It is another Friday. And I am thinking of the femme fatale as it relates to these times. For those who do not know, femme fatale refers to that stock character in literature whose ravishing beauty and seductive skills can bring a man to a ghastly end. At this point in time, the reader is likely to get the drift of our discourse today.
Our immediate reference is to the ongoing episode of the University of Lagos student who reportedly put an end to the promising and illustrious career of that upwardly mobile, middle-aged man, Usifo Ataga. As such situations go, various conspiracy theories have emerged, and they continue to emerge. But these do not constitute our immediate concern here.
Thus far, however, what appears to have eluded most of us is the ironical turn of the entire situation. Here is a Mass Communication student who was being trained to report and analyse news. Unfortunately, she has ended up at the centre of the self-same news.
Incidentally, one can say the same thing for Ataga himself. For he was also occupying a super-structural position in the media.
Another thing to note here is that what becomes clear is that the tragic situation speaks to the instinctual side of man. Men, virtually all of us, are driven by our primal instincts in which at the end of the day, we usually come to grief. At the risk of sounding judgmental, such was the fate of the late Mr Ataga. The operative word in the immediate foregoing is judgmental. This is because the average man reading this piece is not likely to be hard on Usifo.
Chances are that such a thoughtful person would make the sign of the cross and intone solemnly: But for the grace of God, there goes I. In widening the situation thus, it becomes evident that what has happened to the late Usifo is not an isolated incident. Many men, high and low, usually come to this sticky kind of end. For those who are familiar with the Great Book; there is a clear reference to this kind of situation. In the Bible, we will readily recall the story of Samson and Delilah. As the story goes, Samson, was a powerful man. So powerful, that he was a champion and prizefighter for his people in their perennial conflicts with their enemies.
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But, he had a soft spot for the enchantress and beautiful Delilah. The rest as they say is history. He came to a sticky end, despite his famed strength and fighting prowess. And Delilah was his Achilles heel. This seemingly far off historical situation has been amply replicated in contemporary times. Take the case of Bill Clinton, the most powerful man in the world at a point in time. His nemesis was an intern in the White House, Monica Lewinsky, who took him on; or better still, they took each other on. In the process, his Presidency nearly came to grief.
It is instructive to note here that Lewinsky and Clinton’s daughter Chelsea are in the same age range. For those who can remember, the House of Representatives went as far as to impeach him; but he was saved a dismal fate in the Senate. While the ordeal lasted, President Clinton went about clutching the Bible. This shows that no matter how powerful a man is; when trouble comes knocking, he can always turn to a Higher Being. Unfortunately for Usifo, this window of redemption was not available to him. He went the way of all flesh prematurely. And one can certainly say the same thing for a glittering career.
His, so to say, was an absolute situation. Actually, Clinton’s liaison with Lewinsky can be likened to some sort of sport in the Washington power circle. Remember, Lewinsky was an intern and interns, by their nature are young and blooming young women, fresh from college. They are also looking for adventure and comfort in Washington, that seat of power and privilege. Therefore, Clinton, a member of that power circle, was not alone in this game. There was also a Congressman, Gary Condit, who played the same game with another intern. But the outcome was a reversal of the Chidinma-Usifo tango. It was the intern, who simply disappeared, only to be discovered dead some months later.
But while this episode lasted, Gary Condit was in the spotlight. Journalists swarmed his apartment on a 24-hour basis. And trust the newshounds; they were also able to discover that, while he rolled with his wife and the intern, he also had it for another woman, a flight attendant.
On this note, I remember a female columnist in the Washington Post, who asked the pointed question: How do you men do it? And as if to indicate that the Gary Condit issue, was not an isolated feature, the columnist went on to add, that if thorough investigations were to be made into the lives of Congressmen, the United States would probably end up with no Congress! Of course, one easily say the same thing for their colleagues in Abuja.
Thus from what we have been able to say thus far, the sins of Usifo and Chidinma can be said to have ample replication, generalisation and comparisons across epochs and various social formations. It is a sin that speaks to the instinctual side of we men. Virtually no one is immune, such that, one can safely say here that, the Law of Morality is: do not be found out.
Thus, as the reader, closes for the week, this Friday and therefore possibly getting ready for the much-awaited weekend with all its frills and indulgence; Watch it! Those carefully laid and secretive plans of yours can easily be derailed by a femme fatale. And it is not necessarily her fault.
