Worshipping the False Messiahs of Nigeria

President Goodluck Jonathan must rein in Doyin Okupe and other sycophants. Chinua Achebe reminds us that those whose palm kernels were cracked by the gods must remain humble. A shoeless school boy who rose to the presidency cannot afford to have an aide misrepresenting him as a contestant for the position of Jesus Christ.
Okupe presented President Goodluck Jonathan as Jesus Christ in the most opportune time. We were in Christmas mood and should have been most receptive to the revelation of God among us.
Okupe’s job description as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs is to appraise and praise his principal.
And security on the job lies at the extreme end of hyperbole. He has to be sufficiently worshipful of the President or he gets the sack. This incentivises Okupe to work overtime, talking Jonathan up. And sure enough, it predisposes him to sounding stupid.
But this attempt to make up the profane with the sacred shows that Okupe’s sycophancy has mutated into wanton license.
It couldn’t have been his answer to Wole Soyinka’s portrayal of Jonathan as King Nebuchadnezzar.
Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, called a press conference just to vent and he kept his metaphor within the bounds of the secular.
But Okupe, the selfacclaimed “attack dog,” went to a breakfast TV show for expediency and ran into profanities.

*this was published in the Daily Times dated Tuesday, December 23, 2014