~Debo Akinbami, PhD.
I read a terse commentary on the blue app, in the near past. The author, a senior friend, was presumptively reacting to a political drift at the point of lettering. His view, queer as it seemed, situates this treatise in context. He wrote: “Your shortest route to cash, when broke, is to abuse Aiyedatiwa, provide evidence of vulgarity and get a credit”.
The remark was both casual and cryptic, but it was not inconsequential. It read surreal but didn’t sound unreal. The tone was the sort one could have rashly dismissed as another trivial tale, but for what it is worth, the writer curiously opted for a query. Artless disapproval of the governor for financial gain? No rigour. No reason. No labour. No logic. No premise. No substance. Just abuse and get paid?
I pondered. Why would somebody hugely invest in lowering the governor’s soaring public rating? Why the effort to make him look less? Maybe for political reasons, instinct nudged. That, in my view, makes a unique political strategy. But while the muse lasted, the cruel commentaries surged. It does not matter what Aiyedatiwa is doing right or the size of applause his acts attract. The toxic tales spiraled, so that the suggestion of sponsored calumny becomes revelatory.
Politics, when it peaked, could weave the weirdest of theatrics. It can pitch even the wildest of troupers. It’s not a forte for the gutless; yet a bad deal for the warlike. To win its frills, it’s different pills for different ills. That is how it sometimes requires winning friends; and, at other times, weaning them. To swim through her sour seasons, one may, at times, have to weed fiends. It is not an easy-read. And I agree, to this extent, with a veteran’s stance: “It’s like a walk in a psychiatry ward”.
Players say politics breeds neither fixed friends nor final foes, but steady interests. Even so, that is not the qualm. The scruple is in figuring the foes and telling when friends aren’t feigning. This is how knotty politics can get and therein lies the loop. Meanwhile, politics, like a pool betting, undulates with uncertain fates; and because it does, it does not guarantee all-time winners, only seasonal champs. And more weirdly is the truth that, even seasonal champs, when they are seldom made, run on oily grass while winsome revelry lasts.
In his curvy routes to power, the governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has learned politics the harder way. He is a man made by tough tutelage; by unlikely experiences. He was prepared- the unusual ways- for the temperature, tempest and temptations that punctuate politics, and he has his scars as he does his stars; but the thing about politics is that you are never fully prepared for its furry.
Admittedly, the plan to commoditise the governor’s image makes a dangerous orchestra. It is a potent political ploy at any rate. After all, when a good reputation is lost, virtually everything is lost. The “pull him down for money” is a deliberate reputational warfare against his persona, his rating and projections. Good skills, no doubt. Those who wrestle the governor by organised calumny should however give circumspect a chance.
And this is why. To indulge the thought that the feeble visage Aiyedatiwa typically wears portrays his person wholesale is to be unintelligent. He sees more than he says. He, of course, knows more than most loud men. The choices are his to make, ultimately. To expose the sponsors, purveyors and their persuasions or indulge the continued treachery to foil more strategically.
In the meantime, the conspiracy against Aiyedatiwa may fetter, or fuel the fatal fall of blackmailers. The business of blackmail, alluring as it is, may feed actors fatter or ferry practitioners to ruinous ridicule. For the players, the game sure comes with gains as it does its pains. While the gain may be attractive and personal, the bruises make us all poorer.
Like an oasis in a desert, to get an objective appraisal of governmental acts in Ondo State is now a rarity. Constructive public engagement has largely disappeared for paid commentaries, and this is part of the ways we get poorer. Whatever the alibis adduced for actuating or abetting reputational fraud against Aiyedatiwa, the consequence will outlive the benefits, and the state will not remain the same.
The business of blackmail, as it were, may soar in the immediate. It may not matter to our conscience if decency is sacrificed for crude public conversations. The army of abusers recruited for calumny may enlarge and idlers gratified for vulgarity. What is certain, however, is that the commodity of calumny against Aiyedatiwa has an expiry date- and it is imminent.
***Dr. Akinbami teaches print journalism and public relations at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko.
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