What are political leaders for in a destitute time? I must state straightaway that the question I have just asked is not an originally original one penned by me. I appropriated it from the German poet and philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) who quoted his fellow German poet Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843). The question Holderlin asked in his elegy “Bread and Wine” and which Heidegger the phenomenologist quoted in one of his 1936 pivotal essays “What Are the Poets For” was “… what are poets for in a destitute time?” The word “time” in Holderlin’s and Heidegger’s usage meant the respective eras to which they belonged. In my appropriation here, it means the era to which we as Nigerians (or as West Africans) belong.

Last Friday this column focused on the subject of one-of-a kind Nigerian leader lacking in our current time. The gleaner and glimpser did what he needed to do based on our historical experience. Of course, after the column saw the light of day, the news of Ghana’s educational revolution courtesy of Mr John Mahama, Ghana’s current president, hit my phone. It was a detailed news report that captured what the president of Ghana’s bold new vision for his country’s future would be.

President John Mahama is giving Ghana a divine radiance with his announcement that tuition is going to be free henceforth in all public universities. In fact, this new policy is with immediate effect. President John Mahama is pulling his country out of its destitute time. He is emerging in this gleaner and glimpser’s poetic consciousness as one-of-a-kind Ghanaian political leader. He is turning his age, his era, from its present abyss into a new one, a radiantly new one, because the right time has arrived. I sent the video of John Mahama’s golden revolution to friends and diverse WhatsApp platforms after my poetically revolutionary heart and mind.

Professor Ademola Da Sylva, distinguished poet and literary scholar, and a Fellow of the highly and visibly prestigious Nigerian Academy of Letters, was one of those persons. What this quiet radical literary gem who is one of the champions of how to stop the spreading of peacelessness in our country offers as a response to the good news from Ghana, is what I deem necessary to quote now verbatim. It will give me real poetic and political pleasure to see you enjoy Professor Da Sylva’s rich offering.

“It is called actual investment; when you invest in the people, a better future is guaranteed. Ghana knew that long ago, it was the reason that Chief Awolowo’s regional government had to borrow a chunk of its governance template from Kwame Nkrumah, including the idea of the Modern School 1-3, to meet the urgent supply of teaching personnel for his free education schemes and the Technical School Education to empower the youth with necessary artisanship skills. That was before the military struck in Ghana, and much later in Nigeria. The rest is history.

“Can Nigeria afford to take the same step that Ghana has taken right now? Yes and No. Nigeria, no doubt, has the resources, both human and natural; unfortunately, its leadership is neither wired nor in any way futuristic to appreciate and to pursue similar vision as Ghana’s. Unfortunately, again, right now, Nigeria’s ruling class cannot afford free tuition for students, nor free education at all levels, no, not after PBAT’s government has increased the President’s and VP’s salaries by 114 per cent, and the Judiciary by 300 per cent or so, and given the legislature a free hand to determine the humongous salary and allowances for itself; ditto other political office holders and their jumbo pay also. This of course is contrary to intelligent reasoning requiring a drastic cut in the cost of governance! Apparently, it is clearer now than ever that Nigeria exists for the political class.

“I also observe that Nigerian people are pleased with the ongoing looting and the characteristic avarice on the part of the political class, in particular, the ruling class and the elite-collaborators! The people, as if on a queue, are simply and hopefully waiting for their turns. I am not even sure if Nigerians care any longer whatever these weird folks do to their country.

“Ghana and the rest of the world have moved forward, leaving clueless African leaders and their mumu masses behind. In the Nigerian context, unless something drastic happens by way of divine intervention, should the sky fall, it would fall on everyone, and none would be spared”.

Professor Da Sylva may be right. But I can assure him – and I am assuring him – that The Galactic Federation will not allow the sky to fall on everyone. Only the fugitive stealers and wreckers of our dreams as Nigerians and as Africans will remain where they will remain forever in their created destitute or abyss of fugitive fate.

But I must end the column with these poetic lines:
“… The heavenly powers
Cannot do all things. It is the mortals
Who reach sooner into the abyss. So the turn is
with these. Long is
The time, but the true comes into
Its own.”

These lines are from Holderlin’s uncompleted hymn “Mnemosyne” not long after his already referred to “Bread and Wine.” Interpret the lines how you will or may, but they capture well and adequately President John Mahama’s radiant dream. The Galactic Federation will aid him to turn Ghana into a site of enduring reach where fugitive godless ones shall be vanquished and extinguished. All our heartless rulers and leaders in Africa must read this. Poet Da Sylva the wine-hearted one will concur. Or will he not? Or?
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.