Legitimacy of evil

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Legitimacy of evil

Written by Sam Adesua Tuesday, 16 November 2010

On Wednesday, November 3, 2010, the Senate approved life allowances for all former presidents, former vice-presidents, former military heads of state, all former Senate presidents and their deputies, all former Speakers of the House of Representatives and their deputies and former chief justices of the federation.

In addition to the beneficiaries of the largesse are the wives and children of all dead and living presidents and vice-presidents. Ostensibly, the seeming altruistic aim of the lawmakers is to encourage honesty and accountability in the governance of the country. These are the hallmarks of responsible leaders all over the world. But these virtues have been noticeable more in their virtual absence in the lives of public office holders and consequently in the polity over the years. The lawmakers are aware that this situation has hitherto been responsible for the nation’s very glaring but avoidable retrogression in the comity of nations.

However, the ludicrous contents of the action really exposed the veiled selfish motive of the legislators. It confirmed further the belief by some people that something is intrinsically wrong with an average Nigerian.

What the Nigerian lawmakers are saying is that even aberrant political office holders, who not only subjugated, but also destroyed democratic norms and stalled socio-political advancement of the country for about 30 years are to be rewarded for their treasonable acts.

Even some of the beneficiaries of the planned largesse, who assumed leadership under Nigeria’s version of democracy, came to power fraudulently. Some of them were shamed out before the expiration of their tenure while some held through some factors which Dim Ojukwu described as Nigerianism in his famous Ahiara declaration during the turbulent civil war years. Yet, they and all their family members must all be rewarded and pampered till death.

By this action, our senators have wittingly or unwittingly proved that they are apostles of Machiavelli, albeit in a very crude and insulting manner. To them, the end should always justify the means. This is the same country where hapless, traumatised and pauperised workers are going on strike because of mere N18,000 minimum wage, an amount that is not enough to fuel the vehicles of any of the senators for a weekend trip to his village. Therefore, the action of the lawmakers appears to be nothing but an exercise in sadism.

Implicit in the action of the Nigerian lawmakers is the fact that as long as anyone can successfully subvert the wish and aspirations of Nigerians socially, politically and economically, such a person should be rewarded for his evil deeds. It is only if you are unsuccessful in such subversive efforts that one can be demonised or be crucified. If Bukar Sukar Dimka, Gidion Orkar and others had been successful in their planned coups, instead of their execution, they would today be beneficiaries of the largesse.

The five majors of the first military coup fame remain demonised till today, just because their own efforts were aborted at the last minute. This is the singular reason Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna, who won high jump gold medal for the country at the Commonwealth Games held in Vancouver, Canada in 1964, has hitherto been denied a posthumous award or any form of honour for doing the country proud at that time.

Through successful coup d’états and counter-coups, the military politicians legalised the illegalities which they perpetrated for many years, inadvertently stalling the nation’s march to modernity and consequently separating Nigeria from politically sane nations of the world till today. The effects of this are the retrogressive manifestations that are glaring even to the blind and audible to the deaf.

By the action of the lawmakers, who are supposed to be representatives of pauperised Nigerians, all they are waiting for now is the consent and assent of President Goodluck Jonathan to permanently legalise the evil deeds perpetrated against hapless Nigerians for many years.

Nigerian lawmakers have inadvertently confirmed further that the nation had moved beyond restoration of sanity in our national life. They once again confirmed the belief in some quarters that unless there is a bloody revolution, public office holders in Nigeria cannot champion the people’s interests or demonstrate political sanity in their actions and/or inaction.

For instance, it is a proved and common knowledge that most of the former rulers that the legislators want to be pampered till death with tax payers’ money had one time or the other successfully subverted the wish and interests of the tax payers. Some of them looted the nation’s treasury dry while in office. The evils they perpetrated in the country will become legalised if the president assents to the lawmakers’ absurd proposal.

Let us use the case of General Sani Abacha as an example. The satanically goggled general created a record in treasury looting in the country. Some of his loots stashed in foreign countries had been retrieved by the government. No hope of getting the remaining billions in foreign currencies. Yet, what should reasonably be used to salvage the lives of those he and his comrades had traumatised and pauperised would, according to the Nigerian lawmakers, be poured again into the ocean of questionable opulence in which they and/or members of their families are swimming today until their expiration.

Who then can still foresee any other solution apart from bloody revolution in a country where evil deeds are being officially decorated with legitimacy? The Senators should even take the pains to tell Nigerians who among the former leaders left the country better than he met it with facts and figures. Let me leave the lawmakers and all the powers-that-be in Nigeria with a Yoruba proverb that says: “God will surely judge the person who divides meat with his teeth.”

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