A MAN OF THE PEOPLE!

Abwooli Rujumba Omurungi W’Abasambu, Chinua Achebe, one of Africa’s most gifted and sought after men- of- pen immaculately weaves a satirical tale of deceit, hypocrisy and betrayal of the ordinary African by the erudite class of Post- colonial African leaders. The tale is heavily pregnant with humor, irony, satire and is scandalously rich with handsome African images. It is compellingly gripping! The tale he tells in this landmark novel, A MAN OF THE PEOPLE, has some secreted revelations about Post-independence African leaders that stun and shock! This political tale unburies the long-hidden dirty side of our own politicians, who bask during the clear light of day in their glinting Agbada, and hats; with speeches decorated of magic oratory but retire to their homes at the approach of night to drink the White man’s whiskey and flirt with the harlots. It is a wonderfully woven political ballad of hopelessness and betrayal that clouds Nigeria at the demise of the White Man’s back. Thus when the Black man wrestles and wins his bout with imperialism, he expects that all the sacrifice and blood-letting is to be paid, and rightly so, in the valued currency of good governance, honesty and progressive leadership. This masterly set trap of hope does not actually, as Achebe relates in the fable, catch the golden- beaked dove with such beautiful traits! The plot in the book, as it unravels, is fantastically put together. The prize- claiming writer, with telling wizardry, takes us through the story of Samalu Odili son of Hezekiah Samalu, a retired District interpreter. Samalu Odili is an elementary school teacher at Anata grammar school owned by Mr. Nwege. The protagonist thus relates his experiences with the society that is around him and the leaders the society has. He relates that it is a kind of society that glorifies the rich with little or absolutely no regard to the means in which their shepherds actually obtain these riches. They do not in the least care whether ‘politician’ enrich themselves at the expense of the led for as long as their kinsman, one of their own, is deeply entrenched in the government. To this end they will savor palm-wine and swear to the government never to break the oath of allegiance. What other thing will man beg of his Chi when a son of the soil is an honorable minister? One such Honorable is the indefatigable Chief, The honorable; Dr. M.A Nanga gloriously crowned ‘Man of Book’ by an adoring and impoverished ilk of the lumpen proletariat for his perceived mastery of the Queens language. Dr. Nanga was a grammar school teacher of Odili who shoots through the ranks and rises overnight to become one of the top- shots of the Peoples Organization party (P.O.P) at the demise of the colonial master. He is depicted and in public also adorns himself with colorful words and exhibits the highest known degree of humility, moral uprightness, civility, benevolence and utmost good character. He associates himself with the people. He is one of them. Indeed a true man of the people. For how else can you describe a man in such a high position who takes palm wine with the people, pledges to give the brains of the village scholarships and actually splashes some notable pounds at every visit? Yet behind the admired and lovable public figure of the Chief is a skilled womanizer with an irresistible appetite for women of all professions and shapes! He is so good at his trade that even his former student Samalu Odili can eloquently tell. His latest conquest was Elsie, a girl he wooed, eloped with and put on back in his villa. She was Samalu Odili’s darling. He has so masterly grasped the art of siphoning people’s children’s inheritance, the public funds, from which he erects various storied buildings in his village. Mouths cannot stop talking of his meteoric rise. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, The Honorable, Chief; Dr. M.A Nanga ends up a real fisherman. He was a talented fisherman whose dreaded hook no fish evaded in the waters of public- funds but at the success of the young military officers in a coup d’état, he is now a true fisherman for he is caught trying to flee on a small boat camouflaged as a fisherman! All in all, through fantastic images and characters like Nanga the writer achieves, with such finesse, his intended effect of masterly painting the grim picture of betrayal and bigotry that African countries were thrust into by their subsequent governments at the dawn of Uhuru. Thus true to the saying of our people that when a greedy eater is near a patient, such a patient will most likely not survive, our leaders (Call them rulers), the ilk of Chief Nanga, have wantonly descended upon our treasure- chests with only the appetite of small and spotted animals called hyenas. In this evil regard they have consistently maneuvered with such briskness and proficiency as their spectator- governments lie back with folded hands or sometimes unashamedly aid and abet these criminals! But what is interesting about A MAN OF THE PEOPLE is how Achebe candidly describes the societal evils that obtain in his environs. It is as though, if the reader does not bother himself with the writer’s background, he is Ugandan and the society he tells of is Uganda! Uganda has now degenerated into a parasite society even worse than what Achebe decries in the book. It is now a country where a clique of people wielding influence and having hold over our all-obeying security dispensations have made stealing public funds their lone vocation. On our national coffers, they live as parasites in the stomach or vultures on a thin carcass. They have even developed intricate ways of plying their trade namely through a mysterious fiend called Privatization. It is this bouillabaisse that these individuals are using to munch away almost everything that there is to munch. They have thus privatized banks, land, lakes, Airports, wells, springs, animals and at this rate, what is actually left is privatizing the birds in the air. One day they will be owned by a private investor. KYOMUHENDO- ATEENYI