Is this cover picture a reminder or a rebuke? It all depends on how one reads it.
History does not repeat itself. It is memory that invokes history to make history seem to repeat itself. In other words, the sender of this stuff is certainly not an innocent, child-like reader of the graphic. He clearly has an interpretive gaze, a questioning gaze, asking in a loud silence: could my dear country have a national memory problem? That’s Intervention’s sense of the accompanying caption: 49 years and counting, same old story all the time.
Intervention is not about subscribing to the definition of madness popularized by those who say it is doing the same thing over and over again and hoping to get it right. After all, there is no one definition of anything, much more of madness. Just to be sure it is not something of that nature afflicting our dear country – saying and doing the same thing for 49 years and still nowhere in getting it right.
It tends to give credence to General Danjuma’s most recent outburst that Nigeria is a global embarrassment. Is it possible nobody is embarrassed enough about this circuitousness, from General Gowon, Obasanjo, Abdulsalami and the few individuals with the status of international personality and voice they must be keen to protect – Wole Soyinka, John Onaiyekan, Dangote and those currently in power?
The other reader may take it as a reminder, a resource which could assist those minding the oil supply politics to reflect and be reflexive.
Anyway, many thanks to the Professor of Political Science who sent this to Intervention. Though not exclusive to us, we find it publishable, if only to be sure that Nigeria is clear of a national memory problem.
