The real trouble with Magu: Between metaphor and literal translation by a dance professor by Ochada Jerry Ajogwu

The real trouble with Magu: Between metaphor and literal translation by a dance professor by Ochada Jerry Ajogwu

Editor's note: Public affairs analyst, Ochada Jerry Ajogwu writes on recent comments by the acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, which went viral on social media.

Read below:

One of the real tragedies bedevilling modern-day Nigerian newspaper columnists, even the ones that are well regarded by discerning readers, is the penchant to often latch onto populist angst and ride the waves of temporary popular idiosyncrasies. This often happens as they relate to interpretations of existential vicissitudes and dislocations, to sustain relevance.

Gone are the days when informed commentary was penned by proper, well-grounded columnists, whose rational insights and polemic leanings often resulted in seminal opinions, crafted with the meticulous interrogation, rigorous exploration of the subject matter and delivered in the preferred genre, most enjoyably with satirical flavour, to an eager community of readers, whose nationalistic and universal views were defined by the suggestions and interpretations contained in these essays.

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In the last decade or thereabouts however, columnists have become more dependent on the popular mindset of emerging cultures to set the tone and determine the focus of informed commentary. By this unfortunate capitulation, they cede the agenda-setting role of the columnist in defining the temper and engagement of national discourse.

The real trouble with Magu: Between metaphor and literal translation by a dance professor by Ochada Jerry Ajogwu
Magu's recent comments about corruption went viral on social media.
Source: Facebook

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It is little wonder therefore that the contextuality of our national psyche has more or less been translated in the excess latitude of social media, the mass hysteria often provoked by the lyrical intoxications of mundane and banal lyrical excursions such as Marlians, as well as the triumphalism of ritual, cum cyber-voodoo induced wealth, the laziness of some present-day newspaper columnists and social commentators have been drastically exposed in their inability to tackle societal challenges with erudite articulation. Thus, by this glaring failing, continue to undermine the fine art of critical writing in the country.

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One of such recent offerings, which sadly reflects this capitulation is the piece entitled: 'The Real Trouble With Magu', by Abimbola Adelakun, published in a popular national newspaper of March 5, 2020, in which the columnist went to great lengths to vilify and castigate the personality, intellect and reputation of the boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over his widely reported comment that the Corona Virus is caused by corruption.

Indeed, one is a bit flummoxed by the seeming ignorance of a Professor of Communications and Language Arts or is it Theatre and Dance now, to differentiate between when a comment is made in the context of expansive metaphor and innuendo and when it is done as an attempt to exhibit particular or specific knowledge of the subject matter.

Of course, there is the little matter of locating  Magu's comment within the ambit of popular imagination by putting it in proper perspective.

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Recall that the EFCC boss, Ibrahim Magu first made the Coronavirus and corruption claim in the presence of President Muhammadu Buhari, at the passing out parade of EFCC’s Detective Inspector Course 5 cadets at the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA) in Kaduna on Tuesday, February 18, 2020.

The national verbal backlash which greeted this isolated comment on Coronavirus and corruption was understandable because global news channels and social media had already saturated the airwaves and inundated Nigerians with the devastating consequences of this new disease that has no cure. 

A sneaky translation, therefore, would suggest that majority of folks who attacked Magu's comment were simply reacting instinctively to the larger suggestion that many Nigerians were already gripped in the throes of the pandemic of corruption and Magu was indirectly telling them that they had Coronavirus. 

Attempt by the EFCC to properly situate Magu's comment in its proper interpretative context and his subsequent reaffirmation of his statement was greeted with the same vitriolic outbursts by Nigerians, who perhaps were subconsciously wishing that the virus will not get here, until it finally did on February 27, when the mysterious Italian was caught at the International airport and quarantined. 

The feeling, as is typically Nigerian, was that Magu, by linking Covid19 to corruption just less than a week earlier and even insisting on his position the day before, must have somehow attracted Covid 19 to the country. And with this mindset gaining traction, especially in social media amongst the mass of gullible information consumers, Ibrahim Magu became the pantomime villain for a nation and some of its informed commentators, gripped in the allusion of a global pandemic mutating into the essence of a generic and willing national host.

Those who know the EFCC boss very well will quickly confirm that his zero tolerance for corruption is not just passionately unparalleled, but can only be equated perhaps, with that of President Muhammadu Buhari and if indeed there was a stronger word or disease to capture how he regards corruption and intends to do curb it, would not hesitate to use that word or do that which would kill corruption dead, once and for all. It is not news anymore that he has often metaphorically associated with every national malaise to corruption.

However, what beggars belief is that a seeming Professor of Literary Arts would so brazenly input literal translation to what is obviously Magu's figurative references and then proceed with frenzied zeal to embark on a lengthy and oftentimes rambling diatribe of contracted commentary, aimed at diminishing the ebullient stature and serial successes of the anti-corruption champion on the basis of a metaphoric sentence in a very serious discourse.

To be sure, Ibrahim Magu's excellent credentials, both in rigorous academics and the anti-corruption crusade speak for themselves and are verifiable. Only a cretin would attempt to impugn on his sterling reputation and even proceed to define him as a dingbat in the public space of a newspaper column. This simply reflects the sad depths to which informed commentary has fallen into at the hands of attention seekers, whose existential relevance reconciles in exploiting public angst to undermine heroic national crusaders to satisfy paymasters, with dubious intentions.

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