The masterpieces of memory

The mind of the child

A child’s mind is like a canvas where the genius of life dabs the paintbrushes of events in the paints of personal experiences and circumstances to create the masterpieces of memory.

Memories keep flooding in as if they all happened yesterday, the smells are pervasive, the colours are vivid and the sounds are loud enough for you to turn your head in reaction to the calling of your name.

Amazingly, our parents in their assumption that they were shielding us from the evils and negatives of life must really have thought our brains worked on the shortest-term memory, like iron to magnets we were suddenly attracted to the event and then removed so suddenly, just as iron appears to lose its magnetisation when removed from the magnetic field.

Nobody told them about magnetic remanence, the ability for an object to retain elements of magnetisation after the external magnetic field has been removed - children retain just enough information to form an experience they may not yet understand or appreciate until later in life.

Yes, the kids do see it all, feel it all, hear it all and somehow, remember almost too much.

Told to go home

I have been called a coconut before and then, it was not the derogatory term for being brown on the outside and white on the inside – I slept on the same bed as my mother when she was nursing my kid-sister and I always seemed to end up on the floor.

How I came to no harm as I fell out of the bed each night, like a coconut, she said; I cannot tell, but maybe the suppleness of childhood makes the damage less significant than if I were older.

At that time too, my mother was lecturer at the Kaduna Polytechnic when my father had moved to Jos to start his new job at the Amalgamated Tin Mines of Nigeria.

We had neighbours whose kids played with me during the days, but later in life I realised that people also had hard times then – it was quite interesting to note that when they were about to gather round their table to eat I was told point blank by their mother – Now, go home we are about to eat.

My mother sometimes laughed at me and made jest of the fact that I was chased away when they were about to eat, it contrasted sharply with the kind of hospitality I was used to where friends of the child were invited to partake in meals – we had to refuse because our parents made it a taboo to eat anything away from home – when we were tempted and succumbed, we saw heaven and hell on the same day.

From Kaduna to Jos

One other memory that is etched in my mind was when we went to visit my father from Kaduna, his good friend drove us there, a good 170 or so kilometres when the roads were almost impassable – we came to one bridge, more like a ford it was; I could have sworn the bridge moved as it seemed to be made of cloth that swung in the current of the river.

Somehow, the return journey was now eventful enough to remember anything special, other events in life had brush-stroked over seemingly inconsequential events even though every second, every minute, every hour, every day and every year had been lived through with the passing of time.

I once had a van run over my foot and that was painful but when I saw a car run over my mother’s shin, I probably felt as much pain – as a child, there are just some events that are indelibly etched in my your memory, ready to surface at the most inopportune time – how it is that life is a long story that sometimes never gets told.

Nigeria: The plight of unpaid but working Nigerians

Unpaid in employment

This issue has been on my mind for months but I have never really been sure of how to approach the issue as a topic for analysis and serious debate.

A conversation I had yesterday presented a framework on which to hang the views I have on this matter.

I just conducted a search on Google for “unpaid workers in Nigeria” and “unpaid salaries in Nigeria” and the results read like an atrocious abuse of the workforce that have been browbeaten and enslaved into situations they probably cannot think themselves out of.

The list of organisations that have defaulted in what should be a standard binding contract that has moral implications, humanitarian concerns, the serious responsibilities that have been shirked to the point that it should be considered criminal conduct is appalling.

Offenders everywhere

In April the staff of Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTEL) were on strike on the issue of not being paid for 5 months [1], The Nigerian Football Association was owing a backlog for a Nigerian coach running back almost 6 years [2] before the arrears were cleared a few months ago.

Workers at Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited had not been paid for 6 months [3], basically, this abuse pervades all areas of business endeavour in the public, private and unregulated sectors of the Nigerian economy.

I do wonder how any business can thrive if the fundamental worker incentive of getting paid is not there, workers have to endure months to years of hope and despair, unsure of how to make ends meet as they travel to work each day unsure of if they would be kicked out unto the streets on the sudden collapse of their company and without recourse for just recompense.

Employer – employee disconnect

There may be the issue of companies that have not sorted out the billing and collection aspects of the organisation before embarking on any venture who having engaged in a contractual arrangement cannot even trust the paper on which the contract is written because business owners lack requisite honour and integrity to be trusted to do what is right.

There seems to be a disconnect before the needs for a business to continue as a viable concern and the need to maintain and improve the productivity of the staff to make the organisation even more profitable and efficient.

Imagine being a patient about to undergo a serious operation in a hospital where the doctors, the surgeons and the nurses have not been paid for months and consider the risk at which a life has been placed in the care of utterly demotivated people - this scenario should be easy to extrapolate to other business organisations.

Legislate for the right to get paid – on time

There is no reason for organisations in the public sector in an oil-rich economy like Nigeria’s to delay the prompt and efficient payment of salaries to their staff.

In the private sector, there has to be a requirement introduced to ensure that funds are available to cater for the staff they take on and where that pool of funds diminishes a commensurate realignment of priorities has to be implemented to cater for properly compensated lay-offs and properly remunerated packages for those retained.

It is time to stop this practice of keeping the faith for miracle payments that might come at some bye-and-bye future date – companies that cannot pay for services should not engage those services.

Long-suffering or stupid

One can say Nigerians are long-suffering in one sense and probably stupid in another, they are held hostage on a hope for change which does not have a term except that of continually unfulfilled promises to the extent that employers even brazenly to think they are doing their employees a favour, by having them work for free for ages without any clear prospect of when they would be paid.

Workers themselves seem to be willing and resigned to accepting this situation without question, they are numbed into compliance by numbers and under the threat that their are others who would even probably pay to be employed.

It is criminal, whatever way you look at it, that this business attitude thrives with impunity and there is no recourse for serious punitive sanctions on the owners of those businesses.

One wonders if an employee eventually finds employment elsewhere where the business appreciates its duty and responsibilities whether that employee would still be entitled to the accrued arrears owed by the former employer or that would be forfeited.

Politicians can afford to feel completely unconcerned about an aspect of business development that requires some inspired legislation that begins to protect the right to a salary promptly paid for work done – they have allowances and salaries unthinkable to the hapless workers who make up their electorate.

Work for lesser incentive

Unfortunately, whilst I refuse to add this issue to my Apes Obey! Series, it is evident from Lord Lugard’s assessment of Africans of Nigerian descent – “he will work hard with a less incentive than most races” and this salary arrears business takes this matter to the extreme, people are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous employers who take all the profits and leave their staff in servile bondage without pay.

The effect on society has not been measured at all, where those few who happen to have the little from getting paid suddenly take on extended family responsibilities to cater for others who still have to get to work, pay the rent, feed the family, manage their health and send their kids to school.

A man’s dilemma

Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, workers have responsibilities they cannot cater for because they are not getting paid and they have to contend with landlords, schools, doctors and other essential needs to keep body, soul and mind together.

We have reached a state where the ability to feel shame has been lost as everyone falls into debt as a means of scraping to survive – it must be a crime to employ without prompt payment and there must be sanctions that force business owners to forfeit assets to meet their responsibilities as employers.

Workers should not have to carry the blame for the mismanagement of the organisation or its funds; it should be fraudulent to have funds extracted from the organisation for other services when employers have not fulfilled their obligations.

Duty and responsibility of employers

Our society is fractured and broken because of these unconscionable activities and it is time to bring back the virtues of honour, integrity and binding contractual relationships that first define corporate social responsibility as a clear duty to employ within the means of the ability to pay.

There should be a perpetually binding requirement to pay up all arrears to existing and former employees or their named dependants before an organisation earns the respect of the markets and ratings that allow it trade without the anti-social sobriquet of employers being slave-traders in everything but name.

There should be an impartial ombudsman who monitors the corporate responsibility of firms with the power to force a delisting from the stock market, seize assets to pay up arrears, commit the principal officers to trial with sanctions that deprive them of their liberty and ultimately close the business or take it into administration with a management team that would turn things around.

At the risk of sounding socialist, we cannot pretend to be capitalist when the resources of production are press-ganged into communist sameness in the hope that feudal lords would be benevolent to the workers who have by default become slaves.

Sources

[1] allAfrica.com: Sourced from Vanguard - Nigeria: MTEL Workers Shut Down 200,000 Lines Over Unpaid Salaries

[2] BBC SPORT | Football | African | Chukwu demands unpaid salaries

[3] Daily Trust - the online edition - Ajaokuta Steel workers unpaid for six months

Apes Obey! With very little sense of veracity

The story has many more legs

When I declared that the story I wrote about in my last Apes Obey! Series probably still has legs, little did I know that it was a duo-decapod, in short, it is an octopus and a half with a possibility of growing a few more legs.

The CNN [1] must have read the whole story, seen the news interest but tried very hard to extract the information that would work with an international audience without ending up making it look like a spoof.

Much as I try to look for international and independent sources to corroborate and verify stories I read about Nigeria, in this case, the Nigerian angle of this story reads as the most incredible tale of stupidity, excess, abuse and neopatrimonialism [Refer to my last Apes Obey! blog about this].

A short history of Sam Edem

Mr. Samuel Edem was until recently the Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) [2] but was suspected and being investigated for fraudulent practices yet to be presented before a court of law. I have taken the liberty of printing to PDF [I acknowledge the source of the material from which the PDF was created to be from the NDDC website] format his corporate biography [3] from the NDDC site just in case changes in that organisation deprive us of access to this mine of information.

To go by his title, he is Ambassador Sam Edem, holds a Bachelor’s degree in French and a Masters in French Philosophy, he has at various times help two Deputy Director-General positions in the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and has held a Special Duties portfolio in the Presidency.

He was also involved in restoring diplomatic relations with Canada – I did not know our relations were that soured except probably during the Sani Abacha [4] era, a task the biography says he performed excellently.

Ambassador to all and sundry

He was once ambassador to the Republics of Senegal, Rwanda and Burundi as well as the High Commissioner to the Republic of Uganda. His diplomatic brief has included liaising or working with diplomatic corps in the Kingdom of Belgium, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the European Union and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and he voluntarily retired from service in 2003 before he was called up to head the NDDC in 2005.

He is a Fellow of the National War College which has since been renamed to the National Defence College[5] and he is supposed to have been honoured with over 200 awards, having been selective about the awards his receives which include the l'Ordre du lion du Sénégal as well as being a Friend and Patron of the Yitzhak Rabin Centre [6] in Israel.

A Christian with his name written in gold

In the words of the corporate biography which appear here verbatim – “he has brought his wealth of experience from the public service to bear and undoubtedly proven to be a quintessential administrator, a strategic planner, and a conflict manager. There, his tenure has heralded tremendous improvement in the region. Indeed, his panache at work is common knowledge and has transcended the entire commission”.

This man is well travelled having been to over a hundred countries, is the son of a pastor of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church who was also the Chairman, Nsit County Council and his mother was Deaconess of the church and a fashion designer of her time.

Ambassador Edem is a devout Christian who “with modesty, humility, diligence and discipline as his guiding principles; he has written his name in gold!”

A man of achievement, it seems

I could not write a better biography of a man in a corporate setting that reads more like sycophantic praise-singing so obsequious to the point that it could be sick-making.

That is however beside the point; it would appear that this man has an enviable biography that gives him the qualities by merit and experience to hold the brief of Chairman of the NDDC and he really had his work cut out.

But can anyone tell me after reading his biography why as a career diplomat with global experience he could not get on with his managing director that he wanted the man dead?

Recklessly burning money

Ambassador Edem engaged the services of a witch-doctor [7] who went by the name of ‘Dr.’ Perekabowei Ogah who was to ensure the death of the NDDC Managing Director, Timi Alaibe and ensure that he, Edem had a steady flow of contracts from the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio.

Ambassador Edem’s offices would have been based in Port-Harcourt and he was concerned with activities in far-away Akwa Ibom for his personal purposes.

Having agreed a contract sum of N570 million ($4.79m), N310 million ($2.60m) was first paid to ‘Dr.’ Ogah with a balance of N260 million ($2.19m), but eventually the ‘Doctor’ was paid N800 million ($6.72m) in total.

Rituals were conducted in a public cemetery and one of the more bizarre activities at the cemetery included bathing in the ashes of N270 million ($2.27m) – read that again, Ambassador Edem set fire to $2.27 million cash, gathered the ashes and had a bath in those ashes in a cemetery – even Stephen King cannot come up with a tale this twisted.

No refunds for failure

Despite this hocus-pocus activity by a devout Christian and Christianly man engaging the services of an accomplished con-man masquerading as a powerful witch doctor, Mr. Timi Alaibe the Managing Director of the NDDC did not keel over and die.

An aggrieved Ambassador Edem then sought a refund of his money and on failing to get anything back filed a complaint with the police accusing ‘Dr.’ Ogah of fraud; that is how the cat was let out of the bag and apparently, Ambassador Edem has not denied any part of the crazy, incredible and seriously amazing story.

In what I would call a first for ThisDayOnline.com a columnist has gone on to try and analyse the whole situation [7] about people employed in public service, the abuse of power, the misappropriation of public funds and the use of fetish practices to settle office squabbles.

Lord Lugard did say then, “In character and temperament, the typical African of this race-type is a happy, thriftless, excitable person; lacking in self-control, discipline, and foresight; naturally courageous, and naturally courteous and polite, full of personal vanity, with little sense of veracity, fond of music and loving weapons as an oriental loves jewellery”.

One is left with a number of questions

How does a seemingly intelligent and accomplished man get all tied up in this kind of nonsense?

Where did the man get all these sums of money considering there is no mention of his being a businessman in the biography, detail that can never be left out of a biography written in Nigeria?

Ambassador was serving a 5-year tenure representing Akwa Ibom State, if he does get removed as the Chairman of the NDDC would this position move to a candidate from the same state for the remaining 2 years of the tenure or would the candidate from Bayelsa State resume early?

With little sense of veracity

The sad tale is how the public persona of an accomplished diplomat who is considered a philanthropist, pillar of society and devout Christian is completely different from a private life of fetish and animistic rituals which defy every form of logic.

A man put in a position of great trust and responsibility, holding such high office who really is a crook, a fraud, lacking in integrity and self-serving selfish megalomaniac – a leader with very little sense of veracity – it is the most damning assessment that can be made of a distinguished career that has come to disrepute, disgrace and naught.

[1] Nigerian official accused of hiring witch doctor - CNN.com

[2] NNDC - Niger Delta Development Commission homepage

[3] The Chairman - Corporate Biography on NNDC

[4] Sani Abacha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia

[5] allAfrica.com: Sourced from Daily Trust - Nigeria: Senate Renames National War College

[6] About the Centre - The Yitzhak Rabin Centre (I cannot find any record of Ambassador Edem being either a friend or patron of the centre and only the American have formed a society of Friends of the Centre.)

[7] allAfrica.com: Sourced from This Day - Nigeria: How Sam Edem Story Mirrors the Country Tragedy

Mr. Khadim's calling card

In my post box

I got home this evening after a long weekend away only to find that Mr. Khadim had left his calling card.

Mr. Khadim happens to be bilingual, or so it seems because he had a Dutch message on top of an English notice, presumably a translation which usually would go wrong because during my sojourn in the Netherlands and in my visits to Germany and Spain, the locals never to seek the assistance of English-speakers in crafting their notices.

There have been times that I have found the notices so annoying that I have taken it upon myself to re-write the notice or even replace it before the irritation of reading the stuff leads to something as bad as unintended self-harm.

Anyway, it appears after my blog earlier today, Mr. Sam Edem might have benefitted from Mr. Khadim’s services and not wasted $4 million on a whim.

No payments for this one

Mr. Khadim’s card, reads thus:

Payment after result. May I introduce myself: I am real African, International, very quick medium. I can help you with: return of your beloved people or your lover, your carrier (sic, career, I suppose), examen (sic, examination, I suppose), chance of happiness (sic), sexual impotence, infertility or bad spirits, even when your problem is hopeless. I guarantee you a quick result.

Well, well, well

So, one does not have to pay anything until the results you seek are in, well, I am also a real African and international, I was born in England, I live in the Netherlands, so.

He can help with the return of my beloved people, the ones departed or is it, which one of my ex’s who has gone on with their lives do I want to destroy their happiness to selfishly fulfill mine?

My carrier; well, I fly KLM most of the time, and then I participate in the Sky Team Alliance [Source: Wikepedia] when KLM cannot get me there, or I do not like my couriers, they do not deliver at a place and time of my convenience.

A send-up, it is

Examinations; would that be medical examinations, like show better bloods than I have such that I am picked up for doping even though the most sport I do is walk to the elevator? Ah! He probably meant exams, if I have been studious, surely, I should have no problems with that or I see the answers to the questions on a paranormal teleprompter - now, that is real technology. Errr! is that before or after the exam?

Chance of happiness; if it is still left to chance, I would keep what I have got, I am happy enough and what I cannot sort out I seek alternatives.

Sexual impotence; it works when it is needed, I do not want to go round town like I have a permanent drip-feed of Viagra coursing my veins, as for infertility, I am not looking to have kids, if I have been shooting blanks, all well and good, don't want to hurt anyone.

Bad spirits; ensure the barman opens the bottle in front of you, I had some sherry at a bar a few years ago and well, I saw it all again a few hours later at home – how horrible.

Even when your problem is hopeless, that sounds like a proposition, but I would pass on that because the guarantee is written on such cheap paper, it would appear no one has been getting results.

Mr. Sam Edem, were you seeing Mr. Khadim?

Apes Obey! Seldom rises above pantheistic animism

Seeking development for the Niger Delta

As if there was not enough turmoil in the Nigerian Niger Delta region [1] where every little skirmish and outrageous militant operation including the damaging of pipelines [2] and kidnapping of people seems to be the accelerator pedal for global oil prices.

Somehow, it is not clear how those issues can resolved because the more the Federal Government tries to ameliorate the situation there, the more the so-called leaders seem to have an agenda inimical to improving the lives of the people they lead and represent.

In 2000, the Federal Government under General Olusegun Obasanjo (Rtd.) set up the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) [3] with the sole mandate of developing the Niger Delta region.

Squabbling as usual

The chairmanship of the organisation which usually engages a lot of Nigerian hot-air about fairness and opportunity for any position, settled down on a rotation covering the 9 oil-producing states in alphabetical order.

The second term of 5-years is now with Akwa Ibom State where a paramount leader took the opportunity 2 months ago to ask for an additional state [4] created in the South-East region for no other reason than looking for some ill-conceived parity with other Nigerian regions.

Big budget for more pickings

One has to conduct more research to determine what the NDDC has done in its about 8 years of existence, one thing we know is whatever they are doing has not lead to the abatement of criminal activity in that area.

In June, the President sent a budget of N79.4 billion to the National Assembly for the NDDC, the National Assembly consequently hiked that budget to N89.2 billion [5] – these are large sums of money.

Unfortunately, it appears the Chairman of the NDDC, Mr. Sam Edem has been pre-occupied with other activities than those for which he was employed.

He has since been suspended from his office [6] and arrested by the police for engaging black magic services.

Engaging the supernatural

Now, the Nigerian society is a very superstitious society that is held under the sway of all sorts of religious teaching and dreads best explained in Lord Lugard’s words that said, “the religious sense seldom rises above pantheistic animalism and seems more often to take the form of a vague dread of the supernatural.”

Mr. Edem evidently felt that he could harness the powers of animalism and the dread of the supernatural to deal with a subordinate that he assumed had ill-will towards him and also earn favoured status for contracts from the state governor.

Logically, one would think if a manager has a problem with his subordinate basic management training would instruct the manager to either engage the person in some conversation or institute a process to eliminate the conflict situation.

Surely, it should not in anyway involve seeking to kill the person by whatever means or for whatever reasons – any law-abiding person should also ensure such intentions are reported to the police immediately.

As for obtaining contracts from the state governor, one would think with his brief as chairman of the NDDC his hands were full, there was just too much to be done politically, socially and economically to have a business by the side.

Neopatrimonialism

In fact, I would introduce two new words I learnt today that derive from the root word – prebend [7] – defined in the Catholic Encyclopedia as “the right of a member of a chapter to his share in the revenues of the cathedral”.

In the case, of the NDDC, it is called Prebendalism [8] or more closely Neopatrimonialism [9] where “patrons using state resources in order to secure the loyalty of clients in the general population” or rather for self-enrichment.

Studies show that this undermines political institutions and the rule of law, it is almost always corrupt and probably is the reason why “African economies have failed to effect neoliberal market reforms”.

There are already too many cases of people in government organisations who have sapped its resources or used their positions for corrupt enrichment, damaging its organizational effectiveness and fuelling more corruption.

Whose folly?

As it transpired, the news has it that Mr. Sam Edem engaged the services of the witch doctor to the tune of $4 million, which raised suspicions about Mr. Edem’s means.

It all turned sour when the services the witch doctor was engaged for did not materialise as the death of the subordinate and the juicy government contracts and Mr. Edem demanded a refund.

Any fool would know that witch doctor services are not covered by any trade description act and what was to say that the people who were to come under the spell of the witch doctor had not sought other forms of protection from undue influences.

So far, Mr. Edem has not denied any of the allegations the ill will the subordinate might have had towards his manager might well have been discovering that his boss was siphoning off moneys towards illegitimate activities.

This story probably still has legs, but it cannot be so unique in Nigerian society, it is just one that has suddenly received the international spotlight.

Sources

[1] Niger Delta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[2] China Daily - Nigeria's militants claim two pipelines damaged

[3] Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[4] The Tide Online - Traditional ruler wants additional state for S’East

[5] allAfrica.com: Sourced from Daily Trust - Nigeria: Senate Hikes NDDC Budget By N10 Billion

[6] Nigerian official accused of hiring witch doctor - CNN.com

[7] Catholic Encyclopedia: Prebend

[8] Prebendalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[9] Neopatrimonialism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pursuing a cause greater than self

A voice lost to human frailty

One really important and possibly powerful voice was missing when the elections in Zimbabwe turned into a seething farce and outrageous charade, the voice of Pius Ncube.

Pius Ncube was until September 11^th 2007 the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo for just under 10 years and one of the fiercest critics of Robert Mugabe and his policies.

As a religious man with the force and authority of the Roman Catholic Church behind him, he was almost untouchable; as a man amongst his people he had a role of leadership to be the voice of the voiceless and the conscience of the people to shame the government into aligning itself with less suppressive activities and policies.

A cause greater than self

Pius Ncube had to resign his commission because an aspect of human frailty or ill-discipline beclouded the greater office he held as he was caught in adulterous liaisons which were recorded and documented by state security personnel.

For that alone, he lost the ability to project authority and hence the cause and mission was lost – succumbing to the wiles of the flesh in the midst of a greater calling, lost him his dignity, his office and a notable voice for the oppressed of Zimbabwe.

Obviously, we all know that we are fallible, but the position of leadership and authority carries great responsibilities especially where integrity and honour count for much that morality forms part of the bedrock that defines that personality.

Are you what you are?

It goes without saying that you cannot be a man of God and be caught in morally questionable situations, then expect to retain the gravitas that comes with your office even if your flock is willing to forgive and forget.

Also, as a politician, you might get away with all sorts of things, but if you stand on a platform of honesty, strong family values and rectitude, the last thing you want to be caught in is a lapse of judgement that brings your great house of cards crashing down upon you.

Another man gives in

Such is the case of Senator John Edwards, the failed running mate of Senator John Kerry in the 2004 US Presidential elections and former Democratic US presidential hopeful.

After many denials, it has transpired that he had an affair in 2006 [1] whilst preparing his bid for nomination and when his wife’s cancer was apparently in remission.

It really does beggar belief that Senator Edwards would have thought this liaison would not get out – there was not only a grave error of judgement in allowing himself to be caught in an unfortunate moment of weakness, it is amazing that the goal for high office did not slap him in the face that his flesh should submit to a greater purpose.

Lacking a view of consequence

One cannot bear thinking of the consequences of that situation where if Senator Edwards had won the Democratic nomination and the breaking news as that dastardly Olympic spectacle pervades our screens was that the Democratic convention would implode over a reprobate and lying nominee in hardly another 3 weeks.

The nation would have gone into mourning for the next four years whilst many would have yearned for another possible Clinton grab at the mantle of the presidency.

Such is the measure of men who do not have the backbone to vie for office with moral rectitude and a commitment to a cause greater than self.

Bury your bodies

One should not, however, kick a man when he is down, but the fact is if you should vie for leadership or office, your skeletons must not be in a cupboard where others might open the closet and be embraced with skeletal kisses, but the bodies should have been buried deep down in the ground where the bones and fossil remains would lead archaeologists and palaeontologists down the wrong path.

Better still, walk alone, walk like a man with a cause and mission that far exceeds the demands of the flesh that if tempted you will not fall – there are very few men who can walk that walk and those are the few men who are worthy of office, leadership, respect, adulation and the great prize.

If you can fall short, do not aspire or be really, really smart – I cannot say that Senator John Edwards despite his brilliance, success, advocacy and message has been smart.

One slip can lose everything

He has become such damaged goods that the mundane act of sweeping up the bread crumbs behind Barack Obama by campaigning, raising funds or having a platform at the Democratic convention cannot be done.

As for his excuses that aim to justify his position, we need to give it time and time can be an eternity – what a loss to many and what a shame indeed, my heart goes out to Senator John Edwards’ family and in some way to the man himself – how are the mighty fallen, they might yet rise again.

We who speak so loudly probably have skeletons roaming the streets and that is why the little smart thing in our heads prevents us from doing something stupid, like vying for office or seeking authority that brings great scrutiny and expectation of being super-human.

[1] BBC NEWS | Americas | Ex-senator Edwards admits affair