Sunday Reflection: The Saint of Kaduna and the gospel of selective righteousness

There are men who leave office and disappear into quiet retirement. And then there are those who leave office but really never leave power. They hover like Wi-Fi, like the very parasite that feasts on your left-over Sunday jollof rice – very invisible, but connected to every controversy.

Once hailed as the “architect of modern governance,” our beloved former reformer now preaches morality from the mountain of self-righteousness. Ohhh, he speaks of integrity like an evangelist who misplaced his Bible somewhere between Abuja-Kaduna expressway.

These days, his followers call him “the conscience of the nation.” Yet the nation remembers his demolition sites, his midnight evictions, his holy wars against “hypocrisy”, his relegation to a sect of persons with different faith, all carried out with swords and blessings.

He tweets like a prophet, quotes scriptures between subtle jabs, and calls out corruption as though he wasn’t on first-name terms with the system itself. It is laughable and a beautiful sermon, if you close your eyes and choose to forget who’s talking.

Nigeria has many orators, but only a few who can insult you with scripture and still collect applause. He’s one of them. The kind who can set the forest on fire and then deliver a TED Talk on reforestation.

And now, as the nation debates loyalty, betrayal and good governance, some men are quietly rewriting their own roles oo. But history is quite a  stubborn creature, very unedited, doesn’t rate anyone, unarguebaly patient, but remembers all!

Because when a man spends years building a wall between himself and the people, he shouldn’t be surprised when applause sounds faint.

So as our moral architects return to the pulpit of public opinion, perhaps it’s time to ask:

Are they preaching redemption or just rehearsing relevance?