Ben Bruce, Governor Ambode and the Legend of Biafra -By J. Ezike

When a leader while pretending to assuage indigence, predicaments and their impact is in reality engrossed in inducing  slavish ignorance, obsequious cooperation in his followers through a blitzkrieg of dramatic, heart-rending words and other forms of chicanery much more has to be at stake than voguish altruism. I believe that something fishier than a mere case of decongestion of gridlock in Lagos was at work if Ambode’s “queer utterances” were to be layered squarely on logic and motive. And I usually do not bite with my pen except when I see the need to file my teeth and chew a morsel of fool’s heart.

Thus, I propose to ground my grievances from Ambode’s immature gimmick and perhaps make us even more disposed to view his stirring charity, his touching social conscience dispassionately.  I have neither the expertise nor the genius of reasoning to engage on this critical review but more simply in the gait of a revolutionary writer responding to the reactionary views that favor the contemporary status quo of a society. I also propose that significant motive of self-interest can be drawn from Ambode’s specious narrative.

Echoing his words: “As it is now, other seaports in Nigeria must begin to work immediately to decongest the gridlock in Lagos. It is pathetic that gridlock in the axis has become perennial in the state; it goes and comes. But the challenge is to give a permanent solution. It is a national issue and must be addressed as same immediately. Also, we do not need tank farms within Lagos metropolis anymore. There are 68 tank farms in Apapa alone; that is a serious danger waiting to happen.”

Is Ambode saying then that the defunct seaports in Calabar, Rivers, Delta and Onne be resuscitated? Yes, but that is not the real point. It is not the congestion of the Lagos traffic that worries Ambode and the bourgeois guild of APC, the Caliphate-led government and Britain, but the creeping hint of freedom for the eastern people of Biafra.

To a certain degree, these suggestive echoes by the governor of Lagos State resonates tacitly with Ben Bruce’s demagogue insistence on keeping the malformed union armored to a warring recrudescence of the genocidal frenzy of Nigeria’s first civil war. Bruce’s famed incendiary rendered no “common sense” and civility. It rather failed to defend the merits of his “unwell patriotism” for a permanent nightmare that was conjured from a White Man’s grimoire and displayed a desperate desire for cheap relevance!

It is through attitude that one recognizes a wrestler. Everybody knows Ben Murray Bruce is a rhetoric on the side. He might not exactly admire the daredevilry of the Igbo who knows no king and breathes the pride of a god but they have at least the distinction of growing some backbones, unlike this gossipy, Bayelsan senator in a satire of folly and cowardice. Instead of acting like an improved specimen of Ken Saro Wiwa, he might make “common sense” if he could fire a logical explanation to the mired, terrible scenery of Bayelsa State and lead the procession for a catalytic reversal of the grave errors and generational mess founded by the infamous patriarchs of that “god-forsaken region” plagued by the Sokoto Caliphate he grants fellatio much for a pat on the back.

“Biafra WON’T rise again…” he tells the House of Senate pointedly. Towards the end of his obsequious rendition, Bruce lavished a whale-sized call for local-made weapons, stamping his feet on a wild disco with the same mindless rhythm of past puppets of the bedeviled Niger Delta. And now he lurks to contend with the narrative of self-determination, of the freedom of his own people, secretly eager to crush the legend of Biafra with the same maniacal predisposition of Britain, Sokoto Caliphate and the rest of Nigeria. But the Biafran youths are accustomed to the scourge of treachery, of opposition from power-guzzling agents with conquered minds.

Bruce’s narrative must not be taken lightly. Anyone close to that pompous bread should help him grasp a sane structure of reasoning, especially when he deploys his brain in the serial fiasco of striking “common sense” with red-hot subjects not limited to Biafran referendum (which favors the Niger Delta).

One whose father was killed by a bull does not use a bull’s horn to drink palm wine. If Isaac Boro and Ken Saro Wiwa showed us the dire consequence of the thought of their loyalty to Nigeria, then Ben Murray Bruce lacks “common sense” to have paid no attention to history. I would personally advise he reads Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” – the eighteenth century pamphlet that inspired the decolonization of the Great United States of America from the Great Britain. If a British writer could challenge the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy by setting forth his logical arguments in favor of American independence, then I see no reason why an accursed Bayelsan slave of the Fulani republic of Nigeria would channel his “common sense” narrative in favor of the slave master. What is wrong with the mind of the black man!

For Ambode, de-monopolizing the sea-port industry is of strategic value to Lagos. And he chose his tricks well – one which was certain not to wane the superficial intent of his appeal. The rooted impulse would manifest slowly to one with a sleeping mind inveigled by the incredulity the proposal holds.

This bribery is drawn in salient detail; it is patronizing and so can win the support of the gullible and fulfils the hegemonic requirement of the ploy to muffle the Biafran narrative.  It might be disputed, of course, that the decongestion of Lagos traffic is not simply Ambode’s proposal but that of his political pantomimist, Master and co-looters.

Freedom cannot be equated with material conveniences. It is priceless as life itself. And I come through to this struggle not just as a witness of truth but one holding prophetic views to the Biafra liberation agenda.

In August 27, 2017 approximately one year ago, I published a poem “Biafra Shall Rise Again.” And I am saying it loud without a stir of doubt for every human of decency to be deeply worried if the Sokoto Caliphate and Britain continues to play politics with the universal call for Biafran referendum.

History is our witness, that we have been civil and peaceful enough in the face of overwhelming persecution. Let Ambode, Ben Bruce and the gang register the reality of the situation. They and others involved must know that it is Biafra or Nothing!