A Political Primer of Kleptocracy in Nigeria

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” Like many of his pained compatriots, Sonala Olumhense, one of Nigeria’s most committed and politically engaged literary notables, would have nodded in warm approval of Karl Marx’s famous dictum.

If a nation insists on going round in circles, history must repeat itself. Just as it happened the first time around and despite its equally enviable strides in many departments, particularly fiscal discipline and relative public sanity, a fundamental failure of politics is beginning to haunt the second coming of the iron general from Daura. There is an eerie and chilling feeling of Déjà vu in the air.

If history teaches us anything at all, it is that it doesn’t teach the Nigerian political class anything. Towards the end of 1984, Stanley Macebuh, unarguably one of the greatest public communicators that Nigeria has produced, published one of his finely honed, elegantly cadenced pieces urging the then Buhari administration to level up with fellow Nigerians in order to avoid a rupture of affection.

Titled, Barricade At Dodan Barracks—or something close to that, it was a passionate plea for the open society against the military instincts of habitual secrecy and lack of transparency in the conduct of public affairs. Months earlier, this columnist had written a piece countermanding a purported military ban on seminars by the Buhari administration, insisting that he was heading for the next available seminar. It was titled, A Seminar to end all Seminars.

Matters are coming to a dangerous head once again. This past week, Sonala Olumhense took the Buhari administration to the cleaners in a well-syndicated piece. Apocalyptically titled The End of Buhari, and the APC, it was a blistering Philippic rumbling with bile and rage against General Buhari and his acolytes.

This is political divorce, Nigerian style: messy and traumatic. It is a hostile and implacable putdown, bristling with invectives and mournful brio. A former ardent fan of the regime, it is obvious that the Edo-born writer is bitterly disappointed with an administration that rode to power on the cusp of huge public approval and general goodwill.

Let the truth now be told. The government will be deceiving itself if it thinks that Sonala is in the minority. There are thousands of affronted patriots who feel exactly the same way as Sonala, disappointed by the pace and paucity of achievement of a government they have supported against all odds. But this is the time to put on our thinking caps once again. There are many out there who still root for the Buhari regime and its glum regimen if only for its determined bid to rid Nigeria of economic leeches no matter how awkward and inconsistent this may appear.

Sonala writes with severity and caustic candour, which recalls Karl Marx himself at his most savagely contemptuous. One can imagine the great German philosopher writing about the historical and sociological aberration called Nigeria with his face contorted with rage and a bitterly ironic grimace.

But there are many close enough to the ringside and unfolding events to sense that what lies beyond the hazy horizon is an even messier and more sinister meltdown, if the situation is not handled with the caution and the statesmanlike clarity it deserves. With weak state institutions and a weaker civil society, the coming Black Spring in Nigeria may eventuate in renewed civilian dictatorship as we have seen in Egypt and Tunisia or anarchic chaos and the reign of warlords as it is the current lot of post-Ghaddafi Libya.

In many parts of the nation, our youths are already on the streets and the poor are bitterly and hungrily awake. Demography and number are now with them.Yet in Nigeria it is not only with political history that events repeat themselves. They do so with political letters too. In Nigeria, politics and fiction are Siamese twins conjoined and shadowing each other.

In 2005, snooper wrote a piece in which he foresaw a fancifully attired DSP Alamieyeseigha slipping his captors’ mooring in England and arriving in his parlous and deprived state capital to a heroic and tumultuous welcome. The ink had hardly dried when futuristic fiction became immediate and compelling reality. Lo, the rogue former Squadron Leader had actually arrived in Yenagoa to wild applause.

Last week, it was the turn of another Niger Delta political warlord: James Ibori. The crowd of native well-wishers was in an even more festive and adulating mood. The boyish-looking but famously deadly political master of the creeks could not have chosen a more poignant and devastating entrée. It was a time General Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade appeared stalled and demobilized with critical question marks put on its probity, impartiality and integrity.

Five years ago as the Ibori political saga unfolded, this column wrote a piece titled Escobar comes to Escavos. We republish the piece this morning before coming to grips with kleptocracy in Nigeria and the inevitable Nubian Spring.