By Sonny Ogulewe
“Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much, such men are dangerous… he reads too much, he is a great observer, and looks quite through the deeds of men…” William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar – 1599
Prof Chidi Odinkalu squarely fits into the character Shakespeare tried to create. Sometime in winter 2022, I was on Air Peace flight from Abuja to Owerri with him. That was actually the closest encounter I have had with him having admired him from a distance over the years particularly when he was the Chairman of Nigeria Human Rights Commission.
Prof Odinkalu is a lawyer and a Professor of Practice in International Human Rights at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He is unarguably erudite and a repository of Nigerian judicial history and precedence. He exudes unassailable audacity in pursuit of his convictions and epitomizes in the truest sense what one could refer to as the conscience of the bewildered citizens.
He does not suffer fools gladly, neither does he crave for patronage like some Nigerian “critics” who appear to fight government just to find accommodation. He simply mirrors our collective frustrations and holds those in authority accountable on our behalf and he does this with intellectual finesse.
During the 55-minute flight, I had a closer look at the man Prof Odinkalu. He was wearing a short-sleeve shirt on a pair of jeans. He had a sweater loosely wrapped around his neck and wore a simple sports footwear. He was holding a book in his hands in which he buried his face throughout the flight only to occasionally exchange greetings with few passengers.
I overheard him telling one passenger that he was going to visit a relative at his village. I saw a man very contented whose needs are obviously minimal. I saw a man very conscious of the verdict of posterity and the inviolability of a legacy of honour. I saw a man who understands life and its vanities and conscious of eternal destination. I saw a man very natural and with no pretenses about his relationship with God. And of course, I saw a man who has nothing to lose in a fight for what he believes in. My conclusion was that Prof Chidi Odinkalu is a dangerous man.
Conversely, Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, is simply a Nigerian with basic legal learning and who has been shot into relevance by circumstances of a degenerate political process. He is immutably conflicted and sometimes ignorant of the latent consequences of his acts; unapologetically proud, loquacious and pugnacious; covets power and profusely obsessed by its perks.
He glamorizes his indulgence to conspicuous primitive accumulation and consumption, which Odinkalu perceives as gluttony. He essentially mirrors archetypal Nigerian politician who is naturally contemptuous of the poor and the weak. In sane climes such bestiality is socially contemptible and perceived as deviance, but in Nigeria it is tolerable and protected by the State.
Recently, these two Nigerians, Wike and Prof. Odinkalu, engaged each other in the public space and Nigerians feasted on the hidden putrid indulgences of the people in power. Remarkably, it was a humbling experience for a man like Wike who believes he is untouchable.
There are equally lessons to be learnt and this brings me to the significance of the immutable words of William Shakespeare. If Wike had read Shakespeare’s Julius Cesar, perhaps he wouldn’t have taken on Prof Odinkalu. Rather, he would have smelt the coffee.
Only few “dangerous” mortals like Odinkalu would have the audacity to call Wike a “greedy glutton with gluttonous lips clasped around Nigeria’s feeding bottle” and escape the wrath of his hoard of vuvuzelas. It is a great lesson. Never fight a man who has nothing to lose.
Prof. Odinkalu has nothing to lose and the CJN unlike Wike understands this well. He is at peace with himself, contented with his modest accomplishments, relishes his integrity and certain of his place of honour in history.
Listen, never fight such a man. If Shakespeare were to be alive today, he would have warned Nyesom Wike “your wisdom is consumed in confidence.”
- Sonny Ogulewe Ph.D, wrote in from Abuja
