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To be on the same page, let’s tee off with the few conceptual synonyms for the word enemy. It is an interesting list: Satan, devil, foe, hater and – wait for it – friend. The first four are a given, but what’s the fifth person doing in this list? That’s the mission of this serving, to prove that far too much has for far too long been erroneously blamed on the enemy when they were indeed the monstrosities of a sweetheart.
Don’t go too far. Start from the first layer of the human society, the family. The enemy is not and cannot be family – your very own blood – but records abound of family members who hate(d) their own blood to the extent of siding with outsiders against or even killing them. It was so at the beginning of time – Cain killed Abel – it is so now; it might be so for eternity.
Move into politics. Oh la la, what a waste of precious time. Politics being an enemy game of thrones – especially in Nigeria – perhaps we should skip this and beam our searchlight somewhere else. There’s not a single forever friend in the game.
In politics Nigeriana, friendship is nothing. Like loyalty, it lasts a tenure or an office. The follower cannot here bear the brunt entirely. No, the leader also shares in it because more often than not it is (s)he who makes mincemeat of friendship and loyalty.
Yes, sir, the way politics Nigeriana is wired, it is easier than easy for the holder of official yam and knife, hereinafter called commonwealth, to reward an opponent frequenter and better than a supporter. Therein lies the reason for our insane politics. Political insiders secretly align with outsiders because that is the only way Oga kan brin aut somtin. Politics Nigeriana is an enemy to itself.
This juncture is the perfect point to drag government into the matter. Governmental leaders in Nigeria are in soup. Their enemies are not the opposition. Their number one enemies are some of the people on their team.
It’s a Catch-22, really. Where the leader is a good person, most team members are bad. Where the leader is bad, most team members are good. Whether there would ever be a positive balance (that is, a government of a good leader and a good team) remains to be seen.
However, paying attention to details vis-à-vis the pre- and post-election recruitment process could go a long way. Leaders should mind who they employ or deploy. Above all, they should never shy away from activating the deactivation clause conferred by the power to hire and fire. Otherwise, these so-called good leaders would continue to endure the disguised insult of being seen as good but surrounded by bad people.
I mean, who appointed these bad people? Add that to the battery of posers arising. Can a good leader keep bad aides? Can a bad leader have good lieutenants?
The intendment of these rhetorical questions is to provoke focus on the main business of this entry. Who is an enemy? Who is a friend? Can an enemy ever be better than a friend?
There are more questions from where the foregoing came. Has humanity over abused the enemy? Does the enemy deserve all of the blame poured on him? And, this last one, who should mankind dread more: enemy or friend?
Call me a devil’s advocate all you want, but from my experience; from what I have seen and heard and read, I think man’s enemy number one is friend, not enemy. I can resay that. Friend, not enemy, is man’s enemy number one. Today being penultimate day in 2019, I beseech you to make Year 2020 the beginning of seeing your enemy(ies) differently.
Jesus, of all people, was betrayed by a friend. Or was Judas an enemy? Sometimes, many times, an enemy is better than a friend. When the Bible in Psalm 23:5 says that God prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies, you should wonder why it wasn’t in the presence of your friends.
The enemy could help with a number of things very few friends would. For instance, clearing the table, doing the dishes, and in a very technical sense insulating us from ourselves. We tell our friends everything, never our enemies. Our enemies, therefore, never have that much information to harm us with.
But, our friends do. That is the reason it is easy for friends, not enemies, to turn against us successfully. We should fear our friends the way our enemies fear us. Our problem is our friends, not our enemies; our enemies are too distant from, and too afraid of, us to pose any real threat.
This is neither to exonerate nor canonise the enemy though. Surely, the imp wreaks havoc here and there, now and again, but the opposite number does worse. My point is that we should learn understanding. Some of our enemies are not a quarter as bad as most of our friends.
God bless Nigeria!
Ibrahim Babangida: How much I love that man
Hate him or love him, you cannot deny the Evil Genius’s effervescent persona, abiding impact and uncanny floatability. The smiling General has a way of not only reinventing himself but also grabbing and sustaining national attention. For a while we heard nothing, but the last fortnight the military president who stepped aside in 1993 stepped right back into our subconscious powerfully.
It began with news of his death – which in any case was not a first. Thereafter, the news was exactly a decade since First Lady Maryam transited. And then, boom, news broke that the Minna man was searching for a wife.
I don’t care if that’s fake news. I appreciate any news that suggests the man would be around much longer. What better talisman than a new young wife!
