-Blank NEWS Online (NIGERIA) –By Austen AKHAGBEME:

JUST like the three witches in William Shakespeare’s classic play, Macbeth, Nigeria politicians from all geopolitical zones, came in thunder, lightning and in the rain; invited and uninvited, fair or foul, just to meet with “Macbeth”.

That wedding ceremony of the President’s son has become a deeper metaphor of the collective political idiosyncrasies, shenanigans and willful simulation of our present drivers.

The controversial Islamic Cleric, Sheikh Gumi ,called it a gathering of “Bandits”. In his sermon at the Sultan Bello Mosque in Kaduna on Friday, the cleric berated the visiting politicians (with their array of private jets parked in some distance away) for gross insensitivity to the plight of the poor whose condition is daily aggravated by their wanton profligacy and selfishness.

There are those who came just to answer the roll call. While some came to show their solidarity to the Father of the day, others came to hide their lack of it as deliberate abstinence will pits them against the powers that be.

Such is the game and the shame of politics of personality that we play in our clime. It is a shame that amidst the poverty and deprivation that walks on all fours in the streets of Brigade quarters, Dakata, kawaji, Kwofa mazugal and other poverty-stricken settlements within Kano metropolis, these leaders still find it comfortable to brandish wealth in the face of lack and want.

With the brazen insecurity in the North and the many school children and adults in captivity in the hands of bandits and kidnappers in the heart of our forests, one would morally expect that such a loud social event should have been put on hold or stripped of the unnecessary overwhelming noise that heralds it.

While some have spoken extensively to eulogize the event as one that showcases the inextricable oneness of us all and the much desired pax Nigeriana, other saw it as a self simulated popularity test for those whose hands and eyes are already on the pie for 2023 and beyond.

No matter how one looks at it, that Kano coven has revealed the preferences, past time, insensitivity and the profligacy of our ruling elites and their unquenchable appetite for the perks and grandeur of office, than the plight of the ordinary citizen they often claim to represent all the time.

• Austen AKHAGBEME is a Columnist with Blank NEWS Online

-…Read Blank NEWS Online … Always!