By Femi ODERE
I have since concluded that if one is to learn to have a glimmer of understanding of the mores, morals, traditions, belief systems, as well as the idiosyncrasies that shape us as a people and define our true essence, the National Assembly is a perfect observatory.
Short of physically spending one’s time in the natural habitats of other ethnic nationalities (which is practically impossible) to have appreciable understanding of their essence and those stated and unstated sociocultural nuances that are responsible for seeing the world around them differently from how an ‘outsider’ sees the same world, the National Assembly, which is the Third Arm of government in a representative democracy is a veritable bastion.
The National Assembly is a place to be for those who are desirous of knowing more about other people because there are hardly any ethnic and sub ethnic groups that are not represented either in the command echelon of the legislative sanctrum, or the mid-level bureaucratic fortress of civil servants and political appointees, or the low-level support staff and other janitorial services. It is a repository of all ethnic nationalities.
For me, it was a no-brainer when the opportunity presented itself that one’s second journey as a public servant must continue with the Third Estate of the Realm that I must actively extend a hand of friendship to other ethnic nationalities outside my own, considering my shortcoming in understanding, at least to some extent, the sociocultural nuances that make others tick, having spent a huge chunk of my adult life in the so-called advanced country.
The desire to have some handshakes across the Niger, as the saying goes, became particularly compelling for me because this is the first time that an authentic president of Yoruba extraction with intimidating progressive credentials with which the southwest region is well known is presiding over the affairs of the Nigerian nation.
In a nation whose people’s governance experience has largely been conservative, even a tad short of religious fundamentalism, it may not be out of place for them to appear dazed and disoriented as they’re being redirected by a completely new progressive governance template by someone who emphatically said, “Emi Lokan.” Some people who never imagined that a period like this would come are therefore probably going to wonder what manner of man is this “Emi Lokan” ‘father’ and his n’gbati ‘children’ who seems to have invaded the Federal Capital Territory because their “Emi Lokan” ‘father’ is in the saddle as he continues to affect Nigeria in ways never imagined nor thought possible.
To be sure, a friendship with His Excellency Senator Orji Uzoh Kalu (APC, Abia North) was the furthest from my mind, having formed a not-so-endearing opinion of him, based on my unscientific and unempirical analysis, just as I have done with some of the country’s major political players that I’m now beginning to back pedal after my interaction with some of them. In the case of Senator Kalu, an interview during a TV program where he spoke glowingly of President Tinubu and defended his policies vehemently changed my negative perception of him that I had to walk into his office the following day to confess my ‘sins’ against him.
The conversation, or should I say, the lecture that ensured that day of his deep and long-standing relationship with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the extent that Senator Kalu was instrumental to saving the then Governor of Lagos State from being ‘felled’ by then President Olusegun Obasanjo’s sword, while the other five governors in the region were not so lucky, was mind boggling. “Obasanjo never forgave me for that until he made sure he sent me to jail,” Senator Kalu said without any hint of bitterness. And time he did serve.
It was also in the course of taking me down memory lane in this long-standing friendship with Asiwaju that Senator Kalu told me his son lived with then Governor Tinubu in his Bourdillon redoubt. It was a spirited conversation in which I asked him why he left the southeast wide open for a fake Peter Obi to politically desecrate the region. And he offered an explanation. It was a teachable moment that once again lent credence to the saying never to judge a book by its cover. We have become friends ever since, as the senator would sometimes tell me his whereabouts and share pertinent information with me. Senator Kalu’s heart is pure.
This purity of heart came in a multidimensional technicolor on his 65th birthday with an 8:55-minute video clip he shared with me some days ago. What Senator Kalu said in the video reflects how his mind works and the things he holds dear to his heart now that he’s about to start the third and probably the last phase of his sourjoun on Mother Earth.
The speech reflects an inwardly bound joyful personage as well as what can be termed as unedifying sociopolitical and economic conditions of his immediate environment that seem in perpetual conflict with his soul.
The speech has two major components. One component (macro) has three compartments while the other component (micro) has two compartments. Developments are in the two compartments, while redress is in the third.
His unseen interviewer started off by asking him why he was in China and not Nigeria to celebrate his 65th birthday. Senator Kalu, whose fundamental objectives and the directive principles of his very essence is business, says in no unmistakable terms that his new business project is a cashew nuts factory which has started “semi-production” in his Igbere homestead in Abia North Senatorial district.
He said he was in the Asian country because major players in the industry had converged in China for a global show that coincided with his birth date. The development of Igbere, probably a sleepy town in Abia, is now very dear to him because he wants to spend the rest of his life in “making life better” for his people.
The other developmental compartment, which is probably uppermost in the senator’s mind, considering how he keeps revisiting the subject matter even after he has satisfactorily made his point, is indicative of his inordinate passion to see Nigeria attain her developmental aspiration in his lifetime. Using the several innovations and the ingenuity of his people during the civil war as anecdotal evidence, Senator Kalu was on point when he quipped that nations that went through wars either with themselves or with others has always used the experience to kickstart their developmental aspirations.
But the Nigerian nation, notorious for its self-inflicted injuries and unforced errors, not to mention the fact that it is always snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at every turn, is an exception. He harped further on our inexcusable development deficits when he let it be known that, as someone who has traveled all over the world, no country has turned the developmental corner whose citizens are smarter than Nigerians, including the G7 countries. He’s absolutely correct.
Perhaps the big elephant in the room, which was almost an addendum, is his reminder to Nigerians that the Igbo ethnic group is the worst treated in the Nigerian nation.
While the veracity of the senator’s claim may be difficult to disprove, one wonders if the Igbos themselves have ever done any self-reflection and self-criticism about the methodologies and stratagems with which they engage other ethnic nationalities for a more conducive sociopolitical space in the polity. Far from telling a people how they should feel, this self-criticism, one would wager, is extremely important. After all, it is said that doing the same things over and over and expecting a different outcome is the height of madness. The Yoruba also say that if you’re pointing a finger at someone, you should also be aware of how many fingers are pointing at you.
Senator Kalu’s reiteration that the Igbo didn’t cause the civil war, perhaps taking a cue from General Ibrahim Babangida’s “A Journey in Service,” with all due respect, may not be a good way to make a case about his people’s involvement in the needless war. If the Igbos are not responsible for the civil war, who then is? Babangida is a permanently damaged Nigerian leader with no credibility whatsoever to change the narrative of the civil war. He will probably remain in his maradonic element until he breathes his last. The yet-to-close civil war chapter is, it seems to me, a huge component of the Igbo Question. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission is never too late.
Perhaps a good starting point in finding a lasting answer to the Igbo Question, which is, in actuality, a subset of the seemingly intractable National Question, is the 6-States solution for the Igbo nationality if we must be fair.
The micro component of Senator Kalu’s speech is his admonition to the financially endowed and privileged Nigerians to think and do more for the poor in our society while reminding all of us that we should let love reign supreme in our dealings with one another because LOVE conquers all.
About what he thinks is the definition of success at 65, Senator Kalu cannot be any more profound than that when he said that success should be defined by the number of people one pulls up and never to be determined by the amount of money one has. One hopes that someone will send the senator’s video to former Senator Dino Melaye.
Following your grandmother’s counsel that whoever celebrates another man equally celebrates himself, this treatise is my own way of celebrating you on your 65th birthday.
Happy belated birthday, Your Excellency.
May your days be long!
Femi Odere is a media practitioner and a Senior Legislative Aide (Stakeholders’ Engagement and Mobilization) to the Senate President.