CURSED OR THE CAUSE.A LESSON IN MISCALCULATION AND MISADVENTURE. (1)

CURSED OR THE CAUSE.A LESSON IN MISCALCULATION AND MISADVENTURE.  (1)

C (2018)                    CHIBU NDUBUISI                         02/04/2018    WEEK 14

“Be careful what you pray for because you may get it and regret”

            

Peace be upon you.

As part of the electioneering jingle repertoire of former Governor of Anambra State Peter Obi, who kicked off his campaign by waxing philosophical in 2003, by posing two questions to the electorate, he asked; are we Cursed or are we the Curse in Anambra state? Taking into account the plunder and pillage the state has been subjected to by political gladiators with the connections to abduct a sitting Governor (Chris Ngige) and the support of the central government.  For many months, teachers were not paid their salaries during the era of Mbadiniju, who turned from an elected Governor to elected evangelist; he absconded and displayed negligence of the duty of statecraft of fashioning good policies, to declaring fasting and prayer as state policy to solve developmental needs in the state. All these and more were part of the reasons why Chinua Achebe   rejected the National award given to him by the Federal Government as a protest against the anomaly in Anambra state.

Our discourse for today centers on the action of some political actors and the repercussions real or imagined. 

AZIKIWE/OKADIGBO EXPERIENCE:THE 1983 ELECTIONS AND FIREWORKS

After the election of 1983 was over and the NPN historic landslide, Zik addressed the nation in his speech titled: HISTORY WILL VINDICATE THE JUST.

In the speech, Zik unfolded how the NPN had rigged the elections. He said:

I am seventy-eight years, nine months, one week today and I thought that I should write and congratulate certain politicians on their inglorious and futile attempts to destroy the soi-distant Zik Myth. In spite of the New Nigeria, the NTA, the FRCN, et cetera, whose propensity for calumniating my reputation blatantly, has become pathological and incessant, and whose penchant for sycophancy in order to entrench unpopular governments is now an open secret, my head is bloody but unbowed...

Since in their blind hatred of the NPP and their mad ambition to support those who cling to power irrespective of the unpopular will, they are determined to destroy the Zik Myth; to destabilize the NPP states (as, indeed, the present elections have almost succeeded in doing); to baffle voters who constitute the electorate of Nigeria; to bamboozle the people of Nigeria by manipulating the instruments of coercion for the security of the machinery of the ballot; to try to justify a one-party state in Nigeria wittingly or unwittingly; and these bigots profess belief in an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God....

 I am supremely convinced that almighty God will frustrate their knavery and ultimately expose their machinations and consign them to heap of forgotten tyrants. History will vindicate the just and God shall punish the wicked.....

Finally, may I now recount the disputations of those who are using the print and electronic media to make mockery of old age. Here I kneel and pray to Almighty God, the creator of the universe - my maker, who knows why I was created and what is my destiny, to demonstrate to infidels and miscreants that they will not live to be old. And I trust that they will die unwept and unsung, like a flower that is plucked in its bloom, as an example of the vanity of human wishes and the futility of insulting old age....

Veritably, it is unAfrican and inhuman to make mockery of old age, because Africans and all human beings pray to God to prolong their life span. Nevertheless, those Nigerian politicians who indulge in this abomination shall not live to be old...Amen, Amin. Ise. Ashe."

A day after Zik delivered his speech, two newspapers - the Guardian and the Daily Times on their front pages reported Chuba Okadigbo's response as then political adviser to President Shehu Shagari, dismissing Nnamdi Azikiwe's complaints of election irregularities. He had bluntly referred to Zik's speech as the “Ranting of an Ant”

Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, reacting to Chuba Okadigbo's
"ranting of an ant" he said

"My boy, may you live to your full potential, ascend to as dizzy a height
as is possible for anyone of your political description in your era to
rise. May you be acknowledged world-wide as you rise like an eagle atop
trees, float among the clouds, preside over the affairs of fellow
men...as
leaders of all countries pour into Nigeria to breath into her ear.
But then, Chuba, if it is not the tradition of our people that elders are
roundly insulted by young men before the world as you have unjustly done
to me, may your reign come to an abrupt and shattering close. As you look
ahead, Chuba, as you see the horizon, dedicating a great marble palace
that is the envy of the world, toasted by the most powerful men in the
land, may the great big hand of fate snatch it all away from you.
Just as it appears as if nothing can possibly go awry,, Chuba, as you
look
forward to hosting the world's most powerful leader and shaking his hand,
as you begin to smell the recognition and leadership of the Igbo people,
may the crown fall off your head and your political head fall off your
shoulders. None of my words will come to pass, Chuba, until you have
risen
to the very height of your power and glory and health, but then you will
be hounded and humiliated and disgraced out of office, your credibility
and your name in tatters forever....."

 Latter at the height of the political career of William Wilberforce Chuba Okadigbo as Senate president, he fell from power ingloriously and subsequently died in mysterious circumstance. Even as a master of political arithmetic he failed to get the formula right at the Kano rally were he was tear gassed. He passed away on Thursday, September 26, 2003 on his way to the hospital in Abuja. 

ASIDE.A final note; Nigerians never cease to amaze me. The reasoned adduced for the death of the founder of the infamous MMM Sergey Mavrodi who died of a heart attack on Monday, March 26, 2018, at the age of 62 is that many Nigerian cursed him, even when evidences suggest on the contrary. Do you agree?

Who was cursed or who caused the curse?

Peace be with you.