“Nigeria is the sixth most miserable country in the world, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the “poverty capital of the world”, according to the Brookings Institution, and, as the World Bank said last week, it could account for 25 per cent of the world’s total extreme poor population by 2030.” – Olu Fasan
With the above quote from Dr Olu Fasan’s essay, I am now convinced that he is one of those few Nigerians who are weekly disturbing the glorious “peace of the graveyard” in the country with their illusion-shattering essays on the truth of the moment.
Personally, I have come to the realisation that Nigerians are quite a happy lot under their political enslavement, economic wretchedness and social chaos. If this is true, how dare the compassionate observers kept on prodding Nigerians to look at themselves and to accept the inconvenient truth that they are living in a pigsty of a country? Why wouldn’t this concerned people just leave Nigerians alone to continue frolicking about heartily in their adjudged pristine havens?
The above was my first bitter and sad reaction to this essay and to several other essays penned recently by the Fasans of Vanguardngr about Nigeria. They are saying all that any concerned patriot would and should say about the ongoing national disasters. But the questions are: Is there anyone reading them? Is there any listener about? Is there anyone that can comprehend and react appropriately to their wise counsel?
The last time I looked, everyone in Nigeria is practically and seriously preoccupied about saving oneself and one’s family members only; about making it by hook or by crook through a merciless exploitation of fellow Nigerians; about seeking prosperity in the midst of unimaginable human misery; and about becoming the top dog while beating one’s neighbours to the second position in a breakthrough-prosperity rat race.
As a matter of fact, there is no such words as ‘commonwealth’ and nation building in the maddening crowd of Nigeria. The only wealth that appeals to Nigerians is ‘privatewealth’ at the expense of the nation. Every Nigerian is striving wholeheartedly and with every crooked method each one can devise to become the most prosperous king/queen in the economic jungle of Nigeria.
Voices like Dr Fasan and others with similar noble concerns are singing songs of national redemption, songs of appeal to allow sanity to reign in the land, songs that request for the application of common sense in the body politic and songs that call for individual self-appraisal in order to ascertain each other’s contributions to the woes of Nigeria. Unfortunately, most Nigerians can no longer hear or understand such divine songs because fellow Nigerians are too far gone in their cloud cuckoo land to hear the melodious soul-songs from the wise among us.
Dr Fasan, please don’t stop saying it as truthfully as you see it. Hopefully, some of the precious seeds of your wise words of appeal will find a fruitful soul among the soulless lots (both the so-called leaders and the misled followers) currently inhabiting the geographical space called Nigeria.
But truthfully, we have to face the reality that Nigeria can no longer be managed for success by the motley crowd in the ill-fitting political toga who are strutting about like irredeemable fools and professional clowns in their self-conceited paradise built on a sinking sand.
Some of the things emanating from the National Assembly of Nigeria, like the idea of amending the already fraudulent Constitution to accommodate a Third Term Presidency for Mohammadu Buhari; the proposed Bills on Hate speech/Fake news; the humongous salaries and allowances for assembly members, etc., are news and deeds that are too far-fetched in a sane society. But this is the insane reality at the moment in Nigeria.
Therefore, the idea of restructuring the country as Dr Fasan is suggesting and which every Uche, Shehu and Seun in the country have suggested is now a belated proposition. Nigeria has since crossed the Rubicon. We have foolishly murdered peace, progress, prosperity, justice, equity and harmony. We have declared war on ourselves. Nigerians are already on the battlefield waging an uncalled-for and ill-fated acrimonious war.
All one can say at the moment is, May the Sword of Truth be the winner in the existential battle between Good and Evil in Nigeria.
In The Spirit of Truth
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
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SAM ABBD ISRAEL 