A time of widespread discontent and temptations to violence as at today forces back to memory the portion of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s speech to the Arewa House ‘State of the Nation’ Conference in 1994 which goes as follows:
…“a country perpetually potentially great, almost permanently in crisis, regularly threatened with disintegration, prolongingly devoid of democracy and economically plundered and mismanaged, forever talking about democracy but forever retreating from democracy”
Intervention thinks that, in this case, Obasanjo got it right. And the question then is why this endemic cycle of crisis?
The answer you get depends on who is asked. Some people think the problem is Northern monopoly of power. Others think it is the irritable disposition of the Southern part of the country. Ethnicity, corruption, prolonged military rule and imperialism are also named. The trouble with Nigeria, we are also told, is leadership. Those who subscribe to this never tell us why the bad leaders are always chosen by the citizens. It can thus be inferred that they think citizenship is part of the problem.
None of these answers can be dismissed just as none of them strikes at the core. The tragedy of Nigeria is class leadership – the absence of a fraction of the elite with sufficient idealism to push a basically agrarian polity through into industrial modernity. Without such fraction and idealism, politics will always degenerate to what Lee Kuan Yew and Nigeria’s own Okwudiba Nnoli (Or, was it Ake in the 1980 NPSA Presidential Address?) call a game of musical chairs – who should sit where, who should salute who, which region is superior and all such contextually useless questions.
But, it is perhaps an act of naivete at this point to not expect something to give after the waves of commotion that have defined Nigeria of recent and the lackluster reactions to them. Many have expressed fear of post election violence. The ruling party is manifesting too many centres of power. The elite is experiencing a frightening degree of fragmentation. And the level of suffering is unspeakable. The fear of the unknown is simply pervasive.
Still, the expectation is that all those with moral authority and influence in and over Nigeria will do more to avert a frightening collapse of order. Nigeria’s size and population is not where such should happen. Those who have no hands in bringing about the current stalemate will, unfortunately, suffer most in such a situation. ‘It MUST be possible to save women, children, students, unemployed, urban poor and the aged any more nightmares.
Where this breed of Nigerians will come from is what nobody can guess but, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention.
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Abdullahi Musa
Humans it is who invented dangerous or destructive sports such as boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and even the Roman gladiators of old.
Why is this reference relevant? To show that we may conciously follow the path od destruction.
Vicious sports are possibly meant to provide a catharsis of some sorts to passive viewers, who have within them the murderous instincts.
So how can our politics be different?
Theorists are quick to jump to defense of peaceful politicking by giving the example of Western world.
However, Barack Obama, a Nobel Peace prize winner sanctioned the destruction of Libya because American society measures the virility of their president by their ability to wage war on other countries however tiny.
Opinion: no nation on earth is configured like Nigeria. Most nations are structured such that there is a dominant tribe that calls the shots, others simply become happy with their allotted slots.
Nigeria is different. It has three major tribes, two different, conflicting religions.
Interestingly ( I would prefer to say unfortunately ), each major tribe has a presidential candidate, and Christianity has a Peter Obi, while ‘Islaam’ has an Atiku and a Tinubu.
CAN is there to galvanise it’s flock that on no account should ‘Islaam’ be allowed triumph over ‘Christianity’ (read, the influence of Pastors ) , while on the other hand Ohanaeze is there reminding Igbos that IT IS THEIR TURN TO RULE, and Hausas/ Fulani herdsmen should never be allowed to ever rule over Nigeria again.
Recipe for disaster? I leave readers to draw their conclusions.
Many commentators have, over the years, harped on what they call ‘elite consensus’, to agree on who should lead Nigeria.
This far, the elites are dyed in the color of their ethnic groups and religions.
They are, in most cases, ambassadors of their ethnic associations.
Nigeria is a sociological/ political nightmare.