Nigeria has changed a lot since I completed my potty training. The first time I drove a car, petrol sold for N11 per liter. In fifteen days time, it may be dispensed at triple figures when our dear President completely removes 'fuel subsidy'. There was a song back then...
"....parents, listen to your children..."
"....they are the future of tomorrow..."
"....try to pay our school fees...."
"....and give us sound education..."
I really can't recall who performed this song but I know it was one of those songs I heard growing up. Leaders of tomorrow indeed. A lie from the pit of hell. Masters of the game of mendacity. The leaders I knew then are still controlling Nigeria today. Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo, T.Y Danjuma, Muhammadu Buhari and the others. The list goes on. Thirty years down the line, I wonder what future I would lead with the choke-hold these power-drunk and insatiable men have on Nigeria's jugular.
Many of the excoriations I have had with individuals in my thirty years have resulted from my pathetic inability to pretend. It is an irredeemable flaw. I have problems hiding dissent and dislike for people, especially when I feel my intelligence is being played. If I do not like you, there's a strong chance you would know -even when I'm courteous enough not to tell you off. Thus my utter dismay at two events which I have decided to review in isolation, albeit an intended flaw of judgement, as I believe these events reflect the moral bankruptcy that current pervades my fatherland.
The first took place a few months ago in Bayelsa. A learned man in the person of Governor Seriake Dickson woke up one fine morning and thought the best way to commemorate his State's 16th Anniversary was to immortalise two icons of ignominy. The first was someone who, if not for death, should probably be standing trial at the Hague with folks like Charles Taylor. He was the brute's brute. His meticulously hand-picked Strike Force supervised and fast-tracked the 'transition to eternal glory' of anyone and everybody perceived to be a thorn in his flesh. The bespectacled dictator with a thin serpentine Hausa accent from Kano State presided over one of the darkest times in the polity and politics of Nigeria. Many pro-democracy mavericks ran off into exile at the thought of the grave bodily harm General Sani Abacha was certain to inflict on them. He ruled Nigeria like a family yogurt business. You either got in line or got in another type of line (facing a firing squad). He was remarkably corrupt at the time, though recent happenings in Nigeria have beatified him in terms of gluttony. Compared to this current administration, Sani was an I.T student in the faculty of corruption. Even him could not have fathomed the fact that this much corruption was humanly possible. How Seriake Dickson thought Sani Abacha deserved to be immortalised is a question that will befuddle Einstein himself, were he alive today.
On that same day Seriake Dickson came out in his macabre dance shoes, he also conferred sainthood on erstwhile Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha. Diepreye, if you do not remember is a convicted felon who somehow served only a day of his two year term in prison in Nigeria. This is a hardened but shameless fugitive who escaped law enforcement in London by dressing up as a woman. Somebody's father. Incredible. Is it not amazing the quality of leaders we manage to produce in the most populous black nation on Earth? Who knows, if not for Diepreye's cross-dressing antics, he and James would probably be playing 'cashie' now in prison in London. He got away with it thanks to Nigeria and even got immortalised by a State he fleeced for six gruelling years.
More recently, a group of cretins under the aegis of All African Students Union conferred an African Leadership Award on Chief Olabode George. A documented criminal and convict. They claim the award was given following an endorsement of the recipient by the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). The same Nigerian students who we say are getting shoddy education in the relics called universities across the country because the government has starved the educational sector. The decay in the sector has certainly now reached its pinnacle as evidenced by this obvious blunting of the minds of these misguided Nigerian students. When the young 'leaders of tomorrow' begin to shower accolades by way of awards on ex-convicts then you should be tempted to take sides with the perennial cynics who believe the worst of Nigeria is yet to come.
The three men eulogised by Nigerians are from three different geopolitical zones. Each as nefarious as the next in disbursing pain and suffering on their own people. We have shown the world now that we totally lack any moral conscience. I wonder what Mr Dickson will tell his son Abacha and Alamieyeseigha did for Nigeria and Bayelsa that earned them these accolades, that of course is in the hope that the boy will not be as mentally stunted as his father. What do we celebrate as a people? What do we hold in high regard? Public good or gross larceny? When we turn our backs on the Achebes, the Soyinkas, the Tam Wests and the Fawehimis who devote their entire lives to telling us the truth we are now so allergic and averse to. What message are we sending to our kids and the outside world? What do we praise?
Nigeria is where it is today because of Nigerians and our insistence on perfecting this macabre dance of ours. Year in, year out, we do the same thing and expect a different result. What some define as insanity.
The music is still playing so we dance on. We forget very quickly. At some point, the music will stop and we will keep dancing. In our minds, this dance is all we know. It is all we have ever known so we can't even tell when there's anything to dance to. The dance will not stop till the dance floor splits and the roof of the disco crumbles in. An implosion.
Nice write up.
ReplyDeletePls continue cos i see this blog to be very popular in the near future,but dont change your "frankness"