BY Busuyi Mekusi

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Time and seasons help both growth and dying, as natural and human-driven ascensions get reversed by either nature or man. Little wonder that the first high-rising tower contemplated in the Bible was frustrated by the Supreme Being, whose sphere of influence was to be threatened by the creatively ambitious man. Part of man’s efforts to ‘see’ God is America’s Air Force One, which is synonymous to human’s successes in technology and democracy.
Ageing in mammals goes with physiological-mental recessions that turn old-time values to liabilities. People get denied – due to socio-religious and economic reasons – foods and emotionally pleasurable activities like sex, when they are young and active, only to be constrained by medical advice and dependence on sexual enhancement when they are ‘legitimately’ qualified or placed to break such barriers.
There are instances when certain items are acquired at old age, and the person doing the acquisition would parade pernicious ‘new beginning’. Such is the case of an octogenarian who bought a bicycle for commuting, and prided that he had just begun ascension on the social ladder. The Alaafin of Oyo is majestic in the noting and acknowledgment of beautiful ladies, with his palace gifted with new entrants regularly. Some have argued that considering his age, what is left is psycho-sexual satisfaction. Globally, human democratic evolution and decision-making processes have led inadvertently to Hobson’s choices, with electable candidates as we had in Jonathan/Buhari, Trump/Biden, etc., illustrative of the ‘devil and the deep-blue sea’.
Literature regales in timelessness. It also suggests that human experiences, in part or whole, are basic to different civilizations and orientations. Little wonder that an imaginative product could resemble your own personal experience, or that of someone you are familiar with. Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea remains a distinguishable metaphor for human existence. Santiago, the central character, conveys the imageries of human desire, ambition, quest, frustration, hope, attainment, aborted hope, etc., which culminate in the existential futility and nothingness of life. In the short novel, Santiago labours for 84 days without catching a fish, and is left alone due to the withdrawal of his apprentice, Manolin, who nonetheless still gets him food and baits for fishing. Santiago, having ventured into the Gulf Stream, catches a giant marlin which he struggles to get to his boat for three days, and which he loses to predatory sharks that eat up the big vignette of victory, leaving him with skeleton that turns to a painful reminder of wasted efforts, time and resources.
Just like Santiago, PMB tarried on the political ocean and made three failed attempts at the presidency, until a systematically-orchestrated political earthquake, triggered by Asiwaju Tinubu, sank Jonathan, and propelled PMB to the Villa. We are hoping the rapprochements between PMB and Tinubu would smoothen the latter’s path to the throne. Similarly, PMB’s ‘marlins’ are being eaten up by the ‘sharks’ of banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and ethnic distrust, so much that the nation is now on tenterhooks. Fayemi’s acknowledgment of the failing of his party in meeting the expectations of Nigerians and the call to Nigerians for a united force against bandits by the Defense Minister are pointers that the centre is under serious strains.
Governance across nations has been bogged down by the oddity of oldies, with Africa parading most long-serving Presidents. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe gave us the impression of ‘inherited presidency’, until ousted in a military coup at 93 years. Paul Biya of Cameroon is 87 years, and has led the country since independence. Manuel Pinto da Costa of São Tomé and Príncipe is 83 years old, Alpha Condé of Guinea is 82, Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast is 78 years, Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria is 77 years, Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana is 76 years, Yoweri Musoveni of Uganda is 76 years, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, whose 36-years reign has just been controversially extended, is 77 years, while the former president of Tanzania, John Magufuli, who died after COVID-19 rumours, is relatively young at 61 years. In America, the youngest presidents to take office were Theodore Roosevelt, at 42 years, and John F. Kennedy, at 43 years, while Joe Biden, at 78 years, and Donald Trump, at 70 years, are respectively the oldest, at the point of taking the oath of office. It is noteworthy that the 2020 America presidential race was dominated by septuagenarians, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who add up to Trump and Biden.
Ageism is avoided in America political discourses, and age does not affect electability or otherwise of a candidate due to the fact that physical and mental capacity are not mere functions of age. This is more so as younger leaders have had health challenges, thereby impairing their ability to function in office. Joe Biden, just like any other public figure, has had his fair share of gaffes, with some suggesting that he is liable to memory loss. Even though Biden’s tripping off the stairs of AF1 made news recently, it has been argued that the presidential aircraft remains a site for many slips, tumbles, and falls, over the past six decades, with President Gerald Ford standing out as having had so many falls. The tantrums thrown at each other by Biden and Trump in the build-up to the election were revelatory of limited choices democratic processes do precipitate, with the accidental possibility of the first female president in the United States of America in Kamala Harris.
The falls in Nigeria democratic system deepened in Ekiti State few days ago when the bye election to fill the House of Assembly Constituency seat for Ekiti East was marred by killing and maiming, including those of a policewoman and electorate. The largesse in the political space still engenders desperation of unimaginable propensity, even with daggers drawn across major political parties, preparatory to the next gubernatorial election in the State. With this renewed killings, we are reminded that blood-mongers are not only in our forests, as bandits and killer-herders, but holed up in air-conditioned cars and houses on major roads, and across popular streets.
Cross-carpeting of major politicians like Gbenga Daniel and Dimeji Bankole from the PDP to the ruling APC rekindles Nigeria deceptive rebranding of products with perilous contents. The users of religion as opium are not letting down with the rage in Kwara State where the ‘Hijab war’ has subsumed the quest for good governance, economic growth, secured environment, and eclectic emancipation. With ‘Satan’s stones’ Muslims and Christians hauled one another, we are no doubt confronted with unacceptable ‘masturbation of saints’. Painfully enough, the pillagers of our commonwealth still build ’empires’ within the ‘hell’ they have turned Nigeria to.
Nigeria socio-economic falls, largely due to a wobbling structure, are nearing a great tumbling down the stairs. The naira is in a free-for-all tripping, leaving Nigerians impoverished in the indispensability of acquisition of foreign products, including education and matches. Nigeria unproductive economy is exemplified by the FG refineries that earned N21bn and lost N778bn in five years.
The collapsed security architecture and ethnic consternations in the country got to a feverish height with the River-Bank attack on Governor Samuel Ortom, who has been in the eye of the herders-farmers crises and killings, with great revulsions he and the leadership of Miyetti Allah have for each other. The purported claim of responsibility and outburst of committed rage, and threatened annihilation of some notable Nigerians, including Ortom, by the Fulani Nationality Movement (FUNAM), have received legitimacy through presidential silence. Amidst the politicization of this high-placed infraction, the arrest of three Jukun fishermen in connection with the dastardly act has introduced a new dimension to the pervasive volatility.
The condition of the ‘old man’ might occasion the reconfiguration of the stairs of AF1. No doubt, adjustment is a possibility, but redirection a better option. Old people might sit back and give good counsels, while younger people are allowed to ‘climb the stairs’ easily. The ‘fish bones’ and animal carcasses in our oceans are dreadful contaminants, making quick disinfection compulsory. Nigeria government must inscribe itself before bandits’ take-over. Aso Rock might not be spared of attacks soon, if occupied by ‘Ortom’. These slips and falls in humanity must stop!