It all started as a mere discussion between two friends, but later graduated into a hot argument. The topic was Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary . One of the friends,whose views appeared radical throughout the discussion, asked, “what is Nigeria, after all?” His friend looked down, sipped from a glass of red wine on a stool in front of him, pretending he did not hear the question. Impatiently, the questioner answered the poser himself, “Nigeria is a slowcoach personified, a giant snail on a time-bound race, a vitiating slob wobbling and hobbling along with a deflated pride, a destroyer of efforts and waster of destiny, a disgrace to the black race, a nation of wimpy and embarrassing leadership, a cocoon of absurdities defined by poverty, violence, kidnapping, kleptomania, witchcraft, killings.”
The other friend looked on with his mouth slightly agape, almost doubting the source of such vitriolic verbal punches on his fatherland. He just couldn’t fathom the seething rage going on inside his friend, that any Nigerian could throw such verbal salvoes at his country with reckless abandon and without any sense of remorse at all. How could this idiot paint the picture of Nigeria in such atrocious and graveyard language? After all, the country has been through many challenges, yet came out of them triumphant. “Leave Nigeria alone, if you can’t praise its efforts at overcoming its numerous challenges,” he warned his friend.
Scenes like this are common, especially in places where people have become grossly disenchanted with happenings in the country. At different fora, many individuals, who feel things should not have gone awry for Nigeria, have often wondered what is wrong with the country.
What is Nigeria? Would it not be appropriate to rephrase the question and alternate its syntactic structure to see whether it would generate mild and benign responses? Can we then have, “Nigeria is what?” No! No!! It should be reworded to incorporate elliptical possibility, thereby leaving rooms for variance of opinions, “Is Nigeria what…?” Is Nigeria worth what it was at independence? Irrespective of differing opinions on this poser, the apparent response to it is “no.”
Nigeria is a country, no doubt. the most populous black nation on earth, a land flowing with milk and honey, yet in the hollow of poverty, corruption and mismanagement. A country that has numerous capacities to develop, but has blatantly refused to do so, for reasons best known to it, apology to Mrs. Clinton.
An elderly man, who was nearby and piqued by the noisy dimension the argument between the friends had assumed, joined them. At this time, the two were shouting at the top of their voices, as none of them was ready to shift ground for the other. The elderly man tried to mediate and offer some explanations. Hardly had he finished speaking, when the “abuser-of-my-fatherland” friend intoned, pointing his index finger threateningly at the man, “your generation destroyed this country.
You milked it dry and left it sapped of energy and hope. Generation of looters, generation of people with unconscionable character, who should pitch their tents with the swine…” The elderly man couldn’t take more. His eyes were bloodshot. To avoid confrontation, he merely walked away with his head drooping.
Of interest to any keen follower of happenings in Nigeria should be the question raised by one of the friends. What, in the true sense is Nigeria? Is Nigeria what it was at independence right now? Is it worth being called a nation? A lot of questions with few answers, that is what Nigeria is. You are left benumbed and completely sad when you learn that this nation was once a darling of all, an admiration of sort at independence, but has quickly become in Africa what Haiti is in the Caribbean.
In his assessment of the country at a programme, tagged “Trustees of Posterity”, organised by the Joint Campus Fellowship, University of Ibadan, recently, the convener of the Save Nigeria Group (SNG), Pastor Tunde Bakare, blamed the misfortune that has befallen the country on the poor, ineffectual leaders directing the affairs of the country.
The leaders, whom he called “charlatans in the corridors of power (and) demonised persons”, have slaughtered the nation on the altars of avarice, greed and corruption.
He lambasted the leadership of the nation, holding them responsible for the woes that have crippled the socio-economic and political life of the country. He urged the generality of Nigerian youths to take up the challenge and chase the corrupt leaders from power.
In a pamphlet by SNG titled, “A Contract to Save and Transform Nigeria: Manifesto for Liberty, Security, and Prosperity Nigerians must insist on”, Nigeria was deconstructed as “a tale of arrested development and regression, punctuated by episodes of progress.”
SNG, in the pamphlet further explains, “on every major index of human and economic development, Nigeria is a failure, a tragedy for most of its people who have had their chances hobbled by a system that has benefited a tiny few. Its citizens daily confront a state that is violent, but ineffectual; grasping, but unaccountable, and thus far incapable of guaranteeing security of life and property or fostering conditions that enable the fruitful pursuit of happiness.
At independence in 1960, Nigeria was celebrated for its potential, the magnitude and variety of its people, the enormity of its landmass and the sheer abundance of its natural resources. 50 years on, the talk about Nigeria is still about its potential, simply because it has failed to realise its promise.
In that interval, many countries that were her peers in underdevelopment have made accelerated transitions to development within a generation, replicating in decades progressive attainments that took centuries in the West. This speedy leapfrog was accomplished by leadership that successfully built state and governance structures that were conducive to economic and human development. The success of the Asian Tigers elevates humanity, and it is a ringing indictment of those that have mismanaged Nigeria because their excuses have been repudiated.
Nigeria is just not working. The tragedy of Nigeria is a pervasive pathology. Its leadership selection process excludes its best ,while celebrating mediocrity. The incremental influence of that pathology has created a failing state that is unable to do much more than uphold the conclave of looters that hold the country hostage…
Comments