Being a Senator in Nigeria comes with a lot of pride. Quite a number of them are extra-human, somewhere close to being gods. Very few of these Senators have the unique pride of Jimoh ‘Smart’ Adeyemi who was known for riding his high horses and was beyond the reach of ordinary folks who voted him to power through out his eight years in office that ungraciously ended in 2015. His pride was not only unique, it was genuine and palpable at first contact.
This afternoon in 2018, three years after Adeyemi was sacked from the Senate, Lokoja was not its vivacious self. It was a city beaten into submission. With a handful of men hanging around drinking joints, all talking about nothing but politics (the only industry that seemed to be working in the land), the prevailing poverty on its streets was hitting hard. You experience a relief from that poverty if you belong to a circle of privileged politicians. You could be sure of a guaranteed income by month end, an unfair advantage that earned you the bitter envies of the idle men sitting around those drinking joints. The rest of the youths take solace in sports betting which also promised a guaranteed income when the gods choose to smile.
This privileged circle of politicians were gathered here this evening for their usual political meeting. Top on the check list was how to return Jimoh Adeyemi to the Senate. Jimoh himself was present but his presence was hardly noticed as everyone in the room talked with their friends at the top of their voices. We waited for the meeting to commence.
Jimoh ‘Smart’ Adeyemi was no longer dressed in his immaculate wears, which were hitherto dry-cleaned to perfection from cap to the tip of his trousers. Leaving the seamless Agbadas for those who could afford them, he was now robed in a simple T-shirt, and a black trouser which was unfairly oversized. Having lost a considerable weight of himself, the former Senator looked nothing close to his old self. His incongruous body now limped on one leg. Unable to afford his medicals, his knee-cap was long gone. His body weight, which had been made lighter by his attendant poverty, was now supported with a walking stick. Two flies or more disrespectfully perched on his head.
This was what remained of Senator Smart Adeyemi in 2015, a Senator who once wore a solid and substantial personality.
He took the podium and spoke absentmindedly. On his neck hung a dark cloud of debts. He tried his hands on oratory, but he was seen pausing to think of what next to say. A few people murmured something like ‘Atari Ajanaku’ and he paused again to allow that to sink but people urged him to hurry up as their time was far spent. He tried to be funny but no one laughed.
From this politician here who was known for his pride and his megalomaniac approach to life, grace had long departed. The rest of him was an empty shell, a carcass who boasted to bounce back.
The people had long deserted him. Grace had departed from him. The sweet nectar was sucked out of his juice. But it remained yet one man who would buy him his next meal ticket: Governor Yahaya Bello.
After he was smuggled back to the Senate in 2019, by his own admission, Jimoh ‘Smart’ Adeyemi said:
“When I lost my Senate position in 2015, I started going from Bank to Bank begging them for loan. No Bank agreed to give me a loan. But now that I have returned to the Senate, they are all chasing me with loan facilities”.
This statement was widely reported in National Dailies.
Of course Nigerian Banks are like vultures. They feed on carcass. They steal from the poor public. They never consider developing the local economy through loan facilities. But beyond their fault line, we know they read the news too. They knew Jimoh ‘Smart’ Adeyemi was beaten blue black at the polls by a boy young enough to be his son. We know Nigerian Banks don’t grant loans to expired politicians without a secured future.
What was appalling in Adeyemi’s testament was expressed in the form of a question: Which Senator becomes such a Pauper who moved from Bank to Bank begging for loans in less than three years after leaving his Senate seat? But that was the story of Jimoh ‘Smart’ Adeyemi in EIGHT YEARS A SENATOR, THREE YEARS A PAUPER before Governor Yahaya Bello gave him a bailout!
Might this not be cursed money that Jimoh ‘Smart’ Adeyemi steal from our common patrimony!!
– Olu Majek writes from Abuja.
