"As a former leader of Africa's most contradictory country, he should never have died in America. People go to America to live, not to die. It is the land of immigrants where people fleeing persecution or hardship, or seeking new opportunities, go. It is somewhat ironic when someone, especially one or the relative of one who has had a chance to make America of his own country, goes there to die.
Some people say it is wrong to speak ill of the dead. But I believe it is considerably worse to do ill of the living, which is why some may find a few of the remarks in this essay to be offensive. I have no apologies.
No one knows the time of his death. Not Sambo. Not Akhigbe. Not me. That is how God created us. What we all know, however—what we always know when Time and Chance elevate us or tantalize us with images of invincibility—is when we hold in our hands something called authority.
Authority: The quality of being invested with power.
Akhigbe knew authority. As a journalist in the prime of my professional health, I witnessed his ascendancy in the mid-1980s to the post of Governor of Ondo, and then of Lagos State, presiding over the vast riches of Nigeria's richest State.
He governed, but he neither enriched nor enhanced Lagos. As our leaders usually do, he disbursed the currency of power in a lukewarm and self-centred way. He traveled with the bluster and swagger of the military, like an end unto himself. Some people who knew him well in Lagos say that is exactly whom he was, and that he could serve himself with the best of them. I know a part of this story because once, he made me an incredibly lucrative offer. I humbly declined."
Some people say it is wrong to speak ill of the dead. But I believe it is considerably worse to do ill of the living, which is why some may find a few of the remarks in this essay to be offensive. I have no apologies.
No one knows the time of his death. Not Sambo. Not Akhigbe. Not me. That is how God created us. What we all know, however—what we always know when Time and Chance elevate us or tantalize us with images of invincibility—is when we hold in our hands something called authority.
Authority: The quality of being invested with power.
Akhigbe knew authority. As a journalist in the prime of my professional health, I witnessed his ascendancy in the mid-1980s to the post of Governor of Ondo, and then of Lagos State, presiding over the vast riches of Nigeria's richest State.
He governed, but he neither enriched nor enhanced Lagos. As our leaders usually do, he disbursed the currency of power in a lukewarm and self-centred way. He traveled with the bluster and swagger of the military, like an end unto himself. Some people who knew him well in Lagos say that is exactly whom he was, and that he could serve himself with the best of them. I know a part of this story because once, he made me an incredibly lucrative offer. I humbly declined."
- Sonala Olumhense
#GBAM. Speaking truth to odium. A pox on all their decaying houses..."
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
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