By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

They never believe they are wrong. So they never apologize. Rather than apologize, they double down on their folly to perpetuate their imagined infallibility. They will order a sit home and fence it with death threats. They will purchase compliance of civil disobedience with violence. And settle any doubts with promiscuous propagandizing. Nothing is absurd if it services their ego.

The children who wouldn’t take the NECO maths exams, whose future might be jeopardized, can cry rivers. All that matters is the ego of our saviours. The important thing is that they conjured a schedule, baptized it “Ghost Mondays”, stuck to it and scared people off the streets. Bloated egos carried by small-minded men. They have shown the world they can collapse the southeast overnight.

The consequences aren’t that important. Because their egos are ten times their size, they consider themselves to be large to be accountable. They will issue death threats and look away. Shadowy assassins will do the rest. If tears, sorrow, and blood happen, they will wring their hands and plead immutable innocence. They are that superior to others. They have stolen the hearts of the disenchanted and downtrodden with their rhetorics, with their promise of imminent eldorado sedated curiosity.

They might not be gazing at their own reflections in a pool of water like the mythical Narcissus, but they are too self-absorbed to bother with thoughtfulness and details. They act in bits and pieces. Whether from the school children or the families of victims of the barbaric violence, they are safe. An abject lack of empathy, devotion to vanity can be redeeming. Otherwise, there would have been no escape from the searing whips of the conscience incurred by such indiscriminate, casual cruelty as theirs. 

Their arrogance is perhaps necessary. Without it, folks deifying them would have seen through charlatanism. Conspicuous incoherence. Pathetic aversion for mental rigour sometimes allows the self-indulgence into magic, alternate reality. But nobody bothers with scrutiny. And when scrutiny is attempted, it’s so forgiving, so patronizing.

So people know that there is no Jibril, but those who cling to that weird concept, as schizophrenics often cling to empty cans and bottles, do not manage to invite legitimate suspicions of cognitive impairment or at least moral dissolution. We can set aside Jibril as childish propaganda rather than worrisome delusion.

But what about the pedantic devotion to the analyses of ears and noses? Days and months are wasted convincing folks that the non-existent secret service of the yet unborn republic is more adept at sifting grains from the chaff than the CIA and KGB put together. And people cheer rather than sneer.

A craving for adoration. A few freedom fighters love their feet being kissed. But this isn’t foot fetishism. It’s another conundrum. Gluttons of power fighting tooth and nail to become emperors while masquerading as messiahs. But they can’t be accused of hypocrisy. They have shown enough of their true colours. A man wakes up in the morning and dismisses an entire branch of the freedom fighting organization because they had the guts to demand some financial accountability.

He is fighting bad governance and unfreedom with naked fascism. He will bring freedom to the people by chaining them and farting into their mouths. He blames their docility on their black race and its innate deficiencies. Yes, he thinks black people are irredeemably stupid, but he will call them rams once they stand their ground against his megalomania. He denigrates the very humanity of the people he is pretending to be salvaging.

The people excuse the vulgarity of his words because they believe they should actually be licking his shit. He hasn’t excelled in anything else but he is the alpha and the omega. The one with the power to kill and make alive, to whom every member swears an oath of allegiance. An oath of allegiance to the man who thinks God anointed him to bring democracy, willy nilly, to the benighted.

The voracious appetite for worship can’t be satiated if folks pay the merest of obeisance to others. So all others are instantly reduced into recalcitrant ‘efulefus’ and ‘otellectuals’ if they are defiant. Otherwise, they are pliant disciples and Otimkpus. It doesn’t matter whether they are Generals, bishops, professors or grandfathers. Once that blanket reduction is complete, the glory of the self-appointed messiah shines through.

While the narcissist is at work, fighting for your freedom, you must maintain decorum. He won’t tolerate criticism and won’t brook contrary opinions. You are dispensable. And nobody is too big to constitute collateral damage in the quest for freedom. You must submit your spirit, soul and body to his dictates.

If you utter a loud contrary opinion, you could become a lily-livered intellectual intent on retarding the struggle with paralyzing analyses. You have to keep up with the oscillations. You might be allowed to worship under a Zulu pastor today but tomorrow, it becomes a mortal sin. If you dare criticize him, then you are the slave of the oppressor, a hired agent of the unwanted demonic imperialism.

With a knowing smile, he would tell you the price at which you were bought. If you persist in your infamy, then with or without his prompting, one or two overzealous disciples might bring violence to your doorstep, and the blame would be yours. While the big-headed freedom fighter struggles with ideas in his head and vacillates, he uses his cudgels to beat clean his path and erase every sign of uncertainty. His enraptured subjects aren’t forgiving; they are insensate.

The freedom fighter’s sense of entitlement isn’t so baffling. Gone are the days when they lived in the bushes. They now live in five start hotels and junket the world on private jets, all costs borne by their intoxicated devotees. Self-sacrifice is medieval. In these fights, they espouse no stated moral principles. Not freedom, not truth. They employ torture, lies, arson and blasphemy.

No rules, neither traditional nor formal, affect them. They are unhinged, licensed to act without a licence. Their methods are antithetical to the very ideals whose flags they fly. But they march on, without compunction, without remorse, trampling on mores and decency. They promote hate speech and summary punishments. They sing the rule of law when it would fetch them personal freedom. They are above the law. They are the law in every sense.

So it’s not surprising. These freedom fighters do not seek to win hearts and minds. They are overlords. They are not bothered about selling themselves and their plans to anybody. That enterprise is beneath them. It could make them politically effeminate or cast doubts on the fact of their divinity. What if the people reject them? What will they do with themselves? So they won’t ever lay out their arguments for them to be tested.

They have successfully demonized intellectualism as treachery, counterproductive in freedom fighting. They would even go into the streets and seek to solve some of the problems suffocating the people. That’s what politicians do, and they don’t want to be seen as weak politicians. They won’t preach truth and honesty. They need the kitchen sink to win the war. Don’t judge them by the crookedness of their everyday lives, God chose them. Just believe them, and you will ultimately be free.