By Samuel Zulu
I grew up watching and enjoying crime movies, especially of the mafia genre. My most favorite of them all was “THE GODFATHER”. I was so fascinated by stealth criminal families and clans, plotting to outmanouver each other inorder to control territories and the treasures there in. In this battle, loyalty was supreme, and trust was a rare commodity. There were no permanent friends or enemies, only transient interests defined relationships.
When I hear of political godfathers, my mind imagines same mafiaso-type cleavages, seeking control of territories inorder to harvest and control the treasures therein. And so far, they have not disappointed in their similarities with the mafia godfathers.
Somewhere in the land of the farming warriors, in the food basket region of Nigeria, arises a godfather. He has been so successful at raising many political godsons that he was recently crowned by the emperor as a Serial God Father (SGF).
Some call him a political genius, others refer to him as an enigma, a doyen. And yet to the more cynical, he is just an egoistic, insatiable, power (and anything) drunk political megalomaniac. But whatever one’s view of the SGF may be, one can not deny the fact that he has bestrodden the political landscape of his region like a colossus for the past two decades. So successful has he been at this that he has completely obliterated the memory and political legacy of his ancestral kin, the legendary JS. Perhaps he aims at becoming the region’s political Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T)?
What has become so curious and disturbing to many is his tendency to pick a fight with every godson he single-handedly selects and installs as prefect over his food basket region. This recuring decimal has made many to question his sense of judgment and motive in who he chooses as a godson. Does he have the good of the region in mind, or is it all about his ego and the ‘ego’ (wealth) of the land?
When the time of the current political dispensation had fully come, he brought forth another godson, born of the “mother church,” a priest and reverend gentleman. The people of the region gleefully and enthusiastically embraced this new godson as one really from God. The expectation was that alas, this one will be a godson in whom the godfather is well pleased. There will be peace, progress, and prosperity in the food basket region. This expectation was further heightened when the serial godfather was elevated to sit with the emperor at the high table as one the right-hand men upon whom the emperor leans. Largesses were to abound and trickle down to the food basket, or at least the crumbs. But this was not to be?
It has been another season of broken dreams and dashed hope for the people of the food basket region. For rather than uniting to fill the food basket with enough food, to stave off hunger and poverty for the people of the region, it has been another season of wars and rumours of wars between the Serial god Father (SGF) and his reverend godson.
The macabre dance of this political egoticism has taken such a disturbing dimension that even many of the nobles in the land have had to take side rather than mediate. For you have to belong to one side in order to survive, politically and economically. And unfortunately, few of these choices are pro-people. They are largely self-serving.
Just recently, at the funeral of one of the legendary nobles in the land, this dance of shame reached a crescendo. The SGF and his reverend godson descended so low to public altercations with their attack dogs physically going after each other. What was supposed to be a sober and solemn occasion was turned into a shameful political fight to the desecration of a peoples culture? We go to funerals to weep, mourn, and pay our last respects to the deceased, not to fight and shove. Can you believe that these two adults became (street) children at the occasion, openly fighting? What a shame and disgrace.
It was Patricia Cornwell who once wrote, “I believe the root of all evil is abuse of power.”
As a student of the Bible, I can not agree less. For there was once a king in Israel called Ahab. He had a greedy and ambitious queen called Jezebel. They were so obsessed and addicted to power that they would spare nothing to crush any dissension. And so it was that they coveted a vineyard belonging to Naboth, a commoner. When Naboth would not oblige the palace, they killed him to have their way. Divine justice came on King Ahab and his queen Jezebel. Their political dynasty came to an end.
How I pray this macabre dance between this serial godfather and his reverend godson does not end in an eclipse of their political dynasty and relevance. But if that is what it will take for the region of the food basket to have peace and progress, so be it. Those who pride themselves as political messiahs must be ready to go to the cross for the people and not sacrifice the people on the altar of their political greed and egoticism.
It was Caiphas, the high priest, who spoke during the trial of our Lord Jesus saying, “Do you not understand that it is expedient and politically advantageous for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
(John 11:50).
Whom the cap fits, let them wear it.
● Zulu, a concerned Nigerian based in southern Africa, sent this via WhatsApp.
