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!
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