There is a saying bequeathed to mankind by the Greek
physician/philosopher, Sextus Empiricus, who lived in Alexandria and Athens in
the 3rd Century. It goes thus: "Th
e mills of the gods grind slowly, but
they grind exceedingly fine."
What does this mean in everyday language? Justice may be slow, but it
will come eventually. And for those who pray, it also means that God may not
answer your petition immediately you make it, but He will eventually respond-at
His own time. The vision is for an appointed time, and it will not delay. But
if it tarries, wait for it. For it will surely come. The priest who shouts at
God is being unnecessarily impatient and petulant. God will do what He will
do-at His own time.
From the human perspective, Empiricus may have had President Muhammadu
Buhari in mind, when he coined the saying about the mills of the gods. With our
President, there is no rush on some issues, if they demand temporizing and
being painstaking. The mills of the gods must be allowed to grind, if slowly,
but exceedingly finely.
From his time as military leader, Nigerians who were of age then would
recall that the then Major General Buhari often said; "this administration
will not be rushed..." And truly, for the 20 months that the regime
lasted, things were done with calm sure-footedness, and not at the dizzying
speed that some people would have wanted. Easy does it. They stumble that run
too fast. "Patience is the companion of wisdom," according to Saint
Augustine, the cleric.
And did the regime succeed? It did. It was on the road to forging a new
Nigeria, where probity, accountability and discipline reign supreme, before a
spanner was thrown in the works. Fifth columnists struck, and aborted our march
to Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Buhari was in limbo for many years. But in 2015, majority of Nigerians
remembered what he had brought on the table between January 1984 and August
1985. So, overwhelmingly, they voted for him. And today, he is President.
Yes, President Buhari has changed in many ways. He was an autocrat, now
he is a democrat. Then, he adjudged you guilty, slammed you in Kirikiri
prisons, and asked you to prove your innocence. Today, if he suspects that you
are corrupt, he does nothing to you, till he can prove that you are guilty.
That is the way of democracy.
But something fundamental has not changed in the man's style. The mills
of the gods still grind slowly. There are some decisions President Buhari will
not take in a hurry. He will chew on the matter, digest it properly, and then
come out with his position. There is no stampeding him, no setting of fire to
his heels. The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly
finely.
On Monday, this week, the Engr Babachir David Lawal and Amb. Ayo Oke saga
came to a denouement. The duo had been accused of some unsavoury acts, and sent
on suspension in April, this year. A panel was constituted to look into the
allegations against them, with a two weeks time frame.
A day before the report of the panel was to be submitted, President
Buhari had to travel abroad on the second leg of a medical vacation. He was
away till August 19.
In this period, some impatient Nigerians were totally restive. They even
besieged the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, urging him to act on the report
of the panel. They wanted to turn the man into jury and judge, discountenancing
the fact that he had chaired the panel that conducted the probe.
When President Buhari mercifully returned on August 19, his plane had
barely touched down, when the impatient people began to ask for the report of
the Osinbajo panel. "The two most powerful warriors are patience and
time," wrote Leo Tolstoy. But such people would have none of it. They
called for an immediate decision on the lingering saga.
On August 23, VP Osinbajo submitted the report, in six hefty volumes. Of
course, there was an executive summary, as best practices would demand. And the
noise continued from some quarters. We want action on the submitted report, and
we want it NOW. They forget that "patience is not simply the ability to
wait, it's how we behave while we are waiting" (says the preacher, Joyce
Meyer). And they also forget the mills of the gods, which grind slowly, but
exceedingly finely.
They went forward to accuse the President of treating Nigerians with
contempt. With scorn. Derision. Flippancy. Levity. They would rather justice
had been miscarried, as long as the urge for blood was satiated. They would
rather the President had played to the gallery, swinging the sword and
decapitating everyone in sight, not minding whether they were innocent or
guilty. Such people were like the mob in Julius Caesar, the work by William
Shakespeare. They met Cinna the poet on the way, and accused him of being Cinna
the conspirator, one of those who had murdered the emperor. Cinna explained
that he was a poet, but they would not listen. They screamed: whether you are
Cinna the poet, or Cinna the conspirator, Cinna is Cinna. You are a sinner, and
must die. They killed him. And to justify the evil act, they rationalized that
he was a poet that wrote bad verses. Good grief!
President Buhari took his time. If you know the man, he must have gone
through the six bulky reports with a magnifying glass, a fine tooth-comb..
Better that 100 criminals escape, than kill a single innocent man unjustly..
And finally, on Monday "come finally comes to become"
(apologies to the late K.O Mbadiwe). The President communicated his decision to
the country, which was acceptance of the recommendation to terminate the
appointments of the two men who had been investigated. A large number of Nigerians
were relieved that a closure was being put to the saga. But trust those who had
murmured and grumbled. They refused to be pacified. They are the type that when
you answer their niggling question successfully, they change the question
again.
They came with many other queries: should the matter have taken so long?
Was the matter not to be swept under the carpet, if we had not raised hell? Why
were the two men not summarily handed over to the security agencies for
prosecution? But if the President had taken the last option, and had directed
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to pull in the two men,
they would have said: Enhen, we always said it. He was tele guiding the EFCC
from behind all these while. Now he has shown his hands. The hand of Jacob, and
the voice of Esau.
Head or tail, you can never win with some Nigerians. If you don't have
your bath, they say you are a ruffian, and you stink. If you have your bath too
frequently, they say you love the opposite sex too much. No wonder some people
say public service is a thankless job. If only we would change our mindsets,
and also change our conduct.
But some people forget. Early in the days of this administration,
President Buhari had told them: "Some people call me 'Baba Go Slow.' I
will be slow, but I will be steady." Isn't there eternal truth again in
the saying that slow and steady wins the race?
There are some matters that require speed. They should be treated
expeditiously. No doubt. There are some others in which you could sacrifice fairness
and justice on the altar of speed. When you have such, it is better to err on
the side of caution. It is better to lay all the cards on the table, consider
all the sides of the coin. Such was the Babachir/Oke saga. They were men who
had served the President faithfully, from what one could see. He dare not be
precipitate in determining their destinies. Fair is fair, and foul is foul.
Talking again of the mills of the gods. The National Executive Committee
(NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) held at the party's
secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday. I was there. The atmosphere was friendly,
almost convivial. At a point, someone moved a motion of confidence in the
Buhari administration. The seconder, a former state governor, added to the motion,
seeking an endorsement of the President as candidate for second term in 2019.
As he raised the motion, I saw the President gesturing, with his two palms
downwards. The gesture meant, please, cool down, not now. This is premature.
And the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, weighed in, accepting the
motion of confidence, and deferring the one on automatic candidacy. Everyone
was satisfied.
You can imagine my consternation the next day, when I saw the newspaper
headlines. It was as if some of them were reporting a meeting held in outer
space. They said a bid by governors to get automatic ticket for the President
had failed. One newspaper exulted: "Govs' bid to get automatic 2019 ticket
for Buhari fails.' Pure fiction. Concocted story. It never happened the way the
newspaper had conjured.. And it was the President himself who had dissuaded
those who made the move, by his gesture. Hate news seems to have crept into the
polity, and otherwise credible newspapers have eaten the forbidden apple.
Well, we were talking about the need for patience. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
says "Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." And Robert
Schuller adds: "Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will
come." That is where I pitch my tent. Under President Buhari, for Nigeria,
the storm will pass (and is, indeed, passing), and the spring will come. The
mills of the gods grind slowly, but exceedingly finely.
I believe. What about you?
..Adesina is Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President
Muhammadu Buhari
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