VP Yemi Osinbajo

By Funke Cole

Said Confucius, Chinese philosopher on men’s greed, avarice and vaulting ambition, “Wealth and rank are what men desire, but unless they be obtained in the right way, they may not be possessed.”

Confucius’ wisecrack speaks to the current desperation by some of the dramatis personae in the race to the 2023 presidency.
Of course, everybody has a right to aspire and pursue their dreams as they deem fit. No doubt about that.

But should such ambition be at a huge moral cost as it has been the case with the Vice President? Here was a man who in a manner of speaking came into public limelight without breaking a sweat.

Somebody who knew someone somewhere recommended him somewhere and before you know it, he literally struck gold. From being a mere classroom teacher, he was catapulted to the corridors of power where he has been from 1999 till date. That is how grace works for someone. More than this, methinks divine arrangement come through for people who have been so destined. Isn’t that what the Yorùbá call kádàrá or even the Muslim faithful accept as Qadar?

I know this for sure because the Holy Spirit did revealed to me that the man under reference is indeed a covenant child of God.

Fast forward to 2022, that same man who ordinarily should continue to let God rule in his affairs is today enmeshed in a crisis of confidence of some sorts fueled largely by his inordinate ambition to seek the 2023 presidency at all cost even if he has to step on toes, backstab, backbite, character assassinate, betray his benefactors as well as jettison time-tested principles of fairness, objectivity, equity, Omoluabi ethos to mention just a few.

The question therefore is, shouldn’t there be a limit to ambition that comes with such a huge moral baggage and burden?

Indeed, to parody the word’s of Confucius, men who go about their ambition in a crooked way usually meet with disappointments. That is what has happened to our Starboy.
He suffered both a coup de main and a coup de grace. Alas, there comes the end of an otherwise wonderful career. For me, I’ll shed no tears for this man. He got what he deserved.

*Olufunke Cole is a PhD student, Dept of History, University of Lagos