In the early days of what is now Transcorp Hotel, Abuja, a foreign national miscalculated. The man who was part of the new structure obviously got carried away by one thing or the other or lost grip of discretion somehow as to suggest how wonderful it would be if Nigeria itself was handed over to the managers of the hotel to run. He left his audience stunned, most likely to the contrary of how wonderful he might have thought of his idea. He was sent out of Nigeria within 24 hours. It was that serious.
Nigerians can say anything against their country but don’t join them if you are not a Nigerian. A former African president learnt this lesson the hard way in the early 2000s when he made a remark that turned him instantly from an admired figure in the country to a subject of two sharp editorials in two of the country’s best edited English Language newspapers.
But Nigerians, mostly leaders say whatever they want and nothing happens. The late Dr. Sam Mbakwe felt so bad about things that, at a point, he didn’t think a return of the colonialists would be a bad idea. That was in the Second Republic and it was an “opendential” statement, to borrow one of Chief Zebrudaya’s linguistic innovations.
Now, Alhaji Danjuma Goje, a former governor and a Senator in the Fourth Republic, is suggesting Nigeria hands over electricity provision to China for 20 years. And he put it forward by striking at the core of the ground opponents will most likely use against it. So, he says Nigeria should put aside its pride and follow that pathway.
In other words, the totality of his exposure to the Nigerian policy mill has educated him to reach that conclusion, against which he sees no serious grounds for objection other than national pride.
Intervention is not informed enough to agree or disagree with Alhaji Goje on this matter. It is only interested in the phenomenon of one voice or another, national and non-national at intervals, to rate Nigeria incapable of managing itself in one crucial area or another.
That none of such voices among those who have openly said so can be dismissed is a fact. So also is it that such statements draw attention to the wisdom that nothing happens without a reason, meaning that Nigeria is not without adequate electricity for nothing. Someone, somewhere sees a fully electrified Nigeria as a threat. The third hint in Goje’s statement is that we are not about overcoming the entrenched forces against adequate electricity in Nigeria. The last hint Intervention can guess from what he is saying is that China being a great power can neutralise any other interests or forces bent on keeping Nigeria in darkness and get it done!
While it is the responsibility of the people in power to decide on the merit or lack of merit of the suggestion, Intervention thinks it is about time we all pay attention to the empirical basis upon which it is possible to write-off Nigeria on key areas by otherwise well located participants. Are they telling us the uncomfortable truths we do not want to hear or is every such case a temptation in hysteria? If there are groundings for the comments, what makes it so difficult to come to terms with such characteristic vis-à-vis amending things?
This rating thing is sedimenting o!
