THERE were in the days of old such realities as African empires and kingdoms. In fact, our history teachers of the Seventies had a good time in their classes, regaling us with the derring-do and the bravura of the Ghana, Mali and Songhai empires of yore and their almost always deified monarchs. We tasked our minds imagining the Asantehennes, the Omanhennes, Mansa Kankan Musa, Sundiata and Askia Toure.

Characteristically these old emperors and kings had one thing in common: they exhibited an almost indescribable zest for life. Their dining tables were piled with sumptuous food and heady wines. Their clothes were noted for uncommon designs and beauty, emphasizing the glory and dignity of their courts.

Also they were incurable hedonists with a variegated collection of breathtakingly beautiful women to warm their bodies and beds, just like the biblical Shunamite woman was detailed to do to King David. And not surprisingly his son King Solomon out-did his handsome and flifely father, touching and feeling about one thousand female bodies.

What of King Chaka of the Zulu Kingdom? And especially the Yoruba kings of old who would “colonize” any and every beauty to make their harem a bevy, while the parents of such colonized females and their first suitors could only look on in utter chagrin.

And characteristically too, these kings and emperors were possessed of an overbearing and by that fact oppressive greedy and selfish inclination and predilection. Flaunting and citing the so-called ‘divine rights of kings” which they claimed came directly from God Himself, these queer beings adopted a devil-may-care attitude towards their subjects, oppressed and repressed them, even sitting tight and refusing to abdicate their thrones when their subjects demanded it. This is what can be described as the “king mentality”. Naked greed, selfishness and oppression.

It is pertinent to say that African leaders in general and their Nigerian equivalents in particular, are possessed of this king mentality and mindset which stand in diametric opposition to contemporary psychology and dynamics of leadership articulated and practised by the developed world.

And if contemporary sociological developments in our nation are any index of the situation, it is  clear as daylight that Nigerians don’t want to put an end to crudity, greed and selfishness in their polity but would rather perpetuate the vice and even elevate it to a kind of state craft. To start with, it is incontestable that if the whole country hadn’t rallied against Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and his third term ambition he would have stayed put and begun to plot to become life president. And also if he had been able to accomplish this he would have enslaved all Nigerians and increased the prices of especially petroleum products many times over. Babangida had to be forced to step aside. He was also not ready to leave his juicy perch.

Had it not been for Orkar’s coup Babangida too would have been plotting to become another Idi Amin or Emperor Bokassa. What of David Mark?  The man who as a Minister of Communication had the audacity and lack of diplomacy to tell Nigerians that telephone was the exclusive property of the rich and affluent. He wants to run for the third time, as if he was the best Nigerians could have as Senate President. What of the army of better qualified Nigerian graduates who can better his performance? They are simply to roast and waste away.

Patrick Osakwe representing Delta North senatorial constituency, is running for the fourth time! What greed and selfishness! Is Nigeria his private property?

The exception here is Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. According to PDP, the Yar’Adua/Jonathan ticket was given an eight year term. Therefore the President is only trying to realise the mandate he has been given. And so he can’t be really convicted of this crime.
Therefore, it stands to reason that the Laurent Gbagbo phenomenon is just the typical African man’s penchant for primaevality, greed and selfishness. What moral justification has David Mark to criticize him? If it comes to that, what moral right have Babangida, Obasanjo, Osakwe and other African sit-tight rulers, sorry leaders, to talk to Gbagbo, even if he is a veritable devil?

Have all of them not been tarred by the same brush?

Certainly history has a queer way of repeating itself.

Finally, if we must arrest the drift, the utter hopelessness, desolation, poverty, greed and crudity of our continent and by extension our country, we must be prepared to sip raindrops of knowledge, wisdom and understanding at the feet of the great master, history and apply, even at the risk of being pained, the moral verities of his teachings.

We can’t continue to blame our white brothers and sisters for our deplorable state and our tragic flaws. Yes, they governed  for a time and have been forced back  home. The fault is in us as a people.

Mr. GAB EJUWA a journalist,  writes from Lagos.