The greatest show of all

“The New Bosses might have promised us a lot of things before they came in, but they are surely giving us something they never even promised at the time. Great entertainment.’ I said, raising my head up to look straight at Asabe, who had come to visit me an hour earlier.

‘What New Bosses are you talking about Bint?’ She asked, looking slightly confused.

‘The guys at the Big House, the  government mansion.’ I replied.

‘I see and how do you find them entertaining? I mean that’s the last word  I’d use to describe what’s going on in their lives at the moment.’ She replied.

‘That’s only because you choose to see it in a different prism from the way I do. Otherwise, if you look closely at the antics of the Oga Madam, they are nothing short of the stuff reality TV shows are made of. I mean she started off by kicking at Oga Sir, three years ago while on a trip overseas. She criticised him heavily and warned that unless things changed she won’t be there to lend a hand in another bid.

Two years later and just months to the second great contest, she fired another salvo, this time showing Oga as a spineless head, who is being drawn on a string by two puppeteers with no mandate to do so.

Earlier on she picked a quarrel with one of the alleged puppeteers, when she kicked him out of a wing of the Big House despite his biological and social affinity with Oga Sir. And the latest, which occurred three days ago, was that she descended on Oga’s second mouthpiece by calling him a liar, disloyal and a double agent, who is being used by their enemies to create havoc in the Big House. l mean we have not seen such drama since the last Oga Madam staged ‘Diaris God o’ on network TV. How much more of such scandal can we take from our Ogas at the top before we tell them enough is enough?’ I asked, rhetorically.

‘But you can’t blame her Bint. From what I heard these people are equally giving her a tough time. Imagine, one of them actually called her a suicide bomber, just because they disagree on some issues. , Asabe responded.

‘But did he say it to her face? The story is that he described her that way in a phone conversation with his friend. If I were in her shoes, I will not respond to anything not done in my presence because the very office she occupies requires self-restraint more than any other thing. But she allows herself to respond to any provocation, goes public with any grievance and now is picking on her husband’s official staff because she believes they are working against her. What kind of role is this?’ I queried.

‘It’s surely not befitting of someone of her status to pick on the spokesman, just for doing his job. And if she is convinced he is working against the family then why won’t she take her case before his boss and demand that he be warned or removed? Why make such a public show by writing him and making so many unsubstantiated allegations against someone several rungs her junior, at least in official hierarchy? What she did amounted to nothing other than equating herself to him. And that’s truly unfortunate.’ Asabe asserted

‘Yes it is, but it’s not worse than what she inadvertently says everytime she makes a public outburst. What she is saying, in effect, is that she has no access to her husband and no right to alter decisions made that do not favour her. Just look again at the letter against the spokesman and go to where she said it was the puppeteer and not her husband who said she can’t have the official title she wanted; the one all her predecessors used but the spokesman announced it the other way, and her husband did not make any attempt to counter it, so the statement remained like the gospel truth.

Again she accused the 2nd mouthpiece of doing a lot against her family, in the service of the puppeteer, but her husband still did not see it fit to sack him or at least sanction him. So on whose side is her husband? Is she not openly admitting that her husband’s loyalty and sympathy is entirely with her alleged enemies and persecutors? Which wife hangs such dirty linen in public and expects to win people’s sympathy in the process? Sometimes I wonder what’s working against her from within, is it nature or nurture? In other words, does she suffer from a natural lack of self-restraint or is it a family training that says deal with everyone who offends you without considering the consequences?’ I wondered aloud.

‘Whatever is her motivation, she is surely giving our countrymen the greatest show of all. Already elder statesmen and ordinary folks are all saying they’ve never seen such behavior before, in a family of such high stature. How far will she go before she realises the damage her lack of self-control is doing to both her husband and the office he occupies?’ Asabe demanded, with obvious anger.