I write this without prejudice to the freedom of individuals to exercise their personal partisan political preferences.
That notwithstanding, Peter Obi’s rationale for declaring ADC’s candidate perfect for the vacant Onitsha North 1 Anambra State legislative seat, justifies my apprehension concerning the cognitive deficiency of much of Nigeria’s leadership.
Looking back at the intellectual character of our leaders in 1960 – Azikiwe, Balewa, Awolowo, Mbu, Ibiam and many more – one might have easily assumed that sixty years later, the new leaders should have vastly improved in cerebral terms.
By the logical extension and progression of the evolution of species, the leaders of today should normally have evolved into near-geniuses.
Unfortunately, it seems that, just as the quality of the leaders has regressed, so the civic mentality of the citizenry has achieved an optimum capacity for reverse acceleration.
No wonder when a huge swathe of them claim that some specific persons are great leaders, a meditative bystander would be flabbergasted, wondering exactly why and how on earth they could possibly have arrived at such an incongruous conclusion!
Last December, the ADC’s aspirant had the gross misfortune of having been widowed by way of the tragic and regrettable death of her husband, at the hands of gunmen.
Just before then, the hapless young man was a legislator in the Anambra House of Assembly, competently representing the Constituency that is presently in contention.
Up then steps the widow to contest the seat, which she does have every right to. This is especially so in our locality, where legislative, intellectual or political experience is almost unnecessary for people, who aspire to legislative or political service.
Nevertheless, it still makes sense that where two or more contestants are gathered to vie for any position as important as legislative responsibility, a decent measure of relevant experience or proclivity should be the prime consideration.
From my exasperated observation of contemporary Nigerian sociopolitics, it would appear that Obi is put forward by a cross-section as a front-runner for apex national leadership. This surely makes me squirm and sigh in wistful nostalgia, leaving me pining for those heady days of erudite leaders prior to 1960 and a little afterwards.
Be that as it may, since we can neither reinvent the wheel nor change the things we cannot, let us for one minute (not a moment more, please!) take it that Obi is indeed that hoped-for leader of some people’s make-believe.
In that case, any person with a modicum of cerebrum, would imagine that any utterances emanating from such a character, should tick the boxes of sagacity, rationale and at least, a little didactic sophistication.
Obi boldly and unequivocally pronounced the candidate as suitable for the Assembly by reason of the passing of her spouse, as if legislative acumen is sexually transmissible
That should ordinarily have been shocking but it definitely does not come as such to me, having been following the circus of the past couple of years, with some people so desperate for a Messiah that they have to fabricate one.
Impudently, the fictional superhero, in all his supreme vacuousness, even went on to gaslight those who pointed out the candidate’s utter lack of pertinent antecedent, brazenly suggesting that such people were ruthless, pitiless, remorseless and heartless.
It did not occur to him that such people were only pointing out the obvious and therein lies the pity.
Instead, he implicitly nominated himself as that proverbial knight in shining armour, coming to the rescue of the poor damsel in distress.
To the dispassionate observer, his assertions are typically corny, a trademark excercise in ingratiating banality.
In this reptilian manner, he has quite cunningly seduced many willing denizens, the way a number of infamous demagogues have done, especially in the South East.
By extrapolation, the wife of a murdered carpenter should immediately be handed a hammer and saw, chisel and pinches.
With that, she may proceed to complete the furniture that her dearly departed beloved had been constructing. The non-existence of apprenticeship or understudy is no object.
By the way, how about poor Jacqueline Kennedy, who was right besides her darling John, when Lee Harvey Oswald shot at his brains as they drove through downtown Dallas, Texas that fateful day in 1963?
She should surely have been sworn in as the 36th President of the United States the next day, if they had heeded in advance, the future wisdom of the Third World’s Saint Peter.
Just maybe though, the Americans ignored him because they suspected that being Peter, with his heart hewn out of rock, he would have thrice denied them before the cock crowed at dawn
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