Lessons in gratitude

So now we have a fast food generation feeding on microwaved ideas and taking everything for granted. They never appreciate NEPA’s low voltage until there is power outage. Those who have regaled us with stories of better things on the sunny side of the Transformation Agenda, those who milk the TAN cow swear by nothing […]

So now we have a fast food generation feeding on microwaved ideas and taking everything for granted. They never appreciate NEPA’s low voltage until there is power outage. Those who have regaled us with stories of better things on the sunny side of the Transformation Agenda, those who milk the TAN cow swear by nothing else except its udders. Losers bemoan the fact that their expression of interest form is not paid for by hawkers of maggi-onirawo, pepper, gyoro and shanu. The lesson is – if it works for you, put your money where your mouth is but don’t stop there. Put your thumbprint where it matters which means taking the plastic PVC as seriously as getting your next stomach infrastructure.
People show their sense of ingratitude in different ways. They whine like Iya Abike’s pepper grinder. A performing president who promised to leave office by 2015 was begged by millions of signatures and rallies to continue and he accedes, yet people whine.
To the fast food generation, President Jones’ performance is unprecedented in history. This generation thinks that YEAA is an expression that happenned after Nkwobi, Ekpankwukwo had sailed with palm wine or bottles of Orijin. If say ABN, their minds go to a popular bank operating in the Netherlands which has no relationship with Arthur Nzeribe’s infamous Association of Bitter, sorry Better Naija. They did not see the artistic interpretation of Bob Marley’s classic – Who the Cap Fits being translated in various Naija’s male head wears. This generation would not know that hand-luggage now attracts fees until they get to the airport.
Those outside the Evil Square on Tuesday sniggered at being locked down. They complained loudly of being prevented from reaching their business destinations as if there is anything more commercial than the official declaration. Some even said the president was walking on the blood of over forty children massacred in Potiskum, ignoring the one minute silence and the promise that the attackers would be prevented from getting their coveted virgins. Except you’re complaining of being left out of the aso-ebi and an opportunity to pump the hands of those who evidently hold the keys to prosperity in Naija, you should all be grateful.
If you had to trek miles to reach Abuja on Declaration Day and you are complaining, please go to Wadata Plaza and ask Muazu for forgiveness. You were given an opportunity not only to shed excess weight, but to take part in dress rehearsals, an opportunity that does not come easy. Ask residents of the north-east who had no dress rehearsal and were mowed down. The kids of Potiskum would have been happy to sustain endurance treks and their parents too.
In Mubi there was no dress rehearsal and only a few had the chance to grab the closest possessions wrapped in blankets and pillows before voting with their feet to the bush, not on tarred roads. They had to dodge bullets and leave their invalid behind. Parents lost contact with their children and husbands their wives. Those whose relations were felled by bullets had no opportunity for farewells or even the fancy burials accorded Ebola victims. Trekking a few kilometres should be the least of your worries.
Be thankful to President Jones for breaking the long silence. Be thankful to him for giving us what we thought we already had – freedom of speech, which Yokosuna has promised would now be sparingly given only to those who secure his own definition of tickets of decorum. You should be grateful that you live in a part of the country that is still largely insulated from the massacre that playing the ostrich could unleash on a docile people. The pre-occupation of the politician is not your welfare but who occupies the Rock even if there is no Naija in 2015.
If you wake up thinking of a country, please go back to bed, because you are having a nightmare. Or get up and join the free readers association of Naija at any newsstand to gawk at the headlines. Check what our priorities are –Tambuwal’s security; senators getting automatic tickets or preventing their seats being sacrificed for the association of retired governors; who has unconscionably ported to the opposition because their presumed rightful due has been denied them, or vice versa? It’s not about the nation or about you the powerless voter – it’s usually all about them, and you should be thankful that they’re playing games – with your head. Guess what – it’s all your fault!