When on 3rd July, 2022, the haughty political marionette arrogantly rushed to the media space and announced that he had not only defected to Labour Party, he had also been arrogated with the party’s gubernatorial ticket on a platter, little did he know that such announcement would sooner than later end up in tears for him.
He strutted forward in a brawny show depicting him as a master chess player who could be undaunted and unperturbed in the face of previous humiliating defeat. His pack of sycophants like parasites kept beating the drums of a knight in a shinning armour for him. He was literally caught in the belief that he had the people on his side. Perhaps he was not allowed to look behind him to even see that the drummers were miles away. He pushed his luck too far, getting swindled by the day.
Just few weeks after his inglorious fall from the precipice of the unjustifiable ambition he had earlier embroiled himself in, while tongues were still wagging from his leeches and political hirelings, he slid into deeper debacle. He couldn’t see with his rational binoculars. The lust for power has driven him down the aisle of illusion. This mental state of self-pity and consolation fanned by clannish demagogues have been hallucinatory voices telling him the seat of Lion Building awaits him.
Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, his minions exploiting his wild goose chase to Government House, have been ingratiating his ego with the “Your Excellency” title. “You are the next governor, Your Excellency,” they would emphatically declare with air of finality. They knew quite well what he wanted to hear. They knew he had been saturated with the false dozes of being the next Enugu sState governor. They knew the only way to exploit his weakness without asking him to be generous with money is to call him, “The Incoming.” Anything short of that could attract consequences and collateral damage.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the three witches had misled the inordinate and power-mongering Macbeth into believing he would be the next king of Scotland. From their enclave, they greeted Macbeth with the symbolic royalty of a king. According to them, Macbeth would be a thane and a king. To further prepare him for destruction, the witches assured Macbeth he would never be defeated by any man born of a woman. From that moment, Macbeth confirmed his destiny with fate – he would be a king! Blinded by this illusory commitment, Macbeth became obsessed with the stool of royalty, he got determined to actualize his goals regardless of its strategic cost and improbability.
This obsession became Macbeth’s hubris that hastened his shameful end. And Macbeth ended in the most uncelebratory gladiatorial defeat. This isn’t far from the aspirant in Enugu State who has been junketing from one political party to the other in search of the fulfilment of the false prophecies by his endorsers. Like Macbeth, he had been audaciously assured of a place in the Lion Building. All hail the next governor of Enugu State. He would now parade himself even before the PDP’s primaries as the anointed and special one. He would talk tough. He would look people pointedly into their eyes and say; “You’re talking to the next governor of the state.”
After the resounding defeat, the fever hasn’t left him. The prophecy of being the “incoming” must be pursued in whatever next available political party. The lust for power can inebriate one’s psyche like an opium. It would take special counseling session and treatment to deradicalise such extreme political bewitchment. Contrary to the steps taken to modify this notion of “Emi lo kan” in Enugu State by the bewitched political actor, his mind is already rigidly indoctrinated into the straitjacket entitlement of becoming what he would never become.
He jumped to Labour Party with the praise singers calling him the most popular and qualified political figure in town. Like the three witches, they assured him he was the last man to beat in 2023 even when rain had beaten him to stupor, having been drenched by his sweat and the rain. He couldn’t differentiate both because the lyrics were still tickling his earlobes. “All hail the next governor!”
In his sojourn to the Labour Party, he got caught and beaten below the belt by own blow. Without duly signing up as a member, he gunned down the air by crowning himself the party’s candidate. For all he cared for was his preoccupation to take over Lion Building overnight through the backdoor. His black market siege for the Labour Party’s ticket is unraveling. With recent developments, strong indications are emerging that things are falling apart for him. The centre isn’t holding and those swindlers having determined the extent of the financial burden he would constitute are abandoning him for a more viable, financially stable political actor.
However, it appears the scales would still not fall off his eyes any time soon. He may soon port to the next available political party for the fulfilment of the prophecies. This would be his hubris, and by the time he would understand the consequences, he could have mortgaged even his mattresses and kitchen utensils for loan to service his hirelings and “alleluia” boys. The catharsis for his actions would be a soul searching in the woods of Eha Amufu as a subsistence farmer.
Dr. Asadu Idigi, a public affairs analyst, writes from Nsukka
