Deja Vu Everywhere, By Michael Ovienmhada

Everywhere you turn these days, it’s the same old thing happening all over again, just different actors.

Does humanity ever really learn?

On the matter of Classified Documents currently rocking the American political establishment, Mike Pence is the newest actor in the mix. Of all three actors involved, he has responded with the most class and candour. “Some mistakes were made,” he said. “Those documents should never have been in my residence,” he continued, “I take full responsibility.” Biden and his people probably need to call Pence for one or two lessons in how to be classy. For the first time in a long time, after mastering the art of obfuscation, Mike Pence has begun to look like the man of the hour—-the future of the Republican Party. Hopefully, the insanity represented by the extreme right wing of the GOP should begin to fade as saner minds hug the lights.

Furthermore, on the matter of the Classified documents, it would appear that Attorney General Merrick Garland may have driven his Oldsmobile into a Cul de Sac. Having appointed Special Counsels to probe both Trump and Biden, would he therefore be compelled to do the same for Pence? I think that would represent an overkill, and a waste of public funds. The national archives system may now be in need of an overhaul in how they manage their responsibilities to ensure that their people are first to help an outgoing administration pack. They must give the “all clear” for any documents to leave the White House.

That should be easy enough.

How is it conceivable that a country that calls itself the only Superpower is unable to manage mere Classified Documents?

Coming out of a tense meeting amongst friends last week, a decision was made by NATO to up the ante in Ukraine. Dear readers, I make no attempt to glorify war in any way except as a fight back to regain freedom from an oppressor. Ukraine may soon be crossing their own borders into Russian territory if indeed they lay their hands on the fastest, most lethal, most deadly most far-reaching Tanks on earth—-The MI Abrams from the United States; The Leopard 2 A6 from Germany; The Challenger from the UK, and The Leclerc from France.

Historically, the West does not like to intervene in war until it is almost an inevitability. A strong case in point was the beginnings of the Second World War. A policy of appeasement, or inertia, initially characterized the attitude of the West to Hitler’s expansionist ambitions.

The Nazi Party, on its ascension to power, very much like present day extremists wherever they may be found, embraced in totality, the concept of ‘Lebensraum’ based on the nonsensical idea of Aryan supremacy.

I ask the question: Where were the Aryans when the Pyramids were built? Where were the Aryans when the Benin Empire built a Moat longer than the Great China Wall? Where were the Aryans when Mansa Musa in his majestic majesty built the great Mali Empire with unrivaled wealth?

Anyhow, Hitler set out to conquer neighboring countries based on this bogus idea. Notably, Arthur Neville Chamberlain was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. He is best known for his role in the Munich Agreement of 1938 which ceded parts of Czechoslovakia to Hitler. His acquiescence to Hitler led historians to coin the word ‘Appeasement’ as part of political literature.

Let us not forget that after getting this ‘gift’ and thus expanding his power, Hitler turned around to take a good look at swallowing up the United Kingdom. But for the entry of the United States into the war after the unfortunate attack on Pearl Harbor, the whole of Europe might be speaking German today.

If they had made up their minds early on in his shenanigans, they could have put a halt to the eventual build up of the German War machine that led to the arrogance of expansionism.

To America, Europe was faraway. They had not learned their lesson from the First World War, to wit, that isolationism was a useless policy. The world is more interconnected than we want to think. We are not as far from each other as we think.

Just ask COVID about distance.

Clearly, now, America is never going to make the same mistake ever again. This is why America is everywhere. The objective is not hegemonic. No. They do not seek to conquer anyone. They just don’t want anyone threatening anyone anywhere because they have learned the hard way that a disruption to peace anywhere hurts everyone everywhere.

As the world turns, long before the advent of the Cell Phone and the internet which has made everyone virtually a citizen journalist, the world experienced the outrage of LAPD officers as they brutalized Rodney King. The incident which was captured on video led to several days of rioting resulting in the deaths of 63 people, Black, White, Hispanic, and Asians.

After we saw that, I guess we vowed “Never again.”

It was an empty vow.

Since then, we have seen hundreds more. Men in blue, usually of another race, brutalizing, more than likely, a black male or female, often times to the point of being fatal. With all that history not too distant in the past, culminating in the smoldering to death in full public glare of George Floyd, one was inclined to think, even if we had to dream for a minute, that every man and woman in blue would have come to the realization that it is not ‘them against us, or we against them.’ I doubt that there’s a large population out there that desires anarchy.

We are all on the same side, the side of peaceful coexistence. The men and women in blue have families. They have people who love them just as those of us whom they seek to protect also have people who love us, and whom we love in return. Rodney King said it best:

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”

Can’t we all just get along?

This is why I turned off the TV, the moment CNN rolled the tape on the recent beating to death of Tyre Nichols at 29. He was the same age as my only son. My heart could not handle watching it. One can only imagine the mental state of his parents and those who loved him. One thing is certain. They will never recover. We can only pray that heaven will give them strength for every single day that the Sun rises, and Tyre’s voice will not be heard. I cry as I write. When will this—-man’s inhumanity to man— come to an end?

Halfway across the Mediterranean, the Middle East burns still. Over the last few days, almost an equal number of Palestinians, and Jews have lost their lives due to the inability of the peoples in that region to come to the realization that no one can win this war. Israel cannot win. The Palestinians cannot win. The question therefore is this:

Are there not enough sensible people on both sides with sufficient authority to put a final stoppage to this insanity?

Can America under Biden revive the idea of a “Two State Solution?”

Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken travels in the area this week. He has his work cut out for him, trying to deal with a problem that has appeared to defy solution especially since the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 that led to the large displacement, and subsequent dispersal of Palestinians across the world in loss of territory.

In other news, it was reported that a former attorney, Colinford Mattis who along with another former attorney, Urooj Rahman were involved in violence during the riots following the killing of George Floyd had been sentenced to light jail. In the ruling, the Judge who was very lenient admonished Colinford: “you are not among the oppressed.” In other words, ‘having attended prestigious private schools and an elite university to obtain a law degree, how could you not know that you should be preserving law and order instead of being a perpetrator?’

They are fortunate. He got I year and one day. Urooj got 15 months.

Around the world, as I would always say, in my beautiful country Nigeria, several drama are playing out simultaneously. A man elected governor by the people has been removed by judicial overreach for the second time.

Petrol scarcity continues to bite in a country that has the capacity to produce 2.5 million barrels of Crude a day but has zero ability to produce one gallon of refined fuel.

Elections for the nation’s top office are scheduled for February 25th. I
had a bad dream last night that Nigerians, in their usual fashion of identification with the oppressor, otherwise known as the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ decided to vote for one of their oppressors yet again. I was glad to wake up to the glad reality that it was just a dream.

Now, I hope you can see why the title of my article is: Deja Vu Everywhere.

As you begin a new week, may the God of heaven send you help.

Michael Ovienmhada,
Author, Poet, Playwright,
And Public Affairs Commentator.
[email protected].