[dropcap]A[/dropcap]bout this death of Abubakar Audu, TWICE former Governor of Kogi State; (January 1992 to November 1993, 1999 to 2003)…
First my condolences to his family, supporters and people of Kogi State on his death. May his soul find rest.
BUT…
I can’t help but wonder and ponder about the lure of power and how our Nigerian politicians are seduced and quickly screwed by it.
RELATED: BREAKING: APC Kogi Guber Candidate Audu Abubakar Dies Of A Heart Attack
ALSO READ: ‘My Uncle Was Poisoned’: Family Source Of Former Kogi Governor, Audu Abubakar Reveals (DETAILS)
He was a two – time Governor of his state and wished to return again. To do what, I asked when I first heard he was APC’s candidate. “Is it your business?”I was rebuked. “If Buhari could come back at the official age of 72, why can’t Audu?”
So I kept quiet. I researched a bit about Audu after he left Government House in 2003. It was one controversy after another. Arrested and arraigned in handcuffs by EFCC, accused of embezzlement and a few months back married a fair-skinned lady who was reportedly in her post teens or something. And he was an old man. An old man.
And he wanted to come back to govern. And he well might have too, going by the results released today which saw him as the winner before INEC declared the results inconclusive and called for another election.
I can join others in speculating what might have killed him. Some say it was stroke induced. Perhaps he was jubilating over his victory and received the shock of his life when INEC cancelled the elections and called for a rerun. That is enough to kill any young candidate, much less an old one with a young wife. Besides, the rigours of a political campaign and perhaps hundreds of millions, if not billions spent on politicking in the past few weeks could have increased his anxiety levels.
Someone whispered to me that ‘Kogi Jazz’ must have been at work. That ‘Kogi Jazz don ‘kpeme’ Kogi Jazzman’. There have been tales of his fetish frivolities while he was governor and after. Since all Nigerian politicians are somehow involved with some form of necromancy or the other, it’s nothing new. Maybe it’s not Jazz which killed him. I think he was too old to return.
Too old.
In a political clime where the geriatrics believe they only can chart the political destiny of Nigeria at the expense of the youths and the young people are stupidly cowed into acquiescence, of course more old people will aspire to rule over them.
Perhaps this should serve as a warning to those old men; the analogue political destitutes in our digital polity; go home and rest. Leave the young to rule. Those old men whose names have always been intertwined with the political history of this nation and just won’t let go; greedy people masking as ‘ Messiahs’ and ‘interventionists for Nigeria’…
They should take a back seat.
This really should be no country for old politicians.
There’s a lesson in this. But while old men in Nigeria will never learn, the young people too will never discern.
Charles Novia is an award-winning filmmaker. He is founder of November Productions and November Records. Connect with him on Facebook.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
