It was recently in Lagos when former Transport Minister and two-time Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, made it clear he was a man of few words. Brevity, according to William Shakespeare, is the soul of wit. But the former minister’s laconic propensity that morning was intended to make him a great literary man, a poet even. Except that he laced it with malice and bile written into it.
He said he had a flight to catch. He had come all the way from Abuja to honour Dayo Oketola, who was marking his exit as editor of The Punch with a book launch and his exaugural lecture at the Shell Hall of the Muson Centre, Lagos. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo would come later, but Amaechi had spat and left. He, too, would come later and boast about making money for the country and did not refer to his waste, including his white elephant of a library in Otta, Ogun State.
So, the former two-time governor may be daily fuming and fulminating over his successor and present minister of the FCT, who is now his landlord, Nyesom Wike. But that day, he was fuming about democracy and the army. He was fuming about democracy as though he were a champion of the struggle. He walked up stage after he was serenaded for the baritone defiance of his voice.
Decked out in his typical cap and studded Rivers shirt, he told the audience that folks like him, that is politicians, should not be given the stage to talk in such a professional setting. If that was his philosophy, he should have turned down the chance to talk. He had honoured the man enough by showing up. He had walked out of his home, amidst his busy schedule. One wonders what a busy schedule would be other than classes he takes with leisure in a university. He is, after all, acquiring knowledge. And knowledge is wonderful especially if you want to know what to do after a big loss at the last APC primary into which he invested not a little. Other than that, he is more often working up a rage, for now an impotent rage, about how the man who is president should not be there, and he should be there instead.
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So, after saying he shouldn’t be allowed to talk but went ahead to talk, he surely got the attention of everyone for his laconic gift and the burst of bitterness. He said, somebody was just saying something to him about the struggle for democracy against the military. He then quipped. “Is it better now than it was then?”
On that note, the political chieftain – we can’t call him APC or PDP chieftain right now – rushed out of the stage and out of the hall to catch a flight out of Lagos, more so as the venue was in the ambience of Bourdillon Avenue that reminded him of a person he dreaded for having humiliated him at the Eagle Square.
So, why would Amaechi be talking about the struggle for democracy? Did he fight against General Sani Abacha and his goons in the topsy turvy era? Not quite. Was he on the streets under the shadow of death? No. Was he caught and thrown in jail? No. Was he ever in the newspapers or television as a voice? No. Was in NADECO at home or abroad? No. He was no more than a mere staff of former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili’s, a personal assistant.
So, why was he so self-righteous about that era? He was trying to rig history as he probably wanted to happen at the primary when his ears could not stand the chorus of “Bola Tinubu” or “Bola Ahmed Tinubu” as the votes counted were announcing his political nunc dimittis.
By Sentry @The Nation
