When the messiah didn’t come

But the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) apparently had no such plan to meet the expectations of an everyday Nigerian like me when they promised messianic change come 2015.
The entire country had waited with bated breath for the change that was promised. And like people of faith in various creeds, we waited for the messiah or even messiahs that would bring the much coveted change; assuming that what we have is not already the best. Of course, the expectations for change were driven by that primordial programming that makes us human. We continue to seek for improvements even when we already have the best, relatively speaking.
This was why the recent choices of the APC confirmed our worst fears that whatever change or changes we wish to see are best sought under existing structures, not chasing away a demon to accommodate the devil.
Those of us who could read between the lines did not come to terms with the party’s choice of a retired dictator as its presidential flag-bearer when this group with chronic obsessions took the absurd to a new level with the unveiling of its presidential running mate.
The APC opted for Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) as the running mate to the retired General Muhammadu Buhari, ostensibly to continue the tradition of doing damage control. This is so because the party’s presidential candidate has all along been painted as a religious fanatic. We can now understand why a pastor must be his running mate; his religious perception must be toned down.
The scenario this time has no semblance of anything like when Pastor Tunde Bakare was Buhari’s running mate in a previous election. This is because APC’s vice presidential hopeful is a product of the Emperor of Burdillion, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, who continues to hold the opposition hostage to protect himself from his past. A story is presently making the rounds about his exploits in the United States in the early 90s.
Could this explain why the emperor was insistent on planting his puppet as the nation’s potential number two man – assuming Nigerians fall for the gambit and actually go ahead to vote the opposition to come and wreck the country? This would be a disaster of untold proportions. Only Lagosians can recount the true realities of living in a fiefdom where they slave for the avarice of one man.
What is clear at this point, however, is that Nigerians need to go beyond sentiments and interrogate the person of the APC presidential running mate in the person of Professor Yemi Osinbajo. He has ties to Tinubu and these are ties that cannot be easily dismissed as the relationship between political associates. Osinbajo has been Tinubu’s legal strongman for years; hence it is clear to see that for every instance the former Lagos State governor had been able to evade, manipulate or simply twist the law, this man being touted as the number two messiah had input in them.
It is a given that Osinbajo and his candidate lack the political experience or savvies unlike those they are running against. Perhaps, Nigerians can live with that since it will only entail a couple of years of suffering while the “messiahs” learn how to govern in a democratic setting. The economy is also sure to rebound at some point when these men are done with performing the grandiose experiments they have outlined for the nation; they will at least be forced by circumstances to confront realities.
What the country and Nigerians cannot bear, however, is to have as a potential vice president a man who has been serially in bed with the emperor, planning and scheming his many ploys that have enslaved people he was once privileged to govern. In fact, we should not wait to experience it because the option of regaining freedom may not be available once this mistake is made.
But being people who are constantly fair in our dealing, Nigerians will like to hear from Osinbajo. This time around, not about his or his party’s utopic manifesto, not about his experience, neither is it about his uprightness. No, this time he should tell us about his role in the building of the Tinubu empire and all the laws of Nigeria and those of other countries that were broken in the course of helping to build this odiousness. The big question remains: Where is the promised messiah?
Comrade Philip Agbese wrote from Abuja.