Dictatorship – A doomed art
The few who get tried and convicted also get to spend their term in the amenity ward of A-Class hospitals rather than wear prison uniform. Those who die with their VIP tag get presidential pardon. The only surprise in the comedy of errors is how other accused governors after Peter Odili have not found the […]
The few who get tried and convicted also get to spend their term in the amenity ward of A-Class hospitals rather than wear prison uniform. Those who die with their VIP tag get presidential pardon. The only surprise in the comedy of errors is how other accused governors after Peter Odili have not found the nexus that gave him a perpetual judicial immunity from prosecution. Certainly, the judge who granted this perpetual injunction is not dead and the system that condoned it is still very active. Hopefully, the others would borrow a wandering leaf especially with Dimeji Bankole returning to the circus in a few weeks’ time. Our comedy of errors could not have been foreseen by William Shakespeare. Nigeria must thank God for the PDP.
Away from comedyland, Gilad Shalit, the young Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Palestinians nearly five years ago was exchanged for over a thousand Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails? All politics is worth commenting on; but the Israeli-Palestinian politics is not everyone’s piece of cake. These scriptural half-brothers have been at it since creation. These descendants of Abraham lay claim to Jerusalem the holiest city in the world. The story of that claim predates most of today’s commentators. The politics of it would continue, long after most of us are gone. It is unlikely to make the world feel more cohesive. Because, tied to that debate are billions of people on two sides of the world’s greatest religions – Christianity and Islam, pitched willingly or unwillingly on different sides of the divide. It is perhaps safe then to tow the politically correct line and ask both sides laying claim to Jerusalem, and us their followers not to destroy our common patrimony.
The prisoner-swap could have been a perfect example of global entente – a symbolic gesture that should remind us of the old cliche that it is forever better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. But even though this is the best deal for Palestinians since the Arab-Israeli war. Over a thousand for one – the ratio beats any human rationale. Neither Shalit nor most of the released prisoners would have their lives back. It was evident from video screens that the young Shalit who left home that morning would never come back. He is frail, with visible signs of exertion. His speech is slurred, his breathing is laboured and certainly, he has emaciated and weakened. But he showed combatant courage and perhaps is wiser and more tolerant of the struggle of his neighbours now than he was five years earlier.
On the Palestinian side, homecoming has lost its meaning for many. One Palestinian prisoner suffers from Parkinson’s. His son confessed that when he hugged his father, there was no warmth left. Back home, he is a shell of himself not recognizing his siblings or children or neighbours; he is bent and broken. He is likely to die in that form. He is physically free but his brain is forever in chains. Such stories break us as humans reminding us like the French, that tout le monde est fou – the whole world is mad!
Yet it is a momentous moment when two arch-enemies agreed to work for peace. By freeing over 1000 Palestinians, Israel is telling its citizens that its cause is worth living for and that none of its citizens would be left in ‘enemy’ hands if there is an opportunity to rescue him alive. That kind of gesture buoys patriotism. The Palestinians showed that hope never dies. How great would it be if both sides work on a no-victor, no vanquished posture to return peace to its war-weary citizenry and let peace reign.
And just as the ink was drying on this page, Muammar Ghaddafi, the oldest surviving dictator in Africa cedes his unenviable position to the surviving dinosaurs – Paul Biya, Robert Mugabe, Eduardo dos Santos and wannabes like Abdoulaye Wade. Forty years of iron-fist ended on Thursday, but how would the next forty years of consolidation be for Libya? That is not the question on the mind of those who hounded Ghaddafi to death – they are eyeing its oil reserves and would do nothing to make the centre hold. Libyans may soon begin to wish for the dark days of Ghaddafi in no time. Maybe a good way to end this piece is to paraphrase my mentor, Dapo Olorunyomi by saying that – dictatorship just like terrorism are both doomed art.