Paul Biya’s succession on life support, Africa Intelligence
Not only is the Cameroonian president’s own health failing but so too that of his constitutionally designated replacements. Culled from Africa Intelligence
Politics
Cameroon: Life After Biya
As Cameroon witnesses the dying embers of the embattled Biya regime, questions abound about what the future holds for the Central African country. Beset by a violent separatist conflict in the Anglophone regions and the omnipresent scourge, Boko Haram, in the North, that Cameroon faces significant challenges ahead is an understatement. Yet slowly and very carefully, the potential for a more democratic future is emerging from conversations between leading Cameroonians.
President Paul Biya has effectively ruled Cameroon since 1982, with questionable elections returning him as President as recently as 2018. Biya, now a sprightly 87, will be a venerable 92 when his seventh term ends, and his health remains a popular topic amongst Cameroonians both at home and in the diaspora. Extended stays in Geneva and regular disappearances from the public eye have only furthered these discussions. Biya’s absence was particularly conspicuous this year at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic- even his reappearance at a meeting with French Ambassador Christophe Guilhou did little to stop them. Biya is apparently back at the helm now, but questions about his health abound. There is now a growing inevitability about the end of the Biya regime. Nobody lives forever, and Cameroonian eyes are starting to turn toward the future. Who will succeed Biya? What does the Cameroon of the future look like? More simply- what comes next?
Whilst Biya’s Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) party may retain an overwhelming majority (139/180 seats) in the National Assembly, there is a degree of inescapability about the instability and potential power vacuum to come. This is the price any highly centralized country must pay for being ruled by a strongman with an iron fist for so long. Out of this change, however, arises an opportunity never truly granted the people of Cameroon since its formation in 1960, as the only previous president, Ahidjo, was also widely regarded to be dictatorial figure. It is remarkable that since 1960, Cameroon has had just two presidents. After sixty years of the rule of the Strongman and ultimately the cult of Biya, the people of Cameroon are approaching the greatest crossroads since federation in 1972, or perhaps in the country’s history. The people of Cameroon can allow the nation to continue down its current path, settling on a new ‘chosen’ leader in the mold of Biya, but they will also have the chance to effect the lasting political change that many desire. Leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement opposition party, Maurice Kamto, is the most prominent proponent of this view, publicly opposing an apparent transfer of power to one of Biya’s acolytes, as if the CPDM party itself had the divine right to rule.
On social media, he stated ‘We will not accept the mutual agreement succession in our country, nor new popular elections without consensual reform of the electoral system. Only the Cameroonian people will have to choose their legitimate leaders, in freedom and democratic transparency’. Kamto has paid and continues to pay the price for his opposition to the regime. He and his supporters were imprisoned from January to October 2019 in the notorious Kondengui Prison in Yaoundé. A rumored assassination attempt followed, and only this week was his compound attacked and death threats reportedly made against him. He recently also proposed a wide-ranging, representative committee to help resolve the Anglophone Crisis. It is somewhat symptomatic of the Biya regime’s extremities and decline that Kamto’s efforts to fundraise for the Coronavirus response were heavily suppressed- and even outlawed- by the government.
Yet whilst Kamto is indeed a key player, a drive for change is coming from some of Cameroon’s most revered figures. Politician and entrepreneur Kah Walla’s ‘20th of May Dialogues’, livestreamed simultaneously on Twitter [CS1] and Zoom, has brought some of the nation’s brightest minds together to discuss the future of their country. Speakers including journalist Mimi Mefo, once imprisoned by the Biya regime, the indomitable technology entrepreneur Rebecca Enonchong, surgeon Dr. Dennis Foretia and others have all voiced their thoughts on issues including the Anglophone Crisis, Coronavirus and political transitions. The value of these dialogues should not be underestimated, as they are introducing and highlighting new, exciting Cameroonian options for the country’s future, from some of the nation’s finest minds. The reaction to these dialogues on social media illustrates both the richness of Cameroon’s political sphere and the yearning for change- or at the very least, more discussions.
Although the Anglophone Crisis is oft ignored by the international community, it threatens the stability of the entire state of Cameroon and thus must form (and has formed) a key part of these discussions. The dialogues have hinted at how a solution to the Anglophone Crisis could be found, but longer-term thinking is required in order to produce a lasting peace – be it through a true federation or another mechanism. A weakness of previous dialogue efforts has been a lack of unity among Anglophone groups, with views varying widely. With a stronger coalition of Anglophone voices, a meaningful dialogue has more chance of success. The concept of a future Cameroonian state beyond the Biya regime offers a genuine opportunity for change, and for Cameroon to better reflect the demands of the Anglophone population. Of course, this will not satisfy everybody, particularly the most ardent Ambazonian separatists, but it would represent a significant improvement on the current situation. The Anglophone regions remain of vital economic importance to Cameroon, and so they would invariably be a major point of discussion, even if the crisis had never occurred.
Looking across Central and Francophone Africa, change is coming. Even Burundi’s Nkurunziza has handed power over to a successor, and more nations are supportive of Presidential term limits. France’s controversial and neocolonial CFA Franc is being replaced in West Africa by an exciting though arguably imperfect successor, the ECO. Central Africa’s CFA Franc, used in Cameroon, will surely follow, reducing the country’s dependency on its former colonial master. Coronavirus itself has also upset the world order, and what that fully means for Cameroon and Central Africa remains to be fully understood. The end of the Biya regime, then, may coincide with a changing of the guard on multiple fronts.
Whilst the Biya regime will invariably trundle on for a while to come, it feels more finite than ever before. Cameroonians have the rarest of opportunities to reform their state and to mold it to be ready for the next 100 years. That process starts with conversations like the ‘May 20th Dialogues’, led by so many brilliant Cameroonians. This progress will likely be contested fiercely by those in power by way of the Biya regime, and so there are tough political challenges ahead. Somehow though, in the unlikeliest of times amidst a terrible pandemic, there is an indelible source of hope in Cameroon.
Culled from Anglophone crisis.org
President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Yaoundé Military Tribunal: give a dog a bad name and hang him
The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has received the English version of the Yaoundé Military Tribunal verdict on the NERA 10. The document revealed in details how the Biya Francophone regime changed the Nigerian government’s dossier on the Southern Cameroons jailed leaders to make it sexier for the French Cameroun administration.
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon
The Yaoundé Military Tribunal observed that the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was arrested at the Abuja Nera Hotel in possession of “96 war munitions of type 7.60; 151 calibre-12 munitions, 03 barrels; 18 ammunition boxes, 03 detonating cords, 02 grenades, tear gas grenades, 06 Ambazonian flags; 04 American camouflage uniforms, one ARA helmet; camouflaged uniforms and sergeant grades, 03 artisan crafted mobile units; 02 army green pants; one army green vest; 02 packets of Naira; USB flash drives; on mini-taptop (tablet).”
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon
The Military Tribunal revelation that necessitated the life sentence undermined the credibility of well documented Nigerian police information provided by the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs to the UN Assistant Secretary General that the Southern Cameroons leaders were arrested inside the conference hall of NERA Hotel in Abuja.
The Yaoundé Military Tribunal verdict also raised a host of tough questions and has greatly altered the narrative around the fairness of the Francophone justice system including strengthening the case for independence or resistance forever. The trial process itself was marred by loose use of the French language and lack of judgment. To be sure, Yaoundé simply gave a dog a bad name and hang him with concocted evidence to make a case for continues detention of the Ambazonian leaders.
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon
A senior French Cameroun intelligence officer was quoted as saying that President Biya personally participated in fabricating the dodgy dossier against the Southern Cameroons leaders and during the tail end of the trial process Biya wrote to the presiding judge and those involved and gave them directives.
The Yaoundé Military Tribunal’s demonstration of how the French Cameroun judiciary spun intelligence to fit the case for a life sentence has now finally been released to the people of Southern Cameroons. The Ngarbuh Massacre and the journalist Samuel Wazizi affair signals a continuation of a well teleguided French Cameroun criminal policy designed to deceive the international community.
President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said the military tribunal decision remains very dodgy and was deliberately designed to stifle the Ambazonian revolution based on false pretences. The fraudulent court decision is the single most serious salvo fired against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.
French Cameroun judges are appointed to make the toughest calls in favour of the Biya regime. But in this case the Southern Cameroons leaders are indeed men sinned against than sinning.
By Chi Prudence Asong
Iranian President Rouhani says Trump using Bible to justify violence against Americans
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has deplored his US counterpart’s recent Bible photo-op outside a church amid angry anti-racism protests in American cities, saying Donald Trump is resorting to the Christianity’s holy book to justify ordering “murders and crimes” against the American people.
In remarks on Thursday, Rouhani said the US has been experiencing the “worst days in its political and social history” amid angry protests over US police brutality, which erupted after the death of an unarmed African-American man at hands of a white Minnesota policeman last week.
The protests have been met with a heavy-handed police crackdown. The anger has also spilled onto other countries, sparking similar anti-racism protests in several cities around the world.
Rouhani said under such circumstances, “we have witnessed that black people and those who reject the White House’s mindset are being subjected to massive suppression.”
“It is shameful that the US president reaches for The Bible [to justify] issuing an order for murders and crimes against American citizens,” Rouhani said.
He was referring to Trump’s photo stunt on Monday, when US police drove back peaceful protesters near the White House so the US president could walk to the nearby St. John’s Church and pose briefly with a Bible.
Declaring himself “your president of law and order,” Trump vowed on the same day to return order to American streets using the military if the protests continue.
The Iranian president further said The Bible is a holy book that invites to peace and kindness. The Bible, he added, is the holy book of an Abrahamic religion and such a move angers the followers of all other such religions, who respect Jesus Christ and The Bible.
“The rulers in the White House have turned the current situation into one of the worst eras in America’s history,” he added.
Rouhani expressed sympathy with the “American people and those who are protesting in the streets,” saying, “We condemn the White House which is issuing orders to commit these crimes.”
Trump’s Bible-toting stunt sparked outrage among several US lawmakers and religious leaders, including the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, Mariann Budde, who said Trump had held up The Bible in front of the church under her watch “as if it were a prop or an extension of his military and authoritarian position.”
Budde, in an interview with the NBC, said that what Trump did “was an abuse of the spiritual tools and symbols of our traditions and of our sacred space.”
Source: Presstv
Yaounde: In two months, MPs have received more than 28.5 million CFA francs each
The Biya regime has disbursed more than 5 billion FCFA to the so-called newly elected members of the one and indivisible Cameroon national assembly in Yaounde.
The 180 representatives of the 10th legislature, who have only been in office for two months, to be more accurate between the election in February and May 31, 2020 have received more than 28.5 million CFA francs.
Here is breakdown of what the ruling CPDM crime syndicate paid to the MPs:
– Transport for the full session: 86 000 FCFA
– Telephone and fuel for the full session: 1 075 000 FCFA
-Participation Fee: 2 250 000 FCFA.
– Transport for the March session: 86 000 FCFA
– Telephone + fuel for March: 1 075 000 FCFA
– March session participation fee: 2 250 000 FCFA
– March salary: 1 225 000 FCFA
– April salary: 1 225 000 FCFA
– May salary 1 225 000 FCFA
– Microprojects: 8 000 000 FCFA
– Vehicle purchase premium: 10 000 000 FCFA (not yet paid, but budgeted).
The total sum amounts to more than 5.1 billion FCFA already paid to the representatives in a country that is seeking help from international donors to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cameroon Concord News Group understands the MPs will be voting soonest on a diabolic project to prepare the stage for Franck Biya to succeed the father as head of state.
By Rita Akana in Yaounde with files Cameroon Info.Net
US Crisis: Obama offers path to ‘change’ again
Former US President Barack Obama has offered Americans the path to “real change,” calling for participation both in politics and protests, seeking racial justice in America.
“The bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn’t between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform,” Obama said Monday amid protests over the murder of George Floyd and police brutality in the United States.
The Democratic politician further condemned violence and the “corrosive role that racism plays in our society.”
“Yes, we should be fighting to make sure that we have a president, a Congress, a US Justice Department, and a federal judiciary that actually recognize the ongoing, corrosive role that racism plays in our society and want to do something about it,” Obama wrote. “But the elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels.”
He made the comments amid the social unrest that has gripped the country over the murder of another black man by a white police officer.
“Let’s not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves,” wrote the former president.
Obama on Friday called for officials in the US sate of Minnesota to bring the officers the murdered Floyd to justice.
Floyd’s death on May 25 and the subsequent release of a bystander’s cellphone video sparked demonstrations across the states.
Police-involved shootings and killings of unarmed black men in the hands of white police officers have led to mass protests across the country in recent years and the formation of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Source: Presstv
The Biya Family Crisis: What it means for his legacy
Biya will not die in peace. That’s what many in his entourage and extended family are now saying! A handful of his Beti Ewondo supporters are now clamouring for his son, Franck Biya to take over leadership. This position is not going down well in all the gangs that constitute the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates.
Biya is looking frailer and the Cameroon political wind continues to bat him from side to side as he walks towards a shameful and disgusting exit.
Biya stubbornly insisted upon walking unaided inside the presidency and has been struggling lately to stay upright on his own. He now tells his political story even to cleaners in Etoudi as his children are all deserting him and revealing sensitive information on the running of the family on social media.
He recently ordered the Cameroon embassy in Dakar, Senegal to issue a passport to the wife of the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Madam Ahidjo had her passport confiscated immediately after the April 6th coup in 1984.
The issuing of a Cameroonian passport to the late president’s wife has indeed signalled the closing of a circle for Biya and hints of a man who wants to die in peace.
But as our London Bureau Chief, Asu Isong will reveal to us today, Biya has been caught in the pangs of a monster he (himself) created.
Stay with Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News and be the first to know!
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Biya and some leaders taking advantage of Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic, has opened doors to most selfish dictators to exhibit and fulfil their undercover business and political agendas.
Many nations worldwide are under lockdown and curfew, leaving people in a more precarious situation and diminishing hope.
Many leaders across the globe have taken advantage of the corona pandemic.
For instance, countries like Burundi, in a Machiavellian way, have declared many international agencies and independent observers, persona non grata ahead of the just concluded presidential elections.
President Pierre Nkurunziza’s hand-picked successor Evariste Ndayishimiye was declared the winner of the highly controversial election with 69 per cent, leaving his major opponents Agatha Rwasa of CNL party with 24 per cent and vice president Gaston Sindimwo of the Nationalist UPRONA party with 1 pre cent.
Recently, President Janos Ader of Hungary, a landlock country in Central Europe, abolished democracy and instituted emergency laws to favour his party. South Sudan is currently under unforeseen transition with President Salva Kiir and his vice Riek Machar under isolation over coronavirus infection.
Cameroon’s Paul Biya has been president since November 6, 1982. Passes tougher laws in favour of his government.
The disparaging power strategies by many State machineries is unfathomable and highly erratic to the voters.
The approach by President Museveni’s government in curbing the Covid-19 pandemic should be appreciated by Ugandans. However, more efforts is still needed, especially in controlling the porous borders and apprehending the corrupt government officials.
Otherwise, the despondent citizens will not stop their thirst and advocacy for change. It appears undeniable that the current corona pandemic is a blessing to greedy despotic leaders and a tool for suppressing their political opponents.
Source: Daily Monitor
President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s tears a sign of Ambazonia respect for Mola Njoh Litumbe
The Southern Cameroons chief executive President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe displayed emotion from his cell at the Kondengui High Security prison in French Cameroun when news got to him that the veteran patriotic Ambazonian soldier Mola Njoh Litumbe had passed to eternity.
Cameroon Intelligence Report Yaoundé city reporter who met the jailed Ambazonian leaders in Kondengui revealed that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe described Mola Njoh Litumbe as his most important Ambazonia leader and commander with whom he shared a deep bond.
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s voice cracked as he said a prayer and chanted the Ambazonian national anthem to honour the late Southern Cameroons veteran. President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s display of intense grief also signaled deep respect for the great Mola Njoh Litumbe.
Mola Njoh Litumbe the Southern Cameroons leader who passionately sought a free Ambazonia homeland for the people of British Southern Cameroons died on Tuesday 26th of May 2020 at Muna’s clinic in Douala, French Cameroun.
In a statement to the people of Southern Cameroons, exiled Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima noted that “Mola Njoh Litumbe will be engraved in the consciousness of our nation as one of its true intellectual and revolutionary giants. On this solemn day, his courage and purpose will be celebrated with all Ambazonian flags at home and abroad flying at half-mast.”
The late Mola Njoh Litumbe will be lionized as an Ambazonian figure that embodied Southern Cameroons’s lethal reach in the face of a vicious French Cameroun genocidal campaign against the people of Southern Cameroons.
Mola Litumbe was a committed leader who conferred with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe often and cemented the dream of getting to Buea soonest and helped to preserve and advance the principles of the Southern Cameroons four years revolution.
The relationship between the great Mola Njoh Litumbe and President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was so close that during a trip to the USA, Mola Njoh Litumbe was photographed thrice embracing Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in ways that are customary in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for dads and their beloved sons.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Nigeria: Buhari, Tinubu, and the Macbeth in us all
“Owe ni Ifa npa, Omoran ni imo”
Ifa’s revelation is always in parables; only the wise can understand their meanings.
In his analysis of the Shakespearean Tragedy “Macbeth” Michael Stratford argues that the essence of human pride was covered in three dimensions by this work. He asserted in supports of the works of Majorie Garber on the play which concluded that Macbeth’s confrontation with morality at the end of the play portrayed “real recovery” and completed the depiction of the phases of pride in men. He went further to outline these stages as: The hubris that hurls a man into sin and error, the false pride that secure and justifies all and perpetuates us in evil acts, and the final realization of our immortality and futility of all things.
The play Macbeth has been analyzed by many due to its relevance in everyday human progression. Macbeth was a young and virile soldier honored for his love of Scotland and bravery at war by King Duncan. He was at the zenith of his profession as a soldier and revered titled gentleman in Scotland when the story started. A chance meeting with the “three witches”, their predictions of Macbeth as the King of Scotland, transported this gentleman into a murderer, a wicked usurper and finally, his death.
Given the level of public exposure to education against current public discourse about the rulers in Nigeria which pulls towards a group suspected of inadequacies in formal education, maybe this narrative could be brought home. Recent curiosity made me look into the Ifa esoteric and cosmogony and I was amazed at the level of sophistication of the Odu Ifa in explaining and predicting main pattern of human conscious, and unconscious acts; going even further to reveal the purpose and destinies of humans on earth. I was further impressed by the manner with which knowledge and wisdom for managing pride and power were expressively itemized thorough the use of parables.
For noninitiates, the Ifa divinity comprises of sixteen major quadrant of ancient Yoruba Ifa cult, which was subdivided into 256 distinct sub-heads detailing all areas of human: wisdom for proper interrelations, truth and moralities, science, cosmology, metaphysics, medicine and other established norms of the Yoruba People of Southwest Nigeria as established by Orunmila. Orunmila the first Ifa priest was reputed to have started the accumulation of this knowledge base, handing it over to his sixteen children, who continued to practice and develop the Ifa practice.
The Odi Isa, noted amongst the Odu Ifa tried to balance power and pride; it depicts the travail of the Tiger, the king of the jungle when the entire animal challenged him to battle. The tiger despite his overwhelming power, applied wisdom and appealed to the elders for help. The elders asked the Tiger to perform a sacrifice and in respect to the words of the elders, the Tiger performed all necessary rites. And to this day, no animal was able to conquer the tiger.
Tiger’s power though vast and reputed never for once doubted that the whole animal kingdom could overrun him and take over his kingdom. When faced with adversities, he went begging the elders for advice. Instead of ruin and death as in Macbeth case, the tiger excel and its kingdom expanded.
Many writers in the pre-2015 era had lauded the achievements of the new progressives led by General Mohamadu Buhari and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The duo in conjunction with other heavy weights in Nigerian politics had performed the first presidential election upset in Nigerian history; the defeat of a sitting president in a general election. The global press was agog in the spirit of the wave of change coming to Nigeria politics. The emergence of Buhari as the new government leader was heralded as a milestone in Nigerian political arena.
Given sixteen years politicking before his emergence as the president, people were thoroughly misled that the “Buhari presidential dream” was driven by passionate goals for real change, when the new government started showing signs of unpreparedness to rule and obvious lack of cohesion in policy in its first few years in office. Nigerian people still believed and attributed this to huge challenges emanating from long period of institutionalized corruption by previous governments. Nigerian new government was later revealed to have been distracted by huge amount of propaganda, vain retribution, illegal and unnecessary arrests and prosecutions in its first year in power. Apparently, governance and economy finally start to show negative growth. Before the end of the second year, the country which was previously reputed as one of the ten growing global economies was in recession.
Economic indicator aside, the failing security architecture has been witnessed in all theaters of operation. Conflict escalations in most areas were being witnessed. Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) continued to rise as repetitive conflicts engulfs the state. Youth and elites migration have more than doubled within three years, and statistics on youth unemployment is reading above one third of population. The national currency’s value in international trade fell by over 200 percent in the first year of this government and it took direct intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria to shore up the Naira to its current 360 to one dollar status. Failed economy, repetitive conflicts, insurrections, low school attendance, thriving illicit economies, and high youth emigration, according to Mary Kaldor are signs of failing states.
The constant stay outside the country by the president was a minor issue until the whole world was treated to the caricature of Nigerian President’s show of shame in faraway Poland on the Saturday Night Show recently. The lack of grace and charisma that goes with the esteemed office of the president of Federal Republic of Nigeria, the representative of over 200millon people, and one of the fastest growing states globally by apparent lack of charisma displayed by the president and his minders. Most posits that the posture reflects apparent lack of understanding of the power and privileges garnered over the years by the Nigerian State in global politics.
Tinubu rise to stardom in Nigerian politics was midwifed by the NADECO movement against military rule in the late eighties and early nineties. The movement which led to the emergence of this ongoing republic equally blessed BAT with the governorship of the most priced state in Nigeria, Lagos. Lagos represents the hub of commerce and economy of Nigeria controlling over 25% of Nigeria economy and the claim of Nigeria as the giant in Africa business resides in the economic performance of Lagos State. Eight years direct rule, twelve years of his protégés ruling, characterized by unashamed plundering of Lagos state’s resources has created a new “Czar” in Lagos. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the political czar of Southwest Nigeria was born.
By 2014, Tinubu had in his control a war-chest big enough to start and prosecute any political war in Nigeria against any opposition. When Tinubu pitched his tent against President Goodluck Jonathan. He midwifed an impossible coalition of unlike minds from several parties to form the All Peoples’ Congress (APC) in supports of Buhari. The die was cast, Tinubu’s prowess and political machinery was founded on the Lagos State dynasty. This base he has always controlled since 1999. Experts have posited that the loss of Lagos by the Tinubu gang will surely sound the kernel of his political demise.
Recent happenings have shown the arrival of the new Tinubu. Four month to the 2019 general elections, Tinubu unilaterally influenced the removal of the name of the incumbent governor of Lagos State from the ballot and imposed a new man as the party representative. A move that reportedly irked some locals and party faithful. Obviously, Tinubu’s power as sole godfather and power broker in Lagos politics was on test during the 2019 February elections looms.
Buhari’s reign and reelections as president was supported by the Tinubu’s camp. The alliance many agreed was based on the pact to return Tinubu as president in 2023. This ambition has fueled the unalloyed support from Lagos APC for Buhari’s return. It’s a big gamble on the path of Tinubu and Buhari. Like the proverbial fly, Buhari has tasted the wine and is ready and willing to die in the same cup of wine. Tinubu ambition might also turn him to the fly that refused to heed the warnings of the elders and has decided to follow the corpse into the earth.
Ambition is necessary to achieve and progress in life, yet ambitions should be ethically based, no normal leader will continue to aspire to hold and office in which he does not have capacity for managing, and no normal human being will sacrifice the future of his people, merely for his sole selfish ambition.
Ambition contaminated by acute pride surely begets disaster. Macbeth ambition was fueled by greed and selfish ambition to rule Scotland, never because he was a pushed by a need to work out a better society for his people. His endgame led to war and carnage pushing Scotland which was growing as a nation into complete recession and pillage by ravaging armies.
Tinubu contesting the presidential elections in 2023, might be met with high resistance by Lagos and the people of Western Nigeria, given current apathy and political inequalities current leaders have imposed on the public. Unlike, the Tiger, Tinubu might probably resort to the use of might against his enemies with the Federal might behind him, but he should remember Macbeth, won the seat of King of Scotland but lost the heart of its homeland to civil wars and marauders.
Wisdom and respect for the animals led the Tiger to the elders. Tinubu and Buhari have achieved the impossible in Nigerian politics; plundered its commonwealth shamelessly, many would say; “the time has come for them to both respect the people and leave the scene for others in 2023”. But if they refuse, remind them of Macbeth: Unrestrained pride and ambition, the elders say always lead to death and destruction.
By Don Michael Adeniji is a Contributing Editor for Cameroon Concord News Group and an expert in Terrorism, International Crime and Global Security