The politics of ego

Ego is said to be a person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance. It is also said to be a part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious, and is responsible for testing and a sense of personal identity. Others say it is the idea or opinion that you have of yourself, especially the level of your intelligence, and your importance. It is ego that gives people the desire not to easily give up in a contest. When students come out tops in an examination, ego helps them to want to remain at the top just as it drives their mates to strive to beat them the next time. Although ego is a human attribute, it would seem that men, as a gender, have it in unequal proportions, which is why theirs become manifest at every turn. In political circles, it becomes even more obvious.

In the days of the military, ego was said to have played out in 1986 when Military President Ibrahim Babangida signed the execution of his childhood friend, Mamman Jiya Vasta, after a military tribunal convicted the latter for treason associated with an abortive coup. Vatsa was a man of the muse, a poet and writer whose ego allegedly led him to plan a coup against his friend and brother, IBB. When the executioner’s bullet sent him to the great beyond on March 5 of that year, he was 45. An accomplished poet and writer, he was a patron of the arts, having started the construction of a writers’ village in Abuja when he was Minister of the Federal Capital Territory under the regime he wanted to overthrow. The place was named after Vatsa on completion in 2013. Three great Nigerian literary writers, Chinua Achebe, John Pepper Clarke and Wole Soyinka, pleaded with Babangida to spare their colleague but it fell on deaf ears, for obvious reasons. Babangida would have set a bad precedent given that Vasta was not alone in the act. IBB, as he was known, did confess in more than one interview that executing Vatsa was one of the toughest and saddest decisions he ever took. I dare say that ego was at work on both men at the time. IBB was barely one year in office when his friend wanted him out. Perhaps he felt better qualified for that job.

In present-day Osun State, Governor Jackson Ademola Adeleke benefitted from the politics of ego between Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, and Isiaka Oyetola, both now past governors of the state. The ego battle was such as divided the ruling party in the state into camps. Those loyal to Aregbesola were said to have tilted towards the opposition, thus fighting their party from within. The fact was that both men were buoyed by their self-importance to hold on to their own until the party crashed at the polls. I hear they have reconciled at the altar of their loss. Both men ought to have come to terms with the disastrous consequence of their ego fight much earlier. They have left the precincts of power, and may have had a sober reflection on their needless tussle. Aregbesola was said to have helped Oyetola come into office in 2018. He was Chief of Staff to Aregbesola. Shortly after Oyetola assumed office, both men seemed to have parted ways. The allegation was that Aregbesola was looking over the shoulders of his successor but the new governor wanted to be his own man. The conflict was carefully hidden until it grew like pregnancy.  Aregbesola was said to have called on Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene, given that he was their collective political godfather. But BAT, as Tinubu is known, was alleged to have tilted towards Oyetola, who was in the saddle. Aregbesola may have felt bad that Tinubu could take such a stance, having laid the foundation as the godfather of Lagos politics, but would not hold the ladder for another to rise to that position in another place. It became a three-pronged ego fight, which now threatens to erase the political relevance of those who have their dogs in the fight.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is said to have a mountain of ego. But he seems to know when  to stoop to conquer. Recent revelations from Governor Nyesom Wike show the former President stooped for his Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, in order to get a second term. Obasanjo had been boxed into a corner by the Vice-President and some governors. The President, a wily man, stood his ego down for the moment and got his way. That he brought back his mountain-top ego and had his pound of flesh from the conspirators is public knowledge. His fight with Atiku lingered until both men left office, and may have continued. However, politicians ought to borrow a leaf from the former President. He knew when to stoop  and when to rise. Ego is said to be natural with people, especially men. Ego is actually said to be an ingredient for success. People with the right measure of ego would always like to excel in their assignments. They do not want any one to hold them in low esteem.

It would seem that ego has become the central matter in the political skirmish in the Peoples Democratic Party, as the presidential election is now weeks away. The presidential candidate and the rightly aggrieved governors are now eyeball to eyeball. Ego now stands between them.