Sen Ali Ndume


By Udo Silas





Senator Ali Ndume appears congenial and a clubbable gentleman any day. He is obviously politically suave and very intelligent.


“In 1998, he was awarded the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Post-Graduate Scholarship to study Business and Computer Education at the University of Toledo, Ohio, United States of America and graduated with a B.Ed. and M.Ed. in 1990 and was awarded Magna Cum Laude academic honour. He was also admitted into the Phi Kappa Phi academic society for outstanding performance”.


 He is the Senator representing Borno South senatorial district since 2011. He is presently the Chief Whip of the 10th Senate.


Endowed with what is unarguably a high sense of humour, Ndume, as guest on Arise Television some days ago, made a smile-inducing joke, when he chided the anchors to interview, rather than interrogate him. That line defined the convivial nature that engulfed his appearance, much more than the issues he spoke on.


But Ndume’s recent take on corruption, I call it Ndume’s parable of corruption, as reported in the media, appears more like an interrogation of our nation’s leadership and followership ethos, rather than a mere senatorial quibble of pedestrian import. 


It illuminates the mindset of our political elites and opens up for us, the on-lookers, an understanding, of why the King Must Dance Naked.


Interestingly, Fred Agbeyegbe’s Play, The King Must Dance Naked, is described as a Play that ‘explores the intricate relationship between the gods and society, as well as the contemporary issues such as leadership ineptitude. It’s a Play that looks at culture, tradition, leadership, and how all those things intersect’.


So, Ndume’s parable imputes, quite ingeniously, a cultural and traditional matrix into the philosophy of Nigerian corruption.


He is no jester. He is not drunk with political sagacity. He is not a mad man either. His intelligence is without doubt and his sanity evident in his thought process.


But street mythology opines that the drunk and the mad man often speak from deep supernatural stimulation. They speak in parables. Even though not akin to spiritual masters, their parables are often understood in the unsaid.


So what exactly did Ndume say?


That he would not support death penalty for corrupt politicians.


That corruption, within Nigerian politics, is primarily influenced by individuals.


That such corruption may not necessitate severe consequences.


That even though politicians engage in corruption, they also distribute resources to the public.


“If you compare us, politicians, to all the corruption, it is very small. Our corruption is people-driven.


If you steal it, you will go and share it with the people. If you don’t, you are not coming back for four years. There is no reason for stealing.


I have been to the National Assembly, I can’t say because we are on TV now I will not tell the truth.


If death penalty is supposed to be included in corruption, I will support it but you don’t go and kill someone that stole one million or one billion, no. But someone who steals one trillion of government money should be killed”


So, Ndume, a political deity, scion of the school of political longevity, has spoken to us in edified eloquence and sartorial parables. What you decipher becomes your own understanding.


Nevertheless, he has unequivocally told us that, the drug peddler or fake pharmaceutical manufacturers, kill us much more, than the deficit of hospitals, health centers, roads, power and critical infrastructure, occasioned by the mere stealing’s of millions and billions.


Thanks to Ndume, we now know that corruption in millions and billions must remain a staple of Edikan Ikong delicacy, on the political and leadership menu of our political elites.


It is not going away, he says. As long as there are Nigerian people, so long will corruption remain, he maintains. As long as the people allow the Calabaric scent leaves of the Edikan Ikong soup, rolled in varying palm balls, down their esophagus, so long must corruption stay.


Ndume, has without writing a book, rewrote the Achebian school of thought, which holds leadership as the bane of our country. Achebe must be smiling from heaven, knowing he lacks the right of reply nature has taken from him. Well, maybe not a smile, but a frown of pain and some fear. 


He knows that the Nigerian people have eaten sour grapes thinking it was Edikan Ikong. Our teeth has been set on edge and our tongues frozen in time.


So, candidly, Ndume’s parables are truth, nothing but the truth, to the spirit of our nationhood.


Ndume’s parable of corruption, or call it theory, if you like, does not only qualify, but must sit atop any doctoral investigation, that seeks to explore why the Nigerian people remain docile, in the face of so much pain, suffering and anguish.


Thank you Senator Ali Ndume. God bless you.



Silas, a seasoned journalist is the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of The Plenary, www.plenary.com.ng, an online newspaper with a niche for the legislature