The monkey and the baboon are cousins. They belong to the family of mammals called primates alongside with their bigger and more intelligent relations like chimpanzee, gorilla and even, man. The Nigerian popular saying that “monkey dey work, baboon dey chop” speaks of a special relationship of denial and comradeship between the two, which it appears no other member of the family is involved.
I can only imagine a similar relationship shared between wives and concubines. They also contradict and complement each other while serving one imperial husband. There appears to be something intriguing about such oxymorous relationships.
Governments cultivate public-private sector partnerships in businesses and the provision of social services. In fact, since the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, governments all over the world have been obsessed with the idea of privatisation. Democracy has been subtly replaced by oligarchy. Businessmen have taken over the reins of state power. Reasons given to the poor who feel shortchanged by the forceful takeover of their assets is Businessmen are better managers of men and resources. You wouldn’t know which one dey work or which one dey chop between people in the public or private sector. The important thing is that there are as many contradictions in such contraptions as there are complementarities.
Just while you thought that the monkey and the baboon could only work and chop in businesses, government positions and infrastructures, you are rudely reminded that what really matters today is brute force. We are living in the shadows of violent conflicts. Our world is completely shrouded in militarism. No other time in human history has the hobbesian idea of survival of the fittest been more palpable. Everything is obtained by force, and businessmen–politicians and violent warriors are like monkeys and baboons, working out deals to achieve their goals.
Two faces appeared so prominent on social media in the past three weeks or so, to illustrate this phenomenon. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a 62 year old Russian Chef and restaurateur who leads a 50,000 strong militia, a mercenary group engaged by the Putin’s government to fight for Russia against Ukraine, almost staged a coup to takeover power in Russia. Most of us were knowing for the first time that even nations with strong military force and nuclear capability could be so vulnerable as to engage a private ragtag army to help prosecute a war. And to imagine that most of the troops in Prigozhin’s army, Wagner, were convicted criminals recruited directly from Russian prisons, gives you the chilling picture of how far government goes to legitimize evil even when it preaches righteousness. This is classic monkey and baboon scenario; public army versus private militia funded from one source; contradicting and complementing each other. I guess that complaints of individual soldiers from either side could always be in the typical Nigerian aphorism, monkey dey work, baboon dey chop.
Then back home in Nigeria, a certain militia commander, Alhaji Asari Dokubo, is emboldened and comes out publicly to say what only a government funded warlord could say. Like Prigozhin, Dokubo accuses our country’s military Generals of complicity in oil theft and ineptitude. He brandishes an AK 47 publicly in a widely circulated video, threatens to deal ruthlessly with some Nigerian tribesmen who contemplate agitations for self rule.
The rhetoric of violence has successfully taken roots in moral, religious, political and diplomatic discourses across the world. It appears nothing good comes out of Nigerian politicians these days except through violence or the threat of it. Or how else could a self acclaimed general of a village cult group be so confident as to talk down on other compatriots shortly after conferring with the highest leadership in the land? Which other bloody civilian could disparage our country’s military and go scot free?
We are watching helplessly the exploits of someone whose ragtag army has been selected over and above our country’s military and given a contract to protect oil pipelines and the maritime industry. Asari Dokubo is so proud of his prowess and the seeming replacement of the Nigerian armed forces with his private armed militia, an arrangement, he boasts was contrived by President Buhari himself.
By sharing their coercive powers with lawless militia bandits, our leaders may seem to enjoy a temporary respite, but our society is steadily and surely degenerating into the abyss of anarchy. Only God can save us.
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The OPINION / COLUMN is authored by independent contributors to the National Accord Newspaper. While contributors adhere to our editorial guidelines, they are not employed by the National Accord Newspaper. The perspectives and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Accord Newspaper or its staff.
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