It is good to be a child. However it is bad to remain a child forever. The recall exercise carried out recently is a product of childish thinking and irrational sense of reasoning. It does not take a child anything to know the differences between love and hatred. But it takes a productive mindset of God and maturity to know what to do if you find what you hate in what you love.
In retrospect, a member of Kogi State House of Assembly, Elder Comrade Friday Sani Makama was suspended from the Chamber for frivolous reason. And after series of legal battles with Kogi State Government, Makama won and court order was not obeyed for the lawmaker to resume his legislative duties till today.
For over 15 Months, the lawmaker’s entitlement has not being given to him. It saddens my mind is the fact that there was no editorial opinion of protest from Igalamela/Odolu community expressing their displeasure over the imbroglio between State Government and the lawmaker. The moment Makama was suspended some perceived opposition organized a party to rejoice and celebrate the fall of the political titan forgetting it is a slap on the face of our common heritage and Igalaness. The reverse is the case in Okuland in Kogi State, Nigeria.
The Okun People are priceless. Irrespective of party affiliation, Okunland sees the recall of their son, Senator Dino Melaye as a resurgence of nationalist sentiments without precedent. It does not correspond to their understanding of participatory democracy and fair play. The exercise is not driven by community consciousness or anger against their elected leader. The Okun people instead of turning against their son Dino Melaye sees the exercise as an opportunity to turn their common patrimony and heritage to right -wing “Nash-ism”.
The element behind the recall exercise failed to realize that Okun people are not like others who can theorize“Omi ne chojioji, awane (Igala Proverb) but constantly failing to practice the correct version of the witty expression; “My own is different from our own.”
Without the assistance of rocket science, the Okun nations quickly realized every lost attempt to disappoint the element behind the recall efforts to bring their son down will create a new national identity of “Our own”. This will no doubt serve as a platform for successive leaders to continue claiming to be in charge and abuse community consciousness from outside instead of penetrating the cultural fiber holding the people together within to remedy conflicting situation through purposeful leadership, consultation and dialogue. This is exactly what correlate with a society that values participatory democracy rather than ‘operation PHD’ – Pull Him Down Syndrome.
The character behind the recall of Dino Melaye, Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria wanted to create a new national order regardless of what then Okun people will say. After all, Igalamela/Odolu Constituency has being experimented with the New Directionless direction and nobody dares challenge it. Such an unguarded parade of nationalist chauvinism became a failure in Okunland, not because Dino is perfect or infallible. Dino has his own flaws and demur demeanor.
However, the Okun nation jettisoned their differences and focused on the preservation of their common patrimony and heritage never to be tampered by an intruder. An intruder who is capable of sweeping away their cultural norms and subject them to neo-colonialism and the unpopular instinct of they are “our own”. Dino Melaye rightly said “the people own government, government does not own the people.”
It is true a tree cannot make a forest, but there is a tree that is more than forest every elected leader is the tree mandated to oversee the affairs of the people. If you want to hide such a tree, hide it in the same forest, rather than to make the grievous mistake of sticking the tree out in the middle of the city.
Buhari regime 1984 made the same attempt at abducting Umar Dikko through a casket from London and failed. But Dino himself foiled the attempt to abduct him from Abuja to Lokoja on a case that has already been transferred to Abuja. The Okun followed suit on social media everywhere reasserting their position; “owo we bienewdu we ne omune fan no”; no matter how bad your hand (relative) you cannot give it to another person to lick it clean for you. It is a taboo in Okunland but not too clear in Igalaland.
Recalling a senator or suspending a lawmaker without involving the conscience and consciousness of his community is an organized Boko haram pattern of unthinking stupidity. It is a Lord Lugard half-baked old version of coping with the new stress of governance on the data that makes us similar rather being obsessed by the technology that makes us different. It is a wrong and endless battle which will not advance far. Your own is your own and the significance you bring to it makes the world to value you and me.
– Inah Stephen Eyiene, Lokoja
