MONDAY LINES Jonathan as Soyinka’s Nebuchadnezzar 08.Dec.2014 Lasisi Olagunju Ancient Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, would be laughing heartily in his grave now. His dream before he died in 562 BC was probably to add the uncharted forests of Africa to his vast empire. What he didn’t achieve as king, he now has delivered on his laps by a literary genius, Professor Wole Soyinka, who, last week, said the president ruling Nigeria was actually Nebuchadnezzar. President Goodluck Jonathan, who is supposed to be Soyinka’s re-incarnated Nebuchadnezzar, reacted sharply to all names and adjectives the Nobel Laureate pinned on him. On Nebuchadnezzar, I did not see/hear him or his spin doctors say tufiakwa. They would rather ask him to similarly call Rotimi Amaechi such names too for his own sins. Nebuchadnezzar has always been a lucky king. Born c634 BC, he has refused to die. On every continent, in every century, someone has always been there fancying and using him as a totem of political interests. Fabled in Voltaire’s White Bull, Nebuchadnezzar was appropriated by the fallen Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, who was said to have considered himself to be the reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar. Modern Iraq stands where the old Babylon once stood as a global power. That fact was in the left side of Saddam’s head till the very end. Apart from naming one of his “Republican Guards” divisions after Nebuchadnezzar, Saddam inscribed “To King Nebuchadnezzar in the reign of Saddam Hussein” on the walls of the ancient city of Babylon. So, if any Nigerian politician secretly looks beyond the Bible in profiling the Babylonian king, he isn’t alone in that walk. He is in good company. Soyinka was actually kind to Jonathan with that parallel he drew. The president owes him some appreciation. The king was not all evil. He destroyed Jerusalem, so says the Bible. He “delivered Jerusalem to the flames,” the Bahai Faith claims. To some Islamic scholars, like Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, he was a ruthless warrior — king with deep spiritual inclinations. A source documents the historical Nebuchadnezar thus: “His first ambition when he ascended to the throne was to expand his empire, taking Jerusalem and Judah, and attacking Egypt. His second ambition was to rebuild the city of Babylon, making it one of the wonders of the ancient world.” And he achieved all these to a large extent. He was a great lover of his women. For one of them, he built the Hanging Gadens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world; added to that was a grand palace called “The Marvel of Mankind”. I remember President Jonathan’s ambition at the beginning was to transform Nigeria. His handlers secretly wanted him to become a hero. Jonathan christened his dream “Transformation Agenda”. His fans would insist he has transformed Nigeria. They would point at gleaming airports, rebuilt inter-state roads, rebased economy and ... what again? His foes would stress that, indeed, if anything has been transformed, it is the deregulation of security and devaluation of all values: Boko Haram; North East; naira, etc. The president has so many who would swear he is the builder of modern Nigeria just as Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt the ancient Babylon with silver, gold and diamond. Some of them advised him to send away America and embrace Russia at a time that all democracies of the world are fighting Russia, and at a time when Russia itself is battling recession. And do the advisers include Idris Derby of Chad? One of them is Ayodele Fayose — the governor of Ekiti State. He was in Ile Ife two weeks ago where he waxed strong praising the president for doing what Jupiter could not do for Nigeria. “You have achieved a lot,” he told the president, while asking him to stop looking the way of Olusegun Obasanjo for support. “Let me tell you again, Mr. President. You have refused to toe the path of unconstitutionality. You have refused to level Borno and other states like he (Obasanjo) levelled Odi. You have taken your time to respect human lives by not committing crimes against humanity. “He won’t like that. And, Your Excellency, the more you try to curry his (Obasanjo’s) favour,the more he will continue to despise you. If you continue to curry him, we are not going to curry him. He doesn’t like people that give him respect. I plead with Your Excellency. Your second term has been concluded in heaven. Fear not,” he boasted. Several kings in history had people who gave them such granite counsel. They all equally had their Prophet Daniel. Reporters who covered the Ile Ife event did not tell us what Jonathan’s face looked like as Fayose uttered those words. We may never know his immediate reactions but exactly seven days after that hard counsel, we saw the cream of PDP governors in the inner room of Obasanjo in Abeokuta visiting on behalf of Jonathan. Fayose was not there. How did he feel about that visit? Or was he part of the decision to beg Obasanjo? He issued a statement the following day condemning the visit. Nebuchadnezzar had Daniel, according to the Bible. He also had others who gave him counsel of varying textures. Now, who is actually Jonathan’s own Daniel here? Fayose — the president’s friend, or Obasanjo — the godfather whose occasional shots continue to rile the king, or Soyinka — writer with a shrill voice of warnings? The Babylonian king did not die a fallen man. He bounced back after he listened to his creator- as a reminder that God redeems the repented. This is where I think Soyinka did some great service for Jonathan. The president needs to listen to the counsel of those who are not overly his fans. He needs to identify clearly his Daniel or Daniels and listen to him/them. There is redemption in doing so.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 06:23:47 +0000
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