Permit me this week, to ruminate on the five-letter word that is so easy to pronounce yet so difficult to define. Power. This is obviously against the background of two events in Africa – Senegal and Mali in the last one week.

What is Power? Every dictionary I consulted ends with different, yet familiar meanings. Some dictionaries define power as a man’s control over others and activities. Some say it is the right or authority of a person or group to do something. Yet, many others reduce it to mere  physical ability or strength.

In other words, power is equated with control, authority, ability, influence, energy, country (as in world powers) and even electricity as in supply of electricity.

It appears there is no clear cut definition, probably because power sounds abstract. Dele Omotunde’s definition, however seems to put that puzzle to rest, at least in the context of political power. Power, according to him, connotes “man’s influence over his fellow man, that is, his ability to effect actions and produce alterations in other people’s behaviour.

But Napoleon 1 was perhaps more concise by comparing power with a mistress. The late French Emperor said in a conversation with Pierre Louis Roederer in 1804, “power is my mistress. I have worked too hard in conquering her to allow anyone to take her from me or even to covet her”.

The mistress metaphor is very apt here. And whatever might have informed Napoleon’s statement two hundred and eight years ago seems to have infiltrated the brains of the 21st century political leaders.

Virtually every man woos power, covets her, protects her, guards her jealously, and  keeps her, if possible, for ever.

Power is so tempting that only few men of power permit any flirtation with power by any rival. And any wink by anyone at their lovely mistress is equivalent of a coup or what Ray Ekpu calls “venal sin which must be met with muscular reaction”.

But again, many philosophers and writers tend to convince us that there is nothing in power. For example, Anthony Sampson, in his book, “The New Anatomy of Britain”, equates power with “a dead sea fruit, when you achieve it, there’s nothing there”.              But how come many men struggle to acquire power at all cost, and  keep it, if possible, for ever? May be there is something in that dead sea fruit Sampson and the rest of us who have not tasted power do not see or feel.

How else could one explain the ambitions of many consummate weilders of power such as Adolf Hitler of Germany, Mobutu  Sese Seko of Zaire, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Eyadema Gnassingbe of Togo, Laurent Gbagbo of Ivory Coast and our own Sanni Abacha, and if you like, add IBB and OBJ, who did everything humanly possible to remain eternal weilders of power. Never mind that a good chunk of these men of power come from Africa.

There are still others in the world today who have been clinging to power for many decades, yet not in a hurry to leave power. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has been there for 32 years;  78-year old Paul Biya of Cameroon for 30 years; Yoweri Museveni of Uganda for 26 years and King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand for 63 years. The list is endless.

Men of power  often forget, or better still, ignore the fact that no single person has an absolute monopoly of power; no single person holds power for ever. If you are in doubt, how many men of power have the United States or USSR produced? Five? Ten? Twenty? See, you are scratching your head, lost at their count.

Recently, Abdoulaye Wade, the once popular Senegalese President tried to renew his mandate for the third term after ruling for 12 years. He did everything he could to have his way, including going for the jugular of the opposition and even his country’s constitution. But Wade becomes the butt of his ambition’s ribald joke. The Senegalese dumped him, on Sunday, for his protégé and former Prime Minister, Macky Sall. This goes to say that, it is the people’s will and not the rulers’ wish that will surely prevail.

One wonders what a 85-year old man still wants in power after 12 years in office. Is it money? It can’t be, for he had all the chances in the last 12 years to loot his country dry if he had wanted. Is it women? Certainly not, for the defeated Senegalese president had all the paraphernalia of power to acquire as many as possible. Or is it for the love of his country? May be not. Or what ideas, what wisdom, what contributions still flow from the brain and vein of the 85-year old man? Power, certainly, it is.

Power is like an aphrodisiac, it enchants; like alcohol, it intoxicates. It is the same ambition to acquire power at all cost that made some young military officers vote with their guns in Mali, last Thursday.

One would have expected Wade at his age to play the statesman like Mandela. Mandela had every opportunity to go for second-term and even longer. But he chose the path of wisdom. For that singular act, Mandela today bestrides South Africa and the world at large like a colossus.

The question is: What is in that power that Mandela resisted that others could not?Power! The envy of all.

Boye Salau