Sometime in 1999 (or it may have been early 2000) I got an extraordinary personal note from Chief Ebenezer Babatope (“Ebino Topsy!) who had been Sani Abacha’s Aviation Minister and is now a PDP chieftain, being a member of the ruling party’s Board of Trustees. Before I come to the contents of this note, a few background facts and details are perhaps necessary.
With many others like Edwin Madunagu, the late M. Agunbiade (“Chairman Mao”), Yemi Adefulu and Dayo Abatan, Babatope and I had been stalwarts and comrades-in-arm in the radical students’ movement in Nigeria when we were undergraduates, he at the University of Lagos and I at the University of Ibadan. A self-declared and militant socialist like most of us, Babatope had also been a diehard supporter of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and was quite easily one of the most indefatigable “Awoists” in our youth. After graduating from Unilag, he went on to become a prolific pamphleteer and essayist whose passion for socialism and Pan Africanism bristled in all his writings. As I recall it now, the bottom line of all his revolutionary writings and activities could be captured in one single slogan: let the revolution come and let it come quickly; it did not matter through which way it came. From this, the reader can deduce why it wa such a surprise to many when Babatope not only agreed to serve in Abacha’s cabinet but actually served him loyally, actively, vociferously. This observation leads directly to the personal note that Babatope sent me in 1999.
Briefly, the note said please, BJ, don’t judge me on my service to Abacha before you read my new book and we have met to discuss the contents of the book. The note duly asked for the address to which he could mail the book to me and as a matter of fact, I did receive the book. I think between then and now he and I have met only once, but it was such a brief meeting that we didn’t have the opportunity to discuss his book and his experience as one of Abacha’s leftist loyalists. In my memory, the most noteworthy thing, indeed the most sensational thing in the contents of Babatope’s book was the part in which he bitterly asserted that many of those on the Left and among “progressives” who later turned round and vilified him for having served under Sani Abacha had in fact not only initially encouraged him to accept the appointment the dictator gave him but also had personally benefitted a lot from his ministerial job under Abacha. And as if to clinch the point he was trying to make though this allegation, Babatope gave the names of those he could name among such people; where, for one reason or another, he couldn’t or didn’t want to give the names of some particular personalities, he dropped unmistakable hints that let the knowledgeable reader know who they were.
On the road to Damascus Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor and nemesis of the early Christians, became Paul, the rock who would later serve as the foundation on which early Christianity was built. This is one of the most outstanding moral and spiritual metamorphoses in history. And indeed “on the road to Damascus” has become perhaps the most widely used metaphorical phrase in the English language for a change, a transformation from a lower, evil state to a higher, more beneficent plane of being. But imagine the reversal of this historic, celebrated apotheosis in which on the road to Damascus, Paul became Saul of Tarsus: the hero became the antihero; the revolutionist who formulated new ideas of religious worship and thought became the brute who used violence and repression to squelch new possibilities in human spirituality.
This, in essence, was the story that Babatope told in the book that he sent to me in 1999. The slight twist in his story was that he was not alone, that other “comrades” masquerading as St. Paul when they were really Saul of Tarsus encouraged him to serve under Abacha. More damningly, Babatope went on to add that in the depth and the secret of the night, these people often came to him for contracts and other forms of largesse. Biodun, do not judge me, Babatope said to me in his note to me in 1999, until you have read my book and found out just how many Sauls of Tarsus there are among those you and I have always thought of as progressives and revolutionaries.
Now I think that in one way, Babatope was absolutely right in this claim, this plea. In our country, they are literally uncountable, the politicians and activists who at one time or the other were “comrades”, radicals and progressives who have decamped and joined the camp of reactionaries, ethnic jingoists, religious zealots and plain political opportunists. Indeed, so deep and wide is this phenomenon, especially since 1999, that the line has been almost completely obliterated between progressives and reactionaries, between genuinely patriotic democrats and extremely cynical politicians for whom patriotism is no more than a path to unlimited self-enrichment. To use our opening metaphor of “on the road to Damascus”, this means that the line between Paul and Saul has been almost completely obliterated in our country’s political affairs, again especially since 1999. Please note that I said almost completely obliterated because in fact the line still exists because the society is yet to be created in human affairs in which the line between what is right and what is wrong, what is just and what is unjust, what is decent and what is ignoble has been completely wiped out. And that is where Babatope was wrong in his 1999 personal note to me. This observation brings us to the topic of this piece, Nuhu Ribadu’s defection to the PDP. But what does my claim that Babatope was wrong have to do with this topic?
It is extremely misleading to cast Babatope’s experience in the metaphorical framework of Saul becoming Paul on the road to Damascus. My old friend and comrade, “Ebino Topsy” will have to forgive me for saying this, but for many of us, his decision to serve under Abacha was saddening but it wasn’t that surprising. As a person, Babatope was – and I imagine still is – at heart, a warm, ebullient and caring person. But as an activist, as one who wanted justice, development and dignity for all women and men in our country and our continent, he always tended to place the means far above the ends. Please remember that I said earlier in this piece that if there was one slogan that captured the essence of Babatope’s progressivism it was “let the revolution come and let it come quickly; it did not matter how it came”. For men and women of conscience of this kind, any decision, any action at all can be justified one way or another. At any rate, I think Babatope has completely stopped trying to justify his prominence in the PDP as a way to hasten the revolution to bring better life for all in Nigerian and Africa: the “means” has completely swallowed the “ends”.
So, as I contemplate the shock with which many in Nigeria this week received the news of Ribadu’s defection to the PDP, it is not to the likes of Babatope’s defection from socialism, Pan Africanism and Awoism to Abacha loyalism and PDP militancy that mind turns. There are thousands of such defections going on all the time in the rot and the decadence of the political order in our country. This is why it is to the far more rare instances when a defection – from Saul to Paul or the reverse and imaginary one of from Paul to Saul – is made by one who is generally recognised as an outstanding public figure or a moral and spiritual touchstone that my mind turns. In this regard, the two instances that readily come to my mind are, one, the case of the late Sam Aluko and his loyal service to Sani Abacha which, to the end of his life he vigorously defended absolutely without any apologies and two, the case of Nasir El Rufai who, from being the most articulate defender of the policies and actions of Obasanjo as President and “statesman” became perhaps his most fiery and unrestrained traducer. I suggest, dear reader, that when you think about Ribadu’s defection to the PDP, it is to the rare kind of defection that we see in Aluko and El Rufai that you should think of rather than the far more commonplace kind of defection that we see in the Babatope case. In concluding this piece, let me give a brief explanation on why I make this suggestion.
It is very easy and also very tempting to see Ribadu’s defection as belonging to the Babatope type and from this to proceed directly to strong and emotion-laden condemnation. That is the pattern in much of what I have so far read in the reactions to Ribadu’s announcement of his departure from the APC to the PDP. For some people, this may provide some relief, some salve for deeply thwarted moral, emotional and political investment in Ribadu’s past and future career, but it does nothing by way of explanation or understanding. By contrast, when you think of the Aluko and El Rufai cases, you are immediately struck by the impression that there are no simple explanations and that you have to think hard to know what the defection portends for our country and its present circumstances and future prospects.
Although I think his standing and achievements as an economic thinker were vastly overrated, the late Professor Sam Aluko was without question a towering figure among his generation of Nigerian social scientists. Moreover, he had been highly respected for his application of his intellectualism to public policy by way of advice to many governments. Then came his stint with Abacha which had the added disadvantage of coming near the end of his life. He pronounced Abacha the greatest leader Nigeria had ever had and the man who would finally bring economic development to the country. His reasons for making these assertions were so puerile, so unconvincing that they were an embarrassment to even his supporters. In effect, he became a sadly ridiculous and tragicomic figure, with only the saving grace that he did not seem to have served Abacha for self-enrichment or power lust.
By contrast, El Rufai has given trenchant critiques of Obasanjo and his administration. The big question he faces is why he was silent on all the policies and activities for which he now berates Obasanjo when he was part of Obasanjo’s inner circle. Unlike Aluko and rather fortunately for him, the future still lies ahead of El Rufai and he will or may have the chance to prove to us and the world the worth of his defection from Obasanjo and the PDP. This also holds true for Ribadu, but in the first month of his defection to the PDP, what we have seen is more like the Aluko pattern: absolutely puerile and meaningless justification of his defection. Like Aluko’s absurd praise for Abacha as the greatest leader that Nigeria ever had, Ribadu this week hailed Jonathan as “a great achiever”. This would have been quite laughable if things were not so dire, so tragic for most of our people under the administration of Jonathan. When Paul becomes Saul, all bets are off, expect the worst but keep hope alive. For the society is yet to be created in human affairs in which the line between right and wrong has been completely wiped out.
Biodun Jeyifo
bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu
