…the way the EFCC can prove its impartiality about Fayose is to play the game strictly on the turf of the blindfolded lady, not prompted by its principal, whose toes seem most bruised by Fayose.
After a long and insufferably patient wait for the exit of erstwhile Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, and the attendant shredding of his immunity garment to pave way for his prosecution for alleged financial misconduct, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is moving in to prey on the disrobed politician. It’s been a seemingly interminable watch for Fayose’s departure, preceded by much shadow boxing that witnessed a death-wish, calls for impeachment, closure of state accounts, X-rated verbal exchange and an entire range of unwholesome exhibition of a beastly nature.
Now, the days of the vulture are here. This creature is a patient one. It is a cunning bird. It hovers above the fatally failing animal, knowing it will die, come what may. The vulture does not prey to kill; nor does it hasten the death of the dying. The vulture is carnivorous. But strangely it wouldn’t fight for its prize. It waits for the hour of death to have its feast. Its best meal is the carcass, either of man or beast. Its strength is patience, waiting for another denizen of the jungle to kill. It then comes down to deal with the leftover.
James Hadley Chase wrote a classic in 1969 with the title The Vulture Is a Patient Bird. It’s a tale of four persons in pursuit of a famous ring in the possession of a wealthy, unscrupulous and reclusive art felon living somewhere in South Africa. The quartet, three vicious criminals and an American seductress, head for the heavily fortified abode of the art collector. He is guarded by a wild fully-grown cheetah and fierce Zulu warriors.
He plays the vulture, waiting for the jewel-seekers to fall into his trap for the final kill. The story is in the suspense. The thieving foursome are unaware their prey is aware of their expedition. But their target, unruffled, isn’t even attempting to block them or look for escape. Rather, he gives them a huge slice of his twisted armour of humour.
Are there similarities between art and nature, between fiction and reality, between Chase’s human vulture and EFCC that has come to the end of the waiting game? Both have waited for each other, Fayose to answer charges of graft, and EFCC to swoop on a carcass, as it were.
A Fayose stripped bare of the shield of immunity looks easy meal for an agency of the government he had derided and hammered without mercy. Now, he can be handled ‘mercilessly’ the way it has been with Dasuki Sambo, El Zak Zaky and Nnamdi Kanu. The Nigerian system allows, even if unconstitutionally, the derogation of the inalienable rights of citizens or groups perceived to be opposed to the sitting government. It is the reign of a regime where heads of otherwise independent agencies of the executive may flagrantly display their political stand by wearing campaign totems of the president. So why would such a body not turn into the vulture waiting for the ‘death’ of the enemy of its principal? If it can’t hasten his exit, he surely knows the chief ‘virtue’ of a predator called the vulture: patience.
Some would say Fayose deserves whatever raw deal comes his way at the hand of EFCC, in view of his own ‘merciless’ treatment of President Muhammadu Buhari, notably over his health challenges and medical trips to London. Others would say Fayose should indeed be punished for the travails he subjected the people of Ekiti to on the matter of non-payment of salaries of the civil servants.
Why must he be spared the penalty if he has truly operated contrary to the law and a fair trial not influenced by the whims and caprices of the federal government? The veiled lady is always there to dispense justice, no matter how long it takes. It is the reason World War II criminals are still being hunted for prosecution.
It would have been naïve for Fayose to assume all would be over the day after his farewell motions last week. He has stepped on a thousand and one toes which are grieving. They wouldn’t be placated until they see him land in jail, through the courts or otherwise.
But the way the EFCC can prove its impartiality about Fayose is to play the game strictly on the turf of the blindfolded lady, not prompted by its principal, whose toes seem most bruised by Fayose.
More captives will fall at the feet of the Commission as 2019 promises to displace more of those on its watch-list. The vulture is flying above them, knowing they will be stripped naked for it to swoop on them.
The vulture is a patient bird. Its sufferance has always sufficed to sustain its bald head.
Banji Ojewale writes from Ota, Ogun State.
