The people of Edo State now have a Praecursor as governor. Governor Monday Okpebholo’s sycophancy has become the exemplum primarium. By his recent order to his commissioners, aides and acolytes on the cap they must wear should they wear one, his servility has now hit the main road. He has jumped ceremoniously on that Sycophancy Road which many in our political space had been skillfully avoiding. In this current journey of political sycophancy in Nigeria, many have been treading on the sidewalk. But Governor Okpebholo shed all garbs of pretense by that instruction and threat, and decided to brazenly walk on the main road tactfully avoided by others in this group.
Governor Okpebholo is a trailblazer of some sort, but we would still class him only after the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio. These men act like they would gladly follow suit if President Bola Ahmed Tinubu decides to transform his dressing to the soutane. And, that time, they would definitely go beyond changing just their respective headgears. This might be symbolic or, if you like, symptomatic, but it also points to a narrative similar to what we had during Ahmed Lawan, who once boasted that whatever Muhammadu Buhari brought before his Senate would be expressly approved.
Senator Akpabio is among those walking on the pavement of unalloyed sycophancy. By his headgears, he is not treading on the main road like Okpebholo, and through this technique, he has created the façade that he is a man of his own in Nigeria’s upper legislative chamber. The posturing is that the Nigerian legislature is independent. Akpabio also recruited the governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umoh Eno. Through a tactic similar to Akpabio’s, Governor Eno is maintaining his outer visage but the whole world knows that inside, his true colour is unmitigated Tinubu.
The Tinubu-fawning by Okpebholo has heightened interest among the people of Edo State. A lot of the people in and outside of Edo State are seething, and this is even among those who stoutly support Okpebholo. They are wondering where this new road would lead both their man and the state in the immediate and near future. There are worries in parts of Edo State that if their dear governor had been dressing the way he does now before his election, there would not have been any form of complaint. His visage would have been registered in their minds.
However, a look at Okpebholo’s official portrait tells a different story, and now there are suggestions that he might also need to change that photograph. Also caught in the web of that suggestion are all those who have chosen to maintain their looks but alter everything else about themselves in a bid to appear more suitable as a preferred sycophant.
Governor Okpebohlo, in his magisterial sycophancy, is the same man who has triggered some kind of revolt in some markets in Edo State. He has willfully done this through both his action and inaction on the shenanigans going on in the hitherto quiet markets in the capital city of his state. The governor implicitly aided the current chaos in that sub-sector of the state’s economy through giving Pastor Mrs Josephine Ehis Ibhaguezejele the wings to fly above the instructions of the Oba of Benin. Pastor Ibhaguezejele has been emboldened to go against the instructions of the Oba by Okpebholo’s sycophancy.
The Omo n’Oba n’Edo Ewuare II had to speak by himself on the matter. He told how they do there as per the culture and tradition of the Edo people. He reiterated that there is nothing like Iyeki-general in his kingdom and told his visitor, the ‘Iyaloja-General of Nigeria’ to ask questions. Despite that, Mrs. Ibhaguezejele went to kneel before Mrs Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to receive a crown as the Iyeki-General of Edo State, leading thirty-one other women. She said she was carrying out the instruction of the governor of Edo State to bring all the market leaders under one umbrella and make them comply with the political dictates of the party in power in Edo State. Governor Okpebholo, therefore, has completely jettisoned the culture and tradition of the people he is governing. He has chosen to damn all the consequences of standing against a people for ephemeral sycophancy.
While the Edo stew is cooking, the Nigerian Senate is about to decide on who among its 109 distinguished members it would send to the United States to interface with their colleagues in that country. It is all about a bill – Senate Bill 2747 – currently before the US Senate, which would have serious economic and sundry implications for Nigeria and, more profoundly for some Nigerians.
But Senator Akpabio, in a bid to help this move to formally react to that contentious bill by Senator Ted Cruz, left the leprosy to treat the ringworm. Rather than stick to the grave allegation of Christian genocide in Nigeria as raised by the US senator, Akpabio resorted to unwholesome comparison of killings in the country. He went as far as citing an example of IPOB and its activities in the South East. His argument isn’t that killings are happening but that it is happening to everyone everywhere in the country – Christians and all.
This isn’t a good comparison, and it left the issue to highlight sycophancy. What are the facts? What the facts say are better than a blanket comparison of our episodes of insecurity. Nigeria has meandered for too long from one argument to another on insecurity, and we have constantly transited from one name to another in a bid to define what the American senators named what suits them. Should we now resort to sycophancy in dealing with the insecurity that has dragged us out in the most unpleasant manner? Our representatives can surely do better.
One argument that has ringed very loud is that the frantic reaction by top Nigerians has a lot to do with the recommendations made in the bill by the American senator. When one thinks deeply about the bill, can we say with that the whole issue about the bill starts and ends with the proposed embargo of the government officials if implicated in the alleged Christian genocide? For me, it is a no. The sanctions, etc. have not ruffled the feathers of our leaders as much as the proposition that the president of the United States shall impose sanctions prescribed in Executive Order 13818. That executive order signed by Trump in his first tenure in 2017 says the US shall impose visa ban, freezing of accounts of those listed or identified in a report captured by that law.
The proposed actions could bite really hard, and they require more than mere propaganda and sycophancy to explain. The US officials claim to have a report upon which Cruz’s bill is based. While this has unsettled many Nigerians, it also calls for a serious action on the part of those who had something to do with the government in the last 10 years. They have to do a lot more than sycophancy to prove that indeed, there hasn’t been Christian genocide in Nigeria. Our officials are fighting tooth and nail to kill that bill. If it cannot be killed, the bill must be brought into disrepute – and by extension, its sponsors and the US Senate.
While we whine and complain about what they have indirectly called us, we must also remember that both the name and the reputation of Ted Cruz on the one hand, and the reputation of the American Senate on the other hand, are also on the line in this venture. As we expect a serious blight on many people who have influence in Nigeria, if the Americans have their way, there would also be the same consequence if they fail. Thus, the bill has dire consequences for both the promoter and the target. That is why we must eschew sycophancy in the fight to restore our reputation in the raging fight. It might also halt whatever progress we are making under President Bola Tinubu.
But are we sincere in all of these? The UAE convicted some Nigerians for terrorism in their country. What did we do with the conviction and its aftermath? Sheikh Ahmad Gumi was denied entry into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for hajj recently. Why was he deported? Why was the deportation treated as if it has no meaning? President Tinubu is indeed a very lucky man. He has a complete array of bootlickers to choose from. But he must be careful because some of them might drag his government through the mud as they are currently dragging themselves.