Our One Chance Conundrum….

In a recent encounter with my brother an evocation so strong aroused within me.  That of my paternal grandfather Pa John Adeniyi Noble, a tall, elegant athletic man, regal in bearing and established in purpose. He was by reputation an individual of majestic features and of awesome height of over 6feet 4inches.  This persuaded his European master, to christen him ‘Noble’. Later on he gained the reputation as the first and most accomplished English tailor in the whole of Ekiti-land.

In my younger brother’s King’s College days, on the dust filled fields of the School his own unique brand of nobility was demonstrated, paraded and sometimes exhausted.  It was at the game of football that he commandeered and controlled the central defence like a master of all he surveyed.  His qualities were simply unmatchable. It these fading green and dust filled fields Adebowale found and displayed his mastery.  Whilst I was content to engage in fitful romances with ‘power’, he excelled by playing at the highest levels for the school team.  He utilised the advantage height conferred him to cement his dominance in the air.  His athleticism also allowed him to marshal the central defence effortlessly.  He always revealed early footballing promise as a child, and I was known to kick him in the shin betraying my frustrations at the praise he constantly received and the fact that my own talent was concealed in awkwardness.  It was not until he joined me at KC I grudgingly accepted that he was a more talented and better player than myself.  What I lacked in footballing skills, however, I think I compensated for on the tracks. 

In the encounter, a few weeks ago he made it clear to me that whilst he was unhappy with the status quo presented by the Nigerian government of President Buhari, under no circumstances will he contemplate his main rival Alhaji Atiku.  His views are reflective of many patriots in Nigeria today who face a conundrum as we stumble towards the general elections in 2019.  It is as if we are perched on a precipice, with no option of a return, the proverbial frying pan and fire, the ‘One Chance Conundrum!

In a country lavished with so much talent, many laying redundant simply because they refuse to get their clothes wet and layered with great accomplishments, our viable options now seems to be reduced to two political parties appearing interchangeable in most respects, the APC and PDP. The third force championed and articulated by President Obasanjo has now faded into distant memories, crushed into smithereens, the third party candidates presented, are still unable to mobilise beyond the social media space. All seems utterly hopeless. I solemnly believe the narrative of many of us on the sidelines does not differ from that of Nigeria where there is no doubt that many men and women of integrity have vacated the scene of governance and left it to all shades of characters.  The space of our governance has been left to those who are after their bellies to plunder at will with no shame at all.  But more fundamentally, the voice of the Church for the most part remains eerily silent causing the absence of a prophetic voice that speaks to the nation in times of despair.  In very many cases the Church, which I am part of has been relegated into a messy and unseemly compromise with power. 

The reality is that many in the Church are content to focus on greed, increasing materialism, personality worship and the trappings of power. I contrast this with South Africa during the heydays of Apartheid when the Church spoke ‘Truth to Power’ as evidenced by, Desmond Tutu’s words before the Eloff Commission set up to investigate the South African Council of Churches on 20^th November 1981, stated:

“I want to say that there is nothing the government can do to me that will stop me from being involved in what I believe is what God wants me to do.  I do not do it because I like doing it.  ……………….  I cannot help it when I see injustice.  I cannot keep quiet.  I will not keep quiet, for as Jeremiah says, when I try to keep quiet God’s word burns like a fire in my breast.  But what is it that they can ultimately do?  The most awful thing that they can do is to kill me, and death is not the worst thing that can happen to a Christian”

Furthermore It appears on a daily basis, we are plundered with news of violence from the likes of Boko Haram, Zamfara Bandits and Herdsmen and yet Government seems immobilised, opposition opportunistic in its response and the Church and religious bodies in silent complicity.

I entered into 2018 as a Buharist dipped and drenched in great hope, today I have shed that toga, exposed, stark naked and confused.  However, as we saunter, trod, rush or stumble into 2019, I muse which way Nigeria?  I cannot state with any certainty that we have a viable alternative but what I may venture is that President Buhari has by his second coming in 2015 and in the last few years decimated any vestige of competence, hope or vision once ascribed to him.