Is the desire for power a genetic issue or a compelling desire to do good?

Mrs Hilary Clinton was a very successful lawyer. She later became First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State in the United States of America. Her record is intimidating and she is eminently qualified to be President of the most powerful nation on earth. She may be cruising to the White House.

I am curious to see how Mrs. Hilary Clinton’s email palaver will play out. The FBI won’t be pressing charges. According to them no reasonable prosecutor would.

The FBI has said that she was careless in handling classified emails. It is also on record that her campaign team deleted a lot of emails. Prior to the report of the FBI, the Federal Attorney General met with President Bill Clinton for half an hour . She then said that she probably won’t do it again but at the same time she said that she would accept the FBI findings, so the findings are out. President Obama has said that he wants to hand over to Mrs Hilary Clinton and is campaigning for her. Mrs Hilary Clinton wants to hand over the economy to her husband, President Clinton, when she wins.

In West Africa, President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema promoted his son Teodorin Nguema Obiang to the position of Vice President. President Nguema had killed his uncle many years ago to become President of Equatorial Guinea. Flt Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings of Ghana who executed former Heads of State and even the Judges who tried him , transformed and won an election become the President in a democratic Ghana and after his term, his wife, Nana, also wanted to become President. But she did not succeed. President John Kennedy, the greatest and most loved US President, appointed his younger brother, Robert as his Attorney General. Closer to home, Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari came for seconds, through the ballot and not the gun. President Olusegun Obansanjo wanted third term and even gave away Apo Quarters for pittance in order to get support for his ambition but it failed.

President Bill Clinton was/is referred to as the First Black President and one of his closest advisers is Vernon Jordan, a black American. During President Obama’s first run for the White House, in a fit of rage, President Clinton told late Senator Ted Kennedy in a telephone conversation ‘look support my wife, this Obama guy would have been serving us tea in the senate a few years ago’. [Read – RACE OF A LIFE TIME – HOW OBAMA WON THE WHITE HOUSE ]. That racist remark cost him Senator Ted Kennedy’s support and shift to President Obama (the rest is history). The Clintons learnt a painful lesson, despite Mrs Hilary Clinton’s confidence as she kept offering President Obama the Vice Presidential slot even when President Obama was leading her in the primaries.

I wonder if there is a particular gene which is present in some people and absent in others that propels them towards power ? Is it a compelling desire to better the lot of the fellow human being, like when Jesus Christ was asked, which is the greatest commandment and he said: ‘Love God with all your heart and soul’ and’ Love your neighbor as thy self’ or is it the quest and insatiable desire to acquire power for what it is ? May be a combination of both. In a world of billions of people, the same set of people keep regurgitating themselves. Something is wrong with the rest of us. Nigeria has been controlled by the same set of people since independence from when they were young men till when they are now grandfathers.

Something is absent in you and I.

Happy id el fitri.

Ayodele Musibau Kusamotu is the managing partner of Kusamotu & Kusamotu (Cross Border Legal Firm)

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