“Our leaders, much like their followers who throng religious centers in search of solutions, expect a miracle. Rather, what is needed is a change in their attitude to governance. A change born of science and discipline – and hard work. I fear unfortunately, that we are running out of time.”
— Muyiwa Adetiba
Mr Muyiwa Adetiba, a columnist in the Vanguard Newspaper of Nigeria, was moved into writing an essay titled, ‘Can Nigeria Be Repaired?’ because of a casual whisper of the question into his ears at a noisy social event by (as he claimed) “one of the few politicians, retired or active, still worthy of my respect”. In a similar manner, I am equally spurred by his concluding statement — quoted above — to write a rejoinder. The quote pulled a string in my heart and it is invitingly strong enough to draw me out of my ‘siddon dey look’* shelter to add this opinion.
Mr Muyiwa Adetiba is of the positive opinion that Nigeria can be repaired. The premise on which he built the unfounded optimism, in the face of raging social, economic and political maladies, is solely on the magical power of hope. But he fears that “we are running out of time”, which may likely prevent us from reaching the mechanics repair workshop.
On the contrary, what everyone in Nigeria should fear most and which the country is fast running out of, is not time but HOPE. For a long time and as a matter of indubitable fact, Nigerians have run out of time and out of the available and necessary options that could have made the ‘repairs’ of Nigeria a worthwhile enterprise.
Asking The Right Questions
On a serious note, are we really asking the right question about the existential issues at stake in Nigeria? Or, are we being misdirected away from the core questions that are more relevant to the unraveling of the unpalatable sociopolitical and economic situations of Nigeria?
Even if the indigenous peoples have agreed that a repair of Nigeria is necessary, which faulty part of Nigeria do we need to repair? Who are the trusted consultant engineers and repairers than can safely fix the problems? Shall the repairers be sourced from within or from outside the country? Where are the spare parts coming from? Is it possible to get genuine spare parts for those damaged parts of Nigeria that need to be replaced? In asking these probing questions, it is to indicate that it may not be wise to treat the problems facing Nigeria as if we are dealing with a lifeless machine.
If this is our collective perception and understanding of the complex existential human issues on our hands, it would then have confirmed the truth stated by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo that “Nigeria is a mere geographical expression” on paper. But, isn’t it true that the territory now called Nigeria is the figment of the imagination of British cartographers? If this is true, can such a fictional entity be amenable to repairs? Won’t a good pencil cleaner be sufficient to erase and correct the ugly and offensive cartographer’s errors in the map?
In other words, writers and thinkers need to rephrase the question of the important concerns of dysfunctional Nigeria. Although the country is adjudged a corporate body but it is the wellbeing of the people in the territory that should be our priority at all times. At this moment in the history of Nigeria, the oppressed and the exploited people of ‘Nigeria’ should actually be asking the right questions. Such as, Can we, the indigenous people of the Neo-colonial enclave called Nigeria, redeem, heal and emancipate ourselves from the scourge of ignorance, exploitation and slavery?
Healing Is Required Not Repair
The focus of our concerns ought to be on the real indigenous people on the territory. It is the people with body, mind and soul that need to be healed and not to be repaired like a broken car. The only thing that the imaginary ‘geographical expression’ needed is either a restructure or reconfiguration or both. It is the people who are suffering, without actually knowing why they are suffering, that need to be healed from their blindness and deafness. If we can focus extraordinary attention on our mental and spiritual healing, our noble efforts shall greatly help us to see clearly, hear properly, comprehend intelligently and understand coherently, the current pathetic circumstances of our unacceptable and inhuman state of existence.
However, who else should know about the deep, dangerous and unenviable state of the economic, political, social and spiritual quagmire of Nigeria better than our veteran columnists and celebrated opinion leaders? Are we to believe that our Columnists and writers are not aware that the country and the people are already in a perilous and comatose state of existence? Are we downplaying the impact of the kleptocratic system that has led to the economic and financial mismanagement of the country? Are the columnists still doubting the fact that the country is already confined to the Intensive Care Unit of the sick countries of the world, with a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ (DNR) sign conspicuously written in her medical chart?
But to be fair, I think Mr Muyiwa Adetiba gave a correct answer to the question on misplaced hope with the following question and answer statements: “Will the road to recovery start with this administration? That has been our hope with every administration since independence. It is a hope that has been constantly shattered as virtually each government took us further away from recovery.”
Despite many “shattered” hopes, faithful Nigerians are still refusing to accept the futility of hope that is perfunctorily based on mere sentiment. Nigerians are still behaving like day dreamers, compulsive gamblers, and miracle chasers. And like the irredeemable, indolent wishful thinkers, Nigerians are still keeping their faith on abundant supply of HOPE as a result of our inability to apply common sense and to put into use the faculty of critical thinking.
Despite the close encounters that Nigerians have had with the irascible government officials and the political gangsters (aka politicians) since 1960, Nigerians are still fervently hopeful that the present clowns in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa with the haphazardly selected sycophantic cabinet members in the Executive Branch of government have what it takes to ‘repair’ Nigeria.
Moreover, Nigerians are still willing to ignore the sordid antics of the Jokers called Legislators in the National Assembly and the legal recklessness of the Learned Fools in the Judiciary of Nigeria. It is as if all the unhidden absurdities that are being reported about the abnormal activities of the so-called political representatives are not having any destabilising effect on the political health and the social wellbeing of the country.
In spite of all we know, all we’ve experienced and all we’ve gone through physically, Nigerians are still holding on to the hope that some beneficial sweet treats or positive surprises will soon trickle down from the sleeves of their dishonourable leaders to magically “repair” and rescue the downtrodden people of Nigeria from political extinction.
The Lie And The Deception
Unfortunately, since Nigerians have foolishly chosen to live in denial of the glaring massive dysfunctions in every sector of the society, we are therefore too ready to play down the reality that the days of economic doom and gloom are already here with us.
Hence by rejecting truth and reality, every newspaper columnist, every snake oil preacher and motivational speaker, every charlatan, soothsayer and diviner in the country are willing to build the fabulous castles of Nigeria in the air. Consequently, the diverse unrepentant liars are found prophesying and forecasting lies and deception about Nigeria. They raise up the hopes and aspirations of the people that the next coming of progressive socioeconomic development with abundant economic success, glorious human welfare, bountiful prosperity, inter-ethnic peace, assured security of life and property and amicable political unity for all and the sundry nations within Nigeria are around the corner.
Sadly and to our greatest shame, Nigerians are presumptuously refusing to acknowledge and to intelligently process the various deadly symptoms brewed partly from the sociocultural incompatibilities of the ethnic nations. Nigerians are unwilling to truthfully face the emerging hate, distrust, suspicion and antipathy that are currently bedevilling the harmonious relationship amongst the people. And Nigerians are closing their eyes to the effects of the byproducts of the externally concocted and induced pollution of the minds that came with the cleverly weaponised imported values and beliefs on the meaning of life. Consequently, Nigerians have been conditioned to carelessly ignore the critical need to seek suitable remedies for the cure of the apparent psychological damages, which have brought ruin and decadence into the body politic.
A Sick And Confused People
Presently, Nigerians are a confused and a severely disorientated people due to the effects of the age-long covert operation of indoctrination and brainwashing programmes, specifically designed and coded for Africans by the European colonial powers. Since most of Nigerians are still unaware of the long term consequences of this insidious covert psychological operations, we are yet to see or know or understand their concomitant connections with our present deplorable state of human existence and dysfunctional lives.
For example, the naïve people of Nigeria find joy in being called the happiest people in the world. Why? Because the world see Nigerians as a people who are always found to be joyously and carelessly carrying on with weekly vanity-motivated social parties; with celebrating enrichment from corrupt practices; and with conspicuous exhibitions of wealth and ‘success’ acquired from the proceeds of crime. And Nigerians are seen happily partaking in other time-wasting, money-guzzling, and money-missed-road activities without restraint. The few Nigerians who have political and administrative access or connections to the national/state/local government treasuries are often seen spending stolen money with impunity like drunken sailors, without fear of the law or any guilty feeling for engaging in all sorts of financial immorality.
To see Nigerians at their unfailing weekly social gatherings — like the ‘Owambe’ that Mr Muyiwa Adetiba mentioned in his essay — no one would ever believed that these are the ‘citizens’ of a country under the vagaries of a bankrupted economy. And whose MisLeaders are shamelessly trudging about the world’s financial markets with begging bowls to seek foreign aids, foreign direct investment, financial assistance, etc. To compound the woes of the people, the prodigal economists and fiscal managers are willing and are ever ready to take loans with stringent conditionalities at outrageous interest rates, from any willing international loan shark, without a second thought about putting the future of the commonwealth in a precarious position.
Of course, the people of Nigeria are yet to connect the various seemingly unrelated dots of the dysfunctional national economy and the telltale social indicators of human deprivation with what is actually happening on the global economics chess board. The Nigerian economists are yet to connect the anti-freedom international economic agenda with the unexplainable mystery of the immovable, endemic poverty of all nations in the face of humongous burgeoning private financial wealth. Particularly, the exceptional poverty of those nations like Nigeria, which are under the management of careless, compromised and ignorant political leaders.
If only Nigerians and most importantly the opinion leaders of Nigeria could be helped to truly understand the closeness of the Sword of Damocles hanging over their country, every man and woman of goodwill with common sense would have no trouble in agreeing and in accepting that there is wisdom in Mr Adetiba’s suggestion that there is need for a change of attitude. The suggestion that Nigerians and the so-called leaders need to seek “a change born of science and discipline – and hard work”, should, as a matter of urgency, be taken up seriously.
Knowledge Is The Answer
As a cruelly brainwashed, savagely indoctrinated and a completely lost and stranded people on the shores of material and spiritual life, the indigenous people of Nigeria should not need to be urged or begged anymore before quickly embarking on a personal mission to seek and to search for true knowledge of ‘The Meaning of Life’. Each Nigerian, as a matter of life and death, ought to studiously devote time and energy to seek, to know and to understand what it means to be a truly living human being and not just a struggling-to-survive economic being on planet earth.
In my humble opinion, seeking knowledge, particularly the type that can give credence to the power of the ancient adage, ‘Know Thy Self’, has the imbued potential to lead seekers out of the woods of conditioned ignorance. It is in the knowing of ourselves and in having the right knowledge about our true divine essence that Nigerians can be set truly free from neo-colonial yokes of political dominance and economic enslavement.
By choosing to embrace the pursuit of the knowledge of both Natural and Spiritual Sciences, the personal endeavour will surely give each of us the lifeline to achieve mental and spiritual emancipation. There is no shred of doubt that whenever Nigerians are ready to seek the truth about our inglorious past and the truth of our indefensible present circumstances as the wretched of the earth, we shall surely be blessed with wisdom and the divine power to safely deliver ourselves, our nations and our posterity out of the oppressive fangs of stupidity.
It it is only through the seeking of knowledge of the Truth of Life that each of us can be woken up and set oneself free from the bondage of our present political, economic and sociocultural superstitions. The gift of empowerment that comes from Truth and Knowledge shall help each person to appreciate that our present predicaments of cluelessness, hopelessness and powerlessness, are actually a manifestation of our acquiescence to the yoke of unbridled materialism. And the burdensome yokes, which are pressing down on our minds, souls and spirits is the inevitable hangover of Neo-colonial mental slavery. We need to push aside and shake off the cruel knees of the economic oppressors from our necks, so as to begin to breathe fresh air again as human beings.
It is my sincere wishes that Nigerians and other oppressed people in the world shall soon be moved by a divine spark of truth and knowledge to Wake Up from age long slumber; and to collectively stand up and strive together to turn away the severe man-created nightmares that are crippling the nations and preventing humanity from living a truly morally hygienic, ethically sane and divinely blessed life.
In The Spirit of Truth
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
Note: * “siddon dey look” (to sit down and look) is a meme created in 1999 by the late Mr Bola Ige, a Nigerian politician and lawyer, The catchphrase conveys exasperation and frustration with political life and a desire to temporary withdraw from further public participation.
ITSOT 