Fola Ojo; willieojo@yahoo.com
No breathing being has ever mused it into my hearing. I have yet to meet the man or woman whose life goal is to live and die in subjugation and thralldom. No man lives life full and fulfilled tied up, shackled down, caged, or bogged down in one spot. We often have hopes as we reach for the skies. We aspire to reach for the stars and bring heaven down. We hanker to be big and not small. These hopes and aspirations for a life of splendidness are real.
Assigned men who become deputy to others in service do so out of their own choosing. They were not coerced but coaxed. They see a path to gloriously fulfilling their dreams and they walk it. As they serve, they learn. As they run other people’s dreams, their personal dreams stay alive inside of them. In the trenches of service, their hopes blossom. They hope to see the day they too will be served as they have done for others with diligence. For men and women who occupy positions of deputy, these hopes are more moiling and Augean.
The position of a deputy is a foretaste and foreshadow of full power that may never come to the holder of the slot. The more proximate a man is to the seat of power, the more intense the desideratum for greater power. Deputies sniff the aroma of authority. They meet with kings and dine with queens. At the snap of the finger, people in their small world stand still at their beck-and-call. And they hope that one day, it will be their turn to command from the topmost position. Power is sweet in the mouth of they that taste it. In obedience to the inexorable natural law of aspiration and ambition, Vice-Presidents aspire to become presidents; and deputy governors love to be governors. The office of the Vice President the world over is the least understood, most ridiculed, and most often ignored constitutional office in any federal government layout. It is also the most difficult political pedestal to ride to the presidency.
In over 300 years of American Independence, only 14 of the former vice presidents became president. More than half of them did after their presidents had died. Twice in American history has a seated Vice President been elected to the presidency. In 1837, Vice President Martin Van Buren succeeded Andrew Jackson, and in 1989, Vice President George Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan. Why is it so Herculean for a man who has understudied a president for a number of years fail to ascend the presidential throne?
Dr Alex Ekwueme was deputy to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979 before military goons with guns truncated the democratic rule in 1983. Would Ekwueme have become President? We have no way of ascertaining where the tide of that time would have spun the humble man from Anambra as he served his boss with diligence and candour. Ekwueme, who is now late, never became president even after a few attempts. May his soul rest in peace. Atiku Abubakar was Olusegun Obasanjo’s deputy in 1999. He served for eight years under a man who watched him up- close with suspicions. Atiku wielded a lot of influence and power, and without a doubt, he was the most powerful Vice President in Nigeria’s history. Atiku is a politician with understandable ambition. The intrigues of power got him rubbing his boss the wrong way. Obasanjo was later set to leave the stage. He handed over to a dark horse who never ab initio desired to be Nigeria’s ruler. Somebody else instead of the Turaki of Adamawa. Atiku’s struggle to become president continues in the battle field of Nigerian courtrooms till today.
READ ALSO: Unmasking Ngige’s fatal statement
Goodluck Jonathan was governor of the oil-rich Bayelsa State before he was tapped to be vice-presidential candidate to Umaru Yar’Adua in 2007. The duo won the election. Obnoxious experiences Jonathan had as the VP came like an onrushing boisterous wind. This woke him up to the rude reality of the temerity that comes with being a deputy in a country like Nigeria. The difference between the offices of the President and Vice-President is a yawning gulf. It is like the 90 million miles distance between the sun and the earth. Jonathan was subjected to ridicules, insults, put-downs, and drag-downs. I got wind of some slights he had to endure. There were places he reportedly couldn’t access; meetings he was never invited; and people he couldn’t command. And he was Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The gap between the Presidency and the deputy is monstrous in Nigeria. Every Vice President serves at the pleasure of the president. A deputy who wields too much power and influence treads on a slippery slope. This kind may never become presiden
Jonathan was first in Nigeria to ascend the Presidency due to the death of President Yar’Adua in 2010. Even with the clarity of the language of the constitution, furtive moves to delay or totally scuttle his rise to the presidency were made by men who just wanted to be relevant in the piazza of power. Many deputies will go to any length to cut down, slice up, mangle up and even snuff life out of their principals to realise their dreams. That was not the story of Jonathan. He hung on till the end as deputy until an act of God shot out of the blues and put him on the presidential seat.
No Vice President has ever risen to succeed a living president in Nigeria’s history. If this is a tough feat in other places around the world, it is tougher in Nigeria with all the ethnic and religious intrigues spun around by men who want to remain relevant and in power. Is it possible that one day, a sitting Vice President will contest an election and succeed the man he has served loyally? History doesn’t back that up. If a Vice President will succeed a living and breathing President who has run out his terms as spelt out by the constitution, it must be an ACT of God. Am I wrong? Maybe I am. Maybe not. I’ll keep writing until I am proved wrong.
@folaojotweet
END
Be the first to comment