By WHIRLWINDNEWS
“My dear, dear Lord,
The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation; that away
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay…
My honour is my life; both grow in one;
Take honour from me, and my life is done.”
This was William Shakespeare in King Richard 11, published in 1596. That is exactly 426 years today. Now, read those words again and try to situate and relate with the inherent message. Is there anything that literary icon was trying to infer that is out of place today? Is there anything missing in the messaging? What is man indeed outside honour?
The answer is clear. A gilded loam (moulded sand) or painted clay – a decorated piece of earthenware – lifeless – empty! That was and still is the message. It is as germane, potent and instructive today, as it is in those years.
The difference however lies in what role the appreciation of this message plays as a tool to wading through life’s vagaries and discovering its purpose, impetus and essence. That is what separates one man from the other – the reason for countries to thrive and others crumbling and plummeting – the road for riches and squalor.
Here is what I mean. Anyone conversant with Anammco, in Emene, Enugu, in the 1990s would not forget Rudi Kornmayer. He was the last Managing Director of the company, one of the dreams of Nigeria’s founding fathers. Remember the era of Peugeot Automobile of Nigeria (PAN), Volkswagen of Nigeria (VON), Leyland Nigeria (LN), et al.
What was it that this country didn’t have to make it great? What is that our progenitors didn’t hand over to us to make Nigeria leap to the zenith of economic and social development? Let’s keep the lamentations aside for now. That’s not the story. The story is about Kornmayer, the last German top notch to exit that dream company, from where some freshly minted vehicles rolled out.
In July, 2005, more than a decade after he had left country, the shocking story of his death hit the the newsstand. The shock was not in his death alone. Yes, he was just 53 being a young man and with the life expectancy in his native land. It was in the manner he died.
It was said that Kornmayer on July 22, 2005, six days after his birthday, he drove to an open field and shot himself in his native country Germany. Why? A local media in his country, had reported how he engaged in corrupt practices while working in Nigeria. Because he couldn’t live with the shame of being linked with fraud, he decided to end it all.
You needed to know about this fine German and the work he did in Anammco, to appreciate the incredulity of his fatal end. Even though the company had started witnessing some hiccups, before his exit, his tenure still counted as part of its golden era, before the Nigerians who took over, eventually balkanised and finally killed the dream.
What was at the centre of that tragic story of Kornmayer, who, regardless of his glorious era in Nigeria, couldn’t stand a tiny stain to his name? Reputation – honour, the two elements Shakespeare identified as the only essence and impetus to life, without, which man is not more useful than a piece of lifeless object.
Now, have you started getting my drift? I recall, months before his brutal murder, the Cicero himself, the late Bola Ige delivering a lecture at the Enugu campus of University of Nigeria. For about 30 minutes of his treatise, he spent it talking about the element of honour and its purifying impact to the soul and its being the vortex that propels life, be it of an individual, or, and a nation. So poignant and pungent were his delivery that I had no doubt in my mind that his murder could not be divorced from how tenaciously he held and applied such a lofty ideal.
Now, how does this affect the price of garri and milk? I’ll tell you. It is the reason, where your country, my country, Nigeria is at its present prostrate position today. If today, there was a grain of honour in Nigerians in the recent decades – even as tiny as a mustard seed, companies like Anammco, VON, PAN, Leyland, would still be thriving today – Nigeria would be a thriving entity – a land flowing with milk and honey.
Kornmayer may have taken it too far. You might say that suicide may not be the ideal and not all men possess the courage to go that route. But the import of his action, cannot be lost either – that there must be consequences for wrongdoing or perception of it.
Andrew Cuomo, then Governor of New York resigned from his exalted office for the simple reason of hugging women. He loved his job and would have loved to hold on. It didn’t matter that his native country, Italy, had a culture of hugging, kissing and other public show of affection as signs of love, greeting and appreciation. He tried to present that as his defence, but it didn’t jell, because the American society thought differently. And in the US, public perception matters a lot. So, what to do? He relinquished his position. Even his brother, Chris Cuomo, was fired from his plum job at the CNN, for the perception, mind you, not conviction, of helping the ex-governor during his travails, using the medium.
You saw how Boris Johnson exited his position when his cup was finally full. He would have been sent packing earlier for partying in the heat of the COVID-19, when the rest of the British citizens he led, were confined to their homes, but got away by a slap on the wrist. But when it came to the last straw, of knowingly appointing someone with a record of abusing women into his cabinet, he had no other choice but throw in the towel.
From Europe, America, and other western countries, there are millions of cases to cite to underscore the imperative of morality not only on individual, but more so, public life. Of course it might be a tall order to expect any man to meet the standard of a spotless reputation, the “purest treasure” Shakespeare envisaged, but there must be a minimum.
On Monday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, took a look at Doyin Okupe, then Director General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Organisation (LP-PCO) and told him, that he had to pay the price of ignorance, for accepting money in excess of N5million without.
Mind you, she had absolved him of other charges, bothering on corruption, but here, she got stuck. Though she recognised that Okupe had acted out of ignorance, but she had to apply the well-established dictum – ignorance is no excuse in law. So, the LP chieftain was handed down a damning verdict of two years in prison for what she described as an “honest mistake.”
Now, pan to the LP. You cannot talk about the party and the progress it has made in becoming one of the political wonders in Nigeria’s history without the imprimatur of Okupe. Right from the beginning, he had been there for Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the party. Even when the issue of the running mate was being dealt with, he donated himself as the placeholder for the position.
What would a typical Nigerian politician have done in Okupe’s shoes? He would probably stuck to his guns using every argument remain in that office. Any suggestion by Obi to the contrary, would have been interpreted as an affront and ingratitude. He would have cited his bragging rights, by reminding all that cared to listen how much he helped to build the house and adumbrated it with the comments of Ojukwu that his was an “honest mistake.”
Of course, having carved out his own swathe of supporters, all with swords unsheathed, he would be ready to wage war against anyone. He would also tell all ears that he still had up to the Supreme Court to prove his innocence. Depending on the thinking of the party, the matter might be treated as an internal affair, in which case, members would take all available public space to urge Nigerians to await the final judgement of the court. The drama will continue and the beat will simply go on.
However, Okupe took a completely different route. He didn’t cling to power. His party, even with a heavy dose of suspicion that this was a case of the evil bird crying at night and the baby dying in the morning, took the disappointment of losing such a critical figure in its strides and now, things are moving on. Recall that this wouldn’t be the first time. It was the same case with John Enenche, the retired General of the Nigerian Army, who also stepped down, when he was called out over the #EndSARS matter.
Now , take a look at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). If Iyorchia Ayu, the National Chairman of the party, had being an Okupe, would the party have descended into such an intractable crisis today? This was a man, who publicly claimed that if the party produced a northerner as its presidential candidate, he would step down. Has he? Instead, together with Atiku Abubakar, they are rather exploiting all available argument to circumvent and circumscribe the issue.
If you thought for one moment that they’re acting out of their convictions, then the joke is on you. They know that they’re travelling on a wrong route. But they’re unperturbed, because they’re relying on the old way, where integrity and reputation are sacrificed as victims. Why? They’re sure they’ll win, willy-nilly.
Pan to the All Progressives Congress (APC). What is worse than the Chicago papers linking their presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu to drug business? Yet, regardless of the weighty evidence, including the forfeiture of a whopping $460,000, he has continued carry on with cavalier attitude as if nothing matters. Would this happen any other place in the civilised world?
For him, there is a ready answer to anyone who questions him – go to court. If you don’t know what that means in the Nigerian context, the joke is on you. Ask yourself why the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), that pursued Okupe, never bothered to check the contents of those bullion vans that pulled into Tinubu’s Bourdillon home in Ikoyi, Lagos on the eve of the 2019 presidential election.
Before he moved on, Okupe had some words: “God is not man. The enemies have tried in so many ways but keep failing…Victory is of God. Lies, fabrication and disinformation are their tools. But in the end they will fail and be shamed. Doyin Okupe has not chopped any shishi neither has he shifted base by 1mm!!! We are moving forward till God delivers us all from perpetual raiders of this lost but glorious ark. Naija.”
Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman of the LP-PCC had told the world that Okupe’s travail, was an ambush by naysayers, with the aim of plunging a dagger in the heart of Obi’s ambition, a development he sees as a failed mission.
Okupe has moved. Obi has also moved ahead with his campaigns gathering momentum. Nigerians, who would be ultimate deciders are also watching. So, is a Just God!
