WHEN THE HUNTER BECOMES THE HUNTED

Agada Ikechukwu

Nigeria is a giant nation because greatness is encoded in her DNA. Sometimes her leadership betrays her as a euphemism for a movie theatre. Nigeria’s motion pictures industry can attest to this (Nollywood). Those that have been watching the movie cannot agree less that every man is a moon with a dark side he doesn’t show anybody according to Mark Twain.

This postulation drafts that you can hardly summarise a man from a distance or at close range. The totality of a man remains a mystery in the hands of God.

The table seems to have turned against some gladiators masquerading as underdogs in the underdealings to drive a wedge in the fortune of others. “The Get Saraki Out Merchants “have retired unceremoniously and the plots escaped to the nose of some newshound because the chief hunter is clutching on the last straw to remain afloat.

The reality dawned on the arrowhead-like a pall of damnation when he signed on to confront the enemy within his fold. These enemies dangle a very sordid and humiliating dossier over him like the “Sword of Damocles “. He is swimming in an ocean peopled by veterans that have elected to take him through the inglorious route of political retirement. They have also recruited his leader’s better half to stamp their desire. These distractions watered the peace the Senate is enjoying today. He has demonstrated by his actions, wittingly and unwittingly that he is an undertaker employed to conduct the funeral ceremony of the ruling party to the joy of many. If there was an avatar for two truths and half-truths, his party would fit the bill. The broom is obviously on fire. The burning broom shows that the chief broom attendant is on his way out of his palace come 2019.

In another breath, it is no longer a front-burner gossip that the choice of Peter Obi as the Vice Presidential Candidate of the main opposition party has the backing of the masses. The great deal of calculation that stewed the selection remains a mathematical paradox gradually taking shape.

Shortly after the news of his choice hit the streets, two leaders went ballistic, stumping and swearing, reacting like hydrogen bombs, spitting into the air and receiving it with measured cadence from the masses. To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. They scurried to the South-Eastern capital, mobilized other innocent bigwigs who are oblivious of their target and held nocturnal meetings angling their rage on not being aboard the ship of selection as critical stakeholders. Their propaganda machinery went into overdrive and the magisterial nature of one of them came to limelight leaving many Nigerians in bewilderment.

Understandably, they ought to have been onboard the airline before the flight takes off. Peter Obi would not have made it to the goal post had these two leaders been assigned the referees. They would have frustrated his choice based on 2019 through 2023 permutations. Sometimes some dreams are more charming and enjoyable in the realms of desire.

These two leaders went into the meeting on personal interests and calculations not to represent the South-East interest, unlike other invited chieftains. These two self- appointed Vice Presidential (2019) and Presidential (2023) apologists technically invited other stakeholders to calibrate the picture of South-East PDP leaders position on the face value but with pre-determined agenda. The media hype credited to the issue was unnecessary as they ought to have settled the matter amicably as family members without blowing it out of proportion if there was no ulterior motive.

PDP should not bank on these two leaders to deliver in 2019. Any South-East leader with a soft spot for the present administration should not be relied upon to deliver for the PDP if it truly desires victory in 2019. The offer of Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to the South-West is a masterstroke. Do not rule out the possibility of anti-party activities during the Presidential Election if some of these leaders refused to jump ship. These two leaders will be more at home with an APC Presidency in 2019 than PDP to pave the way for their 2023 projections. Having ambition is good but manifestation desperation, negotiating discreetly with other parties because your brother was chosen ahead of you and you did not have your way to remain the king of the manor (Forgetting that the mandate you have been manning belongs to your zone, not your personal property) is yesterday politics. In modern politics, party is always supreme to personal interests so far there is internal democracy.

These PDP Presidential hopefuls should not brush aside the likes of Chief Orji Uzo Kalu and Governor Rochas Okorocha in the build to 2023 equations. Most importantly the body language of the South-West top guns like Tinubu, Fashola, Osinbajo, etc, in the undercurrents of 2023, should not be ignored. Fashola’s statement at a town hall meeting in Ibadan on Thursday that “ power will return to South-West in 2023 if Buhari wins in 2019 should minister to the South-East APC faithful and other 2023 schemers.

Nigeria is beautiful but her leadership is her greatest shortcoming. Selfishness, greed, insatiable lust for power and control, authority and influence are some of the characteristics that stain her beauty. There is no competition in destiny. Power comes from God only. Speak the truth and be a good ambassador of Nigeria in your capacity. Do not be a thermometer that regulates temperature but be a thermostat designed and positioned by God to change your environment.