I watched the Friday Morning Current Affairs programme called ‘Trending With Ojy Okpe’ on Arise News Television today. It wasn’t a palatable experience. It was mentally exasperating with much agony and sadness for a country currently roasting on fire and being swiftly consumed by the inferno of a collective negligence, ignorance and stupidity.
As I watched, my mind begins to ask, How long shall the indigenous people of Nigeria continue to live in a state of national denial when they refused to accept the clear and unambiguous reality that Nigeria is a Failed State?
All the stories the Pundits dealt with in the episode were deeply touching and painful to listen to. For example:
• The hypocritical and the self-serving pronouncements of Clown Sheikh Gumi’s declaration to retreat or withdraw from further supporting and defending murderous Terrorists/bandits because a federal court has just found it fit to declare that, under the law of ‘Federal’ ‘Republic’ of Nigeria, bandits are terrorists;
• The cold blooded massacre of 42 innocent passengers travelling in a bus that was deliberately and brazenly set on fire by Terrorists/Bandits;
• The foreboding as well as the insulting advice given to police officers and federal civil servants that they should “spend their salaries for the month of November wisely because their salaries for the month of December may not be processed until January 2022”; and
• The discovery of a kidnappers den behind a police checkpoint. This was another of such evidences, which confirm that some serving police officers are into aiding, abetting and participating as accomplices of criminals. The reason for this may not be farfetched. Because the meagre salaries and emoluments of police officers are often not paid regularly and at due time. Moreover, police offices are also denied needed essential equipments and materials for the job of securing the country.
The above stories that featured in the programme were just a tip of the iceberg of dreadful events that are newsworthy for highlighting among the many other macabre events that are doing the daily rounds in the country.
It is therefore not surprising to hear Ms Tundun Abiola, one of the three pundits on the programme saying, in order to protect her mental health, she has started skipping the consumption of some of the painful and very sad stories that come her way. Unfortunately, most Nigerians have adopted similar attitude because of the avalanche of 24/7 gory events and heartbreaking occurrences raining down on them from every unimaginable angle.
So, we need to ask again, How long shall the chattering class of Nigeria keep on a straight face, as if they are talking about fictional characters/events and not about current true life stories and events of extreme haunting human tragedies?
Shouldn’t the people of Nigeria face the reality, that the country has degraded to a point of no return and that the country is actually precariously positioned at the edge of a cliff just about to be tipped off into the abyss?
Truthfully, shouldn’t Nigerians be holding up their hands and declaring that they are lost; that they’ve got to a place where everyone is helpless and grievously wanting in relevant and original ideas; and that they don’t know how to find rational and appropriate answers to the ongoing national madness and the ensuing human disasters and social calamities?
Shouldn’t Nigerians be telling each other the truth — as Commentator Mr Rufai Oseni kept on repeating — that they have simply failed in the great objective that the founding fathers of Nigeria set down for the birthing of a progressive and prosperous nation?
Shouldn’t Nigerians be truthful enough to call it a day and to close the Shop of Corruption before Mother Nature and Lady Justice made the Final Call for the End-Time of Nigeria?
Are the Nigerian Pundits in the Radio, Television, Newspapers and other Mass media still claiming professional ignorance about the generally known fact that Nigeria’s economy has been fatally wounded and is completely run down into irredeemable bankruptcy?
Are members of the Chattering Class of Nigeria still pretending that they are unaware about the cash-flow problems in the economy that are currently bedevilling the Federal Treasury and general economic activities in the country?
I don’t think the heavyweight economic experts and analysts in the country can still claim to be totally ignorant about the inevitable and the much expected collapse of the national economy of Nigeria. I think this is what everyone who is observant must be expecting after seven years of unbridled larceny, of borrowing without productive investments, of gluttony, of cluelessness, of arrogant impunity, of insensitive nepotism, of mediocre public appointments, of placing square pegs in round holes, etc.
In my humble opinion, the situation of the ’Society of Pundits of Nigeria’ can be likened to that of Emperor Nero who was accused of allegedly playing the flute while Rome was burning. In the same sense, the roof of the Nigerian State is already on fire but those who are expected to raise the alarm about the dangers and to organise actions that can, maybe, still rescue the people from impending calamities are found in various talking shops enjoying the sounds of their voices.
Nigerians need to keep on reminding themselves that the human situations in Nigeria today is dire, pitiful and sorrowful.
NIGERIA NEEDS MEANINGFUL AND POSITIVE POLITICAL ACTIONS AT ALL FRONTS TO END THIS PRESENT POLITICAL NIGERIA NOW BEFORE NIGERIA ENDS EVERYONE.
In The Spirit of Truth
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
ITSOT 