HUGO IS DEAD (FIGURATIVELY). I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT KILLED HIM
Amakeze, Michael Chigozie
If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You see, I have known Hugo from my secondary school days, more than a decade ago. In those days, he was a young man with an exotic name-Hugo Davy. He walks in a measured manner and speaks French. For me, there was not a nobler man. Judge O ye gods how dearly I admired him.
Hugo is gifted with the pen. His ink is new every morning. He can weave a tale, gripping and racy. I have neither wits, nor words, nor utterance, nor the power of speech to stir men’s blood like he does. I am no orator, as Hugo is. I follow his blog and his writings like a morning devotion.
Then politics came. Make no mistake about this. Hugo is entitled to his choice. Now the problem isn’t that Hugo makes a swansong of his choice, making himself an Archbishop (maybe TB Joshua ordained him) and procuring for his use, a miter cap and a crosier staff for worship in the temple of APC.
The problem is that Hugo in a selective manner, plays down the deficiencies of his candidate, and in a very smart manner, makes those that haven’t joined the ‘change’ bandwagon feel like they are on the wrong side of history. Hugo accuses us of silence, of connivance, of blind support for the incumbent, and paints his intentions with the brush of patriotism. He calls it his ‘convictions’. But he, in a subtle manner, questions our own convictions.
Hugo Naijaman glorifies in the ‘anti corruption’ antecedents of his messiah who is to come. He calls him a disciplined man. Now lets put Hogo (sic) and his ilk right. Coup is a political armed robbery. It is the worst form of corruption. All coupists are usurpers of legitimacies that belong to the people. It is a travesty of language, a corruption of the purity of concepts, of the human civilization and dignity to call coupists incorruptible, no matter their intentions. They never owned the power they flaunted. They only possessed it. Every rookie lawyer knows the difference between ownership and possession. The logic of coups is that you are an animal, a pre-civilized being, and possess no right to own your life or fate.
So how on earth can a coup maker be disciplined? Or satan (sic) be saintly? Is it possible to practice ethics without morality? The next best thing Buhari should do before we grant him a baptism in the assembly of the faithful, ie humans, is to confront the demons of his past and show some remorse. He hasn’t shown any atom of remorse.Given the opportunity, he will do so again. Now that is sin against the holy spirit-obstinacy, and it is enough to deny him paradise.
Hugo makes a mountain of corruption allegations. I had expected him to push for restructuring of the power architecture in Nigeria which is the reason for corruption in the system. Corruption is wholly and entirely power, not a function of persons or countries. It is the system that co-opts or precipitously pushes persons into corruption. Assuming, without conceding, that Buhari is not corrupt, it is foolhardy to think that he will stamp out corruption because it is institutional. He was propped up by persons who are neck deep in the corruption game. The system makes it impossible for political eunuchs to achieve political erection. They can only be propped up by political godfathers, like Tinubu. They become vassals in the hands of their benefactors.
The answer remains with reconstituting the power architecture, decentralizing the enormous powers in Abuja. Will Buhari risk it? Will he dismantle a system he benefits from, as a Northerner, a system skewed to favour the imperialists, the feudal North, of which he is a member?
Hugo says he writes for posterity. But I haven’t read a work by Hugo on what is at stake in Lagos Gubernatorial election where he lives, earns his bread, and sometimes butter. Everybody knows that Lagos is tethered to the whims of one man, someone whose words are laws, whose wealth is so humongous he can buy the atlantic (sic), who literally owns half of Lagos. I haven’t heard Hugo complain about the activities of touts in Lagos who are ostensibly given a State protection, who constitute themselves into terror groups of a more virulent strain. Hugo doesn’t want posterity to know about his home state Governor Rochas Okorocha who indulges in governance by billboards and deceives his people with wishy washy greetings nay ‘My people my people’. Maybe he doesn’t want posterity to remember that. O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason. Bear with me.
Hugo’s pastime can be summed up in one word-HATE. It is not criticism. It is pure hate. That’s why he attacks any thing emanating from the Presidency, good or bad. Once it is Jonathan, it is bad, including attacking an innocent mistake on the President’s Facebook post, and comparing it with Buhari’s certificate scandal. It is akin to what the Republicans do to Obama, to the extent of questioning his citizenship. The objective is one thing, to ridicule his person and undermine his Presidency. To achieve that, they indulge in massive propaganda and sustain the tempo. Recently, they even accused the President of deploying Soldiers to Tinubu’s house. None of such happened. Hate is like stagnant water, and stagnant water becomes dirty, stinky, disease ridden and poisonous.
O how I missed Hugo’s write ups when he was objective, when he was alive. My heart is in the coffin with Hugo and I must pause till it comes back to me. Here was Hugo. When comes such another. He died leaving mums and kids behind. I have no idea what kiled (sic) him. In any case, it saddens me. Death is a bitch.
This Facebook post was first published on February 12, 2014.
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