08 Aug 2008 |
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When will the stakeholders take control of this country christened Nigeria? Can it be when all has fallen apart without any way for any amends? Is it when gun-men or are they military take over and abuse us again? Is it when all the infrastructures, rule of law, and our morality completely disintegrate? Or is it when we realize that inspite of our current earning capacity, Nigeria is in ruins and the country is burning? Nigerians are their own worst enemy. The fact is that, even if Jesus comes to Nigeria today, he may just be murdered as he was during Nazarene days. Jesus came to perform miracles in Nazareth when all sinners were to be saved, but impediments within the city dwellers blocked the making of Nazareth heaven on earth. Because the almighty loved Nigeria so much, He provided resources: arable soil that produced groundnuts, cotton, Palm Oil and Cocoa; Coal that was a proud source of her electricity; and now crude oil sold to the world and to be used to build Nigeria infrastructurally. But then, the dead spirit of the citizens blocks the nation’s call to greatness. We started our sojourn to nationhood with bloody coups for whose history many have been trying to re-write. We disenfranchise the North because of the lopsided killing of their leaders and as a payback, the North revenged with a pogrom visited on the Easterners living in the North. Unfortunately, this resulted in a full scale civil war that was sold to Nigerians as a war that must be fought to keep Nigeria one. We have been suffering from the war syndrome ever since. We came up with Federal character because we were incapable of seeking genuine solutions. We camouflaged our pains in Federal character mantra. We sub-divided ourselves into states. The States have morphed into a resource sharing and tribal conclaves. We sell the resources without adding values and improving ourselves but rather, we exacerbated our differences. With the states, we have not reduced the friction that results in the management of ourselves and our resources. We mortgaged our morality and our spirituality for temporal power, influence and authority and we mismanaged the only resource left – crude oil. Those that did less work became the landlords and the most influential in our nation. We began the establishment of godfathers and we were set into the abyss of hell through massive corruption. Even at it, the leaders with stolen mandates are unable to bring the nation together because doing so would mean cutting off the lifeline of corruption which seem to be the only industry that is constantly recruiting and hiring the able bodies. Forty-two after the pogroms, young Nigerians who never took part nor felt the effect of the civil war are still discussing the war in graphic terms and still creating hate that their parents planted in their minds just simply due to the distorted stories passed down from one generation to another. Instead of learning from the mistakes of the past, we are fueling the discord of tomorrow to the detriment of the nation. Nigerians became masters in group-think. Unfortunately for the nation, various constituents told their stories of the Biafran war. Some of the stories are very touchy and compelling but without but without leaving rooms for learning the effect of war by the younger generation in order to improve a shared experience. Some told the story to keep perpetuating hatred and fostering ignorance on the nation for their political expediencies. History which is a narrative of past events is, by and large, supposed to have within it a lesson or two for the next generation. The Biafrans war story has no such magical opening but rather, we established convoluted stories with each side telling the old wives’ tales. The issue here is how do we regroup as brothers and sisters and move our nation forward before the wicked amongst us beckon to China or America to start the next phase of slavery? The storm of discord is brewing, the enemies of our nation are celebrating the day when they can use our disunity to encroach on our nation. After all, the developed nation may not need our crude oil again in the very near future because of their need for renewable energy which they are capable of developing. Even after forty seven years we have no clue on how to unite ourselves to form a nation where no citizens will ever be oppressed. Earlier on in our nation’s destiny, Nigeria was a nation of ideas, of brilliant management, of active and completed projects, and of lofty goals. Today, except for snippets of our past glory, we are just nations of sharing without adding values, of carting away loots to other nations, and of neglecting of our infrastructures to our peril. We have become a nation that believes that life is simple, brute-force works, instant-gratification is the answer to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise. Our perception is that Yar ‘Adua has Northernized every ministry. Is this new in the history of Nigeria? It is in fact not new but what has Nigerians of great minds done to change the political equation for the benefit of the majority. Was it not OBJ who stood Nigerian history on its head by his attempt to re-write the political equation in his own image at the detriment of the whole nation but also to maintain the status quo? The house that OBJ built is crumbling and fast too. NO condition is permanent, we are told but it seems, for awhile, Nigeria’s conditions was permanently hopeless as set forth by the nation’s past leaders who made sure that the few govern the many to such a hopeless end. There are no jobs for the healthy and strong youth. There are no good hospitals to mend the sick. There are no good roads to transport human and agricultural products. There is energy to light the cities and hamlets and to light the mind and soul of citizens in order to think of a better tomorrow. There is no hope that our moral scar will be healed but there have been ample opportunities to rape the treasury, to cause insecurity of lives and properties. The multi-national companies use our created insecurities to call for more security votes and hence transfer our resources out. How can a nation with vast human and material resources be the joke of the world? Why blame Yar ‘Adua? If truth must be told, Baba Iyabo must be called to explain his strategy for minimizing the potential of Nigeria. It is time for the South – Westerners to rein in OBJ to explain why he imposed Yar ‘Adua on the nation but still have the temerity to insist that neither he, Iyabo or his surrogates to be protected from any probe as the new untouchables. Even the untouchables in the US were probed by the FBI and made to account for their sins. If the nation allows the untouchables to permeate, such a nation must accept the unsavory activities of the untouchables. The sad thing about our leaders is that they are not helping us to move forward from our reference datum of 1966 coup. They are so afraid of their shadows and of their yesterdays. Instead of making sure that their tomorrow is planned for, they loot beyond any sense of normal decorum. They spend billions of our Naira on fetishes, on staying put in office and on believing in the gods rather than on Jesus and Mohammed which most profess to follow. In retrospect, it is time for Nigerians to seek in their leaders non-pretenders who can fight for citizens. Can Yar ‘Adua, inspite of his imperfections, help raise the nation’s moral consciousness, reduce corruption, rebuild our infrastructures and hold all public servants accountable especially the Governors that often made to believe that they are gods and untouchables. These Governors are just mortal men and women, hence, we must see them in that light and nothing else. Moreover, Yar ‘Adua men must never fail to remember lessons learnt in the plight of Bode George of the OBJ regime, them men who thought they were invincible. The measure of greatness of a plural nation like ours is not in never falling but in standing up each time she falls. Nigeria has been knocked down through the Biafran war, the coups and counter-coups which many have used to divide us but if we fail to stand up for ourselves and our children posterity will never forgive us. We are all Nigerians, we all contributed to the hopelessness of this nation and we all need to stand up and be counted to fix this nation of ours that is filled with milk and honey. Is Nigeria capable of putting a man on the moon? You bet if we change our nasty attitude. Surely, our story of hopelessness as a nation started with the 1966 coup but it must not end with a sour narration. Let our redemption having passed through the inner sanctuary of coups and counter coups not be defined and allowed to determine our place in the global market place of ideas.
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