For no reason beyond bad belle, Orishala urged Ogun to pull down Orunmila’s house. Why? Ogun asked. Orishala hinted that Orunmila had become a dangerous rival to his dominance in the pantheon of the gods.
Like a hired killer, Ogun agreed. But how would he recognise Orunmila’s house? He had never been there. Orishala gave detailed directions and added one crucial clue: Orunmila’s house, unlike his own, had no white cloth on its roof.
But Orunmila had ears everywhere. He heard the plot and acted swiftly. Under cover of darkness, he removed the white cloth from Orishala’s roof and placed it on his own.
So when Ogun arrived in fury, the house he smashed belonged to Orishala, his client. Ogun killed everyone inside and left Orunmila untouched. Then Orunmila danced and sang: Aseni n se ara è. From that day, Orunmila became the boss.
A few weeks ago, while writing about the splintering of opposition parties and the coronation songs in the APC, I wrote about a man who set fire to his neighbours’ huts, forgetting that flames obey no boundaries; they usually consume their owner too.
I apply the Orishala-Orunmila story to Nigeria’s party politics. Orunmila’s survival sense is lacking in opposition parties. He survived because he saw the danger coming and acted. Nigeria’s opposition parties, by contrast, have often behaved like victims waiting patiently for the executioner.
But karma is real, even the neck of one who beheads is not immune to the sharp sword of death. The APC once celebrated the demolition of its rivals’ political homes. Today, the bell tolls for the demolisher.
And those leaving are not limping quietly into the night. They are talking; using words that de-market. A former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, who resigned from the APC days after losing the party’s governorship primary in Nasarawa, said internal democracy, fairness, transparency and equal opportunity that should guide a democratic political party were absent in the ruling party. That is not a good testimonial for a party that wears ‘progressive’ on its forehead.
Adamu was not alone.
For the same reason, former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, announced his resignation from the party. A day later, a former Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly also quit. Their departure is not the issue. The issue is that the ruling party could itself suffer what it once mocked others for suffering.
Even then, APC should worry less about those quitting; its death may be those who are staying put like the pest that has vowed to destroy kolanut from inside. Political parties are usually damaged more by the wounded who remain than by the angry who leave.
So, from Nasarawa to Delta, and across much of the federation where primaries were conducted, the APC is struggling to contain the inferno ignited by the very process it called primaries. What was meant to be a season of coronation has become a season of rebellion. The fire it lit in other people’s compounds has found its way back home.
