Of the eight or so leading newspapers in Nigeria, only about four got the undertone of the historic valedictory photo session of last Tuesday’s Council of State meeting right. Unlike the rest, they recognised that only the special photograph of the former presidents/heads of state, not the entire Council of State, deserved front page treatment. There were eight living presidents/heads of state in the photograph, spanning 1976 to 2015. If indeed the late Sani Abacha, himself a former military head of state, had not died in widely reported lecherous and hideous circumstances, in the buxomly laps of Indian whores, and perhaps with the aid of deathly mixtures from malevolent alchemists, he might well, to our humiliation, number among Nigeria’s living presidents/heads of state. The photograph tells far more evocative stories than it appears at first view, a part of those stories undoubtedly distressing and somewhat shameful.
With eight living presidents, Nigeria must be among the luckiest countries in the world to have such an array of past presidents — at least far luckier than even the United States and Britain. This fact demonstrates a few core lessons. None of the eight presidents, bar the current occupant of the exalted and coveted throne, is less than 70 years old. The US has just five living presidents, including Barack Obama, or four living past presidents to Nigeria’s seven living past presidents. Britain has only four, including David Cameron, with only one, John Major, above 70 years old. As a matter of fact, while the US can boast of two nonagenarians, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, Nigeria is privileged to boast of at least one, Shehu Shagari. At the astoundingly solid rate Nigeria is going, this country of appalling human development index could yet break the record for the highest number of presidential nonagenarians. Howbeit, the devil is in the detail if we must consider and compare the cumulative years in office spent by the three countries’ past rulers.
But with such a high number of living past Nigerian presidents, all of whom are over 70 and who had ruled for a cumulative 41 years in office, it would have been expected that their lives and ages reflect the country’s life expectancy. Instead, everything about them repudiates everything about Nigeria. The life expectancy in Nigeria is a little over 52 years, implying both that the quality of life in Nigeria is poor and short, and the gap between rulers and subjects a worrisome chasm. Except it can be proved that by the strangest mathematical probability the Nigerian system has a unique mechanism of selecting only the fittest as rulers, it can be reasonably argued that the past presidents actually profited immensely from the system to both enrich themselves and acquire high quality of life.
And with such an array of living presidents, all seven from whom President Goodluck Jonathan should gain sound advice and be inspired by ennobling precedence, it was also expected that Nigeria would be fast approaching something akin to a paradise. The contrary is, alas, the case. Except it can also be proved that President Jonathan is considerably tardy in learning from precedence, there is in fact nothing to show that either the president himself or any Nigerian at all can be inspired by what Nigeria’s past rulers did. Despite a rich array of past rulers, Nigeria has remained considerably poor in everything, from political culture to economic growth. Indeed, President Jonathan, exactly like his predecessors, has ruled like someone starting afresh, with no template to use other than a misbegotten and frequently exploited constitution.
It is not known, at least not from the faces in the group photograph, whether Nigeria’s living presidents are proud of themselves, or whether they rate highly their contributions to the society it was their privilege to govern for many years. It is also not quite clear whether the leaders in the photograph feel the gentle or sometimes vigorous reproof of conscience over the many noble and salient things they refused to do to energise and stabilise their country. All the photograph shows is the unspeakable pride they take in being among the few who had had the honour to rule Nigeria, whether they did right by the country or not. They may want to blame the constitutions, just like their supporters, or blame the ordinary Nigerian, just like their fellow oligarchs. But in their private moments, perhaps they will be greatly mortified that whatever they did or didn’t do failed woefully to lift Nigeria up.
In publishing the revelatory photograph, one newspaper grandly talked of the past presidents mending fences, an act it deduced from the ‘mutual backslapping, banter and handshakes’ the leaders engaged in when they met last Tuesday. It is not clear how in one meeting fences could be so facilely mended. What is clear, however, is that judging from their individual characteristics and their time in office, these rulers constituted themselves into implacable foes. If their banter and backslapping went farther than skin deep, there was absolutely no proof of it, for these gentlemen had mastered the art of hating one another while smiling, nursing malice while mouthing reconciliation, and exuding so much malignant grudges and parsimoniousness under the facade of liberal spirit and munificence. Indeed, there is little to suggest that age has deprived any of them, save perhaps one, their habit of malevolent competitiveness.
The historic photo — for that is what it will grow to be, as more observers and analysts ponder the circumstances and import of having so many living presidents in one photo frame — for instance shows the implacable Olusegun Obasanjo next to (and indeed on the right-hand side of) the remorseless President Jonathan. Now, who on earth arranged the presidents for this photo session in the Council chamber? Was it the president himself? Could it be purely accidental? Or was nature, the force to which scientists presumptuously attribute the complexity and beauty of human existence, responsible? Or, God be praised, was it the domineering, meddlesome and triumphalist Chief Obasanjo himself who arranged to be near his foe in one exaggerated, final and dramatic demonstration of his victory in unseating President Jonathan?
Who can so soon forget the many expletives exchanged between Chief Obasanjo and President Jonathan? Who spoke of the other as being mediocre? And who spoke of the other as being a motor park tout? Ah, who can also, with relish, fail to remember the brickbat between Chief Obasanjo and Gen Ibrahim Babangida in 2011 when the latter was about to mark his 70th birthday, with the former describing the latter as a fool at 70, and the latter describing his former boss as a comedian? They will of course keep tolerating one another to their dying days. They will heave and sigh, and they will groan in pain and smirk in triumph; but as they mummify in such photographs as they graciously gave us the benefit of seeing early in the week, Nigerians will ponder why despite all the country gave them, the ex-presidents gave so little in return. And even that little was hamstrung by their inordinate scheming, depressing untruths, ghastly manipulations, lack of altruism, poor judgement, and needless experimentations.
Let all eight Nigerian presidents take a look again at their group photograph. Perhaps in one uplifting, epiphanic and divine moment, they could be induced by shame and inspired by patriotic gut feeling to finally resolve to embrace and display the true character of great leaders and statesmen, a class of people for whom fearlessness, truthfulness, charisma, judgement, and courage are incontestable and indispensable.
Culled from The Nation
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