Ayade’s lamentations

IN the course of last week, the grief of the verbose former governor of Cross River, Professor Ben Ayade, over his political conservatorship in the hands of his handler and president, Bola Tinubu, boiled over. He cried out.

Ordinarily, politicians should not deserve anyone’s compassion, particularly former governors. Only a few of them do not wear the god complex like a badge of honour in office. In fact, whenever any of them is agonising, especially over forced political seclusion, exclusion and imposed segregation from the mainstream, knowing their high-handedness while in power, mocking their seeming deserving retribution should be seen to be in order.

Because that is what God Himself will do.

Psalm 2: 1-5 says “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing.

The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, ‘let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us’.

“He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath and vex them in His sore displeasure.”

Was it not the same Ayade as governor that used the Nigerian police to arrest and detain a journalist, Agba Jalingo, for 179 days? And even when his no-case submission succeeded at the trial court and he was discharged and acquitted of the cyberstalking case brought against him by the Ayades, the family of the former governor wouldn’t back off, still using the ever-available-for-a-fee Nigerian police. Just in March this year, police curiously “succeeded” at the Court of Appeal and the intermediate court remitted the matter back to the Federal High Court for retrial, despite the accused being earlier freed of the criminal defamation charge. Curious, isn’t it? Well, the journo is challenging the ruling at the Supreme Court. The official target put on the journalist’s back by the Ayades has been running now for almost four years.

The report termed as cyberbullying by the Ayades was even about his in-law, wife of his brother, and the then-god of Calabar felt he should prove his omni-whatever.

But the Ayade lamenting his treatment by Tinubu as a political invalid and electoral liability in a mere senatorial race, isn’t anything near lion-heartedness again. His tigritude seems to have disappointed and disappeared from him. He can no longer pounce or even bark. He whines now, like a cornered cat.

He “wept” about his three-year forced hiatus from political patronage from the centre. And now, the same Abuja which he surrendered his political future and fortune to, has also kicked him to the kerb in a senatorial race he thought would bring him back to the ruling party’s mainstream. He has become a yesterday’s horse rider whom nobody steps out of the way for as a mark of reverence. It seems someone somewhere wants him very derelict before rescue and rehabilitation.

Maybe it is good for yesterday’s men of means and leverage to taste the hopelessness and helplessness their greed and ill will towards the masses foster upon the populace. Just three years of forced disconnect from the trough of people’s wealth and sob stories are everywhere. And to think Ayade is just 58 and had even been elected to the same Senate for four years before his two terms as governor, making a total of unbroken 12 years in public office at both legislative and executive levels. What should a man want again? With his solid academic background, why can’t Ayade see going back to the classroom to give back, as a better means of impacting humanity? Must it be politics and public office? Did he accumulate all those degrees, including a switch between pure science and law, to while time away in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly, which has become somewhat of a hospice for former governors, mostly with troubling ailments that keep them away from plenary for months while on medical vacations abroad, missing crucial votes on urgent national matters? But, well, they are mostly in the ruling party and completely untouchable.

And it isn’t even that the Bible-quoting Benedict (the ex-Gov’s full first name) is a political powerhouse anymore. While rounding off his gubernatorial jaunt, he was badly trounced by Jarigbe Agom for the Cross River North senatorial seat. Now, as an electoral nobody, how did he plan to change the outcome of his planned rematch? The president weighed his “home boy” and realised he’s got no weight. He brought an “outsider” in Agom to come and fly the party’s flag. And our man’s tear ducts burst at the seams.

READ ALSO: I still carry scars from defending Cross River’s sovereignty — Ben Ayade

I find a particular line intriguing in Ayade’s lamentations: “I dare not question his (referring to Tinubu) authority, but I challenge his conscience. According to 1 Timothy 5:18, the labourer deserves his wages. Therefore, I am worthy of a reward.”

Brother Benedict, only God is unquestionable (Daniel 4:35-36), and even the scripture is about God’s sovereignty, not that reasons for a thing can’t be sought from Him. Making gods out of men like you sound here is why privileged and graced mortals beareth rule over the less fortunate, like their Maker. If you are still relevant enough in just a third of the whole space you once governed, you won’t need a man to decree your political future either into relevance or obscurity. Nigeria is a multi-party democracy still, despite the unmitigated and unmistaken efforts to have a “sole” presidential candidate heading into the 2027 contest. For you to lose the same contest as the incumbent governor is all one needs to conclude on your political capital. It doesn’t weigh much.

Then, the part of a labourer deserving his wages! Certainly, Brother Benedict was serving a reminder to his leader about his investment in the 2023 presidential run that brought the Tinubu presidency to be. In the year preceding the said election when Ayade claimed to lead the investors in the making of the Tinubu presidency, he was still governor. Can he claim in good conscience he wasn’t using the state resources, which would mean every day Cross Riverians making the “investment” just through him and not him exactly? Why must it be him that must be rewarded for it?

Even if Ayade thinks he is the labourer that is due, not being patronised by the centre in three years would put him in good but sad company with numerous APC faithful foot soldiers who did the “soiling” works of 2023 with nothing to show for their efforts today.

In fewer words, Ayade has confirmed his party has no reward culture. A dramatic placard-carrying ex-investor was on a solo protest to the party headquarters last week, lamenting the ruins of his personal fortune, following his no-yield investment in APC and the making of the Tinubu presidency.

It doesn’t seem anything will change dramatically and drastically in 2027 despite the promise of the party’s national chairman, NentaweYilwatda, that future patronage would prioritise members of the party. I have a big brother in Ibadan who is also Ijesa. Reading this, he would likely do to Nentawe’s promise what the street would capture as “yinmu” (sneering); the twitching of the nose to express scepticism and pessimism. APC has happened to him severally, as a top financial member of the party. Now as a retiree, he manages his finances, keeping away from mainstream APC politics, while channelling his energy and knowledge into humanity advancement.

He rebuilt. The placard carrier should, too.

He changed course. Ayade can, too.

Let my “egbon”, Ayade, the placard carrier and the multitude without a voice, serve as eni jin si koto (the one in the pit) didacticism for the rest, resting their survival hope on political patronage. Imagine if someone who served at the national convention level wasn’t remembered or properly remunerated. A word should be enough for those who will choose wisdom.

But the Yoruba will say “ka b’eran wi, ka b’eran wi” (blame should be proportionally apportioned). The blight of “use and dump” on Tinubu’s political garment should not follow him to his grave, though history has recorded huge political philanthropism for him, which some past beneficiaries now term as “using”. Some of his old lieutenants souring on him would readily tell you “Asiwaju (the President) won’t do anything free for you in politics. He is likely targeting something you are going to be useful for”. This stance is open to debate because the alleged beneficiaries of the “using” have also tapped into his political philanthropy, even if self-serving, to grow their résumé. The Yoruba will say “gbafun Gbada nile, ni gbafun Gbada loko” (life is about give and take). But what isn’t in doubt is the President always known to operate a tight-knit orbit as a private citizen and even still as Nigeria’s number one citizen. Almost all the sensitive national positions are filled with those he has always known and worked with. So why should I work for you then as a new faithful if those who have always been around will be the beneficiaries of my sweat? If my commitment is seen primarily as transactional which is settled on the spot of delivery, why should anyone demand my loyalty? Is it not the main reason dibo ko sebe (vote buying) has been normalised in our electoral system? Everything is viewed from the prism of Mr Giwa is a trader. Office seekers seek votes to buy. Once financially drained, they get into office to replenish. The willing-to-sell voters too take what is available when eyes are still red from desperation to win and have now conditioned themselves to the every four-year bazaar. In-between election cycles, they become lepers the office holders won’t want to see or associate with. Seasonal transactional relational! Period.

In Lagos, with all the mobilisation and moving people from Ogun State (I say this because it was done around me), for a fee, Lagos APC today has a little over 800,000 party members! This is the President’s state with over seven million registered voters and over 22 million residents! That must communicate something to the Nigerian leader. We are talking about his backyard. Resorting to rent-a-crowd for his events is a shame he should no longer bear. Before giving marching orders to close allies like James Faleke to expand the party base in the state, he should lead by example by allowing those who have worked at the pepe (altar) to eat therein. Maybe that is why he lost the state to an outsider in 2023 and possibly not because his governor played away.

You selling your belongings (which many would think foolishness, though the fellow should please not commit suicide) to fund someone’s political aspiration without a definite agreement on recompense, is simply baffling. Even selling to fund your own aspiration still isn’t too sensible, but whosoever is done good and capable of repaying should not reach for evil. The Word of God talks of chilling consequence in Proverbs 17:13.

On one point, I agree with Brother Benedict. The scripture he quoted about labourers deserving their wages is God’s viewpoint and for those labourers to be expectant is also scriptural.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:21 that where a man’s treasure is, is where his heart will be also.

But God’s position doesn’t include the kind of Ben’s greed. In fact, Proverbs 15:27 is very certain about his kind.