OPINION:THE OPERATIC LIFE OF SENATOR JOSHUA DARIYE-LAR

THE OPERATIC LIFE OF SENATOR JOSHUA DARIYE By Davidson Rotshak Lar On June 12, the dreams, hopes and ambitions "One of us" came crashing down . But in some poignant way, His dreams were ours—and so, in the end, were his sins. The life of no ex- governor says more about this country. Joshua Dariye's accomplishments sing of the finest Plateau attributes—daring, audacity, resilience and grit. His fall is an incantation of the nation's flaws, of meanness, prejudice, avarice and corruption. What gave Dariye his driven attributes was the titanic struggle among the various personalities within him. And it was a struggle that never ended; there was never a permanent victory between the dark and the sensitive sides of his nature. Now one, now another personality predominated, creating an overall impression of menace, of torment, of unpredictability and, in the final analysis, of enormous vulnerability to spending funds that weren't his. Plateau people, at their best, are romantics. As was Dariye. He dreamed of noble triumphs in the affairs of the State; He started schools - Plateau University (Bokkos), School of Preliminary Studies(kurgwi); took COE Gindiri to its permanent side, started a fertilizer blending plant, and took care of "Elders" with our subventions, and became too generous to Churches, Big pastors and Bishops. "We are going to leave Plateau better than we met," he told his people over and over again. He embodied, too, another sad Nigerian virtue: "financial generosity." His was the last governor who had a legendary penchant of giving money to people even when he met them on the streets, or building houses and "dashing" aides and cronies. We, as a people, placed too much expectations on him for money even from the time he was in BCC Cement, Gboko. He donated to all religious functions and he reveled in the adulations we gave him. And that continued into his administration. Very few high-placed citizens of the State didn't benefit from him in cash or kind. In some sort of way, his sins is our collective sin. He could be achingly, clumsily kind. Dariye had exceptional powers of perception and intelligence, but little grace with his oath of office and our common wealth. Through self-discernment, Dariye recognized the defects of our human character, and employed that knowledge to manipulate his countrymen. He made of us - churches, pastors, politicians and citizens to expect free money from politicians and other office holders. It was Dariye who helped Jonah Jang (his immediate successor in office of governor) to look too "stingy and miserly" because free money stopped with Jang, even to the so-called Plateau Elders. Perhaps, in all our history, perhaps in all politicians, there is no story to rival that of Joshua Dariye. What is best and weakest in Plateau State politics goes out in reciprocating strength and deficiencies in Joshua Dariye. He is an innocent Mushere boy who listened to false praises and adulations and rose from desperate anonymity to spectacular triumphs. He was the salesman, the striver, the grafter and grifter—exploiting Plateau's energies and license, twisting and becoming twisted, consumed by its passions. He is, today, the loser, the discard, the tragic hero—caught in his con, destroyed by that same rage and resentment he manipulated in others, and saw within himself, but was incapable of curing. Heroes have sinned, and been humbled. Iconic commercial empires have crumbled. The country has spawned a spectacular roster of rogues, outlaws and villains. But there is no single scene in our recent politics and law to match that of June 12, 2018 - a tormented Dariye sobbing in a court dock and pouring out his guts in a rambling plea for mercy. "Always remember others may hate you," he told the gathering of pastors of which I was one, "but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them and then you destroy yourself." I hope he doesn't allow that judgment destroy him. I pray he comes out of prison a stronger, godly old man like Charlse Colson who started the Prison Fellowship after he was humbled from being a powerful aide of US President Richard Nixon to a convicted Prsioner. Dariye's rise and fall are, literally, operatic. His flaws repel as they fascinate. He inspired devoted loyalty and un-chambered hate—at times, or over time, from the same individual. In his multi-faceted character we see flickers of the good, the bad and the ugly. In the end, he is one of us and we share in his sins as well.