He Bowed, Trembled and Prostrated

Engagements with Chidi Amuta

The dramatic tradition of present day Nigerian politicians is to be located in the murky zone of tragi -comedy, farce and cruel irony. Because we are dealing with the erosion of a whole national ethos, even those tempted to laugh at our political comedy end up weeping for Nigeria in its descent into irretrievable calamity.

Just think of the most recent show of shame trending in the social media. The governor of a very consequential state in the South-east was on full display. At first, people thought that what lay sprawling on the floor before President Tinubu was a masquerade draped in ruby red Ishi Agu fabric. Not quite. it was a groveling bundle of the governor of Anambra State on all fours prostrating to greet an elated President Tinubu seated in magisterial and imperial fullness to acknowledge the lowly groveler. The collection of state officials in attendance were a bit taken aback perhaps that the heap on the floor was not just the governor of Anambra state but also a renowned professor of economics and former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. He is probably the recipient of any number of traditional titles from communities across the nation that should ordinarily make it unlikely for him to bow let alone prostrate in public to greet the President or any other entity. But Governor Soludo is too far gone on his road to political suicide and perdition to see reality with rational eyes.

Of course, we are in a democracy and freedom is the watchword. Professor Soludo has a right to greet the president or anyone in any pose- standing, bent over, kneeling, bowing or bent double in order to adequately convey his obeisance or political mendacity. He could even strip naked if that would help his cause and impress his masters.

But he is acting in the context of a society with values and accepted norms. A president is not a monarch or representative of a deity. Some traditional monarchs expect everybody who appears in their court to show a traditional form of respect to their office. Some require visiting subjects to bow, kneel or, in extreme cases, prostrate. These traditions are location specific and often discretionary. In the South-west, those who visit the courts of the Ooni of Ife or Alafin of Oyo may find themselves politely compelled to prostrate in polite compliance with tradition. This requirement of course exempts visiting presidents, governors as sovereign heads.

In these observances of traditional courtesy and good manners, the unstated fact is the superiority of constitutional authority over traditional cultural authority. Presidents and governors supersede traditional rulers and even appoint or confer authority on them.

The relationship between the federal, state and local government tiers is different. It is defined by an order of sovereign precedence which however is taken care of by order of protocol and not by mode of greeting. A local government chairman should not bow or prostrate to greet a governor just as a state governor is not expected to bow or prostrate before the President. To do so is to devalue the sovereign status of the state and confuse the status of the President with that of a traditional ruler or king.

In the specific instance of Governor Soludo, we are dealing with a quaint political obeisance and quisling tendency gone south. In the specifics of Igbo tradition, Soludo’s show of shame is gross cultural sin. He is wearing a costume made from ruby red Ishi Agu fabric, a metaphor of heroism among the Igbo. He is the emblematic head and hero of a sub sovereign entity- Anambra State. He was elected on the platform of a different party -APGA. The president is visiting his domain. In his home base Igbo tradition, a Dike (hero) doe not belittle his leadership and communal symbolism by openly displaying a sense of lowly defeat to a visitor no matter their status.

We must contextualize Soludo’s recent dramatics. It is all pitted in the politics of presidential succession. Soludo and the likes of Umahi and other select elite of South-east origins. The current scramble is all about who will sit at the right hand side of the APC presidential dais. It is about which Igbo politician will jostle for vantage position in the next Tinubu cabinet in order to control enough visibility to eye the presidential advantage in the future.

Forget about the foolish time calculations: After Tinubu’s next 4 years, an APC northerner will step in for another 8 years and prepare the grounds for an Igbo candidate to negotiate his way up to the presidential dais! What foolish projection and servile politicking!

In the context of this foolish calculation, the likes of Soludo and Umahi are busy queuing around the APC and Tinubu, clinging to the fringes of Tinubu’s over sized ill-fitting garments. Soludo has jumped into the APC sagging gravy train. In addition to openly campaigning for Tinubu’s re-election, he has recently been appointed into the APC Campaign Council alongside the likes of Nyesom Wike and Governor Adeleke of Osun State.

The political harlotry of a Soludo stands out in bold relief because he is the governor of Peter Obi’s home state. In this regard, he has pioneered the weaponization of the Anambra state bureaucracy to deflate and diminish Peter Obi’s record of performance as Anambra state governor. As it is, Soludo and Umahi have monopolized the de-marketing of Peter Obi as presidential candidate. They found out something: in Peter Obi’s 8 years as Anambra State governor, he is said to have borrowed some money to run the government, not to put in his pocket! The said loan was fully paid before he left office.

However, sad as it is, our politics remains governed by regional and ethnic arithmetic. It is therefore inappropriate for politicians from the South East zone to pioneer the opposition to Mr. Peter Obi’s presidential aspiration. It is more opportunistic and self -serving because Mr. Peter Obi has not declared either publicly or privately that his presidential aspiration either in 2023 or 2027 is about the ‘turn’ of an Igbo tenant to occupy the Aso Villa. In the absence of any such overt or covert declaration, it is sheer “bad belle” for Soludo and Umahi to spearhead the backyard opposition to Peter Obi right from his home base.

To be pursuing this backyard opposition and betrayal from home belongs to a negative trend of sabotage and subterfuge that has featured in the politics of the South East in the past. The sight of a Professor on all fours before Tinubu is in bad taste. Only an Igbo political hustler without qualms and self -pride and ethnic dignity will sink so low in the betrayal of his fellows. It has a historical antecedent. During the civil war, the major setback of Biafra was the activities of a group of people that came to be characterized as “Saboteurs” of the Biafran cause.

They were known to receive cash, packets of cigarettes, cartons of beer, tablets of toilet soap from the enemy and in return they betrayed Biafra’s intelligence and facilitated the advantages and advance of the enemy, thereby speeding up the defeat of Biafra. Here we go again with the political wing of the saboteur clan. Their methods are the same. What they receive or bargain for may now be political positions and advantages. But the spirit of betrayal is consistent, real and palpable. They operate from a hollow moral position and purely mercantile selfish motive.

Now we have the political equivalent of the civil war. The Igbos have never been more embattled in the political history of Nigeria since after 1970 than now. In today’s Nigerian politics, the question of the political destiny of the Igbo in Nigeria has come into brilliant focus. The activities of the Soludos of this world become important in the contest of that clear and present existential contingency. The political destiny of the Igbo has become a commodity. Traitors and power dealers are swarming all over the place and having a field day.

For Governor Soludo, the matter goes beyond prostrating before President Tinubu. It goes back to the discharge of his mandate as the governor of the richly endowed state of Anambra. Of all the states of the South East, Anambra has the largest reservoir of endowments for development: skilled and highly educated manpower, the largest reservoir of natural entrepreneurial resources and manpower, the longest tradition of mercantile and industrial capacity and some of the most notable centres of home grown industrial(Nnewi), trading (Onitsha) and indigenous fabrication (Awka) know how in Nigeria.

When therefore Professor Charles Soludo was elected Governor of Anambra State, hopes were high across Nigeria that the latent resources of Anambra had found an enabling political leadership in Soludo’s bookful resume. On his part, the voluble and loquacious economics professor boasted that he would create in Anambra the Nigerian equivalents of Dubai, Taiwan and Singapore. The expectations were sky high that out of the concrete jungles of Onitsha would emerge the seeds of Nigeria’s indigenous modernization and development.

One full gubernatorial term and more down the road, many are wondering how and why the wild hopes and expectations have turned into ashes. Soludo’s new Anambra is a regrettable throwback to its immediate post civil war ruins. The promised “New Jerusalem” has become a grave yard of its own sons and daughters as violent crime has literally become an instrument of political contest and business rivalry. Onitsha remains an unsightly and rowdy jungle of unplanned concrete. Nnewi still remains mired in the original template of its unschooled entrepreneur founders. The entire state remains ravaged by gang violence that reminds many of today’s Haiti, New Mexico or 19th century gangster Sicily of the Mafioso era or early 20th century New York City. Anambra’s hired killers kill first on contract before they ask “why?”

In a state that boasts some of the most enlightened minds, native doctors, ritualists and human body parts dealerships have virtually overwhelmed modern medical clinics, business consultancies and small to medium enterprises let alone industrial training hubs and concerns. A state that was intended as the home of modernity has degenerated into the resort of native doctors, diviners and prophets of the dark.

On the scale of enlightened governance and general development, Soludo’s Anambra lags behind other states in the zone like Abia and Enugu. Today’s Anambra state is a regrettable regression from what Soludo inherited from the Obi and Obiano era. Politically, Soludo, like a typical Biafra-era “Saboteur” is busy completing the betrayal of the illustrious APGA machinery bequeathed by the late Odumegwu Ojukwu. He has sold the soul of APGA to Tinubu’s APC. His trophy is a miserable membership of the Campaign Council of the ruling party. He even had to deliver the APGA trophy to Tinubu while prostrating on all fours.

The image of a prostrating and groveling Soludo before Tinubu is perhaps a parody of the grand sordid reversal of realities in George Orwell’s Animal Farm: Two Legs Good, Four Legs Better! Perhaps a professor on four legs sprawled on the ground is the grand metaphor of these times!