We should thank Senator Shehu Sani profusely for firing the first salvo with his selection of a wonderful parable, which seems to capture the current predicament of the nation. Although the way he captured it in a post is a little bit befuddling and startling. Apparently, he is alluding to a popular Southern African folk narrative, which global Hollywood appropriated and transposed into a popular blockbuster motion picture – The Lion King. Apart from its topicality, the allusion to our local tales has definitely induced reminiscences of the lost cultural glory of our proud African past. Neglect of the vast wealth of our oral narratives is happening at a time when contemporary generations of Africans, out of a newfound postmodern zeal to abandon African cultural heritage and traditional religious sensibility, think our ancient African oral culture no longer upholds any utilitarian value as we engage in uncritical romance with alien cultural forms. Curiously, Senator Shehu Sani has, in his usual keen creative imagination, come up with this parable, which he posted on his Facebook page, to explain God knows what he is thinking at that moment in time.
Senator Sani’s post could be said to capture a topical moment in Nigeria’s checkered history, a history that is full of great anxiety and uncertainty especially with the doubts thrown up over the health of President Muhammadu Buhari who incidentally is right now having his convalescence at a London hospital. Do we need to be reminded that the political temperature in the country is once again heating up? The rise in the temperature of the polity is simply not because of anything other than the prolonged absence of Mr. President and the suspicion of foul play over his health condition by mostly his avid supporters? For a cross-section of Buhari’s political diehards, as they are known in the social media, anything that would abruptly terminate his short sojourn in office as the Executive President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, they have fought tooth and nail to see him won the presidential elections, immediately after their experience of the horrors, incompetence and corruption of the PDP government, should not be entertained. It should not even be contemplated that the President should unceremoniously leave office. The President they have put their lives in the line to elect must serve his term and must be given the chance to contest the 2019 elections, if all goes well.
Looking at the political climate in the country against the backdrop of such myriad threats as Biafra secession bid and the concomitant deadline given to members of Igbo ethnic group resident in northern Nigeria by a newfangled association of northern youth, hope is however almost completely lost if not for the infinitesimal grain of faith, a ray of hope so to say, that materialized through the reassurances of the first lady in her response to Senator Shehu Sani. This has renewed the vigor of President Buhari’s supporters. The anecdote of the lion king has served a good purpose as it rekindled the sense of hope that is almost lost in the confusion. Robust media buzz is also rekindled amongst Buhari’s diehards. The rest of Nigerians are also agog on the promise of a possible national rebirth as President Muhammadu Buhari recuperates fully and returns to his office. The likelihood of President Buhari rejigging his cabinet is clearly now more than ever before, if he really wants to recoup his name and image in the eyes of his supporters. Public expectations are justifiably germane amidst a cacophony of discordant voices, creeping disillusionment, hopelessness, angst and anger such as occasioned by wobbly state of affairs. The resurgence of insecurity, Boko Haram insurgency, communal violence, and high profile kidnapping, as if these evil acts were reignited by the design of some desperate elements, says it all. Suddenly, the downward spiraling of Nigeria despite the desire of the change regime to see things change for the better is surprisingly attributed to the total absence of President Buhari from the Nigerian scene.
In my seeming filibustering, I am not in the least inferring that the Acting Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo is not handling the responsibility of steering the Nigerian state entrusted to him by the President competently well. Nope! However, it worries me a great deal, especially seeing the invidious forces rage against him and, by implication, the corporate existence of Nigeria. Centrifugal forces are steadily becoming too visible, unwieldy and overwhelming. Nigeria cannot be handled by anybody who is not adequately prepared to tackle our existential challenges, as President Muhammadu Buhari has demonstrated thus far. This is the context in which the content of the first lady’s retort, whether it can be seen as a retort or something else, to Senator Shehu Sani can be viewed as very significant. I see the response of the first lady as all about her genuine and sincere yearning to see President Buhari succeed against all odds, and to also see him live up to the billing of those who believe in his abilities to deliver the deliverables to the Nigerian electorate.
Could it then be inferred that the ensuing contest of allegories and parables between Senator Shehu Sani and the first lady, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, is merely a bid to tip the scales in favor of the massive helpless well-wishers of the President, by particularly a first lady that has been locking horns with powerful opponents and other darker forces lurking in the shadows of her husband, the President of Nigeria? I guess it somewhat makes a lot of sense considering how she carefully selected her metaphors and predator images of those carnivorous hyenas and jackals that surrounded her husband. Of course, the vociferous Nigerian media have consistently referred to them as cabal that have all alone been manipulating the way the country was run in the den of her lion king husband. The way she couched her own parable of lion king through the imagery of hyenas, jackals and weaker animals have actually betrayed her bottled-up frustrations or what Freudian psychoanalysts dubbed as repressed desire.
The views of the first lady, a major Buhari project stakeholder and an indefatigable amazon in her own right, cannot simply be dismissed with a wave of hand. From her track records, she is a determined soul that would never let go on issues she is resolutely convinced. To her credit, she has been doggedly consistent in expressing her worries and regrets over the way and manner those she is now tagging as hyenas and jackals around Mr. President surreptitiously remote controlled the affairs of state. But those who know President Muhammadu Buhari closely share a different view from hers. They see the real personal character of President Buhari at work in all that is happening around him. Nobody, according to them, dares to operate outside the way he wants things get done, even if everything seems to be going off track. They believe that the Buhari they know well enough is unique in the exhibition of an uncompromising posture over the principles he cherishes so much. As they see it, this is evidently exemplified by his single-minded resolve of Mr. President to prosecute his war against corruption no matter the consequences or the costs to individuals, groups and interests.
Again, those that know Mr. President pretty up close have been very critical of his personal attachment to a coterie of associates whom he believes to be absolutely above board, and have been steadfastly loyal to him; people with exceptionally sterling qualities that would never engage in acts that would affect his trust in them by any means imaginable. In the assessment of other Buhari critics, total reliance on loyalty alone is a huge burden for a President who has suddenly found himself in the saddle, running a complex polity like Nigeria without being adequately prepared for it, and without his closest associates objectively making him see the brutal conditions in Nigeria. Nobody is contesting that our problems have emanated from long years of poor quality leadership, neglect of critical sectors of the economy and inconceivable corruption. But right now many untoward tales are woven around most loyal subordinates; but unfortunately the President is said to be overlooking the excesses of people close to the President. They are left alone by the anti-corruption agency due to Mr. President’s simplistic perception of their unalloyed loyalty to him. The loyalty mantra is now seen as the Achilles heel of President Buhari. Many keen observers of the Nigerian scene see the President’s attachment to his close associates at any given point in time as threatening to undo the goodwill he is enjoying.
However, my take on the allusions to the parable of lion king, weaker animals, hyenas and jackals from the insinuations, whatever the presumptions behind those insinuations, of both Senator Shehu Sani and the first lady Mrs. Aisha Buhari may be slightly different. Apart from the fact that both Shehu Sani and the first lady see hyenas and jackals in the corridors of power, I will consider the game of throne being played with the political stability of Nigeria by vested interests in the National Assembly and their godfathers across the country as the most important single threat to our co-existence. In the midst of all this, the embroiling of Senate leadership in corruption saga could only abet through the erroneous assumptions of the courts that the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari from the scene has come to stay. There were also flurry of nocturnal and not so nocturnal meetings of our political gladiators in anticipation of the inevitable from the morbid condition of Mr. President. The most visible high profile meeting was the one that was held at Minna between our former leaders – Obasanjo, Babangida and Abdulsalami.
As if that was not enough, members of the National Assembly have suddenly rediscovered their powers and are attempting to assert those as they deem necessary, and as they are poised to challenge the authority of the Vice President, constitutionally considered the legitimate heir apparent to the President by flagrantly tinkering with the 2017 budget, as if they have forgotten the running battles that ensued between the Presidency and the National Assembly on budget “padding” only last year. Again, media snippets have kept popping up in the cyber world that hint the possibility of impeaching Vice President Osinbajo who may, perhaps if the nefarious agenda of dislodging President Buhari succeeds on the pretext of his illness, be replaced with the Senate President if the President could not recover from his ailment.
Whatever the case, the parable of the lion king is a welcome development, at least we now know the health of Mr. President is improving.
Mr Liman is professor of Comparative Literature and Popular Culture at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria
