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The fly that perched on the scrotum should not be killed with force, is an Igbo proverb. Any attempt to kill it with force or anger will lead to fatally wounding the scrotum. To avoid wounding the scrotum, the best is to allow the fly to go gently. Its significance should not be lost on our politicians in both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the rising African Democratic Congress (ADC) opposition. Notwithstanding what the Supreme Court verdict will be on ADC leadership matter, the truth remains that it is the leading opposition party in the country today. Its presence and significance can neither be wished away nor obliterated.
Having said this, the opposition should know that a man whose house is on fire does not run after rats. In the hot race to 2027, only unity of purpose can save the opposition. This is the unvarnished truth the ADC must contend with. The party should be willing to tell itself the truth on zoning of political offices between the North and South. Any attempt to wish away or rubbish this unwritten code between the North and South will be the greatest undoing of the fast-rising ADC. Let the ADC leadership know that a man who fetched ant-infested firewood should be prepared for the visit of lizards.
ADC should learn from the fatal mistake of the then opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023 in not respecting the power-sharing agreement between the North and the South. In Nigeria, history does not only repeat itself, it does so many times. Do we learn from history? Do our politicians learn from history? Do they read books? I mean, do they read good books? Do they read novels and other works of imaginative literature?
The ADC should also learn from the tale of Eneke the bird, as portrayed in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Okonkwo goes to Nwakibie to ask for yams for the farm he has cleared and assures him that he is not afraid of work and he will not fail him. After clearing his throat, Nwakibie expresses joy seeing a young man who is willing to farm, unlike other lazy and soft youths. He also says that many young men have come to ask him for yams but he refused because they will abandon the yams in the farms.
Nwakibie further says: “When I say no to them they think I am hard-hearted. But it is not so. Eneke the bird says that since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learnt to fly without perching. I have learnt to be stingy with my yams. But I can trust you. I know it as I look at you. As our fathers said, you can tell a ripe corn by its look. I shall give you twice four hundred yams. Go ahead and prepare your farm.” Okonkwo thanked him again and again and went home feeling happy.
Since the ADC is the main opposition party as we approach the 2027 election season, it should be ready for attacks from everywhere, especially attacks from the APC and their moles in ADC. The opposition should never expect power on a gold platter. It is going to be war and war. They should expect the “scatter them” instruction of some APC chieftains. The APC has gone through this path before and would not relinquish power so easily. APC knows the A-B-C of grabbing power and holding tight to it.
The opposition’s failure to stop APC in 2023 was because of lack of unity and selfishness of its leaders. Without unity now, power will still elude them in 2027. APC has the power of incumbency. It controls all important democratic and government institutions. It has the knife and the yam. It has the key to Aso Rock and it is not willing to open the door to the opposition. These factors must not be ignored.
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In fact, the APC is like the white man as portrayed in Achebe’s Arrow of God. “I have travelled in Olu and I have travelled in Igbo, and I can tell you that there is no escape from the white man. He has come. When suffering knocks at your door and you say there is no seat left for him, he tells you not to worry because he has brought his own stool. The white man is like that.”
There is more the ADC should learn from Achebe’s portrayal of the white man. “Yes, we are talking about the white man’s road. But when the roof and walls of a house fall in, the ceiling is not left standing. The white man, the new religion, the soldiers, the new road—they are all part of the same thing. The white man has a gun, a matchet, a bow and carries fire in his mouth. He does not fight with one weapon alone.” The APC is like that.
However, the APC should learn lessons from Achebe too. They should know that when the roof and walls of a house fall in, the ceiling is not left standing. Let them understand that, without Nigeria, there will be no election. The Nigerian house must be intact before politicians can seek power, the peoples’ power to govern on their behalf. Power belongs to the people and not those in government. Let them understand too that the beauty of democracy is the existence of virile opposition.
Power without opposition is like soup without salt or ogiri. Ube or pear is good when shared. The same paradigm can apply to roasted corn or even yam. Those who have the knife and yam today should not allow their neighbour to go hungry. Life, like politics, is live-and-let-live. All of us own Nigeria. Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians, irrespective of tribe, tongue or creed.
Our forefathers founded this great nation, the giant of Africa, on a multi-party democracy and so shall it be. Nigerians have resisted attempts to railroad all of us into a one-party entity. Nigerians hate the one-way road to political Eldorado. They hate the one-way road to bliss. That is why many roads lead to our markets. One-way thinking is dangerous to learning and even politics.
They also hate the one-way narrative or story. Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, had warned us of the danger of a single story. Adichie’s intervention speaks of balance in narratives. Every story should have two sides. The white man’s story on colonialism was one-sided, hence, the timely intervention of Achebe and others to further animate the African story from the position of the insider, the colonized.
To our politicians, let all the flowers in the field be allowed to grow and blossom. There is a woman proverb in Igbo, which our politicians can learn from. It says, “Let my own garden blossom, let that of my co-wife blossom, so that, after eating mine, I can go and pluck some from her garden.” Since the sky is big wide enough for all birds to fly, the political field is big enough for our politicians to play their game. Let all the parties be, the more, the merrier.
