Victor C. Ariole

The right law that is organized towards the wellbeing of people the road that leads to multiple joy, the truth that is love and charity sustainability driven; that is the embodiment of governance. 

     – Amadou Hampaté Bâ 

Amadou Hampaté Bâ is a great Fulani sage – Malian or Guinean as deaf and dumb governance shifted his loyalty. He gave out a story of the revolution of herdsmen. The herdsmen had a king who assured them of protecting them against dangerous attacks and against grasses turning brown. The herdsmen gave in their best at work making sure much milk flowed out of their labour so as to sustain the joy and love among themselves.

However, they discovered that the king had started putting on weight, robust and was looking very much different from them. They felt that that the king was feeding on milk more than required. So, they decided to stop work and demanded that they should be allowed to feed exclusively on milk also. The king asked his chief security officer to cage them and feed them with milk. After three days, they were fed up in being fed and the reserve started going down so they pleaded with the king to allow them return to their herds.

Amadou Hampaté Bâ is saying that a king is not just there to dispense food or milk but that his main duty is that of a shepherd guiding right by laws and by means, his people for sustainable prosperity because it still behooves the people to provide what the king will use to keep them happy. An irony that Nigeria is rated the happiest people in Africa, completely incongruent with Finland as the happiest in the world. It is also distinct from dumb and deaf happiness as Finland could boast of ownership of Nokia – communication friendly environment. Nigeria is seemingly a deaf and dumb happiness driven entity.

Check out the deaf and dumb approach from when Fela sang “20 sitting 100 standing” and they are still smiling. A bus that ought to take only 20, you still find 100 people in it and they remain with smile – deaf and dumb interaction. The driver feeds well on their sweat but they still remain happy for even the opportunity to be conveyed.

Check out again the tanker driver and the Lagos road users. The oga driving all of them to appear on the road is pretending not to know the solution to their hardship; and likes Bâ’s king; he is living in opulence – check and stomach very robust.

Check out the water Nigerians drink, the pipes run through gutters, very dirty and they don’t mind as it is a privilege by the oga pumping the water and as “water disease no fit kill Africa”.

Related News

Check knowledge generating environment like schools, as reported by Prof. Okebukola, projects and articles are churned out with joy notwithstanding the breach of copyright infringement and the delivery master beats his chest as having done the best to keep the educational herdsmen at work, even when they needed to  cry that the environment is not conducive; and the threat by the delivery master goes on; by planning to push them to private institutions; opening up more private institutions for more infringement process.

Check the politicians; they feed on the mono-product – oil money, like the Bâ’s king feeds on the mono product – milk, depriving the herdsmen from feeding on it and teaching them the lesson that comes out of revolt.

Specifically, check this: on the floor of the senate, one day, Ndume who claimed to be in touch of his constituent where terrorist war is raging, claimed to make the youth there happy by bringing them to prosperous cities in droves and leash them out with either “okada” or “marwa” to go on and find means of livelihood, no education, no prior orientation and the threat gets to the whole Nigeria. They operate on deaf and dumb approach. The only language they hear is that of “point the direction you are going” – sign language and jump into the ride and when you stay stop, they stop and stretch their hand for the pay – colour of the money is their interest, not necessarily what you say it is.

Now extrapolate it to what the herdsmen want to relay to Nigerians; that their king is not listening to them just like the entire governance of Nigeria seems to be indifferent to the plight of the entire Nigeria as they feed on the mono-product, clearly seen by the first point of call in the newly announced NNPC structure while other spheres go to sleep.

Amadou Hampaté Bâ, asserts that the king and the people, both, realized their mistakes. The king that was acting like an ape as presented by evolutionary theory, that evolved into human being changed to a king that was created by God through Adam and Eve; acknowledge that human beings must live in love and compassion for their follow beings.

And the people also changed their attitudes; acknowledge that being caged like animals and fed by reserve depletes the reserve towards their extinction hence the need to return to work and ensure that the nine categories of the Fulani’s do not lack and that they continue in their operations of three groups that feed others, three groups that restore health, as well as three groups that incite sickness.

West Africa seems to be suffering from the last group and the king needed to intervene.

ARIOLE, Ph.d is Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of Lagos