Dele Momodu
26 December 2008
column
Lagos — In a few days, friends and foes would stand up to toast to a New Year. There is nothing as wishful as the beginning of a new year, when most of us utter those magical words, "happy new year". Yet no one could say with a degree of certainty that the year would be truly great and happy.
Nigerians are known to be prayer warriors who sleep in churches and mosques. Christians in particular are known to flood the churches on the eve of every New Year. Many of my friends would want the New Year to meet them inside the house of worship, as if that would automatically solve all their problems and take away their sins. The irony is as soon as the bell tolls and "sings the nunc dimitis to the dying year", and the New Year sneaks in on us, we often move from the house of God to the house of sin.
Some of us have been a part of that ritual for nearly 50 years. The hope of a happy year in Nigeria has almost become a mirage and a sing-song. We keep going from one bad government to another. The promise of a better Nigeria is never a reality. I read somewhere yesterday that our president has vowed to perform wonders next year and my spontaneous reaction was, it is like the Super Eagles winning the World Cup with a third rate team. It is impossible. The potential of every government is readily determined by the composition of its cabinet. That is why the in-coming American President, Barack Obama has spent so much energy on carefully selecting those who would work with him. He's acutely aware of the dictum, "show me your friends and I'll tell who you are".
The case is different in Nigeria. There is no where the Orwellian theory, of "all animals are equal but some are more equal than the others", more relevant than in Nigeria. Some Nigerians are certain to be in government forever while most of us will never have the chance to render service despite being over-qualified. Only a few men and women get recycled in a country of 140 million people. It is such a shame that some of our elders only think of self and self alone. A man of power is asked to select a man or woman to represent his community, and the man shamelessly decides to pick himself, his wife, his son, his houseboy, who he thinks he can control. The man of power here can never allow power to pass him by. He'll rather pick a nincompoop who he knows will never perform than support a bright man who would perform but would never accept the evil control of political godfathers.
The biggest problem here is that the so called "zoning" and "federal character" can never help us to reach the promised land. It is a formula for stupidity and backwardness. It allows for unqualified people to force their way into power. I used to think poverty knows no ethnic barriers. It knows no gender. The situation is different in Nigeria. We are gamblers who believe that miracles can happen without serious planning, and we are yet to be blessed with visionary leaders who can challenge the status quo, and tear down this wall of ignorance, poverty and diseases. As a result of this badly needed political will, our nation is dangerously close to the precipice. Our youths are restive and they are ready to tear down the fabrics that hold us together.
We all complain about the rise and rise of crime and criminals in our country without analysing the root cause. The police are only being blamed for everything when indeed they are also victims. We expect them to deal ruthlessly with the criminals when in truth society has already dealt ruthlessly with the police. The police are no fools. They are part and parcel of society. In fact, they are all seeing. They witness the insatiable looting that goes on in society and are forced to protect the looters. Private homes are now filled with private armies. We have murdered sleep and should not expect that we shall close our eyes in peace. A nation that lacks compassion would always reap confusion. A mad situation attracts a stupid reaction.
The selfishness of our ruling class is what has dragged us down to the abysmal level we find ourselves today. When the roads are bad, our elites think the solution is to buy a four-wheel drive. When armed robbers and assassins are on rampage, the privileged members of our society rush to acquire bullet-proof vehicles and bullet-proof doors at home. It just doesn't make any sense to me. We live in the most expensive slums in the world, and we are proud to paddle through the flood on our way home or on the way to our offices. And do nothing to change our environment.
It is such a tragedy that we simply don't care about our country. Our leaders are incredibly callous. I will repeat for the umpteenth time that only wicked souls would watch the Lagos-Ibadan, Ibadan-Ilorin, and Shagamu-Benin roads deteriorate to the level it has been for years without finding a solution. Even in the heart of Lagos, a city expected to compete with New York, all the federal roads have virtually collapsed. Nobody talks about railways these days. Our international airport is anything but international. It is as hot as hell. We do not see the effect of our oil money on our infrastructure. We only see it on the faces of the rich who have cornered everything. Our children no longer go to government-owned schools. We all keep them at private schools, at all costs, or send them abroad, including Ghana, Togo and Benin Republique. The hospitals have collapsed into morgues. Health is not available to all. Most deaths occur from preventable diseases.
And with every new government, we seem to sink deeper and deeper into the cesspool. We have refused to tear down the walls of Jericho that have encircled our collective destinies and progress. We all talk about ethnic sentiments without ever pausing to ask what it has fetched the regions that held power for so long. That is why I believe all Nigerians voted on June 12, 1993 for Chief Moshood Abiola in the freest election that ever held. The talakawas of Nigeria must have been persuaded that if Abiola could liberate himself from poverty and stretched his hands of fellowship across the Niger, they too might be able to say farewell to poverty under his government. Unfortunately that great dream soon evaporated at the altar of greed and selfishness.
I believe Nigeria is in dire need of oxygen. And it requires the expertise of all competent Nigerians regardless of where they come from. We have been held down for too long by ethnic jingoists who make incredible profit from every useless government. These profiteers have no conscience. They even care less about the future of their offspring. Theirs is to grab and grab, and the rest of us can go to hell. There is no cruelty worse than what we have refused to do with all the good things that God generously gave us. There is no oil-rich nation that has failed like Nigeria. There is no country on earth more endowed with brilliant human beings than ours. Every where you go in the world, you find Nigerians in leadership positions. Nigerians work harder than the average human being. Many of our citizens get home from work near midnight every day and wake up as early as 5 a.m. to go to work. Lagosians are permanently on the go. They toil so much but have little to show for it.
We must break this jinx. We must tear down the wall of oppression, of diseases and poverty. Americans pushed racism to the backburner in order to halt their descent into anarchy. Nobody remembered that Obama's father came from Kenya, and that the colour of his skin was black. They knew that poverty was a leveler and voted for a change. Very soon our politicians will come back to tell their constant lies. We must seize the opportunity and show them we are no perpetual fools. Until we tear down that wall, we shall continue to wallow in the worst form of underdevelopment known to mankind.
Let's all join hands to make the New Year happy.
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