I totally disagree with Wole Soyinka that President Jonathan is Nebuchadnezzar. No way at all. There is no semblance at all except in the creative imagination of the literary giant. What’s the evidence?
That he allowed the police to try to block the gate to the National Assembly or that he recognized a faction of the Governors’ Forum of 16 members as against that with 19 members?
No, those are not sufficient travesties at all to associate our meek president with an arrogant and pagan warrior like the biblical King Nebuchadnezzar. By the way, it was refreshing to hear the erudite professor quote the Bible.
I accept that our president has his weaknesses, real and perceived, and also that as the president and commander-in-chief, the buck stops on his table. But why was the National Assembly, especially the House of Representatives, able to sit on that fateful day?
Was it because they overcame the police with force? Why were those ‘honourable’ members who scaled the gate like ‘bandits’ and who had their ‘finest day’, according to the professor, not pushed back or shot at?
What would have happened if any of these happened? What name would we have called the president then? If ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ were the president of Nigeria, ‘cunny man’ Tambuwal would never have succeeded in his ‘coup’ against his party to become speaker, not to talk of remaining in the position till date.
Even Obasanjo and many of our democratic poster men – Asiwaju, Turaki, uncommon transformer, Comrade and CRA – would never have allowed it, not to talk of Nebuchadnezzar. That is the bitter truth. If ‘Nebuchadnezzar’ were president of Nigeria, all those men who promised to make the country ungovernable would be in jail at the minimum by now.
You could not try that with APC presidential hopeful Muhammadu Buhari! If ‘Nebuchadnezzar ‘ were president, he could never declare a state of emergency in three states and leave the governors and all the political structures in place.
Even the current ‘national oracle of politics and leadership’, Olusegun Obasanjo, would not have allowed this. For sure, when Soyinka was head of the Pyrates Confraternity or head of the Federal Road Safety Corps, he would not have crossed his hands and watched his officers gang up to overthrow him or cast his support for any rebellious group so that the world would call him ‘Saint Wole’.
To the best of my knowledge, no leader anywhere in the world will support a group which is bent on working against his ambition or resisting his authority. Some governors were leading a rebellion against the president and his ambition and interest and we wanted him to be quiet or support them to achieve their aim? Only Jesus could do that!
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