Every country needs a McCain By Wole Olaoye

Every man dies but not every man really lives”, says William Wallace. Some people only stroll through life as faceless passengers, appendages, fence-sitters, or simply part of the landscape. The world doesn’t miss them when they expire.

But some deaths generate a global funeral train. That is why, even with Nigerian blood flowing in my veins, I count as one of the icons of legislative excellence, the recently deceased ‘maverick’ US Senator, John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 - August 25, 2018). Every country that aspires to greatness needs a McCain not only as a burning spear but also as a compass to navigate its way towards unabashed selflessness, stoicism in the face of vicissitudes, commitment to the cause of the underprivileged across ideological divides and faithfulness to family values.

Americans regard him as an authentic hero on account of his military service during which he suffered untold torture for five years as a Prisoner of War in the hands of the Vietnamese. He went on to become one of the iconic figures in the US Senate known for principles and straight, bare-knuckle talk. He was a catalyst for good but also an irritant to intellectual lilliputians and political carpetbaggers.

Because I wish my country well, I am looking forward to Nigeria producing its own McCain - a senator with a record of putting his life on the line in the service of the fatherland; whose driving force is patriotism and not budget-padding, sinfully over-bloated salaries and allowances, and highly distinguished notoriety for sleaze and violence.

I was ashamed the other day when a so-called Nigerian senator boasted that he had phoned the American and British ambassadors to revoke the visas of the members of the APC-controlled government suspected of instigating the insane DSS siege on the National Assembly. You see the slave mentality of the senator? America is his senior prefect even though he claims to be a ‘distinguished’ Nigerian senator. Our children must never look up to such charlatans as role models!

My heart went out to McCain’s family as I read his daughter’s tribute. I asked myself, when we close our eyes to join the ancestral realm, what really will the world say about us? Would we qualify for a word, a sentence, a paragraph, or even a chapter in the memoirs of fellow mortals?

Megan McCain mourned her father so touchingly: “I was with my father at his end, as he was with me at my beginning … His love and his care, ever present, always unfailing, took me from a girl to a woman - and he showed me what it is to be a man… All that I am is thanks to him. Now that he is gone, the task of my lifetime is to live up to his example, his expectations, and his love … He was a great fire who burned bright, and we lived in his light and warmth for so very long … John McCain, hero of the republic and to his little girl, wakes today to something more glorious ….”

Even political adversaries have come together to canonise John McCain. Former President George W. Bush who was McCain’s opponent in the 2000 GOP primaries, said: “Some lives are so vivid, it is difficult to imagine them ended. Some voices are so vibrant, it is hard to think of them stilled. John McCain was a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order.”

McCain died on the 9th anniversary of his Democratic friend Ted Kennedy’s death. Both men died  of glioblastomas, an extremely rare form of aggressive brain cancer.

Four other Democrats who held him in high esteem mourned as if he was family.

Barrack Obama: “… we shared, for all our differences, a fidelity to something higher - the ideals for which generations of Americans and immigrants alike have fought, marched, and sacrificed … Few of us have been tested the way John once was, or required to show the kind of courage that he did. But all of us canaspire to the courage to put the greater good above our own. At John’s best, he showed us what that means. And for that, we are all in his debt.

Jimmy Carter said: “John McCain was a man of honour, a true patriot in the best sense of the word. Americans will be forever grateful for his heroic military service and for his steadfast integrity as a member of the United States Senate….”

Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted: “As you go through life, you meet few truly great people. John McCain was one of them … He was a truth teller - never afraid to speak truth to power in an era where that has become all too rare.”

President Bill Clinton and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton wrote: “He was a skilled, tough politician … He frequently put partisanship aside to do what he thought was best for the country, and was never afraid to break the mould if it was the right thing to do.”

Not one to leave his t’s uncrossed, McCain had joined in planning his own funeral months before the end came. Presidents GW Bush and Barrack Obama will speak at the funeral. President Donald Trump (who once lampooned McCain’s POW ordeal and military career) is specifically asked NOT to attend.

Even in death, McCain the warrior lives on!

Maya Angelou famously said, If we lose love and self-respect for each other, this is how we finally die. Apparently, John Sidney McCain III cannot die.