It is tempting to want to see the world as a funny place, or perhaps as a joke, going by the level of foolish things that are not just pursued as valuable, but are presented as important to life and social actions and relations. Imagine that in spite of historical antecedents and the extensive reality of human action and inaction within the context of natural interventions, that in spite of the number of people tending toward evil in the world being such a great and high one - or what some people sometimes describe as the general inclination of humans toward evil, it has always been the lot of the good people to keep the world functioning - in which case, good almost always triumphs over over the bad and the evil in the last analysis, such that good and being good should recommend itself over and above bad behaviour at all times in an arena of wisdom and clear thinking because of its long-lasting effect and overall ability to trump badness in the long run. But what  do we have and what do we see in the world? - rampant pursuit of badness with so much fondness for the immediate but ephemeral pleasure and giddy satisfaction associated with such course of action.

You would be forgiven to think about the funny feeling it must elicit for humans to focus themselves on the unprofitable business of pursuing dead ends even where history and evidence point out the truth of such bad ends. We know that bad actions could temporarily lead to benefits, but that those benefits would eventually and ultimately disappear and lead to nothing. There is no history of bad actors sustaining their badness indefinitely as they would eventually be overtaken by the reality of truth. Let us take the example of Blaise Compaore in Burkina Faso.

Blaise was the childhood and close friend of the revolutionary Burkina leader, Thomas Sankara who pretended that they were together in the task and desire to positively transform their country. Blaise later engineered the gruesome killing of Thomas in order to set himself up as the new leader, burying him in unmarked grave to stave off public outrage and inquiry. The man managed to hold on to power after this betrayal of his country and people and the bosom friendship between him and Thomas for another 27 years before the people rose against him, forcing him to flee the country, leading to the reemergence of the true feelings about Thomas even while the government is poised to ensure that Blaise pays for all his atrocities through the full wrath of the law. In the end, Thomas is having the last laugh even from the grave while Blaise’s name has become a reproach!

Or the case of the butcher of Damascus, Bashar al-Assad, who rather than work to address the grievances of his people, preferred to enact and impose a reign of terror ad infinitum on them as if that would solve and address the grievances. With the backing of the murderous military machine and forces of superpower, Russia, it would have been difficult to imagine that the gruesome rule of Assad would ever end. But to assume that is to miss the essence of the position and theory that there is no good end in the long run to bad actors and their actions. After delivering and operating all the tricks in his bag for years, the only reason why there is still Assad alive was his being spirited away from Syria by Russia’s Putin in the dead of the night!

So when I see people labouring fastidiously on illegitimate runs, I am amazed and amused by the joke of people wanting to continue digging even after finding themselves in an improbable ditch. Dictators know that they are bad actors and those of them who do not win any election and rigged themselves into political power know the true reality of their illegitimacy. Yet, many of them continue to carry on normally as if that would be the most natural thing to do, expanding the scope of their illegitimate actions and behaving as if they are the ones really in charge of life with their gruesome and dictatorial actions. In truth, it would look like humans are fated to the joke of pursuing nothing as if it is something of substance; to believe that whatever happens to other bad actors would never happen to them no matter their own level of badness; every dictator or bad actor would think that he/she would not come to bad end even when history teaches otherwise. It is an inexorable joke that we see play out again and again with many still aspiring to be part of the cacophony going forward. Which is why I am not unduly bothered when I see people celebrate the so-called political sagacity of a political overlord without any pedigree or verifiable resume, and whose stock in trade is the rigging of elections, knowing that the joke must be on here too!

** Olaitan, Professor of Political Science, was Vice-Chancellor, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State.

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