I saw a picture of the leading traditional rulers of Daura, the President’s home town seated on the ground while the President sat on a chair chatting with them and I could not resist an exclamation on how tradition and modernity have fused happily in that part of Nigeria. It is difficult to imagine such a situation in many parts of Nigeria especially the South West where I am from. In an era which the Hate Speech bill has just been stopped the Senate due to public outcry against the death penalty against those who criticize those in power, that Daura scene showed that power and authority should not be a do or die affair and that mutual respect and tolerance can be found not only amongst ordinary people but also our leaders whether traditional or elected.
It is my candid view that while disagreements may arise amongst leaders from any aspects of life, religious, social, economic and political there should always be room for dialogue, empathy and opportunities to listen to each other in spite of such disagreements. This last week there was a meeting of NATO leaders with US President Donald Trump very much in attendance while his impeachment proceeding got on at the US House of Representatives with four law professors called in to the Judiciary Committee to comment on the integrity of the impeachment process. At the NATO meeting the French President who had called the organization ‘brain dead‘, refused to change his mind and the Turkish President also in attendance said he should have his brain examined instead. Hateful speech from world leaders in authority at the top should be called a disgrace to diplomacy. But this really showed that bad manners is not a monopoly of ordinary people as it is very much alive amongst those who lead their people and the world with authority as well as with impunity especially with expressions of hate.
Hate and hate speech should be nipped in the bud but not by hanging as proposed in Nigeria. In addition history should serve to preserve order and civilization as we know it today. It is in that light that I look at a significant event in the Anglican Diocese of Lagos where a Diocesan hymn was adopted recently with the tune of Nazi Germany. Nazism of course is an ideology of hatred associated with the Holocaust in which 6m Jews were killed by the Nazis . How a church in Nigeria can choose some tune associated with Hitler beats the imagination. I pointed this out to the genial Provost of Christ Church Cathedral, Marina Lagos to no avail. Yet there are so many beautiful tunes that can be used to promote the good work of the Diocese without the blight, and a bloody one at that, of mis association with the murderous Adolf Hitler who typified hate and hatred such that in Germany it is a crime to deny the Holocaust he unleashed on the Jews. Nigerian Anglicans in Lagos can do away with a tune that that has such a tragically violent and bloody connotation and history. It was even said that years after Hitler had been defeated, some old Europeans still shuddered and retreated to their WW2 cellars anytime they heard this tune. Surely we need a sense of history to enjoy a Diocesan song in the Lagos Anglican Diocese.
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I now take a look at the NATO meeting and Trump’s impeachment process at the US congress. To me they are two sides of the same coin with regard to the topic of the day. Democratic tenets were on display like fireworks in both places and authority was wielded and delivered according to the strength of the majority. Intellectualism and legal erudition were aroused to find a way through the treacherous labyrinth of politics and impeachment and at the end the process moved on both in NATO and the US Lower House.
At the NATO meeting US President Donald Trump was treated like a bull in Chinaware shop because of his verbal unpredictability. But in a way, what he asked for that members should pay their official dues as a percentage of their budget was achieved according to NATO Secretary General as more members paid than before. In the UK where an election was due on Dec 12 the PM avoided association with the US President so that it would not jeorpadise the election chances of his party.
At home in the US the Democrats took Donald Trump to the cleaners in terms of impeachment by calling in three professors in Law who pronounced Trump guilty as charged on impeachment with the charges named as corruption, treason, obstruction of justice and obstruction of Congress. However a fourth professor invited by the Republicans disagreed that Trump had any case to answer. The professor from George Washington University Law School Donald Turley asked for caution and care on charging Trump with Impeachment on the grounds that if he is charged with corruption the charges must stick and not be based on inference or hearsay. He said that the Democrats were in a hurry and that the charges were not proven and called for caution in dividing the nation. Indeed it was like a call for the divided Judiciary Committee divided by hate to refocus and tarry a while before impeaching an American President. But that call fell on deaf ears as the Democrats used their majority in accelerating the Impeachment process. The Republican Minority had its say full of hate and venom for the Democrats who are in majority and carried the day in moving on with the Impeachment process, despite the fact that the Republicans insisted that no single fact witness had appeared before the Judicial Committee on the charges of Impeachment.
What I found most fascinating was the way the Democrats three legal luminaries showed that Trump had committed impeachable offences. Their fury and anger and hatred for the American President showed on their faces and the way their voices shook with emotion. Which to me was extravagant as they were expected to be impartial analysts on Impeachment and not prosecutors. On the other hand the Republican professor witness was a picture in confidence and relaxation in putting his objection to impeachment to the Committee. He won my heart with his erudition and scholarship in seeming to be objective on a subject that makes such an objective a high horse to mount. He pointed out the dangers of hate and haste in impeaching a president on inferences that lack legal authority and backing, and the consequences of hate and division that the impeachment had engendered in dividing the US polity. His views did not prevail but he offered the Democratic Majority food for thought, and pause, which in their haste to impeach they could not afford to wait and digest on their resolute march to impeach the American President, willy nilly. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
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