In an ancient political
plot captured by Shakespeare in his classic, Julius Caesar, a minor character, Artemidorus, prepares what he
calls a caveat for Caesar.
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| *Buhari |
He reads the warning aloud that he (Caesar) may
escape an evil plot by his friends and members of his ‘inner circle.’(Reading
aloud from the letter) Artemidorus warns in clear terms:
“Caesar,
beware of Brutus. Watch Cassius. Don’t go near Casca. Keep an eye on Cinna.
Don’t trust Trebonius. Pay attention to Metellus Cimber. Denius Brutus doesn’t
love you. You’ve wronged Caius Ligarius. These men all have one intention, and
it’s directed against Caesar. If you aren’t immortal, watch those around you. A
sense of security opens the door to conspiracy. I pray that the mighty gods
defend you! Your friend, Artemidorus.”
To ensure that Caesar gets his message this is
the strategy of Caesar’s friend:
“I’ll stand here until Caesar passes by, and
I’ll give him this as though it’s a petition. My heart regrets that good men
aren’t safe from the bite of jealous rivals. If you read this, Caesar, you
might live. If not, the Fates are on the side of the traitors….”
There is a sense in which we can say that
Shakespeare, the seer for many dispensations, wrote these lines for President
Muhammadu Buhari now in the eye of the storm created by his own men.
Clearly, the only difference inside Aso Villa setting is that there is yet no
Artemidorus, a friend who can genuinely stand between the Council Chambers and
the road leading to the other room to warn the good man but naïve Caesar
(President Buhari) to beware of the dangerous cabal members who are bent on
foisting their “unenlightened self interest” on the nation.
This is the time an Artemidorus needs to tell
our own Caesar.
“PMB, lend me your ears. Beware of Mammah. Watch Abba.
Don’t go near Mallamy. Keep an eye on Lawal. Don’t trust David. Pay attention
to Bukky. Amaychy doesn’t love you. You’ve wronged Bola. These men all have one
intention, and it’s directed against PMB. If you aren’t immortal, watch those
around you. A sense of security opens the door to conspiracy. I pray that the
mighty gods defend you!”
It is a pity, no one can keep vigil like this
Caesar’s restless friend to say to PMB when the cock crows at dawn that, “my
heart regrets that good men aren’t safe from the bite of jealous rivals, after
all”.
It is so easy for some angry commentators and critics of the Senate to be
castigating the Upper House for the plight and frustration of the president
over failure to get Ibrahim Magu cleared as Chairman of the anticorruption
body, the EFCC.
It is also convenient to use the data of those
being tried for corruption in the Senate as basis for casting aspersion on the
Senate over Magu.
But how do we contextualize the presidency
that is apparently divided against itself on the messy Magu affair?
How do we blame the Senate for the president’s
failure to disarm the ‘gunmen’ in the palace who have always succeeded in
shooting down his preferred candidate for the EFCC top job? How did he allow
that affliction to occur a second time?
The question we (the) bloody outsiders cannot
answer till eternity is this: Is it possible for the Director General of the
Department of State Services (DSS) to submit two damaging reports on Magu to
the Senate without the consent and knowledge of the National Security Adviser,
not to talk of the President? Besides, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo it was
who submitted the name of the EFCC Acting boss to the Senate two times.
And so, it is relevant to ask if the DSS also
bypassed him before submitting a damning report to the Senate in the first
instance.
It is also so easy to condemn a cabal or the
president’s men for the tragic failure to get Magu cleared. But is there any way the cabal can work without the consent of the principal it
exists for?
More questions: As the earth remains, most
people will continue to ask questions about what has become PMB’s parochial
appointment.
Is there a sense in which we can blame only
the president’s men or cabal for the nominations and approval of all the
presidential appointments so far?
Has the president who has the mandate of the
people too been an innocent bystander in the politics of appointments?
Is it not an insult of monumental proportion
on the office of the president if we claim the man we popularly elected in 2015
has lost control of his presidency and even his household?
Can we ask if the ‘gunmen’ inside Aso Villa
have been wielding their guns without the knowledge of the commander-in-chief
of the armed forces?
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