Nothing could be sadder than watching the video of a supposed Senator in a sex romp with two young girls which went viral yesterday, another expose from Sahara Reporters - the new 'deadly' sheriff in town. The other day, it was about the multi-million Naira American mansion of the governor of Zamfara State, one of the poorest states in Nigeria. Like the or not, SR is checking impunity among Nigerian leaders even if their methods are unorthodox, abrasive and sometimes unfairly injurious.
The watery argument that private lives of our leaders shouldn't be microscopically scrutinized doesn't hold water as far as I'm concerned. A leader's political functionality is largely shaped by his moral make-up and his respect for public office could be measured by his respect for his dignity, his family, and his 'role model' social status. There's more than a fair chance that a randy 'lover boy' will always make a randy leader. Ability to be in full control of our libidinal responses says a lot about our discipline and morality.
I don't know Senator Bukar Abba Ibrahim close enough to make a fair comparison to determine if he was the man in the leaked video or not. However, going by an overwhelming consensus in the social media to that effect, there's more than a fair chance that the video is authentic enough to generate public concern.
Of course, leaders are not supposed to be perfect or infallible but, they should be above board because they are the yardstick being used to measure the functionality of the society. That may explain why President Buhari, at 72, was dragged out of retirement and conscripted to run for the presidency where he floored younger and more energetic men like GEJ and Kwankwaso. Where they had enormous war chests to negotiate their candidature, he had an enormous moral chest to match it or even match over it.
The question of morality in the context of leadership and societal building is non-negotiable. Perhaps, that may explain why Bill Clinton, one of the best to ever to occupy the Oval Office had a rough time when a similar lecherous behavior in his past came back to haunt him. During the Monica Lewinsky saga many people, particularly this part of the world, tried but failed to see a problem between Clinton's "executive quickie' with an intern as Governor of Arkansas and his enviable success as the President of the US. They failed because they pushed the question of morality down the ladder of the scale of assessment. The Americans weren't that careless with issues of morality.[video_link align="right"]62065[/video_link]
Whereas in Nigeria the randiness of a senator or even a President may easily be overlooked, ignored or forgiven, in America and most of the advanced worlds such 'minor offenses' are treated as an unforgivable felony. And that's why a game changer like Clinton will be condemned and impeached for "as little" as a quickie while Nigeria not only laughed over an Obasanjo but allowed him the privilege of (s)electing his successor and installing close to all governors despite his unmatched record of lewdness which includes an unprecedented lawsuit with his son for sleeping with his wife. To prove our national numbness to morality, Obasanjo is still a force to reckon within our scheme of things. In case you missed it, that's why USA is great while Nigeria remains perpetually missing in the hall of greatness.
Should it matter if it was Sahara Reporters that leaked the video? No, it shouldn't unless we want to be clever by half. Sahara Reporters built its name and followership by excelling in exposing this kind of scoop. We shouldn't expect it to change its style because the people involved are those we don't want to have in the hall of scandal. Besides, when you have dogs snooping around in your neighborhood and you carelessly left your juicy bones outside, should we blame the dogs for eating the bones or chastise you being carelessly stupid?
Did SR hypnotize the Senator to disregard his family, his status and his office to behave irresponsibly? Or, did SR dragged him into the seedy hotel room and put a gun to his head to have a sex binge with young girls who were, most probably, induced by the aura of his office and the potential benefits accruable from the misadventure? Why shouldn't SR snoop when they are in the snooping business? Why should we be more worried about those who snoop more than those who do things they don't want to be caught doing? Please give me a break!
In a saner clime, by now we will be talking about a replacement for the Senator. For God sake, this is a two-term governor, a serving senator married to a serving minister, if this experience and enormous exposure to public responsibility could not shape his morality to match what's required for moral development; a key ingredient for societal development, why should we gamble our chances with him.
Now, we are talking about an insensitive hike in university tuition fees and these are the people that should slug it out with the authorities and seek for alternative means of financing the decay in the education sector. Are we supposed to rely on randy leaders who will benefit from the inability of young girls like those shown in the video, who may be forced into prostitution to finance their ways through university, to find succor to parents and students?
It's a known fact that most Nigerian universities today are less than 'red light districts' where sex is traded openly. With most Nigerians battling to make ends meet, one could make a fair guess as to who constitute most of the customers at this "red light zones". With behaviors like this from our senators, it's fair to assume this sad situation would be around for a long time to come. No, we shouldn't be this dumb! If nothing, we should at least try to separate the lambs from the wolves.