A Part

You will be surprised that many of those who are opposing Obasanjo’s 3rd term may eventually adopt the same precept if they became president. It is called struggle in our land. An Abubakar looks up and finds a Segun snarling at him. No human wants others to bypass them along the success rough road hence a can of worms will be opened.

They would strip themselves naked in the market against common sense. It doesn’t matter as long as people see their madness as part of the struggle. Onlookers tolerate this sort of behaviour – by holding clothes for them – because doing so will advance whatever their own struggle.   

There is no respite for human beings. This is because the spirit of any struggle is hyperactive. It does not give room for blissful sleep. We scramble for the best position. We trek from North down South, from West to East. We must fight to show a human in us. So don’t blame the so-called intellectuals who would prostrate before a Badamasi. Or even those jeguduragadu (good for nothing) who prefer King Aremu Okikiola, the OluNiger of Nigeria, to die for his country instead of simply retiring to “our” Ota Farm. It is part of the struggle.

 There is of course a sharp difference in the course of our struggle. Some are moderate, some are desperate, some are naive, and some are greedy. Interestingly, those who tend to pursue their own struggle recklessly always end up as failure. Abacha, the man who ruled Nigerians with tempestuous hatred, and Saddam Hussein, former Iraqi ruler serve as typical example. Had warlord Charles Taylor known his reckless struggle was leading him to The Hague, he’d have chosen the moderate path.   

Think about the struggle between Lion of Zion, Ojukwu and Gowon, a former Nigerian head of state. Both were young men whose great ambition caused the death of millions because none of them was ready to compromise their struggle, otherwise failure become them forever. As you think, you should ask yourself why young Gowon renegade on his promise to handover to civilian government in those days. He must also have dreamt of dying for Nigeria like the incumbent one. Struggle often intoxicates its victim.

Human struggle it is. Perhaps this shed light on why our sports ambassadors would be willing to change their nationality instead of fully clothed in green-white-green pledge. They would rather struggle to be Spanish or Portuguese or Australian or American than remain Nigerians, a name they think has uncanny way of killing that particular struggle. What of those of us who scatter around the globe? It’s part of the fight that will never end. It is a meaningless struggle. But it is our struggle. Struggle of imposition! Of becoming! Struggle…fight…struggle!

One would have expected those who have reached the top of the ladder to pause, and then thank their God they have made it. No, the rule of success seems much more than expiation or satisfaction. Economists sum up our woe in terms of insatiable. Perhaps this explains why African rulers upon the wealth they have accumulated with their pilfering fingers still want more.

Parents also play significant role in our struggle to climb the ladder of life. For example, no parents would advise their jewel to choose to become a cleaner, porter, or driver. All parents want their children to struggle to have a lot of money or valuable possessions, to be a doctor, engineer, lawyer, computer wizard, journalist, and other plum jobs or professions. One American rapper puts it succinctly, “Get rich or die trying”.

Now you know why the president and his vice are at each other’s throat. It is bound to happen in an environment decorated with reckless struggles. The rule of struggle is about self, and the more reason your surroundings are beautifully designed with what you call hypocrites and sycophants. Now you know why critics or journalists, our last hope have gradually become unpredictable fellows. It is struggle of life. And it will never end.

You probably know now why someone like Ibrahim thinks Nigeria is his inheritance. That he or any other “owners” of Nigeria must reclaim their throne after that famous step-aside theatre of comedy when Nigerians forced him to vamoose to his Minna palace. You may have heard that his disciples have vowed to drag him to court if he failed to usurp power comes 2007. Gosh, reckless struggle knows no shame.

Or you still don’t know why a Dariye or a Tafa or Alamco would prefer to tuck money in their cheeks and tummy? Now you know why Nigerian senators want to be paid for life. Perhaps it is such struggle that temporarily turned a royal father to an errand father. Now you know why a septuagenarian would enrol at a university for undergraduate course.

It might be the same struggle that forces people to sing the usual song, “I like challenge” without proper context of the phrase. It is better to be seen as one who has not lost the struggle than accept “failure”. Interesting, isn’t it? How, in the process, human beings have eventually become slave to their cherished desires.

Even nations struggle against each other in order to be, or in order to remain the best. Palestine vs Israel, America vs Iraq, India vs Pakistan, Chechnya vs Russia and so on. Also, Nigeria has its own share of such struggle. For instance, North South dichotomy, Niger-Delta unsettled mess, politicians behaving like thugs and so on.

 Likewise you should ask yourself the following questions. Why is arms proliferation necessary? Why are young men and women ending up as kidnappers or 419ers? What breeds suicide bombers? Why has “terrorism” been able to attract such huge followers? Why politicians, especially Nigerian politicians seem to have lost their senses? Why is it the same actors and actresses who have done so little for the emancipation of their people still on the Africa’s big screen? Why should a cartoon in far away Denmark cost innocent Nigerians their lives?

It is all part of what society has imposed on us. We must struggle to be, to be part of the struggle, to be somebody, to be successful. The struggle of life seems to be saying that end justifies the means. It is a confused world. It is a mad world. The struggle of life haunts us until our dying breath.

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 19.04.2006 22:29