The clarinet, clarinetist and conductor

Nigerians are weary of the conductor. He seems to have lost the goodwill that brought him to office. He probably assumed, and wrongly so, that personality alone, a strong one, was all that was needed for office. Harry Truman was not a charismatic leader, but look at what he achieved for the United States. Great leaders move away from directing policies from an Olympian height to engaging in the drudgery of office. They do not make the mistake, oft-repeated by Charles de Gaulle, the French general who led the war efforts against Nazi Germany in the Second World War. The conductor was quoted to have said on inauguration day that, ‘I am for everybody, I belong to nobody.’ He has to belong to somebody (his political party) but must work for everybody (Nigeria).

Trouble started when a clarinetist, against party rule, wanted to be the chief-player of the clarinet reserved for party men in a house. The clarinetist had the ambition of becoming the third most powerful leader in the eighth assembly. And when he got his way, against all established political norms, the conductor said nothing. Goodness gracious me. The trouble of the conductor started that day.

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How is this clarinetist even different from the conductor? He seems to think he is. They both only enjoy governmental patronage; they are not as politically deft as they want Nigerians to believe. I dare the clarinetist to decamp to a less-well-known political party and see if he will win the ward election in his locality.

Why should Nigerians suffer on the account of these types of political people and I mean no disrespect. Do they not read the works of great political persons in history? How come they behave like clumsy-beginners in politics and embarrass Nigerians who are  hurting, needing food, shelter, jobs and protection?

Suddenly mergers of political parties are the solutions to our problems. Little wonder many defectors, long before they decamped, pried the lid off the manifesto of the opposing camp to see what they offer, not to expand their own manifesto to improve the lot of Nigerians but to enable them decamp at a moment’s notice.

How sad? The most natural thing to do in politics, and with power, is to help people in need, this must come naturally to politicians but it appears to be an art that needs to be learned by people who have chosen politics as a career. Now I get it, it is a career and not a vocation and so it doesn’t summon them.

No wonder the clarinetist is hostile, even to a party that threw him up. What a drollery? And so-called mighty persons celebrate this drollery.

Where does this leave the clarinet? The clarinet is beat-up, so sad and disappointed at both the clarinetist and the conductor and is asking to be anaesthetized. Why wouldn’t the ‘clarinet. The clarinetist and the conductor obviously need coaches to run to for help to deal with their weakness but they wouldn’t because they think themselves wise and not learners.

Simon Abah,  Abuja