31/12/2024
OMO-AGEGE: DECODING THE MYTH OF A GRACIOUS SPIRIT
Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, CFR. We know him; they know him. He is the People’s Obarisi. A tall good man with tall legacies in his prime. A leader owed a permanent debt of gratitude by multitudes. A profoundly good man, who in obvious acknowledgment of his own humble and rustic rural beginnings, derives the greatest joy from lifting ordinary people up.
Human like us all and therefore not perfect, but the Obarisi is by grace always intentionally miles ahead in knowledge-based modern transformational leadership philosophy. His leadership thoughts and strengths are admired, envied and feared at the same time. Such is often the lot of great men, and so nothing new.
Omo-Agege’s deep love for people, (especially the weak), his broad knowledge and experience horizon, effective public governance convictions, fearless spirit, and rich grassroots political engineering capabilities collectively define his exemplary capacity to always raise the bar in politics of development. For this, he is loved by multitudes.
Ironically, for some, his greatest sins also stem from his rich leadership strengths and amazingly kind spirit and his people’s overwhelming appreciation for how he uses these to positively impact their lives and transform society. Somehow, his fiercest traducers are the ones he has lifted highest with so much love.
One is reminded here about a leader once literally swearing and cursing sometimes in 2019 that the Obarisi does not deserve to and would “never ever” become the Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate. It was an “over my dead body” moment, but few days later, the Obarisi was seamlessly elected to that exalted office. He ate the humble pie of his bitter curses and irritating hate, but still refused to fully drop his crown of envy against a man whose love for him is genuine, pure and plain. That’s life. God lifts people up but also allows people who are not part of His agenda to do whatever they can to challenge His almighty authority. He allows such prove Himself faithful and all-powerful, as it was with Pharaoh in Egypt.
Senator Omo-Agege is undeniably good to virtually all - his friends, supporters, loyalists and traducers alike. His resources are naturally limited but his capacity to do good is unlimited. He will never willfully abandon his own suffer if he has the means for succor.
Obarisi is a leader who is sometimes even kinder to his enemies than his friends and allies. Herein lies a great myth about his excessively gracious personality and generous spirit. Huge concrete evidence abounds of his benevolent, godly embrace of many people who have caused him the most grievous personal pains. Except those blinded by insidious hate of an evil dimension, there is no enemy out there who Obarisi cannot respectfully reconcile with and embrace with a godly heart. This speaks to how he builds and maintains willing coalitions and engineers the grassroots in politics.
Omo-Agege’s exemplary leadership personality appears rooted in his sacramental life as a young Catholic altar boy - a path that was leading him to priesthood before his family’s shining law legacy came calling with an irresistible force. But then, he remained glued to his Catholic faith, howbeit choosing to serve his God as a Christian quietly to please Him alone, not men. Today he is a Catholic Knight in the Order of Saint John International - a call he had to yield to having humbly declined it for decades in preference of serving God quietly. But then ‘noise’ is not altogether bad in faithful service of God because a key lesson from the miracle of the fall of the Walls of Jericho is that the ‘Shouting Side is the Winning Side’.
Truly, not so many of his true friends and ardent supporters appreciate the myth of a leader who is often genuinely loving and supporting his fiercest enemies and critics to fly and excel the way Omo-Agege does. And this is why it is often easy to discredit and discard premeditated hate towards him, especially when undue malice leads some to lay false accusations against him. Accusations that never fly where there is fair hearing because for every single allegation levied against him, if Omo-Agege were to open his mouth, many would be shocked about what he has had to endure with amazing graciousness. Not many would bear a tiny fraction of the burdens he carries so calmly.
Omo-Agege’s calm spirit even in times of conflict and extreme provocations is a myth that seems to match the sad reality that in our politics, there is indeed no written rules that guarantee honour, loyalty, good conscience, and godliness. In life generally, and in politics in particular, being good or bad is a matter of personal choice. Some enemies of yesterday sometimes become the most dependable allies of today and vice versa. As Shakespeare puts it in ‘Macbeth’ when Duncan misjudged the old Thane of Cawdor, "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face". And so some angelic faces execute missions reserved for only satanic minds, and they do so with glee and joy. But even such does not impact Omo-Agege’s political philosophy which is a product of diverse experiences - some good, some bad. A mix that has imbued him with infinite shock absorbers.
We cannot therefore honestly blame a leader who, rising above the ease of living a life of hate, chooses to promote healthy, genuine brotherliness and tolerance that are meant to make society better for all. That does not mean that Omo-Agege as a leader is naive or oblivious of Machiavellian politics where princely graciousness to the often most undeserving is sometimes repaid with deep injuries of extreme dishonour. It is a part of the mix called politics, and we have to learn to handle it with more forgiveness and grace, irrespective of whether we win or lose. Hate is never an option. It never helps leaders. Indeed, hate harms positive leadership.
Indeed, every great leader appreciates the place of Thomas Hobbe’s “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" postulation in politics and human relations in general. Some people deploy Hobbesian tactics as their best tools in politics. To construct pathways to new alluring but often illusory promised lands, they must first taint, undermine and destroy good men who have used their immense goodwill and undoubted strengths to lift them up. They lie idly and believe their own lies. They overrate their capacity and pretend that some magic will drop down from heaven somewhere along the line to give life to their overblown sense of political worth. All that too should be overlooked in the spirit of great leadership, especially knowing that many easily forget that the weapons of war are hardly exhaustible and can sometimes come from quarters they may not have targeted. Never go to war over matters that wisdom demands you to resolve with love and forgiveness. To the wise, life is not a game of avoidable wars of ego. Constructive engagements are better.
Naturally, bad faith attacks on every good leadership usually brew resentment from those who trust such leadership. Resentment that often strongly invokes reprisals and pushbacks. But this is where wisdom should lead, especially in the context of politics where filtration is impossible in a field populated by the good, the bad and the ugly. We need all.
As Omo-Agege himself recently put it, “it is a catch-22 paradoxical situation from which we cannot truly win by going hard on even those who hate us for being good to them”. We are limited by contradictory rules and should imbue ourselves with the spirit of maximum restraint. Omo-Agege’s supporters must stand tall in every conflict between his ideals and forces of division and hate. Focus on the myth and positive force of his gracious spirit for in it lies the greatest good of true political leadership.
May 2025 be good to all through the power of God Almighty - the source of every good power.
