ARTHUR NZERIBE: A dawn predicted

By Joseph Edgar….

Arthur Nzeribe was a mythical character in the Nigerian political terrain. I was not too young when he stormed the second republic threatening to fight the NPN-led government, money for money, and fire for fire. They said he was an international arms dealer from where he had made his money. He was, indeed, very mysterious and forced himself into our consciousness. This was then the giddy politics of the second republic where great men like Adisa Akinloye and Umaru Dikko held sway.

When that joke was cut short by the military junta which ushered in years of long and tiring military misadventure, Arthur most likely moved back to whatever it was that he was doing at the time.

Arthur’s career in politics could be divided into two broadspectrums. The second republic where he rode on a populist manifesto which was to take power from the then unprecedented corrupt Shagari-led administration. He showed very clearly that the ruling party did not have a monopoly of rigging and corruption. He stood firm against their tyranny and seemingly won the elections. His fame rose so much that he became a national figure standing rough shod against the anti-people tendencies of the traducers.

However, Arthur’s populist stance ended with his next move. The IBB regime had gone on for so long, taking Nigerians on a merry go round, moving from one crisis to the other with the economy and the political landscape suffering for its ineptitude. The transition to civil rule had become a toothless mangy dog suffering from a rabid scabies and the people were just tired with even the military becoming restless. It was at this juncture that the despot announced a final election timetable that would throw up his then friend MKO Abiola as a candidate.

Babangida’s inconsistency and mischievousness began to appear. He had started by suspending and or banning key political actors. Arresting them on the eve of the primaries and releasing them after the elections. Forming his own two parties and ensuring that everybody irespective of ideology were herded into any of these two parties. Nigerians where being treated like gargoyles being pushed back and forth like spineless cowards.

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As these things happened, the dictator had run out of his tricks but not his ambition of holding on to power against the popular position that it was time for civil majority rule.
It was at this point that Arthur bared his fangs. Working with a coterie of allies, began a subtle but aggressively effective strategy which combined the use of the judiciary and the media to wreak havoc on the collecctive will of Nigerians. He was a devil, an arrogant one who did not care about the innocence of future generations, wreaking untold injuries on our political structure, decimating our culture and treating us with dismay like we did not have a choice in decisions that affected our lives.

He strode the environment like Goliath daring the little Davids who timidly formed themselves into the scattered human rights community to dare throw a stone. This Goliath was worse than the one we were told in the biblical story. He bestrode the system, roaring and causing untold damage. Damage that we are still suffering today, damage to the judiciary, breaking down cohesion and superiority within the military and planting subversive elements in the media. He succeeded. They scuttled that transition and against the popular will refused for the eventual winner to take over.
His principal had succeeded but he lost the war as he had to step aside in disgrace retracing his steps back to his Minna backwaters to lick the wounds of the disgrace he had fostered on himself and coming out once in a while to grant interviews trying to explain why he did what he did, like we really are still interested.

For Arthur, he had lost whatever credibility he had. He had spread mud all over himself and had become a pariah and like the spirits of Chinua Achebe’s evil forest reclined deep into the forest with the smell of the corpse he had become.

Nigerians had reacted and voted for democracy. We had fought very hard for it and even though today what we have is not what we bargained for, it is still far better than the Nigeria of Arthur and IBB’s dream. At least today, we can dock the Senate President, we can ask the President about his stewardship without being fogged and caged like animals. Today, I can write this article without fear that I will not warm my bed this night.

So when the picture of Arthur looking like a used cucumber emerged, Nigerians were quick to latch on it in an attempt to send him belated strokes of the cane. The fact that his people had quickly come out to disclaim the story of stroke, Nigerians were still very happy to see the great Arthur in that pitiable and vulnerable state. He looked withdrawn with regret all over his face. As I stared I could not see the strong man of yesteryears. All I could see was the forlorn look of a pariah, a man living his last days in the dark lonley caves of disgrace.

What is the lesson here? It is that of legacy, for history will never be kind to fools. As we bestride the terrain with all the energies of youth, let’s continue to be mindful of our legacies. How will history judge us? Will it crown us with accolades or will it dump us on a political wheel chair like it has with Arthur, with odious memories of a life that could have been spent differently? There is no pity here.

 

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