The parable of the sower as told by Jesus has been discountenanced by President Goodluck Jonathan in the Southeast of Nigeria. According to the Bible story, the seeds which fell by the wayside were devoured by the birds. Those that fell on stony places which did not have much soil immediately sprang up, but when the sun rose, they were scorched and withered away. For those that fell among thorns, they were choked by the thorns that sprang up. Only those that apparently based on concerted effort fell on good ground, yielded; some hundred folds, some sixty and some thirty.
The Bible also says unequivocally, that what you sow is what you reap. But that didn’t reckon with President Jonathan. Indeed, in my local parlance, in the olden times; it will be totally strange to sow cassava during the planting season, and when it is time for harvest you are seen coming out from the farm with tubers of yam on your head. In those times, the ekwe would sound with the ferocity of the early rain thunder. Once the people gather and the story is recounted, the entire feet and fury of the people will move to the homestead of the culprit.
Within seconds of reaching their destination, a public trial is conducted, and in the absence of a cogent and compelling explanation, a once convivial family is thrown into mourning, as the culprit is heckled to the fringes of the village, on the way to permanent banishment. But the whitemen then came with their bayonet, and as Chinua Achebe recounted in his epic novel, Things Fall Apart, the falcon can not hear the falconer, the centre can no more hold, mere anarchy is loosened upon the earth. Now people freely harvest, even when they never neared the farm, talk less of planting any type of crop during the planting season. You doubt it? Compare Jonathan’s performance and his endorsement by leaders of Southeast.
Now back to the parable. President Jonathan, despite sowing only on the wayside, stony and thorny places, has harvested bountiful political support for 2015 in the Southeast. According to former Anambra State Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the interest of Ndigbo in the Presidency must wait on that of President Goodluck Jonathan’s. He is not alone. The apex socio-cultural organisation of the Southeast, Ohaneze Ndigbo tongue is in cheek on the rules of harvest, to serve President Jonathan’s interest. Also Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and most of his colleagues have remained at the vanguard of Jonathamania, employing all manner of subterfuge, even committing political patricide, so that President Jonathan may harvest where he has not sown.
Recently a pregnant woman, who had the misfortune of travelling on the Anambra end of the Enugu-Onitsha dilapidated and abandoned expressway, lost her seed, which until the trip had fallen on good ground. Her faith may yet befall those that will travel through the Niger Bridge, during the Christmas period. About a month earlier, a promising young man from my village, travelling along the abandoned Enugu-Port Harcourt expressway, was guillotined, as his vehicle and an oncoming articulated truck struggled for space along the narrow gauge that was formerly an expressway.
As President Jonathan harvested political yams some weeks ago in Anambra state, just after sowing political thorns in the hearts of Ndigbo, in the ignominious way he sacked Professor Barth Nnaji, who had served him meritoriously; I became reassured that in our country, what you reap is what you can. Never mind what you sow, go after what your heart desires, after all the termites have eaten the ekwe. The celebration of President Jonathan’s visit, for coming to commission the same fathom port that former President Shagari also used as political gimmick in the 1980s, was like celebrating a man who just defecated in your sitting room.
The President no doubt knows our love for commerce, particularly among Ndi Anambra. Also from reports reaching him from the fuel subsidy probe, he understands that in Nigeria, huge payments can be received, when nothing has been supplied, as long there are labour henchmen to heckle any person foolishly seeking probity. So the President came, and as we beat the drum, he gladly danced on our shame. Indeed when I read my colleague, Steve Nwosu’s recollection of the periodic political rapes of Ndigbo, recently in his column in this paper, I felt his pain, but doubt his logic. You don’t serially rape a person because of who he or she is, but because you are sure there will be no consequences. Again in this paper last week, a concerned Waheed Odusile, asked rhetorically, who will speak for Ndigbo?
I guess the state of anomie in the country affects different races of Nigeria in peculiar ways, and the reactions are somewhat different. Ndigbo seems to have found solace in individual efforts, and that affects their chance of uniting against their oppressors. The North is stymied in violence and increasing regression into abyss. The South-West effaced after their recent pacification with an Obasanjo presidency and the recent gains of the progressives are slightly better for now. While Ndigbo deserve to be President of Nigeria, and should get the support of others, their political leaders need an alternate strategy.
My worry for Ndigbo is that there is no alternative political platform. All our eggs are in President Jonathan’s basket. If the President continues to ignore his promises for which he was baptized Azikiwe, or orchestrates a disagreement once he again secures our support for 2015, we will remain mere spectators. My take is for a younger progressive leadership to emerge and team up with progressives in the South-West and North, to form a deterrent against itinerant harvesters.
