The lessons of Fayose’s dinner

By STEVE EGBO

The outgoing Governor of Ekiti state, Peter the Rock, His Excellency, Chief Ayodele Fayose, held a valedictory dinner yesterday for his officials, friends and courtiers.

That a Governor held a dinner party for his privileged friends is not a big deal and therefore should not attract any attention. But something very unique occurred yesterday which compels me to make a few observations.

Fayose, we all know, is one of the most powerful and rambunctious Governors in the National limelight in the last few years. Noisy, ebullient, uncouth, arrogant, loquacious, boisterous, cantankerous, foul mouthed, disdainful, demagogic, etc, Fayose represented everything a gentleman and a leader would aspire not to be.

But Fayose was a Governor and Governors are big men. In Nigeria, Governors are supermen. Imperial monarchs. They wield enormous power and control huge resources. They are answerable to no one. They have the world in their pockets and the rest of us at their feet. Men and women fell over each other to seek their attention. To have a Governor’s phone number is a mark of honor. To have him pick your call or reply your text message makes your day.

But yesterday, Fayose’s dinner table was deserted. I watched in horror as this great son of omoluabi struggled to hide his shame and embarrassment, his utter humiliation and rejection at the prospect of eating his sumptuous dinner all alone. For he has been deserted by the retinue of sycophants, court jesters, hangers on and other men of dubious pedigree that hitherto buffed up his self esteem and fired his temporary idiocy.

As I reflected on Fayose’s executive loneliness and anguished mien, I saw again, very clearly, the futility and irrelevance of all these struggles. In Nigeria, politicians will do anything to acquire power. They are ready to kill, cheat, lie, defraud, betray, sell their souls to Satan or engage in other beastly and despicable behaviors, just to acquire power and the appurtenances that go with it.

Last night, Fayose exuded nothing but shame, loneliness and the anguished spirit. I remembered Reuben Abati’s lament : “the phone no longer rings”. I also remembered the admonitions of Magnus Abe to his friend, Rotimi Amechi :”someday, we will leave power or power will leave us”, just as I remembered the iconic words of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe : NO CONDITION IS PERMANENT.

How I wish this would be a lesson to all of us, especially the powerful, the power seekers, the attention seekers and the name droppers, that all of these, indeed life itself, is like a candle in the wind. It blooms, it flickers and it dies. Leaving behind an empty void and hollow darkness.

If Fayose knew that a day like yesterday would come, I am sure he would have done things differently. But for him, it is too late. He can no longer turn back the hands of the clock. He can only look forward to a bleak future, one suffused with uncertainty, loneliness, trepidation, regrets, scorn and the derisions of his fellow men.

But man by nature is stupid. We are stubborn, unfeeling, unseeing and unwise. Many who have the opportunity Fayose had will still choose the path of ignominy and ruin. They will work deliberately and consciously to wear a crown of thorns, walk on the road to Golgotha and litter their paths with thorns and brambles, with reptiles and scorpions, with dishonor and shame.

Fayose’s farewell dinner is a great lesson. It is indeed a great lesson.