{PERSPECTIVE} EMI LOKAN: “The Only Good Human Being Is A Dead One”

By Olowogboyega Oyebade

ARE you a civil or public servant in this State? Do you have a standard you pursue in service, life or marriage? Do you know each day presents you an opportunity to decide on what to be in life? Have you discovered when it should be your turn in any game of chance? Do you know nothing is bad to activate the principle in a decent way? Do you know this service is supposed to be a stepping-stone for all us and not a final destination? Do you know making it a final destination kills all other potentials in us? Do you know Plato warns: “We must decide what manner of men we shall be and what call of life we must follow. This is the greatest problem of the world.”

Do you know nothing is wasted? Do you know you can earn credit for little efforts you make? Have you forgotten Alajo Somolu, a famous thrift collector, famous for his ingenuity in thrift collection that many thought he was a Yoruba myth? Can you recall that our parents who never visited Lagos, equally narrated his ingenuity? Can you recall we were told of how he would collect thrift from 10,000 people daily without putting their names down, and at the end of the year he would pay each person back accurately without missing any one? Do you know we only learnt of his original name later in the media to be Late Pa Alphaeus Taiwo Olunaike? Do you know he lived for 97 years and breathed his last on 11th August, 2012 at his famed Shomolu residence in Lagos and was buried on 22nd September, at the Church of Nigeria Cathedral, Isonyin, Ijebu in Ogun State? Comrades! What are we sign-posting? Do you know his trade name became a common praise for all round intelligence in Yoruba dictionary?  Do you know if we cannot improve on his thrifty skills, can we just copy faithfully his honesty in public service – his sense of fidelity, probity and accountability in office, personal life and marriage? Can we? An anecdote cuts in: “Your brain is as sharp as that of Alajo Somolu, who collected thrift for three years and paid back all his customers without writing down a single name and without making a single mistake with the payment.”

Did you share in the euphoria of “Emi lo kan” Declaration of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu in Abeokuta? Do you take it to be a joke? Do you know it is loaded?  Have you seen the result of resilience and single-mindedness in Strategic Planning and Strategic Management Technique in Public Administration developed by Robert Stewart and Arnold Mitchell in Stanford Research Institute? As professionals, what other practical lessons do you need than the one gratuitously offered by Asiwaju? Can you recall that in the campaign of Asiwaju, there was SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?  Comrades! Can you recall that in the campaigns of Asiwaju, you saw PESTEL analysis coming out live and direct? Can you see how he analyses Political, Economic, Sociological, Legal, and Environmental factors around him and used them to his advantage as a genius? Can you recall that there were implosions from what supposed to be his camp? Do you know there may be obstacles to your success from yourself, from your office, from your family and marriage? Do you know you have to understand the weakness of all these weaknesses to overcome the challenge of daring to demand for power? 

Can you take omelette without breaking an egg? Do you know the template of Public Administration laid by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, John Locke, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkruma and Sage Obafemi Awolowo emphasises mental alertness over physical frailties and wealth?  Do you know that while the detractors of Asiwaju were insinuating about his strongness or otherwise, he reminded them he was not planning to be a bricklayer or a carpenter but competing to solve the institutional problem of Nigeria which is a mental assignment? Comrades! Can you remind someone complain of your physical frailty that Franklin Delano Roosevelt who served as the 32nd President of the United States between 1933 to 1945 and indeed, the actual man who prosecuted the 2nd World War was a disabled man, crippled down the waist by polio? Do you know that the present Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States had brain surgery in 1988? Do you know Plato concludes that the man with the best mental ability is made of gold and should climb the rostrum to be the Philosopher King to rule the ‘polis’? Plato cuts in: “The ‘polis’ (city) is an aggregate of many people and education is the only one means of uniting them and giving them progress…No two individuals are exactly born alike but each differs from the others in natural endowments. One good for one thing and another for another. Everything will be produced in superior quality and quantity when individuals are put in the occupations that agree with their natural gifts.”

Do you know you must communicate your bravery clearly and loudly as deterence as we saw in ‘Emi lo kan Declaration” of Abeokuta to send the right signal? After this victory, can you see how he has released his blue-print as agenda for Nigeria? Can you see the richness of his idea and the certitude of his vision of accomplishments? Can you see Asiwaju criss-crossing the homes and offices of co-contestants, mending fences for the job ahead? Can you see he is not scape-goating nor brooding with any one for laying thorns on his way to power? Can you see he is making peace with all stakeholders including the man that unilaterally announced prematurely a different ‘consensus candidate’ before the election was conducted, possibly to put the contest in a mute mode? And to all civil and public servants in Osun, what lessons in Public Administration are you learning from this iconic prodigy? Are you visionary about your thinking in your office, life and marriage? Do you have achievements to speak for you later when you step down from that office? When are you making further declaration for your better future in service, life and marriage? Can you recall that Snowball says: “The only good human being is a dead one”? By the grace of God, Asiwaju, you will be the next President of Nigeria in 2023. Jagaban! Congratulations!