Please permit me to be vulgar here. Our people say that when the penis stands as erect as the palm tree, it will appear as if it will perforate the vagina to the other side. But it doesn’t. It waxes strong in the illusion of undeserved hubris, only to wizen after the amorous dalliance!
So was the triumphal entry of Francis Arthur Nzeribe into the political consciousness of Nigerians in October 1983. An insurance merchant, Chief Nzeribe came into the country’s political limelight in a blaze of glory. He was feared by his opponents and admired by his acolytes for his irresistible charm. He was the enfant terrible of Orlu politics. He was as rich as Croesus, money did his bidding, he could get whatever he wanted by fair or foul means.. Under the Nigerian Peoples Party NPP, Nzeribe’s flamboyant campaign for the Orlu senatorial seat in 1983 was captivating. He threw money with careless abandon, the first of such in Imo State. That was why he easily won the election with his slogan “Change 83” even when he had formidable opponents in the ruling party, National Party of Nigeria, NPN. That, perhaps, marked the introduction of money politics in Nigeria.
In a country where the rich always have their way, Nzeribe got away with his idiosyncrasies at every election. He represented Orlu at the senate for three terms from 1983. In 1999 and 2003, he won again under the platform of PDP where he represented Orlu senatorial zone.
Like our modern day pastors would say, what money cannot do does not exist. They must have coined that from Nzeribe’s extravagance and ability to use money to get through. He believed in the power of money and used it brazenly to his advantage. His wealth which is estimated in billions of dollars then bloated his ego. He was not only pompous and brashy but also impudent. I still recollect an encounter I had with him at Aba where he had come to campaign.
I approached him for an exclusive interview and introduced myself as a senior journalist with Sunray Newspapers. He did not only decline the interview but did it in a manner that left me feeling belittled and befuddled. He asked me, with an earthy candor, “ Do you know whom you are talking to?” I replied and said, “yes Chief, you are Chief Francis Arthur Nzeribe, the Ogbuagu of Orlu”. On hearing me mention his chieftaincy title, he smiled at me and retorted, “Boy, I can’t talk to you.” But I was not a boy, I was a man. I went to a nearby eatery and looked myself in the mirror if I was too small to be called a boy. However, I left Aba dejected and sullen. The scoop I had imagined I would get vanished into thin air!
But what tamed the maverick politician’s arrogance and brought him down from his high horse was the indefinite suspension Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, as Senate President, slammed on him in 2002 for embezzling N22m. Expectedly, that action did not go down well with him, considering his political stature in his hometown Oguta and Nigeria. He made some uncomplimentary remarks about Anyim. He wondered how a small boy from an unknown village in Ebonyi of all places should remove the garlands on his neck! Since that incident, the sail was taken off his boat, he realized that it was not always that the dhow follows the wind.
However, if there is any thing Nigerians will remember Nzeribe for, it is his complicity with the military to annul the June 12 election in 1993. That alone enrolled his name, till eternity, in the book of infamy of Nigeria’s political actors. He was Babangida’s trusted ally in the atrocity. Working with his master to transmute to a military president, he hastily formed Association for Better Nigeria, ABN which got Justice Bassey Ikpeme of Abuja Federal High Court to rule at midnight stopping Prof. Humphrey Nwosu from announcing the result of an election that was adjudged the best in the country’s electoral history.
Nothing in life is permanent, not even fame, not wealth nor power. For over ten years, Nzeribe fought with all his might and wealth to live. His debilitating illness silenced his once vocal voice and flamboyancy. After hearing the announcement of his death yesterday, I began to rethink the meaning and essence of life. Why are we here? Are we here to labour and accumulate wealth and die? Or are we here for a higher purpose beyond the mundane?
Talking about life, Mel Brooks, an American humanist said, “Look, I don’t want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you are not alive”.
Francis Arthur Nzeribe was alive. He lived true to this. He flapped his arms and legs. He jumped around a lot. And above all, he lived noisy and colorfully. He was like the erect penis that boasted of its strength but only to find itself powerless in-between the thighs of a woman. That is the absurdity of life!
