A declaration in the rivers of blood

The declaration was a major national fanfare where hundreds of employed and unemployed Nigerians were assembled in relatively large numbers and as usual sang the praises of the president and his government and said, there was nothing as good that has ever happened to Nigeria than the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan as president and that […]

The declaration was a major national fanfare where hundreds of employed and unemployed Nigerians were assembled in relatively large numbers and as usual sang the praises of the president and his government and said, there was nothing as good that has ever happened to Nigeria than the emergence of Goodluck Jonathan as president and that his achievements were unequalled by any leader in the annals of the country’s history.
True. These achievements are in the negative. They include what the late Fela Kuti would call sorrow, tears and blood. It has never been this bad and as such those who spoke were only standing the truth on its head and doing the usual Nigerian thing as we saw in YEAA, Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha fame whose transmutation we see in TAN (Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria).
We saw how Nigerians, who ordinarily should be of integrity, tell lies blatantly. At least I saw Wakilin Adamawa, a supposedly accomplished personality told a huge joke about the north-east, and their contentment and happiness with the government of Goodluck Jonathan. A region that is facing unprecedented murder and insurgency;the poorest of the six geo-political zones of Nigeria;a region where major towns and cities, andseveral villages have been captured by insurgents and a republic declared. Certainly, a sign of anger and defeat.
This is not the focus of our discussion this week. Whatever lies told, has since become an integral part of the nation’s political brinkmanship of the PDP as a party and the government it runs. We are concerned today not with the legality of whether the president can be sworn in three times as CEO of Nigeria or that a president can serve a 10-year tenure in view of the constitutional inhibitions and other matters arising therefrom.
The president declared a day after almost 50 young students were murdered in a bomb attack in Potiskum, Yobe State. This was not in any case the first time such crass insensitivity was seen from the president and his government. The famous Kano rally that received Ibrahim Shekarau into the PDP came up a day after tens of Nigerians were murdered in Nyanya, Abuja; a day after over 200 young girls were abducted from a Chibok school in Borno State.
At the declaration ceremony, which forced government to close shop in Abuja for a day, the president acknowledged the bomb victims and requested that a minute silence be observed. I am not sure if 30 seconds were observed, but that is immaterial because the mere fact that the insensitivity of the president, his government and party has reached that crescendo means a lot to Nigerians.
The easiest meaning I can make out of this is that truly Nigeria is successfully divided in every sense of the word. What happens in some sections of the country is immaterial to the people in the other sections of the country. As far this government is concerned the tragedy in the north-east, where insurgents are seizing towns and villages in the hands of Nigerian forces, is a particular problem and not a Nigerian problem. This best explains the ‘I don’t care’ attitude that seems to be coming from the government.
Otherwise, how could anybody within or outside this government explain the nonchalant attitude of the PDP and its sole presidential candidate in celebrating declaration when hundreds of families are bereaved arising from the failures of the state?
I think this government and its supporters are underestimating the magnitude of the problem at hand. I have said time and again that one mistake that those in position of authority make on this insurgency is that it is a sectional affair and that it is ‘them-them’ and so they should be allowed to continue to kill themselves. This horrific mistake has the potency of taking over the entire country.
Bombs are detonated at will from Borno to Kogi state. If this remains unchecked, it will one day be dropped in those areas that are currently seen as terror insulated. That was the thinking in most parts of northern Nigeria when the problem began in Maiduguri metropolis. People thought it was a mere metropolis uprising and everyone, including governments, looked the other way. The story is different today.
The government has given the insurgency an unfortunate micro- interpretation and today, the only game in town is sorrow, tears and blood, while the president continues as if there is no problem on ground. All they talk about is 2015 elections and re-election.
What insensitivity! Nigeria is fragmenting and the ruling class is aloof either out of share ill-concern and or ignorance. It is too difficult to believe that the government is not in the picture of what is happening or simply put, is not informed about what is happening and the grave danger that it poses to the nation as a whole. Life has lost its worth and sanctity in Nigeria. It is short, nasty and brutish.
To say the least, the presidential declaration at a time when the blood of several innocent young Nigerians is flowing in Yobe, in Niger and other places is unfortunate and a political miscalculation in sensitive societies. Itcan be restored. We must salvage our common humanity that is under severe stress. I am convinced now more than at any other time before that the nation may be fractured beyond repairs. We are no longer our brothers’ keepers and we continually lay claim to religion either Islam or Christianity and the teachings of these great theologies is brotherliness and togetherness.
I am convinced that President Jonathan and his government and even his party, are not perturbed about what is happening in different parts of the country, the north in particular. Iam tempted to think and to ask the question that: If this was happening in the south, would this government have treated it the way and manner it is treating this huge instability? Sad, they have made us all myopic. They don’t care about us. Our lives are worthless and meaningless.
Nigerians must reject this government in February 2015. We must restore our common humanity and integrity which have been severely eroded by the sheer incompetence of those in political authority.