^

Thank you.

beautiful write ups only annoy people given to intellectual posturing
(like you)

I couldn't agree more.

^^^
Sam Omatseye is worse than average.

Babasessy:

Bankole, the sin bearer
By Sam Omatseye 13/06/2011 00:00:00
   

His ascent to office was like his fall from grace[b]: [/b]sudden.

Dimeji Bankole, former speaker, who brought a boyish poise and juvenile grace to his office, must wonder what God meant by giving him a miracle of a job and taking it away so suddenly.

He is brilliant, well-spoken and apparently well-adjusted. With his frequent white cap and crimped smile, it was hard to look at him as the N10 billion man. But he is. That is how he will be defined. There were other ways to define him, though. Remember the near fisticuff with the ritualist from Ogun State, Gbenga Daniel, over a minor infrastructural triumph around Ota? Remember the Ekiti saga where he turned minstrelsy about sending the army to the rerun election so that Segun Oni, the apostate with the phony Awo cap, could rig the elections? Those and others were important. But who would forget N10 billion, especially if it was on that note that he made his exit?

But his story[b] is a tragedy because it is the tragedy[/b] of the Nigerian political class. By implication, of the Nigerian society. Anybody in political office of such significance as president, governor, minister, speaker, senate president, commissioner or director general and so forth is, by definition, a sinner in the eyes of the public. But the sinfulness is not the province of my piece today. I am concerned with the portrait of the politician as sin bearer.

When the matter of N10 billion arose on the floor of the House of Representatives, Bankole reminded his fellow legislators that the loan was taken to fund their recklessness. He knew they were reckless, and he bowed to them. He wanted to be a team player. He wanted to bear their sins on their behalf. From the information available, the speaker and deputy speaker did not really enjoy these allowances. It went to the principal officers and other members of the House. But he acquiesced in order to be in their good books. He did not want the proverbial banana peels to fling him forward in a surge of impeachment. Yet the same banana peels he tried to avert awaited him at the end of the road.

It is not just the issue of the loan alone. There were other purchases padded extravagantly. Whether it was vehicles or television sets or stationeries, it was not Bankole appetite alone that was at stake. He had to cater to a collective greed.

As The Nation’s Yomi Odunuga asked in his column last Saturday, why was he the only one the EFCC had to pick up? It is the way it is. He is the sin bearer. He was the one who carried the sin for these fellow sinners. This is Nigeria where we subvert every noble principle. When someone bears another person’s sin, the aim is redemption. It is usually prompted by the principle of love.

In the case of Jesus Christ, he bore the sins of humanity. In the case of Christ, the Bible tells us that he bore the sin for two things. One, to cleanse them. Two, for him (Christ) to go to glory.

But in Nigeria, the story is a little different. The sin bearer often goes away to material glory, just as spiritual glory is supposed to be the destiny of the sin bearer, sin being a spiritual matter. But the Nigerian leader who goes to material glory has many mansions that he prepares for himself, his wife, children, grandchildren, mother, father, siblings, girlfriends, et al. To an inferior degree, those who benefitted also have others who enjoy. They won’t have the same sort of mansions, or cars or fat-cat bank accounts, but they are pretty happy with what corruption has dealt them.

Most of them are never caught or prosecuted, and their material glory is guaranteed. Even those who are caught, or appear to have been caught, are ruffled. A little blood is squirted from their fat, prosperous biceps, and they and their loots live happily ever after. They are arrested, the media makes a show of their humility and humiliation, the hand cuffs, the bowed head, the degraded fashion sense. They spend some nights in jail, no special wines, no big, sensational beds but flies and mosquitoes instead of the buzz of ADCs and retinue of advisers.

When the saga of Bankole just happened, I said while the case of Jesus as sin bearer took him to heavenly glory, the sin bearer Bankole would go to perdition. On reflection, I am not sure of the perdition part. What it usually indicates is the end of the career of the person. We have a few who went to perdition, like Bode George. Even he sought redemption in an elaborate, false glamour of an after-prison reception. But it was a non-starter.

We must say that the situation is pathetic when you know that the rest of society takes part in this public ritual of crime and punishment. The public is part of the crime. For instance, a minister pays some school fees of former neighbours and friends’ children, medical fees of an old uncle, pays the rent of a former classmate’s aunt, all of which might not have happened if the man did not dip his hand in the till. Sometimes the governor caters to as many as two thousand such cases every other day as well his other responsibilities. A lawmaker said the other day that her traditional ruler wants her to buy him a “jeep” now that she won the election. She asked him where she was supposed to get the money. The traditional ruler was not going to bother about that.

So, that is the nature of sin bearing in political office. Anyone who occupies a political office suffers this burden. Yet when one of them is caught, we all act as though we are purer. The sinners always are those up there. That is what Goran Hyden, political theorist, calls the economy of affection. It is a damper on development and progress.

Yet, those in political office sometimes give cynically, not out of mercy but a pragmatic crafting of a base for later victories. Many do it genuinely and see it as a way of helping other people with public money if available jobs and the emoluments cannot cater to the needs of the many poor.

So Bankole funded recklessness to keep his job. He kept his job, but he lost his name. He was a scapegoat of a system built by cynics for cynics.
http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/columnist/monday/sam-omatseye/9174-bankole-the-sin-bearer.html

anyone who thinks this is craft needs to read more. this writer has not yet been immersed in the language.
too many errors,misuse of metaphors and on the whole a tedious read .but, this is the sort of fare served up daily in the nigerian media these days.believe me!,there have been better days

[quote ]
When the saga of Bankole just happened, I said while the case of Jesus as sin bearer took him to heavenly glory, the sin bearer Bankole would go to perdition. On reflection, I am not sure of the perdition part. What it usually indicates is the end of the career of the person. We have a few who went to perdition, like Bode George. Even he sought redemption in an elaborate, false glamour of an after-prison reception. But it was a non-starter.
[quote][/quote]

does he know the meaning of the word;saga?

The write up was good and not biased. The writer has spoken the bitter truth and that is the fact about all arms of government. To progress Nigeria as a Nation, both the governing and the governed (entire populace) should be honest. The evil starts from those citizens who sell their electoral rights for money. They afterwards go back to the elected officers, to demand from them what their legitimate earnings can never provide, without plunging their hands into the public till. It is shameful and we all must check ourselves to do what is morally right always. Whoever wants to condemn any present or past politicians is free to do so, but, he/she should search his/her conscience and be satisfied that never would he/she be a victim when such opportunity to serve his/her nation present itself. “Let he who has never sinned cast the first stone”.

AribisalaO said my mind, we have the culture of celebrating half baked, what has the poster written that should excite me, nothing. The poster is also part of the problem here, this holier than though attitude is taking us nowhere.

i have no quarrel with the sentiment of the article. however it reinforces my belief that we need to dispense with the language of the colonizer and start using our own languages. if the basics of any language are not acquired early it is impossible to make the leap from proficient to expert user. a standard than one should expect from a professional.

aribisala0:

does he know the meaning of the word;saga?

Why are u trying to make a fool of yourself? because u checked d word 'saga' in your non-compatible mobile app, u ar tryn to be a master of the language.
Abeg, check the word saga in an English dictionary ( mind u, it means "series of event" and stop tryn to hurl insult at yourself.

aribisala0:

anyone who thinks this is craft needs to read more. this writer has not yet been immersed in the language.
too many errors,misuse of metaphors and on the whole a tedious read .but, this is the sort of fare served up daily in the nigerian media these days.believe me!,there have been better days

In as much as i know that some of the mistakes are real, some are correct. Its just that you do not understand what they call mastery of the English language. Sam is not the kind of people you make light his command of the language.

jerseyboy:

^^^
Sam Omatseye is worse than average.

I dont think so. The guy is only expressing HIS OWN OPINION. His opinion does not have to be absolutely correct or right. Remember u just expressed yours.
The essence of education is to enable you to make and have an informed decision.
You dont have to swallow every thing Sam says hook and sinker.

pro01:

Omatseye has always been a brilliant essayist and wordsmith, and that's all there is to it. I wonder why some people ascribe too much importance to the OPINIONS of columnists. The fact that they have the privilege of a public space to ventilate their opinions does not perforce indicate the preeminence of such opinions over and above those of any other informed member of society. I merely enjoy brilliant columnists' prose, literary craftsmanship, and caustic wit. That's that. The substance of their articles rarely holds any special appeal for me. . .they're merely PERSONAL opinions, which everybody else has.

Thank you. I guess i owe you a drink.

In life, there are varying standards. Reading through sam's article, i felt ecstatic. Such ecstasy stems from my appreciation of a beautiful write up. I barely saw any error. Aribisala has come to point out mistakes and personally feels sam does not deserve the accolades he is been inundated with.

Regradless of aribisala's sentiment, he has shown that there were errors. I think he is making a point in this regard.

Brilliant.

aribisala0:

nigerians are really quite easy to please. this-a beautiful write up.?

please read it again. without mincing words it would be flattery to call it mediocre. the standards of journalism in nigeria have plunged into abysmal depths.
those old enough to remember newspapers of the late 70s and 80s would cringe to hear the  fawning superlatives being thrown around here. they are misplaced and unmerited. even  a journal club article in my secondary school would supplant  the drivel being celebrated here.
i never read the awolowo article but can say i expected a bit more  flourish from one who generated so much heat. really no one has anything to fear from this guy he is average on an exceptional day

I take it, you're more interested in your self set high bar you set for the writer than the actual issue/the piece? BUT unfortunately he failed your high expectation but most people like his writing including me, that is how the world works (Osondi- Owendi)

no i read the piece and already said[b] i have no quarrel with the issues.[/b]
however i do not agree with the praise being dished out.
we are not english after all and i would be quite happy to celebrate any literary success in any nigerian language.

however the article should not be held up as a template to any aspiring writer of English prose neither on tehnical nor stylistic grounds. it is NOT beautiful by any generous stretch of the word.

Good write up

The daftest writeup i have ever read. Hardly engaging, and i do not understand this writer's point. He needs to quit the job. It is not by force to be a puppet. He also lost credibility being part of a propaganda machine.

^^^^^^^^^
Are sure its the writeup or something else is bothering you? Nigerians!! You are so transparent sometimes.
This Sam Omatseye guy was courageous enough to tell Awo's family some basic trutth most Yoruba are so scared to tell them but had been murmuring it under their breath for years, suddenly he is someone his writing elicites likes or dislike.

Two weeks ago, this poster wouldn't even had included the name of the writer with his posting, with many clamouring for the source and more sources 

I think sam is the best to happen to Nigerian newspapers lately, i respect the Guy

hmm.

pro01:

Omatseye has always been a brilliant essayist and wordsmith, and that's all there is to it. I wonder why some people ascribe too much importance to the OPINIONS of columnists. The fact that they have the privilege of a public space to ventilate their opinions does not perforce indicate the preeminence of such opinions over and above those of any other informed member of society. I merely enjoy brilliant columnists' prose, literary craftsmanship, and caustic wit. That's that. The substance of their articles rarely holds any special appeal for me. . .they're merely PERSONAL opinions, which everybody else has.

May God bless you.

For those who are saying it is wrong for him to compare Bankole with Jesus Christ, I see nothing wrong with it at least he expatiated his comparison. It is just Sam's opinion of what Bankole is.