Don’t anybody be fooled by the slogans and the phrases of Nigerian politics. In this country, almost every word that’s gained subscription in the political space is not used in its actual context.
Take the word “betrayal” for instance. By original definition, it means, to let down or sell out on a cause, trust or understanding, especially with the aim of sabotage or subversion. In this dispassionate context, the definition carries with it, no moral connotation, ascribing to betrayal, neither good not bad quality.
The quality of words is situational, only to be determined by their usage in interaction between individuals and groups and they will gain their import within the context of the rules of engagement. The operative meaning of “betrayal” is therefore, like all other words, subjective in to the situation of its usage and user.
Nigeria’s Ninth National Assembly is again preparing to elect it’s officers and the word “betrayal” is gaining currency, as the jostling for posts heightens. Detractors are employing the diction and it’s other variants in attempts to pull down certain aspirants to offices in the election process.
As the election draws close, a group has materialized whose singular objective is to stop Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal from becoming the Minority Leader of the Red Chamber. And the theme of their campaign is a single word, betrayal.
This motley, who first reared their heads during the last governorship and National Assembly rerun elections in Sokoto State, with the sole but failed project of barring Tambuwal from getting elected to the Senate, were contracted by Tambuwal’s self-appointed enemy and arch detractor, ex-Governor of Rivers State, Neysome Wike.
Wike’s major and only grouse with the former Governor of Sokoto State is that Tambuwal betrayed him at the PDP presidential primary election by stepping down in the twelfth hour for Atiku Abubakar, who eventually beat Woke and secured ticket. This was why Wike felt Tambuwal did not deserve a senatorial seat in the first place and it is the reason that he should not now be elected as Minority Leader of the Upper Chamber.
Betrayal in this context, has been narrowed in definition to mean the refusal to aid the designs of someone else or make a choice that does not aid the personal interest of another person. And to the subscriber of this over-stretched use of the word, it matters not, even if there is no prior agreement that obliges the other party to act in favor of his ambition or act in any way that would tilt the odds against an opposing party.
Wike’s opt repeated claim of being betrayed by Aminu Waziri Tambuwal would have gained some legitimacy, if there was a subsisting agreement between them that the latter would at any time during the process, act in such ways as to favor his aspiration. In the absence of that, Tambuwal must be rightly seen to have merely exercised his choice, as guaranteed by the rules of the contest.
Still on the matter of betrayal, Wike was at the time, genuinely or as a subterfuge to foster his personal ambition, rooting for Southern presidency and thus any action on his part that could potentially jeopardize that agitation was tantamount to betrayal. And that, according to Wike himself, was his justification for working for APC to win his own PDP-ruled state in the presidential election, which a Southern candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, won.
In that singular choice and act, Wike seemed to have remained loyal to his objective of causing the emergence of a Southern president, in which he now openly prides himself. But is that also, not a betrayal of his own political party, the PDP?
On the converse side, assuming that Aminu Waziri, like Wike, was pursuing a regional political agenda, would he, as a Northerner, not be betraying his own part of the country, had he supported Wike to secure the PDP ticket, so that the presidential candidates of the two major parties would be from the South?
Wike is on record to have unabashedly declared his state of Rivers a Christian state, when he was governor. But by supporting APC’s Muslim-Muslim candidates to secure the nation’s number one and number two most important posts, he has by implication, betrayed his faith and all Christians in his Christian state of Rivers, Nigeria and the entire world.
For an action to assume the tag of betrayal therefore, it has to with intent, contradict or negate an earlier understanding or covenant. The sole fact that it jeopardizes the interest of another party, does not qualify an act as a let down or sell-out.
Elements like Nyesome Wike, who insist on venting the frustration of their failures on other people, must learn to turn their angst towards themselves. That would enable them to look inward for the explanations to their obviously self-inflicted defeats in life.
Surrendering to obsession with Aminu Waziri Tambuwal will merely lead to paranoia, which will certainly hasten the self-destruction that is currently on course in the life of his detractors like Wike, whose role in state affairs is fast assuming a rather ridiculous level.
The absurdity of Wike’s campaign against Tambuwal is his adopted rationale that he does not deserve to be a Senator or hold any prominent position in the Chamber merely because Tambuwal at one time scuttled his ambition by exercising his right of choice in a democratic process. It is even more incongruous for Wike to believe that the nation’s Senate is obligated to him and thus should act in accordance to his personal whims and caprices.
The claim of the Wike pull-down gang that as Senate Minority Leader, Tambuwal would align with President Tinubu is additionally ironic. Since Tinubu’s declaration by INEC, Wike has set up shop in the Villa, nodding his head and applauding the President’s every single word and action, all in the pursuit of some role in the Federal Government.
If there is any betrayal on the Nigerian political stage an actor like Wike, by his notion of the word, is perfectly playing Brutus. He has betrayed PDP, his political party for helping to install an APC President and by that token, he has stabbed his Christian brethren in the back. All that for the pieces of silver of seeing Tambuwal being politically crucified.
