The Visit’ reminds me of Adegunju’s home video and also brought to mind Klein. The similarity between ‘The Visit’ and ‘Lagidigba’ is limited to women being in control

The woman king sits resplendent on her throne. Palace guards surround her as she dishes out instructions. Chief among her words is the need for her subjects to avoid men, who, in her view, are plagues that must be stoned.

Welcome to Ilubirin.

This town is from a 2000 Yoruba home video titled ‘Lagidigba’. In it, there was a kingdom of women who resented men as a result of past sins committed against them. Everything was controlled by women in the town and men were persona non grata.

The producer, Yemi Adegunju, wrote it in protest against what he felt was men’s treatment of women. He felt women should be encouraged to participate in government.

His motive resonates with what I heard some weeks back. The Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Gender Policy Council, Jennifer Klein, said studies show that closing gender gaps in the workforce could add between 12 and 28 trillion dollars in global GDP over a decade.

“Expanding access for women to markets and finance fosters entrepreneurship and innovation, with estimates suggesting that gender parity in entrepreneurship could add between 5 to 6 trillion dollars in net value to the global economy.

“Yet, despite the clear benefits of women’s economic participation, too often, social, legal, and financial barriers remain. We know that on the average, women spend more than twice the amount of time than men do performing unpaid care work, and that the annual value of this work is approximately $11 trillion globally. We also recognise that 2.4 billion working-age women still face legal obstacles to their full economic participation, and that dismantling these systemic barriers is necessary to unlock economic gains. And we also know that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on women’s employment, with devastating effects on families, communities, and economies,” she said.

Reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘The Visit’ reminds me of Adegunju’s home video and also brought to mind Klein. The similarity between ‘The Visit’ and ‘Lagidigba’ is limited to women being in control. Other details are different.

Adichie imagines a spectacular world in which matriarchy wrestles patriarchy and gives it a bloody nose.

Two men, Obinna and Eze — old friends — confront the past and future and both men are made to see what women see daily.

The Amazon Original e-book retells the man-woman experience, the woman is head of family and provider and the man stays home and care for the kids. The wife sees no reason the man should work with all his academic qualifications and he agrees and obeys.

In ‘The Visit’, the author of ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ takes us through the ordeal of Obinna, a once-upon-a-time poet, who is married to Amara, the managing director of a big company.

The story opens with Obinna watching CNN’s broadcast of a female American president’s approval of a law prohibiting male masturbation. Soon, he starts thinking about his life, and his friend, Eze, who is visiting from America. He also thinks about Amara constantly cheating on him and her family telling him not to make a fuss about it; after all she is providing all his needs. They tell him he should be happy she returns home to him every day. He remembers ‘fighting’ one of the boys in her life but is not bold enough to confront her about her cheating.

When Eze arrives, he asks Obinna to go with him to a nightclub. Obinna is reluctant and argues it is wrong for a married man to go to a nightclub without his wife. He also says he needs to be home to take care of their kid.

“I can’t just go to a club. I’m a married man,” he says.

Eze succeeds in convincing him to leave the housekeeper to take charge in his absence. But guilt takes over him all through their outing.

On their way back from the club, a police officer stops them and asks them where they were coming from.

“Is that why you’re dressed like prostitutes?” The officer queries them.

Throughout the story, Adichie turns the table. Men face the hassles women face daily, but she still leaves biological functions such as getting pregnant and keeping humanity going for women. But, all the insults the world heap on women are transferred to men and all the world does to discourage women from dreaming big is reserved for men in this feminist text. Even male masturbation is criminalised and scientific researchers are done using female specimens, making the outcomes not useful to men and thus compounding their woes.

Nightclubbing that men consider their right is presented as something a married man should be ashamed of doing without his wife, an obvious protest against the belief that only loose women frequent nightclubs. A police officer is made to refer to Obinna’s and Eze’s looks as not befitting of married men. In fact, she describes them as looking like prostitutes. Policemen have been known to refer to women driving home after a night out that way. The officer saying she would have respected them on account of marriage is an obvious switch of women’s experience with men’s.

Adichie tells this tale in a sleek language, so sleek even the folks she is taking jibes at will enjoy the tale before her message sinks in and cause them to grimace.

While there is no doubt that some men are a bunch of disappointments, there are good men, millions of them all over the world, men who are not intimidated by their women’s successes, men who look out for their women, men who are fantastic role models to their kids, men who are not bothered about who is the head or the neck, men who are just out for the good of all.

The ones who mess up may turn out to be the vocal minority. Since bad news sells, their bad acts get out before the good acts of the fantastic men who are partners in progress with women.

My final take: Despite biological drawbacks, women have shown brilliance in as many endeavours as possible. They are special and will always be.

* Yishau is a newspaper columnist and author.

The license for Wigwe University, founded by Dr. Herbert Wigwe, the Group Chief Executive of Access Corporation PLC, the holding company of Access Bank, is among the 37 licenses approved and issued by the National Universities Commission (NUC) on Friday, June 9, 2023. With this, the dream of the university is formally realized, after years of conception, planning and hard work. Located at his hometown, Isiokpo, in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, 10 minutes from Port Harcourt International Airport, the university occupies about a 300-hectare land space in the sub-urban community just 30 minutes from Owerri. With many of the facilities in the well-laid out campus built; Wigwe University appears ready to receive its first set of students. ‘’Most of our buildings and facilities are ready or would soon be ready, and we expect to begin lectures in September 2024’’, says Yvonne Victor-Olomu, the chief operating officer of The Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe (HOW) Foundation, the university’s promoter. It is the second private university in the state but would be the best in the country when fully completed.

Founded in 2016 as a non-profit organization, the foundation is the special purpose vehicle through which Dr. Wigwe executes his numerous philanthropic activities. The HOW foundation focuses on education, youth empowerment through leadership and mentorship; and health. It recently adopted 25 Primary Healthcare Centres in Rivers State, which is at least one in each Local Government Area, to refurbish and rejig.

Every week, Dr. Wigwe flies down to PH and drives the short distance to the university campus. In May, he hosted the then governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike at the site to turn the sod for the construction of the Senate Building. As usual, the site was busy. Amongst the 1,000 workers currently on site, over 600 from the community are engaged as artisans, mason, workmen and all sorts of workers. “This number will increase to 2,000 by the end of June”, says Victor-Olomu. In various community stake-holder engagements, Dr. Wigwe has informed the community leaders and youth of the socio-economic development that the huge investment would bring to the community and enjoined them to guard it jealously.

I have leafed through a big hardcover photobook containing pictures of buildings in the massive campus. It would be one of the most beautifully landscaped and planned campuses in the world and would change the economic fortunes of the people for good. I am hoping to visit the place soon.

WU will offer courses in Science; Technology (AI, Robotics programmes, etc); Engineering; Arts (Creative Arts and science-based Art Programmes such as Gaming and Computer Creative, etc) and Mathematics (STEAM); Management and Social Sciences at start and subsequently offer courses in Medical Sciences; Medicine; Law and Post Graduate Degrees. It will have linkage relationships with top foreign universities that would facilitate students’ exchange programs.

The thrust of the university is to create leaders and entrepreneurs who will, upon graduation, be focused on creation of jobs, as opposed to job-seeking.

WU will also attract successful business leaders into its faculty. Think of Aliko Dangote, Michael Adenuga and Richard Branson as your lecturer! Although there are many universities in the country, they have not substantially filled the void that exists in the nation’s tertiary education. WU is therefore being deliberately and carefully designed to fill these gaps, some of which are outdated curriculum; poor funding; decrepit facilities and infrastructure; poorly paid and motivated workforce.

The motivation for establishing the university was principally borne out of Herbert Wigwe’s burning desires to give back to Nigeria, a country he loves passionately. ‘’He realized that education and healthcare are two areas that his social interventions would make the greatest impact on Nigerians. For education, he chose to intervene in tertiary education which is facing many challenges such as graduates lacking requisite skills and basic practical experience and reflexes for employability, lacking entrepreneurial skills and harnessing innovative ideas’’, says Victor-Olomu, a former oil and gas industry professional.

With the 37 newly licensed private universities, there are now 238 universities in the country, of which 147 are private, 43 federal government-owned and 48 state government-owned. But graduates from these institutions face prolonged periods of unemployment because the jobs have dried up and they were never equipped with entrepreneurial skills. Many, especially those in public universities, suffer disrupted academic programs due to incessant labour crises between the federal government and the labour unions in the universities, particularly ASUU and SSANU. While the private universities don’t have disruptions, some are plagued by inadequate funding that stifles the dreams of their founders. These are a few of the landmines that WU will escape.

In designing the academic and non-academic programs at WU, Dr. Wigwe has hired academicians from top US universities and European institutions to work with experts from across the world, including Nigeria. Undoubtedly, the people of Isiokpo community are enthusiastic about the huge investment coming to their town. They know that a big university turns things around for the community where it’s located. See what Okada, Ota and even Ede have become. The Isiokpo community and The HOW Foundation are not taking things for granted. Their various stakeholder engagements will culminate in an MOU. This will provide a framework for mutual co-existence between the community and the university.

Apart from the University, some of the key programs of the HOW Foundation include partnership with Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN) in the Adopt-A-Primary-Health-Care Project, where the Foundation has adopted 25 primary healthcare centres in Rivers State. The healthcare centres will be revamped, rehabilitated both in human resources and facilities, upgraded for efficient service delivery, operated for five years by which time a world-class culture and quality of service would have been entrenched, and then returned to the State Government. Its Youth Empowerment programs entail trainings, sponsorship of mentorship and leadership seminars. It has co-sponsored Creative Technology Training Programmes with Nigerian Technology Development Agency and Ascend Studios Foundation. It also co-sponsored the inaugural African Creative Market Summit and the partners and co-sponsors the African International Film Festival.

Dr. Herbert Wigwe is a well-known Nigerian banker and business leader. The third child of Pastor and Mrs Shyngle Wigwe, Herbert is guided by such values as hard work, compassion, kindness and honesty. His father was the DG of Nigerian television Authority (NTA), the Federal Government-owned broadcast network, in the 1980s.

Tinubu and corruption? A pot calling kettle black? Selective fight on corruption Level 3? So, the man cried. Orji Kalu. Then Akpabio, another billionaire politician. Enter Emefiele and Dangote. Seyi Tinubu and the London mansion. Barely two weeks in the job. Buhari Level II. Vendetta Phase III. The Igbo irony. A looming crisis…

So, the man cried. This man cried. Like the cries of the ordinary Nigerians, his was also heard worldwide. Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu, himself. The Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate. An unabashed ally of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A staunch member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He cried. The tears flowed profusely. But the tears couldn’t have flowed more orderly. Obviously being denied the opportunity to become the president of the Senate based on allegations of corruption, it was finally a moment of truth.

The truth is the maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. It also goes without saying that the oppressor could one day become the oppressed. It played out that Orji Kalu’s billionaire party men who cannot even explain the source of their huge wealth still have the audacity to call Kalu a thief. But this saga is a pint in the ocean compared to what follows below.

Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was installed president barely two weeks earlier, suspended and arrested the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Ifanyichukwu Emefiele, on charges of corruption. The charges are wide, including $1 billion transaction allegedly with Aliko Dangote, as an accessory. Yes, the Africa’s richest man!

It is necessary to state here that I remain a zero-corruption advocate, but I also pride myself as an epitome of equity, justice, and fairness. Therefore, this piece is not intended to condone corrupt practices in any shape or form. The main gist is that “one who comes into equity must come with clean hands.”

We are talking about Tinubu himself, the most corrupt politician ever to seek the Nigerian presidency. As the current presiding officer of the nation’s corrupt oligarchy, a select group of billionaire politicians without legitimate sources if income, Tinubu cannot in clear conscience attempt to fight corruption. That is precisely why his ally, Orji Kalu, cried. This is precisely why a vast majority of Nigerians who voted in the presidential election of 2023 rejected the former Lagos governor.

Tinubu should look in the mirror and lead by example. The point is that he should take a leave from the presidency and equally subject himself to the authorities until he comes clean with a plethora of allegations leveled against him around the globe. The allegations, of course, border on his shady background, including fake state of origin, fake date of birth, fake school certificates, massive corruption, drug peddling, election terrorism, and much more.

These piles of corrupt practices explain why the then Chairman of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu clearly stated that Tinubu is “a looter of international dimensions.”

Critics are bound to fire back here. They will argue, as usual, that Mr. Tinubu has not been found guilty.

But I have bad news for them. First of all, it is a common knowledge that Tinubu was indicted on drug trafficking in the United States of America. It is also written in black and white that the man cannot explain the sources of his overflowing wealth, as his fellow party member alluded. Moreover, neither Godwin Ifanyichukwu Emefiele nor Orji Uzo Kalu has been found guilty in court of law. Yet, they are being singled out and victimized.

Even worse, though the EFCC is currently investigating Godswill Akpabio for an alleged theft of N108.1 billion of Akwa Ibom State funds, he remains Tinubu’s preferred candidate for the office of the president of the Senate. Despite the fact that Dangote is fingered as an accomplice in the Emefiele corruption saga, no attempt has been made to question the Africa’s richest man, let alone arresting him.

Further, the world continues to wait for the moment the wobbling weakling would demand any investigation or the arrest of his son, Seyi Tinubu, who was busted for conniving with a fugitive, Mr. Kolawole Akanni Aluko, to buy $11 million London mansion, a property purchased with the proceeds of crime.

This selective fight on corruption by Tinubu is a clear testament that he is doing nothing to allay the fears that is bound to become worse than his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who thrived in primitive vendetta politics that combined to ground his regime.

The trending optics thus far is another version of vendetta against the Igbo. The irony this time is that a vast majority of the Igbo people aligned with the youths and progressive Nigerians to make it clear that a corrupt kingpin cum drug lord would not be their president. Besides, the former CBN Governor initiated the new currency policy that made it difficult for corrupt politicians, like Tinubu, to influence the presidential election with tainted money.

A crisis looms but it is not coming as a surprise. …The fight on corruption in Nigeria was buried the day Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed the presidency. A solution, therefore, is for Nigerians to explore the most urgent ways to remove the black-market president from office—either through the electoral tribunal or by impeachment.

“Emefiele served the last government the way a house slave served his master in 18th century America. And he enjoyed a lot of hand-me-downs as an obedient servant. There are several unbelievable stories flying about on what went on in our central bank while he was there. The Tinubu government announced a probe last week; we wait to see how far it can go without their party committing a suicide. Fire, it is said, does not make fire; it makes ashes. But, whatever they do or do not do with themselves is their problem. We are not supposed to know what lies behind their iron walls. We can comment, however, on what we’ve seen and warn that it must not happen again. We’ve seen photos of Emefiele desecrating the sacredness of the apex bank with postures of servitude. There is at least a photograph of him on bended knees, holding a jotter and a pen while a potentate dictated a to-do list to him. The tragedy is that the man receiving that prostration from our CBN governor did not even hold any position in government. He was powerful simply because he was an FOP (Friend of the President). Such men (and women) are common in our corridors of power. The new government will likely have its own FOPs soon, if it doesn’t already. Because CBN governorship is perhaps the juiciest post in Nigeria, Emefiele thought he would keep it by pouring ceaseless libation of obsequiousness to the priests of the president. And he succeeded so well that he got nine years of active service straddling two regimes that were not friends. Yet, after his failed coup against the new men in power, he did not have the sense to resign and flee. He thought the spell that sold him to Buhari (and Buhari to him) would do the same with Bola Tinubu. There must be something in that office that starves the brain of oxygen. Emefiele was always on his knees in the Villa. He wanted to remain and serve until he is tired of serving us. The Yoruba would look at such mendicant tenacity and say O ló danindanin m’ókùn orò (He held tight to the cord of wealth). But subservient people ultimately sell themselves into slavery. People who sacrifice everything noble to keep whatever job they think they have will lose more than that job.”

In the end, we realise that nothing really belongs to us; not power, not life. Power is fragile; it can also be deadly. It shares properties with candle flames. I take this idea from Brandon Sanderson, author of ‘The Way of Kings.’ Sanderson thinks the lives of men are as brittle and lethal as candle flames. What you get is what you consciously worked for. And, it is no brainer that that thing that provides warmth can also burn if you increase the intensity. Sanderson says when left alone, candle flames “lit and warmed.” When they are allowed to burn without control, “they would destroy the very things they were meant to illuminate.” That is Godwin Emefiele and the enormous powers he wielded at the Central Bank of Nigeria. He was brought in in June 2014 as CBN governor to rearrange the bales in our strongrooms and illuminate the various dark rooms of the Nigerian economy. But, because for eight years we had a president who lacked the mental and physical energy for the driver’s job he took, the CBN and its free-reining governor were soon ‘encouraged’ to set other agenda for themselves – and set Nigeria’s economy ablaze.

Some things need to be made clear. Godwin Emefiele was suspended on Friday; the video of his arrest trended on Saturday morning; a probe of his tenure is underway. All these did not happen to him solely because of what you and I suffered at the hands of his new Naira notes or because of other indignities we may be suffering courtesy of his policies as CBN governor. The man lost his job and his freedom because he got drunk and climbed the tree beyond the leaves; he went beyond the boundary the gods of Nigeria set for him. His cricket was no longer content with eating the leafy greens of his office; he wanted the very food reserved for the gods. He joined politics, bought a nomination form and printed posters. Yes, the law says no CBN governor should nurse such godless lust but breaking the law is no sin if you sit under the protective wings of the country’s principalities. The fatality here is because he broke the law and competed with those who held the yam and the knife of the system. You do not drag the ram with Sango; if you take what Olukoso covets as your delicacy, his thunder celts will shred you. Where I come from, there is a bird that does not die young. We call it igúnnugún (or simply igún); ancestors of the white man named it vulture. Sure-wingedly, igún flies to old age unfamished, undisturbed because it is a very patient bird that knows its place in the world of birds. And because it respects itself, vulture has come to be respected by all. No one kills igún to host a feast; no Babaláwo prescribes igún as a sacrifice to an orí or as an ingredient for a ritual. The place of general dread where three footpaths meet is where vulture takes its meals. Flying or perching or eating, whatever vulture does is without consequences. That is why our ancestors warned all other birds never to compare themselves to the vulture. They warn till tomorrow that any other bird that does what igún does will sleep in the hearth of dinner. That is what happened to Emefiele – he is literally in the soup pot of those he thought he could roast for him to dominate the skies. His butterfly thought itself a bird; it thought the immunity enjoyed by the igúnnugún of Nigeria extended to his flightless bird. He wanted to be president against the letter of the law and in spite of the spirits of politics and power. Such thoughts have always been fatal.

Emefiele served the last government the way a house slave served his master in 18th century America. And he enjoyed a lot of hand-me-downs as an obedient servant. There are several unbelievable stories flying about on what went on in our central bank while he was there. The Tinubu government announced a probe last week; we wait to see how far it can go without their party committing a suicide. Fire, it is said, does not make fire; it makes ashes. But, whatever they do or do not do with themselves is their problem. We are not supposed to know what lies behind their iron walls. We can comment, however, on what we’ve seen and warn that it must not happen again. We’ve seen photos of Emefiele desecrating the sacredness of the apex bank with postures of servitude. There is at least a photograph of him on bended knees, holding a jotter and a pen while a potentate dictated a to-do list to him. The tragedy is that the man receiving that prostration from our CBN governor did not even hold any position in government. He was powerful simply because he was an FOP (Friend of the President). Such men (and women) are common in our corridors of power. The new government will likely have its own FOPs soon, if it doesn’t already. Because CBN governorship is perhaps the juiciest post in Nigeria, Emefiele thought he would keep it by pouring ceaseless libation of obsequiousness to the priests of the president. And he succeeded so well that he got nine years of active service straddling two regimes that were not friends. Yet, after his failed coup against the new men in power, he did not have the sense to resign and flee. He thought the spell that sold him to Buhari (and Buhari to him) would do the same with Bola Tinubu. There must be something in that office that starves the brain of oxygen. Emefiele was always on his knees in the Villa. He wanted to remain and serve until he is tired of serving us. The Yoruba would look at such mendicant tenacity and say O ló danindanin m’ókùn orò (He held tight to the cord of wealth). But subservient people ultimately sell themselves into slavery. People who sacrifice everything noble to keep whatever job they think they have will lose more than that job.

There are arguments that the president cannot remove the CBN governor except in accordance with the law. That is true. But the CBN Act 2007 contains several grounds on which the CBN governor may lose his job. One of those grounds is “If they are guilty of serious misconduct in relation to their duties under the CBN Act.” And how do you establish ‘serious misconduct’ except through investigations? I think there is a clause in Emefiele’s suspension statement which described that presidential decision as a sequel to an ongoing investigation of his office. That is what you get when you have seen it all but do not know when to quit and how to quit. The tragedy of princes and their thrones is “to gain everything and lose everything in the space of a moment” (C.S. Pacat, author of Captive Prince).

Someone described Emefiele as arrogant. I never met him and so cannot validate that charge. But I know that there is something about very big positions with big money and big influence. They intoxicate the office holders. They birth very big egos. If you want to know how big that office is, ask to know the salary of the CBN governor and compare it with the salary of the president who appointed him. What are their allowances? The chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Shehu, said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily seven months ago that “the severance package of a CBN governor is higher than that of a sitting president.” How much is it? He didn’t tell us but he was diligent enough to educate us that some government officials got as high as N500 million as their severance package while “the president gets N10 million after his tenure.”

To whom much is given, much is expected. There is a historical reason why the CBN enjoys what it enjoys. But the bank has serially abused that reason, this democracy, the privileges and the freedom it confers. What is the job of the bank? Is it not to manage the economy of Nigeria in such a way that everyone would have a reason to live? But it deviates from its core duties. With impunity, it does politics and cuddles politicians. Emefiele’s predecessor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, pioneered that path. Unlike Emefiele who worshipped in the shrine of Buhari’s cabal, Sanusi openly romanced the opposition and damned the man who put him in power. There were reports the bank under him started doing what politicians do with money. Donation of cash and community projects here and there – like commercial banks doing CSR. A report said Sanusi was indeed queried for making “donations of N4 billion to Bayero University, Kano; N10 billion to Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; N500 million to the University of Benin; and N100 million to the Kano State government.” Femi Falana, SAN, at a time, issued a statement accusing that CBN governor of “diversion of public funds to promote his religious and political ambition.” Sanusi’s defence, according to a report, was that he made these interventions and others “with adequate approval from the board of his bank and President Goodluck Jonathan.” Like Emefiele, Sanusi was suspended by the president; he went to court, he lost and never appealed the judgement.

Beyond a perfunctory, political probe of Emefiele, I suggest a comprehensive reexamination of the entire legal and operational frameworks of that bank. How much should we continue to invest in its freedom? If freedom for it is desirable, then how do we ensure that the absolute power there does not continue to corrupt absolutely? To what extent should the president be involved in the appointment of the CBN governor for the bank to be insulated from partisan politics?

The subsisting law gives enormous powers and very sweet freedom to the bank and its omnipotent governor. But, is it not said that with great power comes great responsibility. Those wise words came from grand old witty Voltaire, and, later, from Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben. There is a variant credited to Eleanor Roosevelt who stressed that “freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being” and that “with freedom comes responsibility…For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.” Growing up takes place in the mind. For some people, no matter how much nutrients you pump into them, they remain what they want to be – midgets. Emefiele had everything he needed to serve Nigeria without undue interference, but he surrendered every jot of autonomy he had to persons we didn’t know and who did not want to know anyone outside their invidious bank of predatory worms. From May 29, 2015 to May 29, 2023, the man held Nigeria’s sacred cow for a rapacious clique of power sellers to milk in exchange for security of tenure. They gave him, and he enjoyed it. Now, because no empire lasts forever, that cabal is no more and the protege has fallen. There is something like that in Christianity: “Whoever chooses to save his life shall lose it…” Emefiele has eventually lost the job he feared to lose; he has also lost his freedom. Nine years ago, Sanusi suffered suspension as CBN governor. Last week, it was his successor’s turn to kiss the canvas. I do not envy who comes next.