‘jokes’ about it without consequences. The result is an imperial presidency that has redefined democracy across the world.

We say here that the yam of the one who is vigilant never gets burnt. The American system used to be very resilient in providing a leash on presidential excesses. It still does, although under a very difficult situation. Donald Trump, in his first term between 2017 and 2021, signed 220 Executive Orders. In his ongoing second term that began in January 2025, he has, as of September 18, 2025, already signed 204 Executive Orders upturning this balance, rupturing that tendon. An American friend told me that he could no longer recognise his country. But the good news is that those who should talk and act are not surrendering their country to Trump and his faction of the populace. Because it is America (and not Nigeria), there are over 300 lawsuits challenging Trump’s executive orders or policies in his second term.

Advertisement

The active legal challenges view the Trump orders either as unconstitutional, exceeding statutory power, or violating rights. And the courts are also doing their job as they should. A 2025 study found some 150 judicial decisions concerning these orders. Some are preliminary injunctions, others are full rulings. President Bola Tinubu last week acknowledged the existence of “over 40 cases in the courts in Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Yenagoa, to invalidate” his Rivers State emergency order. Our courts, especially the Supreme Court, are yet to acknowledge any of the cases with trials, rulings and orders.

It is easy for presidents with unrestrained executive powers to assume imperial airs. In the past, when they did, they feared losing their link with the people and a fall from power. Today, they are on very solid ground, no matter what they do with their people. Midway into his term as US president, an increasingly unpopular Jimmy Carter reassessed himself, and in lamentation told Washington Post’s David Broder that he (Carter) had “fallen into the trap of being ‘head of the government’ rather than ‘leader of the people.’” Today is not that yesterday of sin and punishment. We have surrendered to the point of giving ourselves away. Today’s leaders know that what they need is the government, its power and privileges, certainly not the people. And they keep working hard at it such that America has Trump, and is not the only country that has a Trump. There are Trumps everywhere. We have them in Africa, from the north to the coast.

What democracy suffers in America it suffers more in Africa. Former President Goodluck Jonathan said at the weekend that “democracy in the African continent is going through a period of strain and risk of collapse unless stakeholders come together to rethink and reform it.” He said politicians manipulate the electoral system to perpetuate themselves in office even when the people don’t want them. “Our people want to enjoy their freedom. They want their votes to count during elections. They want equitable representation and inclusivity. They want good education. Our people want security. They want access to good healthcare. They want jobs. They want dignity. When leaders fail to meet these basic needs, the people become disillusioned.” That is from Jonathan who was our president for six years. Did he say these new things because he wants to come back?

Advertisement

Democracy is like water; a wrong dose turns it to poison. If disillusionment has a home, it is in Africa. It is the reason why the youths of the continent are bailing out for succour, and the reason for Trump’s $100,000 fee on work visas.

In The North American Review of November 1910, Samuel J. Kornhauser reproduced a quotation that contains warnings of what threat a people could constitute to their own freedom: “The same tendencies to wanton abuse of power which exist in a despot or a ruling oligarchy may be expected in a democracy from the ruling majority, because they are tendencies incidental to human nature.” The solution was “a free people setting limitations upon the exercise of their own will” so that they would not “turn democracy into a curse instead of a blessing.”

MORE FROM THE THE AUTHOR:OPINION: HID Awolowo And The Yoruba Woman

Advertisement

In his 1904 essay, ‘The Relation of the Executive to the Legislative Power’, James T. Young, observed a dramatic shift in American governance: while Woodrow Wilson had earlier warned of “Congressional supremacy,” Young argued that “we now live under a system of executive supremacy,” showing how the traditional checks and balances had failed to maintain equilibrium among the branches. That was in 1904, a hundred and twenty one years ago.

Someone said a leader’s ability to lead a society successfully is dependent on their capacity to govern themselves. It is that self-governing capacity that is lacking in our power circles. Plus the leaders don’t think they owe history anything. “From the errors of others, a wise man corrects himself…The wise man sees in the misfortune of others what he should avoid.” Publilius Syrus (85–43 BC), the Roman writer credited with uttering those nuggets, was a master of proverbs and apophthegm. We don’t listen to such words; we don’t mind being tripped by the same stone, and it does not matter falling into the same pit.

A democracy can enthrone emperors and kings but it is not that easy to ask them to dismount the high horse of the state without huge costs. We elect leaders and for unsalutory reasons, we let them roam freely with our lives, our safety and our comfort. We promote and defend them with our freedom. I hope we know the full import (and consequences) of the seed we are planting today. A Pharaoh will come who won’t remember that there was ever a Joseph.

Advertisement

A Roman emperor called Caligula reigned from 16 March, 37 AD until he was put to sleep on 24 January, 41 AD. ‘Caligula’ was not the name his parents gave him; it was an alias, “a joke of the troops” which trumped his real identity: He was named after popular Julius Caesar.

Roman historian, Claudius Suetonius, records in his ‘The Lives of the Caesars’ that Caligula became emperor after his father’s death and then “full and absolute power was at once put into his hands by the unanimous consent of the senate and of the mob, which forced its way into the House.” The new leader came popular with a lot of the people’s hope invested in him. Suetonius says the young man “assumed various surnames (for he was called ‘Pious,’ ‘Child of the Camp,’ ‘Father of the Armies,’ and ‘Greatest and Best of Caesars’). Soon the fawning appellations entered his head and he became the opposite of what his people wanted in their leader. One day, Emperor Caligula chanced “to overhear some kings who had come to Rome to pay their respects to him” doing what Yoruba kings love doing: He found them arguing at dinner about whose throne, among them, was the greatest and the highest in nobility. The emperor heard them and cried: “Let there be one Lord, one King.” He called them to order and from that point, it was clear to everyone that republican Rome now had one Lord, one king, and that was Caligula.

The man said and did things that frightened even the heartless. At a point during his reign, Caligula saw a mass of Roman people, the rabble, applauding some nobles whom he detested. He voiced his hatred for what the people did and said what he thought should be their punishment: “I wish the Roman people had but a single neck so I could cut it through at one blow.” That statement became a quote which has, through centuries, defined his place in history.
It would appear that 79-year old Donald Trump defined himself for history last week with his “fly safely…because I’m on the flight” statement. A leader, a father and grandfather said he did not care if a plane-load of young men and women perished (without him) in a crash. And he told them so.

Advertisement

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: On El-Rufai, Aláròká And Terrorists

A Twi proverb suggests that “the chief feels the heat only when his own roof is on fire.” Trump’s unfortunate remark is said to be a joke. Even as a joke, what the US president said sits in a long tradition of expensive jokes. Trump’s cruel ‘jest’ couldn’t be funny to any people even if they were under the spell of the leader. History and literature are full of such costly quips that come light from the tongue but which reveal something raw about power and rulers: power does not agree that all human beings possess equal worth, equal dignity, and equal rights. Power talks, and whenever it talks, it sets itself apart.
King Louis XV of France is remembered for uttering the line: “Après moi, le déluge (After me, the flood).” Some commentators say it was a joke, some others say it was a shrug. History interpreted what Louis XV said as the king not caring a hoot whatever might happen to France after he was gone. That statement is a sound bite that has clung to him forever as Abraham Lincoln’s mother’s prayer clung to her son.

When Louis XV said it, no one saw what the king said as a prophecy, grim and ghastly. I am not sure he also knew the full import of what he said. But it was prescient; fifteen years after his reign, the “flood” came furious with the 1789 revolution culminating in the effective abolition of the French monarchy by the proclamation of the First Republic on September 21, 1792.

Advertisement

Emperor Nero of Rome is remembered forever for playing the fiddle while Rome was burning. In William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, we read a verse that ends with “Nero, Play(ing) on the lute, beholding the towns burn.” What is remembered of Nero is the image of a leader who ‘enjoyed the life of his head’ while his empire got destroyed by fire set at it by the enemy. But did the emperor really do that? Read this from the Encyclopaedia Britannica: “So, did Nero fiddle while Rome burned? No. Sort of. Maybe. More likely, he strummed a proto-guitar while dreaming of the new city that he hoped would arise in the fire’s ashes. That isn’t quite the same thing as doing nothing, but it isn’t the sort of decisive leadership one might hope for either.”

I have roamed from imperial Rome to medieval France, to democratic America and its Nigerian side-kick. What is next here is to go back, and salute John Adams with this his dispraise of democracy: “It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious, or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy.” A system or a country becomes a joke when its leaders toy with its destiny; when they make light of the fears of their people.

The Akan of Ghana warn that if you sit on comfortable rotten wood to eat pawpaw, your bottom gets wet and your mouth also gets wet. This is to say that there are consequences for choices made. A kabiyesi democracy is an autocratic monarchy. And what does that feel like? I read of a king who joked to his courtiers during famine: “Hunger has no teeth sharp enough to bite me in my palace.” It was a careless statement of a monarchy that has found its way into the mouth of our democracy. I saw it where I read it that the ‘joke’ “was remembered bitterly by the starving commoners who later sang satirical songs about the unfeeling king.” Some jokes outlive their laughter.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

NiMet Predicts Three-day Rain, Thunderstorms From Monday

Published

on

Continue Reading

Trending