BETWEEN THE BRAIN AND THE PAPER

Life is full of many ironies. The hilarious paradoxes of life brings into it, many dimensions that leave life nothing but a misery to ordinary, undiscerning minds. One of such is the old popular fabble of how little tortoise made the giant elephant fall into a deep pit and thereby killed it by simply playing a lofty trick on his victim by making him, the elephant, feel on-top-of-the-world. Such hilarious paradox has not seized to play out even in our polity now. Ours is a society that celebrates and honours certificated mediocrity at the expense of uncertificated excellence. Ours is a society that ululates and praises to high heavens, criminal and under-performing achievements even at the risk of relegating and denigrating obvious intelligensia sagacity. Our political atmosphere is charged. The volume of political electrons running in the veins of the major actors have escalated of late. Hence, the debate about the brain and the paper. The ruling party has presented Buhari, the opposition's presidential candidate, as a stack illiterate, or at best, a failed educated fellow who has been unable to produce, not even the least of his certificates as required by law(?) The hilarious part of it all is that the people have aptly compared Buhari and Jonathan, the sitting certificated President, in terms of performances, and the unanimous decision is that Buhari, the "illiterate" is better than our doctorate degree holder. The paradoxical element in this whole saga is that Buhari, the uncertificated BRAIN is cruising, while Jonathan, the celebrated PAPER is cringing politically as the campaigns proceed. If Buhari wins, that aspect of the constitution will have to be expunged to allow our uncerticated brains exhume this country from the dark doldrums into which the certificated papers have plunged it.

EKITI, THE SEARCH CONTINUES

The news of Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB)'s defection (he was never a member of APC) to the All Progressives Congress, APC, yesterday at the party's presidential rally in Ado Ekiti came to many of us, his ardent followers, as a rude shock. It is very typical of the proverbial dog going back to its vomit. The acrimony generated in his bid to occupy the highest political seat in Ekiti is better left untold. The number of people who lost their lives or parts of their bodies as well as properties are myriads. It is only unfortunate that the people we sometimes stand to take a bullet for are actually the ones behind the trigger. It is a pity that MOB could be so terribly driven by ambition so as to throw morals in air without caution. That is why it is better that when coming into politics, it is ALWAYS better to come alone without being attached to anyone's apron. The fate that befell MOB is because of his long-standing relationship with Tinubu; but to think that he would swallow all he said before June 21, 2014, beats me. All political bigots and thugs should learn that the only way out is to be men and women of themselves, not depending on all these self-proclaimed leaders. I wish MOB all the best as he goes back to where he hitherto belong. However, he should know that he has betrayed the trust reposed in him by the ordinary people of Ekiti who saw him as their long-awaited light into political freedom and unnecessary external influence in their political affairs. We had thought it was time for SELF-DETERMINISM in Ekiti; but that is now a very unattainable distant mirage. While I don't regret ever working for him, even using my personal resources, my concern is how many Ekiti people will ever take him serious again for he has proved unworthy. Ekiti, the long search for a messiah continues!