By Mike Kebonkwu Esq
It should be our individual and collective prayers not to give up on the country; Nigeria is still worth dying for in all its beauty and ugliness even with the rapacious political leadership. We should not hide under the cloak of power of positive thinking as in the ecclesiastic Christendom, to call a spade by any other name; when it not well, it is not well. The title of this article should be of least concern, let our angers be to change who we are, breaking the mirror does not change our image; we should change ourselves.
What is the guarantee that the vision of the eagle may be the guide for the dove?
The leading presidential candidates in the forthcoming elections are well known to Nigerians. They have served Nigeria in their respective capacities in public life and their records speak for them. We do not need so much the endorsement of an individual or groups to pick and choose between them; we can put them on a scale and make our choice if we are prepared to be objective. However, we act as if on blindfolds, seeing no evil like the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand. We are consumed by sectarian partisanship and queue behind political savages who see Nigeria as booty and giving handouts to cronies and political jobbers. We are simply sold pork for a lamb in broad day light.
The elections are here again; individuals and groups are doing bazaars of endorsements of candidates of their choice. It is their right anyway; but the vision of the eagle is not a guide to the dove. One individual, no matter how objective cannot decide for the country. The attack on General Obasanjo is misplaced; yes, he has worth but he is entitled to his personal opinion and choice which he has expressed. We all have the right of choice and we should also be ready for the consequences of the choices we make. We do not need any oracle to pick a candidate for the presidential elections that is days, and weeks away. Again, we cannot be doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result; that will be insanity grandiose.
Why are we so blind that we do not see that rabid attachment to ethnicity and religion has held Nigeria down for so long? The fact that a northern Muslim from Katsina State has been superintending over the affairs of the country did not secure citizens in the north or take away poverty from them more than citizens from Delta State. We are all equally in the same state of insecurity and poverty in equal measures across the geo-political zones. Do we need a seer to tell us that the country is held down by the worst form of corruption in human history by its elites? Because of the narrow path of tribalism, we still find it difficult to appreciate the depth of the elegance of our beauty in diversity. Why are we so misguided to see that the regional and ethnic militias masquerading as freedom fighters are taking us to the medieval Hobbesian society of life being solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short? We are dead to empathy, sorrow and pain visited on citizens by the daily butchery and dehumanization at the hands of criminals while the government watch in helplessness.
Is he the one who is to come or shall we look for another?
Some of us grew up in this country when a nine year old child could travel unaccompanied from Agbor to Sokoto, or from Igbokoda to Maiduguri and be sure to arrive in safety. We grew up in Nigeria where a neighbour will feed the child of another family without fear that he would be used for ritual for power and money. With the very good standing of our economy, national currency and developmental strides in the early 1970s immediately after the civil war, why is Nigeria today the poverty capital of the world with a currency on free fall? Yet we prefer to leave the country in the hands of the same group of people. Why is it difficult for us to make a right choice and turn the country around from the blinding tsunami that is gathering momentum? Look around us, in all the geo-political zones, criminals and foreign nationals are harvesting our mineral wealth and resources while the government is fixated on oil as a mono economy. Today, bandits and insurgents impose taxes and levies on communities and herd people like cattle to the forest for ransom; and yet someone wants us to see the country as healthy and safe.
Today, a band of criminals impose curfew and sit-at-home on an entire region, paralysing economic and social activities and someone in his right senses feel that he is fighting for the liberation of his people. You cannot negotiate the liberty and freedom of your people by denying the same people the freedom and liberty to earn their living and at the same time killing them. Today, our rural folks cannot go to their farms whether it is in the north, east, south or west because of activities of a band of criminals identified as herdsmen. The authority of the government has been challenged and our institutions are getting weaker by the day to confront the security challenges due to lack of political will and backing by religious clerics, and tribal leaders of the activities of the criminals.
The great parting of ways
Today, at home and on the roads, abduction and commercial kidnapping is the order of the day; whole bus load of passengers is taken to the forest where the kidnappers use mobile phones to demand for ransom and the State cannot rescue victims who are left to their fate. With all the technology at our disposal, the security agents are not able to track these criminals to their location.
Why are we so blind to know that when insurgents, bandits, unknown gunmen and other criminal elements take on our security forces, then the authority of the state is gradually eroded and citizens become vulnerable and live in fear? We prefer to fight for the protection of the fundamental rights of criminals levying war on the state and do not care a hoot about millions of law-abiding citizens who are not able to go about their lawful activities because of these criminals.
We should stop dramatizing our failures by parading a few common criminals while we leave the masterminds feeding fat on the proceeds of their crimes. Basic intelligence gathering tells us that in all the places these criminals are operating, the communities know who they are and where they live; including the forests they have made their fortes. Insecurity has become a huge mercantile activity for the stakeholders with the state at the pyramid of the trade. We are desperate to send our children to schools abroad to keep them in safety and get education and we are not asking ourselves where those well trained children will return to. To the same hellhole?
The depth of our problems is a reality that will dawn on us very shortly in the choice we make and the decisions we fail to take. We should leave all the endorsements as personal, whether it is coming from an Obasanjo or any other person or group. We know each and every of the candidates, their antecedents, track records and what they represent. Nobody should sell us pork for a lamb because we are not blind. We should leave the primordial prejudices of ethnicity and religion for once and save the soul of our country.
The author wrote in from Koyen-Hi Kebonkwu Chambers, Wuse-Abuja and is reachable via mikekebonkwu@yahoo.com
1 Comments
Abdullahi Musa
There are many Nigerians like this author who wish the country well.
Those who are in the age bracket of sixty to ninety are fewer than those who are between eighteen and fifty.
It might be safe to say if there are any who were adults in 1914 ( the year of the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Protectorates) they must be extremely few.
What I am trying to point out is that millions were born into Nigeria, they know not any other contraption.
A country must be governed. The direction a country is to take must be planned for.
But Nigeria is challenged by a segment of its population that insists it must be broken up.
On that aspiration a civil war was fought. On that same aspiration, more than fifty years later, a vicious terrorism is being planted.
The author wants us to forget ethnicity and religion in electing leaders in 2023.
We can’t. Neither can we forget regionalism.
The killings, bombings, destruction of federal infrastructure taking place in a certain region are some people’s message that their region must produce the president or there will be no peace.
The entire terrorism industry flourishing in the country has everything to do with both internal and external politics.
Nigerian politicians from the North and South have a heritage from the First republic. Religion, ethnicity, organised mayhem are tools which they inherited in order to capture power. They know no other way.
Obasanjo’s endorsement of Peter Obi can be interpreted in two ways: That Obasanjo insists he will be selecting the person to be president of Nigeria for as long as possible.
Two, he might be telling his foreign Masters that Obi deserves their support.
There are no Nigerian politicians available yet, who can practice politics devoid of religion, ethnicity, or even violence.