IT was Dr Borlaugh, the father of the Green Revolution, who in 1970 described the desperate global food situation in those terms which I came about while researching for a booklet, which I hope to publish one day on How To Attain National Food Security.

At the time, researching about sustainable food security was the right thing to do. I was general manager of a rice mill situated at Kalambina Road, Sokoto and I dreamed of feeding the whole of Nigeria with parboiled rice.

The logical thing was to find out the secrets of the Green Revolution. Then I came across Borlaugh addressing a global body and the opening sentence was, “the time is quarter to midnight.” I think that pretty well sums up the predicament of Malam Nuhu Ribadu. But, before proceeding, let me hasten to state that I feel more pity for him than many people realise.

He was as much a victim of his “friends and admirers” as of his enemies who have now got him where they want him - in their clutches!! And contrary to the impression being created in certain circles, the new chairman, Mrs Farida Waziri is not one of them. She most probably would not want to be embroiled in any controversy concerning her predecessor.

I woke up last Sunday, November 23, 2008, to read the terrible news of the treatment he received from the hands of security agents during the graduating ceremonies at the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS. I must confess that the entire plot to send Ribadu to NIPSS; to demote him while at NIPSS; to keep him at NIPSS instead of withdrawing him; and then to prevent him from participating in the award of certificates together consisted of such top grade strategic moves that only a world class strategist could have devised.

The final hour was the climax of the drama which could easily be part of a documentary film in the future. Having been demoted, his tormentors were waiting for him to either defiantly dress in the uniform of an Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIGP, and be arrested for impersonation or dress as a Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, and damage his case against demotion since that could amount to acceptance of his demotion.

His effort to attend the passing out ceremony in mufti, which on the face of it was a clever response, only made matters worse. Graduating officers in any of the services are required to attend the ceremony in their service uniforms and not in street clothes. He was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

And he ended up making the wrong choice. No officer in any service is entitled to attend an official ceremony in mufti. Ribadu should have sought for advice, not from lawyers, but from Area Boys. We strongly believe like the American folk singer in the 1960s, Bob Deyland, that “To live outside the law, you must be honest.”

Instead of going in mufti or ACP or AIGP uniform and getting into trouble, he should have headed for Campos Square, and asked for the presido, where half a dozen qualified trado-doctors would have certified him too sick to attend the closing ceremonies!!

Palaver would have been averted. However, that is even too close for comfort. He should have run away when he had the chance. Ribadu simply had no business remaining in office a day after Obasanjo left.

If there is anything that pains me the most about Ribadu, it was the fact that he actually relied on the noise of his “supporters” to save him from what I warned him was impending doom. Even if he didn’t know that he was facing the fight of his life when Obasanjo was about to go; he was warned.

And even when the hand- writing started appearing on the wall, he either on his own ignored them or was encouraged to dismiss them. He was after all a “hero” and therefore untouchable. The same argument that had sent many martyrs to their graves - Abiola, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isaac Adaka Boro - to name a few.

In each case, his supporters often imagine that the enemies will stop short of total annihilation - until it happens.

Meanwhile, for those with a philosophical bent of mind, a war ensues whether an individual is part of a great army or is fighting for his own life.

The war, whichever one, is over once death occurs. Thus, the abiding question for anybody or group of individuals faced with a war on their hands still remains as Phocion, 402-318 B.C, the Greek General, posed it over two thousand years ago. According to him,

“The problem is not where (or who) we are going to fight, my good sir, but how we are to win the battle. If we can do that, we can keep the war at a distance anyhow, but, it is the loser who finds the horrors of war are on his very doorstep.”

(Vanguard Book of Quotations p. 60). My advice to Ribadu to leave the country and seek asylum elsewhere after resigning were designed to enable him to “keep the war at a distance” because it was clear that a battle was inevitable. Furthermore, the legend of David and Goliath and several military upsets, not withstanding (e.g Napoleon’s defeat of a much larger Prussian army at Jena in 1806), the verdict of history remains as Marshal Turene, 1611-1675, has declared, “God is always on the side of the big battalions.”

Like it or not, Ribadu was fighting the entire established political ruling class which has benefited from corruption and which still felt entitled to continue ruling. Even, the “total” support he received from Obasanjo was used selectively and not generally.

Yet, the little he did was threatening enough to make him a man marked for destruction unless the next president also provided him with protection. That, unfortunately, was a risk he chose to take.

It was a grave mistake which, however, he could still correct by leaving as soon as Obasanjo left. At any rate, three issues remain unresolved. First, how many governors did he actually investigate conclusively? Was it 31 as he claimed or was that just media hype?

If it was rumour, then he might actually find himself with a case to answer. Second, the allegations about the houses he owns abroad have refused to go away.

Are they true? If they are, even his staunchest supporters will desert him. Right now, we don’t have the facts. Third, have files, incriminating some friends of the last administration, been taken away?

If so, that will constitute obstruction of justice and again a crime for which he can be prosecuted. No amount of noise-making can or should prevent him from being sanctioned if abuse of office can be substantiated.

And in conducting all these inquiries, we  should not allow ourselves to be distracted by the so called “voice of the people.” As Alcuin, 735-804 A.D has warned us: “Nor should we listen to those who say 'the voice of the people is the voice of God' for the turbulence of the mob is always close to insanity.”

Years from now, if he is not doing so already, Ribadu will be saying to anyone who cares to listen, “With friends like these, who needs enemies” because it takes two sets of people to create a “dead hero.”

First are his enemies who want him “dead”. Second are his friends who urge him to fight against great odds, instead of advising him to beat a strategic retreat, forgetting that “he who fights and runs away; lives to fight or run another day.”

If Ojukwu had waited to be caught, instead of taking the last flight from Uli, Bianca would have found a different bedmate. Similarly, if Gowon had returned to face the military tribunal, instead of hiding in England, he would not have lived to see this day.

Self-preservation remains the first law of nature which the adulating mob induces a “hero” to ignore to his peril. I will pray for him because he needs a lot of that now - unless someone can device an escape plan for him. Any suggestions?

As Ernest Hemmingway, 1898-1961, Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1956, had observed: “A man alone hasn’t got a chance.”

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