SLEEPING BEAUTY, NOW SNORING
In two months, hopefully, Nigeria elects a new President. Unless the desert overruns the ocean, he and his vice-president – in the tradition of African democracies – will rule our nation for the next eight years. In which case, that Vice-President will lead the team that succeeds this one.
In other words, the two who take the oath next May own us for the better part of the next two decades. In itself, that is not a bad thing, and we hope that whoever triumphs at the polls is a Nigerian who aims to serve his country and not his greed, or his ego.
The same concerns apply to the 36 states, where gubernatorial battles are also scheduled for April. A lot of new faces are in virtually every race, as it should be. In the past eight years, we have seen various kinds of people in elected office.
Some of them are tall, some short. Some are very dark of skin, and some, of lighter hues. Some are arrogant men, and some, rather humble. Some are educated, some are near-illiterates. Some are God-fearing, at least one is a pimp.
Some of them wear suits some, agbada. Some of them have applied themselves to their oath of office; most have forgotten both oath and office. Some of these men know how to read, some of them prefer tea-leaves. A few seem to be decent people, most are thieves.
There is only one face missing in all this: one kind we have yet to see: the Nigerian woman. I am amazed that given the size of our population and our political history, the Nigerian woman is still timidly loitering in the sidelines of power.
In the major political parties, the Nigerian woman is not a factor, and she raises her voice neither in outrage nor to demand the microphone. Party big-wigs speak as though they are a one-gender gang. Small surprise then—isn’t it—that in none of these parties was a woman remotely thought of as leadership material.
Nearly 50 years of independence, and our top female political figure will again be the First Lady. As usual, she will make a complete mess of it because, rather than engage and encourage her husband to serve with honesty and vigour, she will set herself up as President of the Governors’ Wives, or administer a “charity”. Nearly 50 years later, the Nigerian woman is still timidly serving tea and coffee in the public sphere, lying in the political bed just as she has made it. She is waiting for Master to come home. When he barks, she will say, dutifully, weakly, “Yes sah!”
I would never have believed this.
RE: ‘THE MESSAGE OF SINGAPORE’
Felix Ifeanyi Uzoukwu (fuzoukwu@student.gsu.edu): [Your column "The Message of Singapore,” (January 28, 2007] was a disgrace. Are you suggesting that Nigerians should be disrespected and killed abroad just because they go through similar ordeals at home? Take a look at the example of the United States. Inside the US, Americans are shown little respect by the authorities, there is death penalty and in some cases mistakenly applied, Katrina exposed even more, a man was released the other day in Georgia after spending 21 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, all these take place inside the US, but when an American is entangled abroad, The US unleashes every resource at its disposal to defend their citizen. The US could even go to war just to free one of their own.
So, the way we treat ourselves should not embolden any foreigner to treat us that way. (I am not suggesting that we should not treat ourselves better). Consequently the argument you advanced in that piece fails way short of what people like me expect from you.
Danny King (danielkings377@hotmail.com), China: Tochi was just unlucky because he is only one of thousands. Many Nigerians here in Asia are animals. The Yoruba have a saying: “You are called a thief and you're playing with the baby goat”. When our peoplethey get here they find out that Nigeria is even better in some ways. The crime rate of Nigerians here is too high for the government to ignore because this is not a lawless state like Nigeria. I hope God can help to change the minds of some of them so that those of us who have legal business can have visa to stay.
Francis Afolalu Babatunde (tundebabas2000@hotmail.com): Your article was characteristically analytical and incisive but I think you were one sided or you simply failed to capture the entire scenario. The one other message you left out was Tochi's desire to get rich quick by making 1 million dollars!!! What of if he had been successful, he would have joined Nigeria's millionaires' club...never mine the excuse he does not know he was carrying heroine!!! Nigeria's youths have to learn virtues such as hard work and perseverance. Tochi is a bad example for our young ones.
Majid Abdul (kadioke@aol.com): Many Nigerians, including myself, were hoodwinked by Obasanjo to believe in him. I was even one of the defenders of his then third term agenda but with the benefit of hindsight it was good that that project failed miserably. He and his gang may have succeeded in robbing our people blind, but they have written their names in dirt in the book of ignominy. Their evil deed shall follow them to their grave. There comes a moment when money is nothing and image is everything. Obasanjo has sold his image for some lucre (I do not really know what he needs all that money for at his age) and he will forever be looked upon as a common thief, just like IBB and Abacha. You can imagine the value of respect accorded Mandela all over the world.
Lolade Lamide (lolade007@gmail.com): Do our leaders read these articles? I definitely believe they do not. The human conscience is muscular but it also has a threshold to which it can do or bear evil nature. The threshold of conscience of our politicians has been overly extended.
However, your article offers compelling reasons to beat the conscience back into the original threshold. That was the threshold exemplified by those who led us to independence. That is the same threshold being seriously defended by Singaporean President, S. R. Nathan, the Prime Minister Lee Loong and Chief Justice Yong Pung in refusing pleas to spare the life of Tochi.
One more point: how can you make Nigerian leaders take building Nigeria seriously when their own children carry the passports of the developed countries?
John Adah (adajohn@yahoo.com): I am a Nigeria-trained medical doctor (from the Middle Belt) presently working in the Caribbean. Every soul is precious, but it is unfortunate that most of our leaders are so egocentric in their attitude and governance they have succeeded in taking the country backward.
Charles Ogundade (aderantitade@optusnet.com.au): I read your opinion on the hanging of Tochi with deep sorrow. We have everything to make our nation work but we have failed to use it. I live with my family in Australia and have worked here for a few years now. Anytime I read about happenings back home on the Internet I remind myself that Nigeria is a failed state.
The Australian government manages the nation’s affairs only on taxes and yet the average citizen is very happy to be Australian. Few of us that are foreigners always struggle to become citizens after two years of permanent residency because we know the future is secure with that. I was a nurse in a federal hospital for seven years in Nigeria yet I could not even afford to buy a car and it took me more than two years of serious savings before I could even rent a room. Here, however, I had not even worked for six months before I bought my first car not on mortgage, but in cash. Moreover, I can afford all the basic things of life.
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