- These violent delights, have violent ends ~ William Shakespeare
The title character and tragic hero in one of Christopher Marlowe’s classics, Doctor Faustus, a Doctor of Divinity, weary of academic studies, and swollen by self-conceit, was driven into necromancy, one of the forbidden arts. Soon, his waxen wings mounted above his reach, and the Heavens conspired his overthrow, for falling to a devilish scheme.
He reminds us of Lucifer, who once attempted to exalt his throne above the stars of God, sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, ascend above the heights of the clouds and become like the Most High. The story of Doctor Faustus exemplifies the end of all those with unchecked ambition.
The tale of characters who met their doom as a result of pride and unbridled hunger for power abounds in history; Lucifer once walked amidst the stones of fire; there were only few things Napoleon Bonaparte could not do; Adolph Hitler perpetrated the holocaust, killing at least six million Jews, and soon began a propaganda, proclaiming the German race superior to other races in the world; pride and ambition destroyed them all.
Philip Shaibu, an unstable son of demonstration, decided to rare his head in a last desperate attempt to salvage his fall from grace, by throwing the state into chaos. Like other exemplary villains, he is keen, by whatever preternatural drive, or the ever present human hubris, on destroying whatever might be left, if any, of his dwindling reputation. A sad socio-political end for one once exalted.
One would have expected him to have learned by experience, the astute and dogged nature of his former boss. Governor Godwin Obaseki is an anvil that has worn out many hammers. This does not stem from the position he assumes as Governor, but his genuine interest and commitment to the state and its people, and as such, has garnered to himself good will and support from across all strata of the state.
Like Icarus, Shaibu flew too near the Sun, and his melted wings crashed him into the sea; now like a drowning man, he has nothing but straws to clutch at. Mayhem and violence have been co-opted as weapons into his arsenal and warmongering.
The sporadic shootings at the city center yesterday which halted commercial activities and left many injured, are a testament to his viciousness. The perceived end of his political career has unleashed the beast within. Shaibu and his APC cronies would see the state burn if they can rule over the ashes. That is the height of their desperation.
Everything now seems over for the APC as their last desperate attempt to create chaos and panic among the electorate has been met with vehement resistance. With the reality of an impending and inevitable defeat staring them in the face, they have recruited the former Deputy Governor to destabilize the political space, on the wings of a court verdict which has been appealed and for which a stay of execution order has been filed.
Shaibu’s political interest cannot override or supersede that of the majority, neither is it worth more than the lives of the people. He is not the first to be denied a party’s gubernatorial candidate or the first to be impeached as a Deputy Governor. Resorting to mayhem in driving his political agenda is a joke taken too far. Edo people can now see firsthand, what Philip Shaibu, Monday Okpebholo and the APC have in store for them, should they be voted into power. Asue Ighodalo of the PDP remains the only viable choice.
This do-or-die politics is alien to Edo and its political culture, and Shaibu cannot be allowed to enthrone it. While he revels in the pleasures of his own vices, which may come at higher moral prices, he should keep in view, the words of William Shakespeare, that “These violent delights, have violent ends.”
