Balarabeosis Falaeroid

Although some described him as rigid and uncompromising at the time, many of us his fans idolised him convinced that being rigid in the eyes of the unprincipled is not a vice. Balarabe was, to us, the closest thing to a global citizen – urbane, informed, detribalised, intellectually sound and at home everywhere. There are […]

Although some described him as rigid and uncompromising at the time, many of us his fans idolised him convinced that being rigid in the eyes of the unprincipled is not a vice. Balarabe was, to us, the closest thing to a global citizen – urbane, informed, detribalised, intellectually sound and at home everywhere.
There are only very few people that God has given the grace of one-name recognition: Gani (Fawehinmi); Tafawa-Balewa (Abubakar); Fela (Anikulapo-Kuti); Okeowo (Segun); Bala (Usman) Mokwugo (Okoye); Bobby (Benson); Akunyili (Dora) et al. If I say, ‘Balarabe’, chances are that you’ll immediately think of Balarabe Musa. To make you understand why we idolised Balarabe, after the famous Ali-Mun-Go struggle for the democratisation of education, the Obasanjo-led military regime warned all federal universities not to give admission to any of the rusticated student leaders. We reached out to the respective state governments to do whatever they could to salvage the educational careers of their students. In the case of old Kaduna State (including the present day Katsina State), Balarabe Musa gladly awarded scholarships to his own students to study abroad. Those students are now movers and shakers in society, thanks to the foresight of their gadfly governor.
Balarabe will be 80 years old next year. Those of us who idolised him in our younger days will want him to leave us a legacy of progressive activism for which he had been known over the years. But his recent alliance with some equally illustrious, even if expired, political players, has been a source of worry to many. Somehow, the Balarabe Musa that addressed a press conference under the aegis of Credible Alternative Alliance, a coalition of “14 opposition political parties and 13 civil society organisations” sounded like a poor imitation of the Marxist Balarabe Musa we had known over the years.
As far as the Alliance was concerned, the new Buhari administration was dead on arrival. Railing against everything in a typical display of omniscience, the group warned President Buhari as follows: “We note that APC appears to want to cultivate and rely too much on the support of foreign governments. This is not good for sovereignty of our nation. CAA calls upon APC to rely less on foreign support. The party should do more to cultivate domestic support from political parties in the country. You cannot govern effectively when you do it alone. It is not sustainable,” he said.
Now, what has the APC done so far to show that it is selling Nigeria to foreign powers? If holding consultations with our neighbours and reaching out to the powerful nations of the world is a sign of weakness, I think the duo of Balarabe and Falae and their acolytes need to retune their political radar to a contemporary and sustainable frequency.
The co-chair of the political contraption, Chief Olu Falae, himself a former federal permanent secretary and secretary to Babangida’s military government, is normally not in Balarabe’s ideological camp. Falae is not a Marxist, has never been a Marxist and does not appear to be headed in that ideological direction. He is the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party. But the fact that an independent-minded Buhari has been voted into power seems to have brought all sorts of elements together in an attempt to look for flaws even before the administration is composed. There is yet no Senate to ratify new ministers because the old legislature wound up only a few days ago and a new one is yet to be proclaimed, yet all manner of people are accusing the president of being slow! How do Balarabe and Falae know that APC doesn’t have a policy in place? Have they bothered to read the party’s manifesto? Both men have been presidential candidates in this country; if either of them had won would he be ascending power without a policy of governance? If Buhari was inadequate, why did Balarabe support him against Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007?
I know these are posturing times for recognition. All sorts of failed politicians want to enjoy their last ray of political sunshine before the new administration settles down while they revert to obsolescence. But Balarabe and Falae ought to be beyond that. None of us want our country to be corralled into a second slavery. Many of us have done as much as our circumstances permitted to keep imperialist influences at bay. But we are realistic enough to admit that we can’t do without the rest of the world. Indeed, the fact that our president was invited to the ongoing G7 Summit is a plus for our nation. When last did the world pay us any positive attention?
I am all for keeping our leaders on their toes. If there is any pledge I can make right-away without batting an eyelid it is that I will always be counted on the side of those holding our leaders accountable. Balarabe’s said “We wish the new administration well. However, its ability and readiness to meaningfully govern Nigeria remain in doubt”. How does he know? It is like the case of a man who visits the parents of a new born baby a few days after birth and declares, “I wish this baby well, but I doubt that his life will amount to anything”. There can be only one affliction debilitating that visitor: Balarabeosis Falaeroid.

Amnesty International
The Amnesty Interna-tional official that called for the arrest of top Nigerian generals on account of gross human rights abuses in their fight against Boko Haram, should go wash his mouth with turpentine. Where were you when Boko Haram was slitting throats? I don’t support extra-judicial killing and I think there are many things our military could have done better if the circumstances were different. But to accuse our military of gross human rights abuses? Don’t make me puke! How come Amnesty has suddenly found its voice now? President Buhari should get to the bottom of this latest attempt at demonising Nigeria with dispatch. In case Amnesty International does not know, please tell them that Nigeria is at war, real war; not grammatical jiu-jitsu.