A botched attempt to fix Nigeria
Unfortunately, the skewed results of the National Assembly elections held two weeks ago showed that we have a country but do not know what it takes to build a nation. Worse still, it would seem we either do not know what change means or we just wish it rather than work for it. In short, […]
Unfortunately, the skewed results of the National Assembly elections held two weeks ago showed that we have a country but do not know what it takes to build a nation. Worse still, it would seem we either do not know what change means or we just wish it rather than work for it. In short, the elections showed generally a renewal of mandates to pillage and plunder. Yet, anyone with foresight would know that these elections are the grand finale of the most serious battle for the soul of our country. Indeed, they are an epic epitomising the archetypal struggle between the forces of change and the domineering influence of the legion of doom. The latter has held our country in it’s vice grip for decades while a grinding nation yearns to break loose. But rather than rally every sinew in our collectivety for that liberty, most people have opted not just to maintain the status quo but to sell their birthrights and to mortgage the future of their children to the third and fourth generation for less than a mess of porridge.
Incredible deals have been suggested akin to mortgaging freedom for servitude and the beauty of heaven for some exotic garden in hell. To the apostles of ruse, those who aspire to lead our country need not possess any shred of moral political fibre. It would suffice that they could negotiate their way into power thereby compromising on the need for change. Really? Have we descended so low that those who aspire to get into political office should sacrifice their principles without scruples? Little wonder that the champion Christian and Muslim rulers of today belong to the most heinous fraternities whose teachings and practices are antithetical to the tenets of the religion that they publicly professed. This contradiction has led to a rise in bizarre ritual killings not even known in pre-historic Nigeria. It explains the level of decadence that permeates society and reflects the contradictions in our land which has the highest number of worship centres.
In politics, elections are not designed to be the sole entry point to power; they should be the theatre of surgical operation that a society desirous of engrafting on its festering chancre a new skin needs prelude to cure. It should be obvious why Nigeria in spite of its vast resources is a sinking ship. Its slide is manifest in the degradation of social and physical infrastructure – bad roads, stinking hospitals, dilapidated courtrooms and a crumbled educational system. Our physical environment is one of the most polluted in the developing world unable to properly dispose of its waste. Power generation which is taken for granted by smaller countries is politicised. Electricity is generated in paperwatts which does not light bulbs or turn electric motors. Imported generating sets have become the real source of electricity rather than the traditional backup.
What shall we say of roads that have appeared on budget papers for eons but remain impassable? What shall we say about the insecurity of lives and property occasioned by night raids by armed robbers or avoidable deaths due to diseases or ethno-religious skirmishes which take the lives of innocent passerby who know nothing about our wars? What shall we say about kidnapping and scams?
For twelve years, this country has been hamstrung by a cabal that continues to milk its resources while sowing the embers of ethnic and religious discord. The determining factor of who should lead us ought to be such people’s disposition to these and other issues and not their so-called religious, ethnic, or regional affinity. Leadership ought to be determined by a concrete understanding of the problems of Nigeria and a convincing blueprint to addressing them; on accountability and not some pie in the sky affiliation. But the first results show that we are largely voting on ethnic considerations and negotiating on the platter of graft.
Leaders who are ready to do any deal to clinch power or remain without any commensurate performance ought to receive their sentence at the polling booth from Kaura Namoda to Calabar, Lagos to Kano, but the contrary is the case. Kleptocracy has graduated from eroding our political fabrics to eating up the fabrics of unity that we have fought for and sustained for fifty years. We hope that it rotates to our ethnic or religious side without asking what’s in it for us as a people. Poverty is the common denominator in our country today breaking every boundary imaginable. It grinds the north with its historical cling to power as it does in Ogoniland which has never produced a president or governor; evidence that nobody has benefitted from graft and corruption in spite of having a 36 state structure and nearly 800 councils.
The emerging political antics; the manipulation of the electorate and the electoral process show that we have learnt nothing and momentarily fooled ourselves into thinking that all is well. This calls for penitent tears and inconsolable mourning, but our oppressors have coaxed us into laughing at our self inflicted calamities. When the soporific effects of our celebrations are over, we shall be left in the lurch while they return to their walled vaults to continue business unabated.
The elections would be won and lost with the status quo remaining. Our premature celebrations would turn sour and we would be nudged back to reality like a bunch of drunks. Those who win or steal the votes at these polls would run their victory lap and then continue to feather their individual nests while the majority would return to the reality that has tried people’s level of tolerance and led to wanton murder. It is too bad to note that where some see a cancer that needs a radical surgical operation, others see mere acne. It would not be long before we realise that acne medication can never cure a gangrenous melanoma. Yet it would seem that these elections are perhaps the last-ditch effort we have to fix Nigeria, but we have allowed ourselves to be collectively manipulated to let it slip through our thumbs.