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Nigeria now: Nietzsche in their thoughts (2)

By Tony Afejuku
05 May 2023   |   3:01 am
At the tail-end of the first part of this essay last Friday I said that “God knows the riddle of the riddle of Nigeria and when to un-riddle and unravel it.” One needs divine wisdom or divine presence of mind to decipher what I meant and still mean.

Gov. Fintiri and Aisha Binani

At the tail-end of the first part of this essay last Friday I said that “God knows the riddle of the riddle of Nigeria and when to un-riddle and unravel it.” One needs divine wisdom or divine presence of mind to decipher what I meant and still mean. Let me try to help my readers by going biblical: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”

As we go further I shall explore this Logos to your near-satisfaction if not to your full satisfaction. Then I shall apply it to the nihilism of our epoch in your country my country our country which two regular readers here tend to give vent to in their respective contributions which we may call combats of an intellectual gladiator versus an intellectual gladiator, which Nietzsche delighted in. The gladiators were debating my column at a highly popular forum of cerebral combatants.

Let’s begin with Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano:
Profound TA, I read your fine piece or column for the week. (Friday, April 21, 2023). Today, I don’t have arguments for or against anything or positions but observational commentary. All things considered, including the well-known narratives, official and non-official, and after a remarkable exchange with a close friend of mine who lives in Yola, it’s highly unlikely that Aisha Binani won the election.

First, before the supplementary or the pre-“inconclusive” elections, she was trailing the sitting Governor. Mr. Fintiri. It’s thus highly unlikely that she could win. Second, the antics and the desperate doings of the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Ari, should tell anyone that some powerful forces were out to carry out an “electoral coup” in favour of Binani.

Third, Fintiri is of the Marghi ethnic group, which some people didn’t like because he was not from the Fulani-dominated Central Adamawa. Fourth, I did listen to her speeches: they were trite, shallow, and unspectacular. She thus clearly lacks the capacity for “deep” thought or social engineering. Adamawa has far better people to stand against Fintiri than Binani.

Many women and feminist groups thought that what alone should qualify Binani for the job is her being a woman. Gender politics and politicking are always politically reactionary and crudely divisive. No man or woman should be found fit for office on the basis of their genitals.

In fact, the thought that being a woman qualifies one to hold office or the myth that we should admit a woman to the “firsts” in political history is a piece of Romantic mysticism if not an outright confirmation of what Nietzsche writes in “The Gay Science” as a concession to those weak and weakling “characters that become slaves as soon as they serve.” Those who want “ceremony” and “superficiality” and the adoration of womanist glamour and pompous glitter, not to speak of the feminist gender monism, would certainly want a woman to be the first governor in our history.

But should that be a worthy cause or battle cry in a post-critical, post-Deconstructive, and Nietzschean world? And much as Binani and her coterie of feminist, womanist political time-servers and the wily political beggars, wanted her to win at all costs, even outside legitimate balloting, it just shows their disdain for legitimacy and fair contest: Fintiri, too, deserves our fair estimation, despite being the hated male. He too wanted to win. It is thus a contest for power, despite the gender calculations and the hidden ethnic motives of the Binani camp.

This camp is now complaining about the opposition camp in spite of the fact that they too were out to win the elections. But as the great Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, “it is useless to complain against your enemies; for they can never be your friends”. Nietzsche says that a human being should attain his satisfaction with himself whether by poetry or by art and that is the only way that he or she should be tolerable to behold.

A human being should stake their claims to, and on, the world on the basis of their supreme human effort, through their technic, not through their gender identification. Claims that one should be in office on the basis of their gender is a throwback to medieval superstition, but not even good at that.

But Professor Ademola Da Sylva, first-rate gladiator and combatant responds to IBK, his fellow gladiator and combatant, thus: Immaculate TA, I see the whole scenario a little differently, from IBK’s usual logical points, but in this case, largely specious. First, the fact that Binani was trailing behind Fintiri from the released results as at then is not enough to guarantee the incumbent governor a win.

It could only have been a facile conclusion to the degree that the results were still being released piecemeal and yet to be concluded. The fact is, it is neither here nor there. Suppose the already released results were from Fintiri’s stronghold, and the inconclusive results later released had come from Binani’s strong foothold? That could change the game altogether, couldn’t it?

On the action of the State REC, Mr. Ari, is a sorry dimension to the whole usual Nigerian electoral rots, requiring a very close contextual scrutiny and unbiased investigation. What could have made a State REC do what he did, announcing the gubernatorial results and declaring the winner, even when it was alleged that the process was inconclusive, and it was not his normal schedule to carry out? Could he have done what he did under duress; or was there any form of existential threat?

Or could it be a product of an inducement? Well, sadly enough, many Nigerians believe that integrity is negotiable,… you simply name your price, sink your integrity, or trash your so-called jealously guided good name; this category of Nigerians believe that the strongest of the moral titans in the society would likely develop a pair of clay feet at the sight of a humongous amount of hard currency.

1 had my doubts if this could be one of such? So let’s wait patiently for INEC’s defence of its action or inaction via its State REC, Mr. Ari. Perhaps there’s probably something Mr. Ari knows and the public doesn’t. The more you look the less you see, that’s what our abracadabra politicians have turned our dear country into. Therefore, on the Fintiri/Binani episode, through fair hearing and fair trial, we might be able to establish the truth, hopefully.

Again, I totally disagree with IBK’s assessment of Binani’s intellectual capacity, as having shallow ideas on State governance and social engineering. It is an unfair comment on the candidate if you asked me. And for IBK to have anchored “(the-below-average” (?) intellectual capacity, as being a factor for the electorate’s preference for the incumbent governor, Fintiri, is a huge joke, because nothing could have been further from the truth as far as Nigerian politics is concerned! It is common knowledge that, as critical, and as important, as political candidates’ intellectual capacity factor is concerned, except in very seldom or rare occasions, it has not always been a strong factor in electing candidates for political positions at all levels, local, State, or Federal in Nigeria! If that factor had mattered, Alhaji Shagari, Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Buhari, and now, Tinubu, would not have had the slightest of chances with their opponents.

The pattern, so far, is that people voted on religious and ethnic sentiments. And in the case under reference, since ethnicity and religion, for obvious reasons, are really a non-issue, Binani’s political party might think it worthwhile to trump up the gender divide sentiment, in addition to other factors, least of which is competence or pedigree of the contesting candidates.

Another likely reason for the Binani choice could also be that the demography of the State probably tilts in favour of women; therefore, the women folks might just consider it most appropriate to have voted in one of their own into power.

Why not, if not? Besides, if I must push the probabilities a little further, Binani’s choice by her party could also be that she is a courageous woman because only very courageous women could dare to stand or square up with men, in that socio-political milieu and setting, therefore, many people on both sides of the gender divide, voted along that sentiment.

Let me conclude by stating that, while INEC definitely has a case to answer, I say INEC, not the State REC, Mr. Ari, because under the law, he did what he did in his capacity as an official of INEC, therefore, the public focus is on INEC, not on REC, Mr. Ari. Similarly, Binani has every reason to feel the way she feels about what she considers as a compromised electoral process, and about the contradictory pronouncements and outcomes of the Elections.

Until INEC puts its house in order, saves the public from the continued nightmare, and proves its case beyond reasonable doubt, Binani, and indeed the public, are free to express their resentments, or otherwise, as freely as they wish.
Now that Hudu has voluntarily come out of hiding without his protective electoral hood, let the Adamawa fireworks begin. So speaks Afejuku – in his voice and Nietzsche’s.
To be continued.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.

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