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Author: Professor Aboyade
Posted to the web: 6/17/2005 6:38:01 AM

I am sure readers know already that the title of this piece is largely borrowed from a book written by the President. I am also confident there will be no copyright fee charged as he is used to trading book titles with publishers.
That title flashed through my mind on Wednesday, June 1, as I flipped through the newspapers and got to know that it was Chief Adolphus Wabara’s birthday, owing to a lone advertisement placed by his dear wife. How can Nigerians do this to him and forget so soon, I almost cried out. A year ago three quarters of the content of most newspapers for the day would have been filled with superlative congratulatory messages to the poor man. The fact that only his wife did the usual congratulatory thing made this situation all the more painful for ordinary people like me. Besides, the attention of the congratulators have already shifted to Ken Nnamani for the silliest reasons.
What really was my business whether “those people” are congratulated or not on the pages of newspapers or through other media?. Besides, I was never an admirer of Wabara’s performance as Senate President though he looked harmless enough, and had never even met him in person. Why the pain? Why the questions I asked concerning his Senate colleagues, political associates and hangers-on, his political god-fathers who have been reaping, and indeed the communities (including his own) which chased him around with chieftaincy titles only a while ago? Was it that they could no longer afford the cost of full page or a fraction of that for an advertisement, seeing that they no longer enjoyed welfare packages from him? That is most unlikely, as most of these professional congratulators still behave as if they are fully loaded and are almost choking with their loot.
Then I realised the pain came from a jolting realisation that what happened to Wabara was the manifestation of that ugly and despicable side of Nigerians, the side that makes some Nigerians behave like animals with no iota of conscience and other attributes that set apart human beings from animals. The Yoruba - trust them- have sayings which capture Wabara’s situation. One of them – igi da eye fo – says literally that when the tree breaks up, the birds just flee.
The other aspect of the pain is the fact that most of our leaders in all spheres of life, and not just in government alone, have yet to realise the dangers of sycophancy for the country at large and even for themselves, and therefore the need or the wisdom to be able to distinguish between genuine praise and sycophancy before they leave office. At such a time, most of them become – again in the Yoruba animal imagery – edun arinle, i.e, monkeys that can only now walk barefoot on the ground and are no longer able to frolic among tall trees!
Leaders who are also perceived as always taking genuine criticism as personal affront give professional sycophants a strong platform from which to launch their praise-singing efforts. And once a leader gets himself into the firm grip of these calculating fellows, he has had it with what the Yoruba call asise (a word more serious in its import than just a mistake).
The President surely knows about the behaviour of sycophants of the Nigerian animal specie. No wonder he decided to launch his Presidential Library a few weeks ago, well in time before the year 2007. Before then he agreed to have his 67th birthday, which is not a landmark birthday, celebrated in a grand way. Where were these celebrants when he turned 60 years, but was still in a life and death encounter with the googled General, another peculiar Nigerian animal?
The President certainly experienced the animal behaviour of fellow Nigerians after he left office as a military Head of State. In his home state and town, he was without honour, and some people went out of their way to make life unbearable for him in retirement, probably because he was so tight-fisted when in power. His Otta project which has now become a Mecca for the new sets of sycophants, almost became a non-starter but for very few friends who remained so through thick and thin.
For those who have been belly-aching about the launching of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) my “missile” to them is in the typical Nigerian style – I beg, make we hear word, joo! Whatever you may say or think of our President, you will agree he is a wise and shrewd animal called Nigerian. None of your Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton stuff on these shores! On a more serious note, one must admit that this matter of the Presidential Library has justifiably raised more than an eye brow on account of the clearly obscene display of wealth at the launch, propelled as it were by a whiff of “extortionism”. I was at the launch because the idea of a new library with such immense possibilities was exciting for me. But I share the revulsion for the vulgar display. Perhaps one should have no fear that the donors will get the sort of payback they might be expecting. When in 1999 some business men were falling over each other to contribute to his campaign war chest, General Obasanjo (before he transformed into a Nigerian animal called Chief) made it clear after he got into office that they should not expect any unusual favours from him. A few of the old sycophants have not yet recovered from the shock of this reality and are still preoccupied with weeping and gnashing of teeth for their miscalculation.
Whatever happens, the Presidential Library will be used by Nigerian, be of benefit to all Nigerians and will eventually be owned by Nigerians. Let us then concentrate more on the advantages to be derived from this initiative, which is a new thing in the country, and hopefully the President and the Board of the OOPL will change their mind and hand it over to Nigeria.