I used the phrase division of labour to characterise what is blowing into a crisis in the Labour Party where the mercurial Doyin Okupe, the candidate’s director general, is sparring with a faction of the party. The bone of contention is that no one knows who is the greedy dog. Okupe says he is innocent. Others say he cracked a femur. They want to extract his molars and incisors. I had tweeted that this was a division of labour. More importantly, it counters the LP candidate’s assertion of the dignity of labour. It does not dignify labour to scramble for leftovers.
In these days when some contrarian persons are demonising the so-called Muslim-Muslim ticket and are saying Christians loathe an anti-Christian ticket, they are all welcoming the LP man to church conventions with applause. What point are the big bishops and pastors making? That we should privilege Christians over the Muslims and other non-Christians? Do these men know their Bible? Is it their version of the crusades and holy war?
In churches, they herald him like the Nigerian version of Jesus Christ the super star.
It would have made sense if the LP man can go to imams and also attend mosques and allow them to worship with him. He will then be a hypocrite in public, not only in private, for campaigning in both church and mosque. He is not interested in such dilemma. He would rather craft a platform of bigots than pretend a cooperative ethos.
Have they taken the time to ask questions about whether this man is a true Christian or if he wants to, in the words of Apostle Peter, make merchandise of them? Did they ask whether he divided Catholics against Anglicans when he was governor? Did they ask whether he ever attended Pentecostal conventions when he was not looking for their votes? Are they pretending he is not campaigning in the guise of shouting hallelujah in their churches? Are they hearing the voice of the holy spirit around his bended knees on their altars?
Why has he suddenly become a man who moves from house of God to house of God. He is campaigning, or is it the bishops and priests themselves that are campaigning vicariously through him?
Is this not a Christianisation agenda of Nigeria that the LP man is fronting? What does he want the Muslims to think, or even the discerning Christians who have seen through him and the political clerics who desecrate their suits of worship? Did he not attend the church of a bishop who once said they should vote their faith against the electoral law?
The LP candidate is probably like some of the bishops who have not answered, like the candidate, why he has offshore accounts in his name with his children’s names as well? Why will the LP candidate not be accepted as a kindred spirit among such men of God?
This is actually the division of labour. In a smaller script, it is a division of labour within the LP. In the wider canvas, it is the division of labour in which Christians are on one side and Muslims and other non-Christians are on another side. This is an ominous, self-conscious division of the country by these clerics.
If they know the Bible, they would know that James in the Bible frowns against special treatment to people who come in their midst. They do so to governors, presidents and others as though it is a political ground. According to the Bible, we are all one and equal in Christ Jesus. Did Jesus not say the servant is not greater than the master and the master is not greater than the servant. The Bible says let the wheat and the tares dwell together, not choke each other. They preach disharmony in the society in the name of growing their flocks. Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world? Did they see that text? They know the text but deny the context. This is an age of Pharisees and false prophets.
Part of the division of labour is when he inspires otherwise intelligent men and women of the east who know him well but would rather forget their intelligence and deny what they know about the LP candidate. They inspire the Yoruba adage, Omo wa ni. Eje ‘ose. (He is our son, let him get it.) They cannot write one full-page essay on his time as governor and even give themselves a pass mark. It is an ethnic division of labour.
NB: Sam Omtseye is a respected columnist with the Nation Newspaper
