THIS piece was initially entitled: “Olaitan Oyerinde: A Machiavelli Unravels in Edo”; but I had to change it to “Olaitan Oyerinde: Rest not in peace” for an understandable reason: To flag down attention of readers to the narrative, which is both a tribute, in the plain literary logic, to a man who lived for the labour struggle but was, unfortunately, cut down by unknown gun men in the arena of conflict that has been given a political coloration, and a genre of message to a spirit being to fight for himself in the folkloric sense.

Since the gruesome killing of Comrade Olaitan, the Principal Private Secretary to the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, at his residence on Ugbor Road in the GRA, Benin, in the early hours of Friday, May 4, 2012, the Governor and some of his aides have been peddling the theory that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its leaders were responsible for the dastardly act.

Oshiomhole has been particularly and passionately committed to making a political capital from this.  He has understandably latched on to it as a window of escape from the vicious missiles that were hitting his underbelly in the aftermath of the revelation of the alleged multi-billion naira mansion and other structures he is building on his sprawling estate at his Iyamho village in Edo State.

The politicisation of the killing of Oyerinde by Oshiomhole is not only an act of insensitivity to the dead and his family by a supposed father but also an indication of the Governor’s desperation to divert attention from issues of accountability being raised about the sources of funding for the monument to madness at Iyamho.  It is part of deliberate efforts to preserve his enlightened self-interest in the tumultuous politics that has become the lot of Edo State.

Instead of responding with his usual ballyhoo to the Iyamho mansion scandal, the Comrade-Governor has chosen to take refuge in reckless acts of pointing finger of guilt at the opposition over the killing of Olaitan.  And he is doing it with a rare relish, happy that attention has, to a large extent, been shifted from the sordid skeleton in his cupboard at Iyamho.  It is sad that the Comrade-Governor is, by so doing, dancing on the grave of Olaitan.

Has Oshiomhole been denatured such that he could not address the Iyamho scandal on its merit (or is it demerit)?  Why has he decided to shy away from personally joining issues with the opposition on the scandalous Iyamho mansion saga despite the wide and damaging publicity given to it?  Very unlike the rambunctious Comrade-Governor!  The reason is that his hands have been caught in the cookie jar and he has found it extremely difficult to wriggle out of it.

His aides have tried hard to rationalise it but have failed to explain it away.  It is rather unfortunate that the only way the Governor and his strategists planned to push the issue to the background was by playing dirty politics with the  death of the three journalists who died in his convoy accident and his confidant (Olaitan).  But their blood must speak out. In particular, Olaitan’s blood must fight!

Political desperation

I think reckless and extreme politicisation of Olaitan’s death is not the best way to honour the life and times as well as his memory.  I am sure the dead himself would scorn this Machiavellian approach of using his killing to whip up public sentiments for possible political gains.  It will be more so if innocent persons have been wrongly accused of perpetrating the act.  This is the point at issue here.  It is indeed worrisome that reputations would be impugned with reckless abandon on the altar of political desperation.

Indeed, Oshiomhole’s grotesque propositions in the haze of governorship electioneering have simply convinced me that a new Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, that “diabolical” Italian historian, diplomat, philosopher, humanist, writer and father of modern political theory based in Florence during the Renaissance, has unraveled in our own Edo State.

No  matter how he is constructed or de
constructed, the greatest source of Machiavelli’s reputation is, of course, The Prince (1532).  The main theme of this short book is that all means may be resorted to for the establishment and preservation of authority — the end justifies the means — and that the worst and most treacherous acts of the ruler are justified by the wickedness and treachery of the governed.

So it is with Oshiomhole in his current enterprise at demonizing the opposition by accusing its members of being responsible for all the tragedies that have so far befallen him in the build-up to the July 14 governorship election.  His followers are falling over themselves to sheepishly reinforce his propositions and thus please their paymaster.

Indeed, I have not stopped thinking about how Olaitan Oyerinde would feel wherever he is when wrong persons have been accused of his death; and when, perhaps, his real killers may just be members of the government or the party for which he worked in Edo.  I believe his remains would turn in the grave at this cruel deployment of his killing for political capital.

The cavalier manner at which Oshiomhole targeted the character of the opposition when the Police have not come out with the result of their investigation is simply Machiavellian.  It is one of the strategies or means for preserving his governance authority beyond November 14, 2012.  But to his chagrin, this will not work.

I sincerely and very seriously think that beyond Oshiomhole’s reckless accusations and the Police investigations, the spirit of Olaitan, a strong labour union activist while alive, should be strong in the realm of spiritualism to preponderate the shenanigans that have dominated the physical or the terrestrial in the ambiance of Edo State politics.

This goes to the heart of the traditional belief, especially in Yoruba land, where Olaitan came from, that spirits (spiritism) of the dead have powers to interfere in the affairs of the living.  If that is correct, I sincerely wish that the soul or spirit of Olaitan will receive a rare capacity to torture and expose for ridicule and punishment the elements that conspired to cut down his physical body in the midstream of his life.

And if this mission must be accomplished, then much as the death of any man diminishes me, I am careful in joining the bandwagon of genuine and fake sympathisers who have prayed for Olaitan’s soul to rest in peace.

Having considered the callousness of his killing and the suspicious atmospherics created by Oshiomhole and his aides in their hasty and unconscionable accusation (as if it was pre-determined) of Chief Tony Anenih as being responsible for the killing (the governor has even named Delta Crescent, GRA, where Anenih lives in Benin after Olaitan, a conclusive attitude when the Police are yet to finish investigations), I can only pray that the soul of Olaitan should not rest in peace until it has helped relevant security agencies to fish out his real killers.

So, my brother (since we are both handiwork of God’s creation), Olaitan, please, understand with me as I earnestly urge you, yes your soul, not to rest in peace until your killers are apprehended.

Mr. SUFUYAN OJEIFO, a journalist, wrote from Abuja.