Visit of a sword wielding peacemaker

It is said that life is imitating art, so does also art imitates life and nothing symbolizes these mutual symbiosis than the primal art of governance, which is conducted at the courtyards of the palaces of kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers. What is unusually ignored these days is the fact that in those times of the old, the forecourts of ruling dynasties were also the courtrooms of adjudicative justice, as it is mostly before his or her imperial grace, persons and individuals who were reasonable suspected of committing a crime are tried, convicted or acquitted, thus, crystallizing the thick interconnecting mutuality between power, law and drama, as best depicted in the timeless Shakespearian epic of the trial of Marcus Brutus at the royal courts of the ancient Roman Empire. Like a staged play, it is about auditioning for parts, unveiling of a script, undertaking the performance and the projection of a great masterpiece. In the courtroom of law, it is a similar plot no less, as what is expected of each and every member of a litigation community is the performing of an assigned role; a judge like a typical referee always stood in the middle as an impartial arbiter, a prosecutor produces a series of evidences to nail the accused, while the defence attorney stay in a lurch, deflecting any and every piece of incriminating material presented, which could tie his client and pass the test of reasonable suspicion of the commission of a crime, upon the person he is defending. At that juncture, all witnesses are examined, coached and couched in being comfortable, before an inquisitive audience, by the party which had invited them to aid their cause, to the extent that a capable attorney, always has a clear inkling of the likely answers to any question to be asked, even before the blurting out of an inquiry, at the majestic eminence of a temporal court of justice. At the royal courts of a modern day presidential villa, it is a similar scenario in action, where a democratically elected president performs an act, every time the demands of his executive function requires an appearance, before the soap box of a suspense stricken voting electorate, if in doubt, please focus on the presidential visit of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to Yobe and Borno states last week. A well planned and executed act of embellishing the persona of a commander-in- chief, according to the initiators of the visit, while amongst the class of opposition elements, public commentators and even ordinary folks, a pure case of a redeeming afterthought, especially after the spectacle of the All Progressive Congress governors visit, which elevated the grandiose act of showmanship in governance to another limit, because, the governors in daring type of courage, appeared in places and locations susceptible to security compromise, thereby knowingly or unknowingly affirming and concretizing a belief, that our supreme commander is a chicken hearted prince. The personality who appeared at the Maiduguri International Airport, wearing a local traditional regalia is dark; evoking a physical feature of a typical Kanuri, fearless and sauntering majestically, with a veneer image of an all conquering king, decked with shiny sword strapped across the body, which makes it within easy reaches of a hand, with a sure smile of a confident leader visiting a once threatened territory, typified the image of a leader sending a message, that indeed I am in control, no doubt, a classical case of power meeting showmanship. Unfortunately, for the introducers of the plot, the group they met on ground was an angry bunch, a collection of former state officials who have lost out in the power game, either because of the age factor or the fated benevolence of the People’s Democratic Party, did not favor their assignment into high political office, indeed, it is among this group, who have coalesced into Borno Elders Forum, Mr. President came to convince of an impending peace plan, for the greater Yerwa region. For the two groups, a clear case of lack of credibility abound, for the visited, who have held plum offices of the government in the past and are susceptible to the charge of the derelict act of misgoverning or even a clear cases of misrepresentation, while for the visiting group, the dereliction lay in the ignoring of a significant proportion of one’s own country, simply because of an unreasonable suspicion of a plot, to cause the downfall of a south-south regional rival, by a northern group who had lost out in the power equation. As expected, the town hall meeting was an exercise in angry brickbats, as they tried to unbraid the president in public, which of course he matched with a response of a forceful dressing down of a recalcitrant child, by tacitly accusing them of sympathizing with the insurgents. Meanwhile, all what the ignoble Borno citizens could hear is an open and meaningless exchange, which sounds nice in the ear, if you are among those who doesn’t like the president, but does nothing to deflect the misery of a city experiencing an armed civil conflict. Like all staged plays, from recorded cinema to an opera, to each and every type of performance genres, the main aim is principally, to entertain, educate and most especially to send a message. In this instance case though, the question in the captivated and bedazzled minds of the Nigerian public audience is what is the message from Abuja? As the blood flows and security carnage continues unabated.