2019: THE BIRTH OF THE BEAUTIFUL ONES

Though I didn’t live in the era of slavery, colonialism or even military dictatorship, yet I know they were and still remain the ugly pages in the scripts of our national story. Whence brutality and maiming were rewards for truth; wealth and glory a prize to the corrupt. Then, we were told, people ate but were not satisfied, drank but were still thirsty. At that time I was told, treasuries were heaped and spending was the problem. Trust was rare but hope was near. Hope for something better, for people who’d be happier. Hope that at last our beautiful ones would be born, and this time, they were to remain beautiful and not pricked by the thorns of the past; of hurt and pains, of fears and shame. Whence smiles would return to a people who have known only tears. This hope has been the heritage shared by generations waiting to see the Promised Land. I used to share in this hope. But now, I just wonder! 

Is this the Promised Land? A land that’s a litter bin of big, small and aspiring dictators, where only the privileged lay upon the throne. Where politics takes after the Roman colosseum, with the commoner raided and believers of true democracy crushed. Perhaps the beautiful ones are still doing sit-ups in the belly of time, but I know for sure that the powerful ones are born! They are here. They’re the owners of Nigeria and they’re no longer hiding in the shadows. They’re out in the sun, abducting our destiny and future; daring the wounded to challenge. If you’re asking where they are? I don’t know. But I can tell you where to look.

Go to Lagos where you’ll find those who uproot and enthrone kings; to Kano where a former governor retires into the senate while his son-in-law takes over the baton; to Imo where one of them fights hard for his daughter’s husband to take after him; to Yobe, where a senator who is a former governor is married to a minister, that contested a seat in the House of Reps with her step-son and won. If you aren’t satisfied, you may want to visit the sole aspirant of a party that pulled 15.426millon votes in the last general elections but miraculously acquired 14.8million votes in just concluded primaries. Is God not good? Who dares challenge this lion from the tribe of Daura? Da emperor cum conqueror of Nigeria. Da latest WAEC ambassador.  The “messiah” who was, is and will be! And when you think you’ve seen enough, you meet the Party that claims to promote the Democracy of the People yet shut the people’s voice with money, both earned and stolen. Some others borrow to fund projects and bless “new” indigenous companies with the contracts; they pay in the morning and at night, their phones buzz with credit alert as they lay down to count their blessings. Soon we will beg them to help pay off national debts from their personal accounts.

An ambush was set for democracy soon after the last lap of the military and we allowed it to be captured once again by they who own everything. Those who are richer than their states. Thus, from colonial times to the military and now to democracy, the story has rejected change; instead it’s been covered with thicker cloaks made of gold. Now, no one complains of being unsatisfied because even the half, is absent. Instead of been part-thirsty, they are dying of drought. Perhaps I’m not as far away from the past as I thought. We’re all so close to it but still, we don’t get it. WE HAVE OPTIONS! We need to abandon the ones they present to us. The choice between two 70-something year olds, whom we’ve tested and scored. I really wish to see an end to the comparison between the evil past and the evil present. What I want is to know what it means to be clean and free. 2019 surely is a birthing year, but what do you want to see come out? The ones we’ve known all our years through history books and experience or the ones who’ll bring our hopes to light? Don’t you want some fresh air? Why not open the windows? Or don’t you want to witness the birth of the beautiful ones?

The mantra for CHANGE and the CHANGELESS

For a very long time, i made up my mind that i wasn't going to discus, either vocally, or in writing the issues bordering around the socio-political cum economic climate in Nigeria. But with the recent aggravated but yet neglected tension rising in the hills of our enclave, i have decided to resume my thoughts....i can no longer hide how i feel about the situation. Afterall, it is still my country and perhaps the only one i might ever call home!....

 

You see, Aung Kyi opines that it is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subjects to it.

It is no longer news that Nigeria has been diagnosed with the disease of bad leadership and the absence of democratic culture of civility. With this virus holding the wings of change in Nigeria, one is poised to search for a workable democratic political practice based on equality and fairness as a believable foundation for sustained national development and peaceful inter-group relations. But reluctance quickly creeps in with the emergence of some microscopic few who are self-anointed and enthroned to steer the waters of the political sea of Nigeria. And the questions come: In the face of a promised change, would these “few” outgrow their fear of losing power and allow the apron strings of development be let loosed from their evil grasp? Is there a micro possibility that these “power brokers” who have sucked dry the resources of Nigeria like “Dracula” will stop seeking from where to tap?

You see, there’s been arguments as to whether Nigeria can really move ahead with or without the termed “guidance” of the “states men” given that we are a failed or rather, a failing state; except for the few dotted years, since political independence. We’ve been experiencing the development of underdevelopment despite years of self-governance, wherein government policies, programs and strategies have been only beneficial to the “stakeholders”. And in order to continue benefiting from their own plots, these vampires cling to the old convenience of cross-carpeting; which has become the defining expression in our kind of political pragmatism. When they see the green light for opportunity, in another political party, they flock to it. And if they are too ashamed to embrace the opposition they devise new means (either as “reformation” or “factions” of the old). We must recognize this as chop-chop politics. It is the only kind of politics they know; it is the only kind of politics we practice.

Since we have about a year to go to elections, you see them busy with their shameful but celebrated charade – decamping across the major political parties. A question that keeps coming to mind is this: is there really anything new? Any visible progress when they get there? Because amidst all of these “changes”, we see scourges of bad leadership and signs of darkened moods everywhere in this nation. There is spiritual exhaustion arising from national inability to self-actualize. There is indigestion of old ideas resulting from absence of elite circulation and rigidity of the ruling class. There are psyco-moral dislocations caused by economic hardship and aborted ambitions and expectations. And more so, the exodus of a people’s hope, which is making more dim, the light at the tunnel’s end.

But then I ask: do we really have changes in governance or what we have is a recycling of stupidity and political rigidity at best? Will changing clothes make a dirty man clean? Or it would rather make the new dirty? Do they really want change or more power from new sources? If they do, why can’t they stay put and fight for the changes needed within the same party or better still, be the change themselves? I think it’s high time that legislature banning this shameful but celebrated practice of cross-carpeting, be considered. Because unless it’s banned, we would continue drinking this tasteless old wine, in new wine skins.

I know that at the end of every tunnel, there is an assumption of a light. Though this axiom may lack epistemic proof, it leaves us with some hope for a brighter, better and accessible future. We don’t need new or reformed parties. What we need is a change in the culture of passive leadership into inspirational participatory leadership that would involve the “oga” rolling up his shirtsleeves to ensure the work gets done. Unless there’s a firm overhauling of the attitude of the dominant actors in the national stage; and a new designed blueprint to restructure a neo-political class, the light at the end of this tunnel would continue shinning beyond our grasp; because for me, change is not tenable when the changeless are being recycled.

This is simple logic!

THE EXODUS OF HOPE…..ONLY IN NIGERIA?

 

Have you ever wondered why there are so many mad people in Lagos? Or so many beggars in Ibadan, or so many angry people in Warri? Or so many kidnappers in both Lagos and Port Harcourt? Or so many prostitutes in Calabar and Benin?  Or so many child marriages and child beggars in Kaduna, Sokoto and the Boko-haram torn Maiduguri? Or why our police always have "change"? Or why Nigerians are generally hot-tempered? That even at the slightest provocation they are ready to “burn at stake”? I was in a public transport some days ago and saw a woman vehemently insulting and pouring torrents on a bus conductor over N10 change. And I just thought to myself, where did it all begin? How did we get here?  Well, maybe at the birth or naming ceremony of this nation. But like others, it didn’t start as a gory tale, but as a fairy-tale which ended rather abruptly. My version is not of history but of state of being…….

In her moment of creativity, Flora Shaw, the concubine of Lord Lugard, assumed the opportunity of a lifetime, and perhaps sitting on the Cathedra of modern politics, gallant with royalty, her appearance, the splendor of a queen, her audience spell bound with great eagerness to hear her speak; in a convivial atmosphere, she proclaimed the name: Nigeria! Hence, a nation was born (or rather named). An entity, whose default configuration is still uncertain. In her words, “for a people so strong, so diverse, so nourishing by culture and nature, they would tighter form a formidable brand”. Indeed a formidable brand!

Since the naming ceremony of this nation we’ve found ourselves submerged in an unfavorable socio-economic climate that is characterized by a crop of clueless, aimless, visionless, and unfocused gang of looters posing as leaders. There is the incessant cry for secession by the Biafrans, the cries of oppression, repression and subjugation by the Niger Deltans, the threat of the Arewa youths, the absence of our president for months and counting, the undiminishing rate of unemployment staring the youths in their faces, the dearth of concern greeting the educational sector, the epileptic provision of basic amenities to the masses, the exploitative features of religious groups, the diminution of our cherished naira and the seeming down turn of the nation’s economy; yet, on a daily basis, “so-called” leaders soar on high in Arik, British and Qatar airways. Injustice is canonized and justice thus trampled upon.

Nigeria! Who can really understand her? The more you try, the more confused, confounded and sometimes angry you become. Perhaps this explains the shared anger of all citizens. Everything about her defies natural logic. From all prospects she should be one of the most endowed territories on earth, brimming with the Aristotelian potentiality of becoming an economic, social and political base for all to look up to, (well, they look up to us, just not in the positive sense). In the midst of abundance, Nigerians swim in the Mississippi of lack and abhorrent goggled poverty. You will find in Nigeria…..

-          A politician consulting God before stealing public funds and doing thanksgiving afterwards (the lighting and thunder that will hit you eh, will come from Sambisa forest!).

-          In this nation the Code of Conduct Bureau is used as the cage for political dogs.

-          Only in Nigeria would someone win an election he did not contest for.

-          Our economy seems to be on a cruising speed yet hunger stares at citizens like a confused monkey waiting for banana to fall (not that Davido type though).

-          Only in Nigeria you will pay electricity bills while using candles and lantern. (Infact I went to one of their offices recently, and found that they were using a generator set; I gave up immediately-no hope!).

-          It is only Nigeria that takes more than 4000 megawatts of power to generate darkness.

-          Only in Nigeria is it normal for a 70 year old man to be a “youth leader” and representative. (When he should be their “grand-patron”).

-          Only in Nigeria is truth on permanent holiday.

There are more vicious things that you and I know but can’t talk about for “fear of the Jews”. (Wait first o, where is Evans and Mr. President???). I know not of any country that practically celebrates clowns (unless of cause the “Trump-iac” US) and vicious men as leaders, (from the famous “Ajeku e anioje” to the “Saraki-ic plague”). Only in this country will honesty be stigmatic and looting being nifty. (Regardless of the newest job offer of “blowing whistles”). It continues……

-          Only in Nigeria would Abacha’s loot fly to Otta farm, while the death of “Air Nigeria” and “Virgin Nigeria” is still being mourned.

-          In Nigeria, a single senate committee budget rubs shoulders with state budgets. (Where we have tires of committee in the senate established to check if the president’s dinner is safe and they get paid for drinking bottled water).

-          Only in Nigeria would you see the budget for refreshment in Aso Rock, being more than the entire budget of the ministry of agriculture. (I wonder if they order their eggroll or doughnut from heaven).

-          Only in Nigeria would you find the dessert area being more populated than the temperate regions. (You won’t understand until election time).

-          Only in this geographical and demographical enclave called Nigeria would you find 160 million people nearly hopeless!

Where did it go wrong? At what time exactly? Who are the players of this game? Well, these are primordial and fundamental questions that must characterize the daily lives of all well-meaning citizens. Nonetheless, in the midst of all these, we are termed the “happiest” people on the face of the earth, one of the richest countries with the poorest peoples, one of the 20 largest economies in the world when more than 50 million citizens are homeless, hungry and forlorn. What an irony! Was this ever anticipated at the naming ceremony of this nation? I think I now see the reason that woman was angry; but was it the fault of the conductor that the nation was messed up? Well, I guess we are Nigerians and …….“that’s how we roll”.