By  Theo  Adebowale

Power is transient. And that has been a common tune to anyone who has ever cared to listen. In the secondary school, we had cause to tell our seniors, and to be told by our juniors that seniority ‘is not forever.’ That power terminated as soon as studentship expired. The power of a senior, his ability to influence a junior, so ordinary has been put to diverse use for good, for ill, with unimaginable consequences. Some seniors have lured, influenced or even bullied junior students into dangerous and disastrous actions with sereve consequences. In the work place, superior officers in many instances have coerced subordinates into malicious actions with great consequences. Whereas many seniors in school and work place have exercised influence on their subordinates that have not only brought them great blessings but have also resulted in good dividends to their community.
The political class is where power is peddled. They allocate resources determining who gets what, where, when and how? In the crude type, an election held. At swearing in, in the then Ondo State, the Military Administrator did not like the face of Council Chairman-elect. He appointed a substitute from among those who had come to grace the swearing in ceremony, Heaven did not fall, as a matter of fact, nothing happened. Even recently a gubernatorial candidate had sailed through. There was a rehearsal preparating for the swearing in the following day, the Supreme Court upturned his victory because his running mates credentials were not in order. So beyond popular vote in this clime, an elected official must be confirmed to have come to equity with clean hands. Father General once observed that a candidate may prefer to come second in an election, so that where the winner is disqualified and his victory voided, he would be winner. For as long as it takes party structure to be institutionalized, each party recruiting, socialising, mobilizing and producing candidates for election and appointive positions, such career mishaps would not be farfetched. Because they are strange bedfellows, at every election council, state, federal peace meetings must be called by the Electoral Commission, peace accord must be signed and contestants would need to smile and shake hands before the camera. But they have private detectives gathering credentials, police reports or rather crime records and intelligence in general about viable candidates. But in a developed society, each politician’s resume is in the public domain. Aspirants are no strangers to party members, officials and chieftains. And by their temperament, ye shall know them.
Donald Trump, the United States President has distinguished himself as a business man. He has employed contractual agreements to define relationships and minimise conflict. A strict disciplinarian, in spite of failed marriages, he no doubt enjoys parenting children that adhere to Christian doctrines. For Donald, money sure answers everything. It is possible for money to cancel offense and to make the elite indifferent to issues that may generate controversy in the future. How else could we foretell that the new President would start to fire his aides no sooner than assuming office? Did he know them well enough in the party, and in their expertise? Or how would he give instructions bothering on perjury and would expect compliance? Why did Mr. President not guarantee a peaceful transition, even when elections were yet to be conducted? Thank God for the twitter handle, but for the apps, how would have the President of the United States communicated with his country men and women and the rest of the world?
Power, that is ability to make another behave differently from how he would have, calls for attention. The godfather flaunts it and exercises it making it overshadow even legitimate power. With visits to shrines, oath taking, fetish processes and rituals, he must be obeyed beyond the law of the land. A godfather was said to have demanded 50 percent of state revenue allocation. In another instance, the godparents were displeased and got the Governor kidnapped. They have been categorized as features of underdevelopment, strange things happening in the Third World. But if in 2020 America, there are allegations that an election has been stolen, or there is lack of transparency or there are electoral frauds in spite of advancement and deployment of modern technology, must we not know that the heart of men that conceives or imagines such is desperately wicked? But that may be for being out of tune with ecology. Any acceptable behavior in the business world may be out of tune elsewhere. Or shall we expect an academic going into party politics to ask too many questions and demand for proofs during political discussion.
Power is tamed when it is in the armory of hierarchy because there it can be safely placed. Aspirants and candidates wanting to be independent of their party go astray looking for gods to provide for their needs. They get enslaved, endangered and defended acquiring life time misfortunes. Donald Trump’s sons are unhappy because the support his party gives their father is weak. May be he is too resourceful to need support of the Republican Party. Perhaps, he is independent of the organisation that matters that should be determined by the party are decided by the candidate. In the US and Western Europe, the loser concedes defeat after which the state announces result. If the ancient tradition would be breached could that be a decision of the candidate?
Sovereignty is the armory of power. It resides with the people. So, long state actors operate within the limits of power allocated to them, there is no leakage, there is no burst. When a certain action is declared ultra vires, null and void, it is essentially to preserve the sanctity of sovereignty. Institutions of the state are expected to be prominent, formidable, functional and in perpetuity to maintain the balance that is desirous to keep harmony and maintain an equilibrium. And the state is powerful. An American citizen was kidnapped 6,000 kilometers away; his government came to rescue him in Nigeria. We were told, when under the guise of EndSARS, looters went to loot warehouses in Lagos, they were identified and located by their telephone devices. The biometrics was used to trace them. Organisers of EndSARS are being traced by Bank Verification Numbers with a view to freezing their bank accounts for daring to stage a protest. An alternative would be to trace authentic organizers, mobilizers and leaders of the movement to make them dialogue with the Nigerian state. This would be a productive measure as opposed to self deceit and chasing the shadow. Donald Trump is out of sight and is reported to be tweeting false claims. His tweets will soon expire because he is in violation of democratic norms. But why does the Nigerian government not trace kidnappers and ransom takers with their gadgets?
In its continuum, power exists for the good of man but when certain individuals abuse or misappropriate it, they soon learn that it is transient.