KWANKWASO ANACHRONISM

With Abubakar Sulaiman Muhd

4th Feb., 2013

alfalancy@yahoo.com

The twin killings of the two parliamentarians representing Garko and Gaya necessitated the conduct of bye-election to replace those dead persons. (May their souls rest in peace), if they did well accordingly when they were alive! Since their demise, the world remained awaited to see the day of the bye-election, and it came and passed as the law of nature had it: when date is fixed the day must come.

The election seemed to be retrogressive, retrograde, anti-forward, antiquated, and counter-clockwise; dragging us back into the dark ages, when human being lived more or less like animal in brutish, nasty and anarchical state. In the state where man has no intelligence that distinguished him from other beings. This is the state we witnessed on the Election Day, the 22^nd Feb., 2013 in Kano.   

Just a day before the election, the governor and his boys because no any of the party or cabinet member has the privilege of being a colleague to the governor other than being his steward or marshal, pulled combine  resources and deployed them to Garko and Gaya local governments where the elections were to be conducted. Thousands of persons-laden cars were seen going there. According to some accounts every local government of the state minus the two, that is 42 L.Gs contributed 5 buses full of hoodlums to go and ensure the supremacy of the almighty ruling party. How would the party show its power? By arming hoodlums to the teeth with ganja, drugs, intoxicants and deadly weapons; on the instruction of the regime officials to finish any opponent of the Poverty Development Party (PDP). When just you saw the processions you would think that a gruesome violent clash was underway in the barbaric community of the unrefined thick forest of the Stone Age.

 Members of the big contender among the opposition parties foresaw the scenario of the election and voiced their fear that the election would be highly rigged. For it is the common practice in Nigeria where there is an incumbent regime, the government uses all the means of rigging at her disposal to win election. Politicians resort to economic use, military forces, such as the police the most brutal and barbaric creatures on earth God has ever created, soldiers the most cruel brutes and autarkieted  animals, and other parochial institutions like Karota, a bundle-wagon of violent ignorant human beings. The process of mutilating the figures or inflating it is all in account. Deliberately committing irregularities with the hope of influencing the result to the favour of one party over the other, delay in distributing electoral materials to the designated and strategic polling units, use of unregistered voters, underage voting, multiple vote by single voter, snatching electoral materials, stealing of votes, destruction of ballot box, violence in the polling unit and other Machiavellian principles in connivance with security personnel and INEC officials in support of one party to win election at all cost.

In the 21^st century, the era of enlightment, education, and civilization; I think the idea of massive rigging, political wrangling, tinkering and chickenery, and violent malpractice, glaring distortion, security and official connivance, politicking, scheming, plotting, intriguing, maneuvering, conspiracy, intricks are all fecund, ante diluvian, extinct, old-fashioned and anachronic and completely defiant of civilized norms and are barbaric in toto, especially when people are fully conscious and aware of the happenings in their environment. I thought the governor would look forward towards the development of the state rather than casting a backward glance to evoke the odd sipirit of the past. But this administration deployed the above mechanisms to rig and manipulate the election. To my expectation government will in the campaign brag its projects and constructions to woo the vote of the electorates not resorting to the illegal channels if truelly the regime believes in what it’s saying about works and projects and its policies to the people.

So, when just the indigenous electorates in Garko and Gaya found the faces of total strangers scattered in the towns, dominating the polling units in heavy arms, they all went to their farms business. The total strangers, according to some accounts; cast the total votes and allocated a very mean figures to the opposition parties. I thought in the process the governor would rig and wrangle but within the confine of belief and acceptance. But he rigged unbelievably, to the extent that not every ignorant human being will believe in the announced figures; because even some of the party members when I spoke to them that ‘your party wins the election’, they kept silent in shame and embarrassment. When journalists contacted the officials that the total strangers cast the vote, the presiding officer contradicted the allegation saying that whoever cast the vote most definitely be an indigene of either Garko or Gaya. Officials forgot that we are now free to choose what news or information we feel comfortable to read because we are in the era where everybody can share his local happenings to the world, we are no longer relying on the information that comes from the government’s media and its officials that are strictly under its dictates, bidding and extreme censor. Thus officials are claiming ignorance of what is common knowledge. Stupidity.

Shamelessly, the returning officer mustered the courage to face the public and announced the massively rigged election. If I were him, I would just issue my resignation if I were to remain the only person to announce the highly and massively rigged election. If I were him I would feel please and contented with the little I have rather than bringing shame and disgrace to my long building reputation. May Allah let me feel that the little I have be more valuable than stolen and ill-gotten billons Naira.

After the election, there in Abuja you will hear INEC chairman on the TV screen saying ‘democracy is working in Nigeria and we are now taking measures to improve the next election and it will be conducted with computer’. Prof na lie o. Brazenly likewise, the governor will appear on the media to say the election is free and fair; not even an insect was killed and then would issue his message of thanks  to the  people for voting his party and claiming their support and consent. While in himself, his Excellency knows he is a liar and his mind will be telling him that ‘your Excellency you are lying it is not free and fair and in no way peaceful and the vote is not the consent of the masses it is just outmaneuvering and total malpractice, then four hoodlums died in a fatal accident and many were injured’. While we members of the public listening to him will say ‘his Excellency na liar and mumu, he no know de true matter’. If the governor is wise enough he would make the gap to a manageable proportion, believable to ears. And here we learn a lesson; the hoodlums should know that their souls are not in the officials’ count. The four hooligans that died, I believe God is fair; will judge them according to their course of intention.

 Money was extravagantly wasted in the course of supplying these gangs to the two L.Gs, their foods, their shelter and the pittance wage for their barbaric services. I will not digress to talk about the expenses of supplying the hoodlums and the cost of their catering, for this I believe will be in the pain of public treasury. As I have mentioned earlier on, a report said that 42 L.Gs gave 5 gangs-laden buses; each gang would be paid 1000 Naira. So 5 times 2 = 10 since the election was in two local governments. Now we say 10 times 1000 = 10, 000, the money that each hooligan would collect, then times the total vote cast in both the two local governments. That is in Garko 53000 and Gaya 52000 = 105,000, (the figures are just approximation). Thus you say 105,000 times 10,000 = 1050,000,000. Now it is up to you to calculate the money that INEC officials, security operatives and party agents would collect and the way those who put their share will collect their dividends.

Let me here trot out the consequence that the election will wrought upon the people of Garko and Gaya. The two parliamentarians that are recently elected will not forever can wear a bold face to confront the governor on any matter affecting their people such as social, security and education and the entire social issues affecting their lives and their children’s children, even if this may mean exploiting them, their suffering, the wreck of their farming or even their death. Kawankawso is the sole proprietor of the state machineries because of the factors we detected from the activities of the government officials. For instance after the ban of riding motorcycle maximum one person, on the preceding Sunday, 27^th Jan., 2013 ; Press Assistant to the governor made slips of the tongue in an interview on Freedom Radio’s Hausa version of  Global News, Mu Leka Mu Gano. If we go by the Sigmund Freud Theory of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic approach to psychology, in what is commonly known as Freudian slip; which emphasizes on the influence of unconscious mind on behaviour; we will get to know that slip of the tongue is not just like something nothingness from nothingness; it has to do with inner thought.  The two parliamentarians will remain in the firm control of the executive. Even in the parliamentary proceedings they will remain silent and backbenchers. ‘Yan dumama kujera, ‘yan amshin shata. Even those that were already elected during the general election, they end up acting to the bidding of the executive. The setting arrangement of the state House proves this. The crucial issue of Ramadan and Rago bonus arose, the governor stood against it and defeated the House despite the fact that the matter has reached to the second reading in the legislature, which is unconstitutional for a bill to pass through the second reading and failed to materialize as a law. In a place where politics is seen as a profiteering investment where one is expected to maximize profit, as sensible men if we do justice to ourselves; how can we expect those people will not identify with profit in the face of truth, honest and public interest? But we can forgive Garko and Gaya for the tragedy is not self-inflicting, it is wrought by the ignorant hooligans.

In any setting whether religious or secularist, we all believe that cheating and stealing are crime and most of our politicians are having religious belief, so do they think that when they cheat in election all they money they get is lawful? They should know that since they cheated at the first place all the money they get along the line is also going to be unlawful and accountable to God.

Sadly enough, this type of election with massive rigging is the one conducted by the INEC itself not the state election commission. In the last few days his Excellency appointed members of the Kano State Election Commission (KANSEC) who are affiliated to a particular political interest which is violation of the constitutional provision  and alas!, the opposition parties and pro-democracy folded their arms to watch the coffin of their burial being constructed without kicking against the trope. How would they expect the result of the election will turn out under the judge who is inclined to a particular interest in comparison with the result we witnessed in the bye-election organized and conducted by In-dependent National Election Commission?

Lastly, I hope my criticism will serve as functional and constructive to both the government and other parties towards putting things in to order for the state progress.    As one great scholar says ‘the most dangerous threat to freedom is lack of criticism’ and where there is no criticism and penalbiting, we will continue to sink into the dark tunnel. As exactly with a blind man walking in the street; as he tumbles into something and gets pain; that pain will make him go back to the right path, so when somebody gets tumbled into something wrong  my pen is pain. And the pain will, I hope put him back into the right path.

The Irony of Christabel

The Irony of Christabel

 ‘The story of Christabel concerns a central female character of the same name and her encounter with a stranger called Geraldine, who claims to have been abducted from her home by a band of rough men. Christabel goes in the woods to pray to the large oak tree, where she hears a strange noise. Upon looking behind the tree, she finds Geraldine, who says that she had been abducted from her home by men on horseback. Christabel pities her and takes her home with her; supernatural signs (a dog barking, a mysterious flame on a dead fire) seem to indicate that not all is well. Her father, Sir Leoline, becomes enchanted with Geraldine, ordering a grand procession to announce her rescue. The unfinished poem ends here.’

A recurring motif throughout Coleridge’s poem is the power of dreams and of the imagination, such as in “Frost at Midnight,” “Kubla Khan,” “Dejection: An Ode,” and “Christabel” is no exception.

While some modern critics focus upon lesbian and feminist readings of the poem, another interesting interpretation is the one that explores the complex relationship between Coleridge and Wordsworth. And the paper will rotate on the axis of Coleridge’s supposition on one hand and its irony on the other.

Coleridge’s Christabel is a poem seen by many critics as autobiographical confession because it mirrors into his own personal fears and desires in the course of a relation to his fellow poet. The relation is ideally meant to be symbiotic if at least Coleridge does not appear to be beneficent to Wordsworth. For he feels that he is a victim of Wordsworth’s ascension. Yet Coleridge has said it many times about the awesome feeling and respect he has to Wordsworth. Along this line, the esteem respect reflects in the poem where Geraldine (Wordsworth) asks Christabel (Coleridge) to undress and lie with her. To this end, one can deduce how inferior he feels to Wordsworth and how influential he is to Coleridge. And if that’s the case why  does he not estrange himself from the relation since at the first place  of the poem the encounter seems to be a vampiric relation as with the case between Christabel (the host) and Geraldine (the guest).

If we believe that Coleridge is Christabel and Geraldine Wordsworth, who is sucking him his poetic bliss and creativity to make him to become an English poet laureate, then it augurs to show that it is Coleridge who gives him a niche in the art of poetry making. There is no surprise when Christabel assits her guest cross into the room and at the end the help turns against her.

        The lady sank, belike through pain

        And Christabel with might and main

        Lifted her up, a weary weight

The attitude of Christabel’s father’s admiration towards Geraldine could be interpreted to mean that initially it is Coleridge who helps Wordsworth and latter turns out to be at the receiving end.

And sure ‘I have sinned’ would mean that Coleridge’s opium addiction could be the cause of his failure. ‘Woe is me’, from another prism can corroborate the above perception that opium addiction is the consequence that ruins his success and hampers him to accentuate his aspiration, not Wordsworth. In his poem The Pain of Sleep, Coleridge himself exposes the torment and dreadful impact, caused by opium on his life.      

In conclusion, if we believe that Wordsworth is exploiting Coleridge to become an English poet laureate; we cannot deny him because we see how Geraldine takes advantage of Christabel in the poem. But the irony of Christabel is that, while Coleridge is feeling being exploited; we can say that Coleridge should not be envious of Wordsworth because his opium addiction is what blocks his way.