Quest for power

“Since nothing is settled until it is settled right, no matter how unlimited power a man may have, his actions will return to plaque him unless it was acquired fairly and justly.”

The political platform in Nigeria presently has taken a more fierce stage that is characterized by political violence and antagonism here and there. The game is no longer a war in which one shoots by the lips but the gun and other mysterious tactics like ritual killings to achieve their goal. After very violent primaries, which are yet to be concluded in some areas, which witnessed the death of top ranked politicians, one can only but imagined the aftermath of the election proper.

In a matter of days and precisely the 19^th of April, Nigerians will file out en masse to vote for those they individually feel or like to be their Governor(s) and President, in the next dispensation of this our ‘nascent’ Democracy. According to Lord Byron, “the devil was the first Democrat”. Thus the quote on nascent is because; Nigerian politicians play the game like the ‘devil’ himself. It is most unfortunate that more than 40 years after independence, Nigerian politicians are still developing on the evil, which they copied yesterday to be more focus. Thus, the Igbo proverb that stipulates, ‘as a child grows, it leaves behind childish traits” has failed as far as Nigeria as a nation is concerned. Instead the proverb I have re-write it, to fit Nigeria as thus, “As Nigeria transit from one generation to the other, they perfect on the evil skills and tactics of the immediate past generation”.

Four years ago, news or rather rumours had it that a gubernatorial aspirant in Anambra State under the platform of the P.D.P allegedly buried a young virgin girl of about 12 years alive. It was gathered that the reason for this inhuman, callous and barbaric act against fellow human being was aimed at ensuring an easy victory at the primaries not even the election proper. At the end, he lost and the life of an innocent girl, wasted in cold blood. This is about four years after that incidence and the situation in the country has only but worsens. Within these few months of election preparation, Nigerians and more especially those of the southeast have witnessed terrifying cases of ritual killings for political power exigency.

When I was memorizing the words of Raymond Clapper, which he stated “unwillingness to surrender power is the curse of civilization, the root of ages of trouble. Some men find the appetite irresistible. They will sacrifice everything else to hold their power”, I saw in it, the picture of Nigeria’s political panorama from the day of independence… I am a totally human Democratic nihilist, but an advocator of Theocratic Democracy (Igwecracy, in the Igbo concept), but that notwithstanding, my worry as far as Nigerian Democracy in concern is centred on the means by which Nigerian politicians use to remain in power. This is four years after the last general election that gave rise to this civilian administration and one would have taught by now, Nigerian politicians would have left behind them cynicism; rather, what we see presently is a more improved innovation of remaining in power: ritual killings.

The spate of ritual killing in the country more especially in the South Eastern Region – Igbo heartland, has become worrisome. In order not to exaggerate matters, there is hardly a month gone past without an incidence of a dead body on the streets from which genital parts, wrist, head, buttocks etc are removed as the case in the picture. The situation is so deplorable that these acts are done in the open and left to litter the streets. If the case of the young virgin girl and the picture stirs out your gut, what will you say of the case, when a coalition squad of armed robbers and kidnappers stormed a maternity hospital in Owerri (names withheld) releasing sporadic gun shoots as they made their way in. In fear and anarchy most of the women ran out leaving their new breeds that were packed in a ‘Ghana must go’ sac by the hoodlums and made away with them. One month after, a similar incidence happened in Onitsha. When I approached the management of the hospital, they denied but an eyewitness who declined to say her name confirmed the rumour as true, and went further to justify the rumour in town that a total of 15 babies were taken away by the hoodlums in a ‘Ghana must go’ sac. So what do you say?

NIGERIA 2003: Savagery at its worst- Is it quest for power or just plain evil!

"It is either we continue to look at ourselves as western ignorance dictates or embark on fundamental reevaluation and revitalization of our preexisting cosmic cosmological philosophies towards more wholesome focus."

People with hunchbacks are seldom seen in the streets these days for fear that they are the best ritual materials for political power exigency. Late last year, a hunchback beggar was kidnapped in broad day light at the road that leads to ABS Onitsha by the famous Awka Road, and his whereabouts can only be uncovered amidst the unseen. If not of the timely intervention of a woman (just few weeks later), who raised a suspicious question, when a group of able-bodied young men were apprehending people at Nkpor Junction in Onitsha on a Sunday in the name of clean up campaign, the history of the unfortunates would have been in the hands of God. These kidnappers later confessed to be working for some politicians who needed human parts for rituals after they were apprehended – thanks to the effort of the masses. Take another instance, at least I was an eyewitness, when a young boy who was returning from school was kidnapped and immediately, people surrounded the small bush, which the kidnappers ran into. The reason I sited this example is not because of the good news that the child was discovered unconscious, but the fact that the kidnappers were not seen even with the assistance of the police. Not even one out of the five boys and one girl who ran into the small bush, which is not more than half of a football situated behind a police station was arrested. I think I should allow you think of how these kidnappers made away because I have thought as well, but ended up smiling to myself. The question now is this, what actually went wrong?

There is no doubt that all these killings are focused towards one direction and that is to gain political power and the unwillingness to surrender it. This reason has left many to go at any length just to ensure they remain in power or enter into power and enrich themselves – no thanks to the introduction or rather adoption of Democracy as a system of governance as against Theocratic democracy. Democracy is a western ideological system of government that is ever eager to progress but the progress is down the hill. A system that is materiocentrically focused, with money the sole measurement. In as much as our people were Theocrats, they find it difficult to relinquish power so easily and in the process of trying to combine both, it only ends up in dictatorship. This is one of the reasons why most African leaders find it even difficult to leave power.

The African people by nature were never Democrats and can never be. Before ever Democracy entered Nigeria and precisely Igbo land which is my focus, we were practising Igwecracy that was divinocentrically focused. Then, respect and power was not as a result of the amount of money you had but your achievements in your total course of life. That is why the legacy left behind by people like Michael Okpara; Nnamdi Azikiwe will never fade in Igbo land and Nigeria as a whole. The Alu-kusi (Alusi) concept, which governs the land spiritually, was so strong that people were afraid to do anything of selfish interest but for the collective interest of the people. Presently, an elected officer gets into power and do what is good for himself after all he took an oath with the bible and not with Alusi Okija or Ogugu Awka.

Many westerners have ascribed the killing of human beings for ritual purposes of haven originated from Africa. There is no doubt that ritual killing was going on in Igbo land prior to the arrival of the imperialists and even after but we were not killing human beings but domestic animals. Even at that, an Igbo adept stipulates, “it is only a man with a strong heart that will kill a pregnant goat”. How can a people who find it difficult to kill pregnant goat resorted to killing human beings so easily and freely? I think we copied it from the western world. It is mainly in the western world that you will see people, heartless people, killing their fellow human beings in broad day light without fear or favour. An unconfirmed source quoted Chimaroke Nnamani, the Enugu State Governor, as once saying, “As I am talking to you, the FBI is busy killing one or two persons in America, so killing to me is nothing.” Killing to him is nothing because he was brought up in America, where killing is like a daily bread. The beating of Abner Louima and the killing of Amadou Diallo are empirical examples of how the American society produces ‘heartless’ people. Human cloning is no longer what we see in movies but it is being discussed in real terms in America. I only wonder the level of human slaughter we should expect by the time the first cloned human being will emerge. Thus, Nigeria, which is very good at copying the evil of others have now become the cynosure of the world’s evil. It is not as if Nigerians have produced the first cloned humans but it is only someone who did not taste breast milk like a cloned being that will do such act as shown in the picture. Such people are rampant in the American society; children born in the streets, prisons and under very terrible conditions like the socially excluded.

One can only but begins to imagine the kind of leaders that will rule over us in this next dispensation. After the first phase of elections on the 12^th of April, which was characterized by three deaths in Udi, one in Awgu, Oji, and Nsukka and sporadic shootings in Onitsha. Even as this article is being compiled, Onitsha is thrown into a state of violence and anarchy as gun shoots could be heard from distance and areas where the repeat election is taking place. If the national assembly elections could witness such violence, what will be the situation of the gubernatorial and presidential elections on the 19^th of this month?

This is the time for us to start improving on our pre-existing lifer-style and redress our present political system by returning to Igwecracy. By so doing, we would have successfully put an end to these inhuman acts of ritual killings, which is a root cause of western democracy. Let Umu-Igbo both at home and abroad see these as an urgent call to rescue our society from the hands of western ignoramus instead of supporting it by encouraging the young ones to go to Europe in search of “greener pastures’. For they are the same ones who go and bring these acts of heartlessness in Igboland. Let us therefore join hands in harmony and say enough is enough to western dominance.