Issues at Stake:A word or 2 to political methuselahs

There are leaders who have virtually become slaves to power and behave as if they were born to live forever. They would not quit the stage until power leaves them in the most disgraceful manner. They live in opulence and take their countries back to a kind of medievial period, despite the abundance of resources.

They ignore the biblical admonishment that there is time for everything. It is stated in that holy book of wisdom that there is a time to be born and a time to die. This means that if you do not want to die, do not allow yourself to be born in the first place.

If you do not want anything to end, do not begin it, at all, because everything that has a beginning has an end. There is a time to laugh and a time to cry, a time to plant and a time to harvest.

Scientists put it more dramatically in the law of gravity. In my elementary classes in secondary school, I learnt that what goes up must come down. What is curious is that all these pieces of aphorism have not pricked the consciences of many a power-drunk political oaf. Such sit-tighters believe in the illusion of the eternity of their political power.

To them, power has become an aphrodisiac for more power. They refuse to look beyond the confines of their greedy grip of power. They shun history and do not project the exigencies of the future.

They loot and plunder their nations and leave the treasuries of their countries bleeding in pecuniary penury. The common characteristic of such leaders is that they get to power on a bouquet of rigged elections or the barrel of the gun and shut the doors of mercy on the poverty-stricken masses. Bad governance, generalised corruption, the intimidation of the citizenry, the castration of the legislature and the judiciary are their virtues.

Dear reader, let us go down memory lane and see with our minds’ eyes how such leaders end up. Sani Abacha’s cruel reign turned Nigeria, that giant of Africa, into a hell on earth. Who would have imagined that after executing Ken Saro Wiwa and other Ogoni activists, Abacha would be crowned with such a disgraceful exit? As Newsweek graphically put it; “Sani Abacha expired in a viagra-fuelled orgy with an Indian Prostitute.”

Who would have imagined that the unpredictable Arab spring would flush the Tunisian, the Egyptian and the Libyan strongmen into the dustbin of history?

Again, no one had predicted that Idi Amin who put Uganda in hell fire for decades, would throw his elephantine frame across the border, fleeing for safety.

Who would have known that the almighty Mubutu will die miserably in exile after declaring his immortality in Zaire? He had wrecked havoc, as he enjoyed the personal “anthem” composed by sycophants to the effect that “Mubutu will never die”.

Other wicked leaders like Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central Africa Republic; Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Samuel Doe of Liberia, Napoleon Duarte of El Salvador, among others, suffered the same fate. In the 90s, the Eastern political winds swept across the whole world, sending many leaders to limbo in the Dark Age spots.

Pieta Botha had declared that Apartheid would never end in South Africa. The racial rule did not only end but a prisoner, Nelson Mandela, took his place as President of the Rainbow nation. The one thing sit-tight leaders must know is that there is good life after power only when one quits the stage with a standing ovation. Delay attracts anti-climax and nemesis.

Now, come back to Cameroon where the sit-tight propensity is not only at the summit of the State where a resilient gerontocracy has taken the country hostatge. It is in every segment of the society. People want to be President of their development associations, professional associations, church groups and PTAs forever. Don’t even talk about political parties wherein the leaders seem to have acquired divine rights to remain at the helm forever.

They seem to have tied the nuptial knots with power to be there till death do them part. Yet, no ruler, no matter how powerful he can be, ever reigns forever. When God decides, no one takes a counter decision.

Similarly, even ordinary people dread age just the way they fear death. That is why the business of age butchers is at an all-time boom. These Bonamoussadi, Mile 4 or Fiango stars are capable of cutting your age to size and making you younger than your child in chronological age. Here in Ongola, many people are still babies in their birth certificates when, indeed, they are physically septuagenarians, octogenarians and nonagenarians.

I know a certain erstwhile footballer whose age was stagnant for many decades. At the evening of his soccer career at the national soccer squad, he was 38.

He remained 38 years until his physical age disappointed him more than two decades later. Come to think of this cop in Yaounde whose first child was 10 years older than he. He later retired at a very young age by virtue of his birth certificate because he could no longer climb the staircase at the fief of the black berets.

Do not even dare the world of women where each and every one of them would want to remain and be seen as a sweet sixteen, till thy kingdom come. Men and women, who are at odds with reality, sustain a running battle with age until they crumble under its weight.

Yet, there are some people who look younger or older than their chronological ages. We must note that even when we hide our real ages for political, economic and social reasons, we should endeavor to speak the truth to doctors because age is considered during diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases.

Footballers must learn to speak the truth so that they can be having training and medical care according to their ages. Do not be afraid of age because, once you are born, be sure to grow old one day.