Moral Lesson to Learn

In 1983 after the national election that saw Alhaji Shehu Shagari returned as the president of Nigeria. Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe who were the major opponents, and as such, major losers, lamented that the election was highly rigged.

Azikiwe went on to describe Shagari’s victory as ‘an inglorious victory’.

The young and eccentric Dr. Chuba Okadigbo who was the Special Adviser to the President on Political Affairs fired back at Owelle of Onitsha and called his lamentations ‘the rantings of an ant’.

Trust Nnamdi Azikiwe who many believed amongst many other things that he was a mystic. He responded to Chuba in words of this nature:

‘My son, since you have decided to mock the wisdom of old age. You shall reach the apex of Nigerian politics. But at the height of your glory, you shall fall down and die unsung. If it is in the nature of the Igbos to have respect for old age let what I say come to pass. But if we do not, then let my words truly be the rantings of an ant’.

Well, within the space of few months or few weeks, the military struck and sacked Shagari’s government. This means Okadigbo was out of power.

But this is not the main gist.

In 1999, Nigeria returned to democracy after more 15 years of military rule with a one year democratic interlude known as the Third Republic.

The return of the fourth Republic ushered Dr. Chuba Okadigbo into the senate. Within months, the Senate President, Evans Enwerem was impeached and the senate elected the most charismatic Senate President ever in the person of Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Oyi of Oyi.

A Northern Senator once described Okadigbo as their lecturer while they his fellow senators are his students.

Okadigbo was held in high esteem as the number three man in Nigeria. During this period, he made sure the national assembly was not a rubber stamp body that was at the beck and call of the presidency. He insisted on clear separation of power.

At the height of Okadigbo’s political glory, impeachment proceeding started based on phony accusations of embezzlement. It was clear the Executive arm of government led by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo were tired of Oyi’s grip on the senate and his non tolerance of executive interference in legislative business.

Okadigbo fought all he could to resist his impeachment to the extent of taking the senate mace all the way from Abuja to hide in Ogbunike cave. But he failed.

His descent has begun!

Okadigbo’s impeachment was shameful. His, political sagacity, popularity, charm and likability which were his greatest asset couldn’t help him.

The propounder of political mathematics was not only impeached but was bulldozed out of PDP. Consequently, he couldn’t return to the senate after 2003. He went to ANPP and joined Buhari as his running mate.

As an opposition politician, he experienced how Azikiwe felt when he and Buhari believed they were rigged out. They organized a political rally to register(rant) their displeasure. It was at this rally that he was teargassed by policemen sent to disperse them.

Oyi of Oyi died from complications resulting from that very incident. His burial was supposed to be a gathering of who is who in the country.

Unfortunately, his burial coincided with the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Nigeria. All the powerful politicians that were supposed to attend his burial in Anambra State to give him the befitting farewell he deserved where all in Abuja receiving the Queen of England.

One may ask, what is the moral of this historical piece? Well, stories are told either to teach the wise or to remind the living about temperance.

Ezeikolomuo