Dele Momodu
10 April 2009
column
Lagos — There are certain assumptions that worry me about the Nigerian ruling elite. What sickens me the most is the sheer arrogance of thinking that Nigeria will never witness positive change. As the irresponsible theory goes, Nigeria is totally insulated from the rest of the world. That whatever happened elsewhere will never occur in our land. The Nigerian Mafia believes it has the capacity to keep us in perpetual darkness. All the incredible changes that occurred elsewhere would never be witnessed here.
The death of apartheid in South Africa has not taught us any lesson. The collapse of the Berlin wall lacked any significance in our view. There was no big deal about the disintegration of communism and the disappearance of the USSR. The emergence of Barack Hussein Obama was only good for America, and not for us. If the Americans would elect a Kenyan as their president, that is wonderful for them. As for us, we shall continue to stick to our primordial systems of zoning and federal character. And continue to treat fellow citizens as foreigners in their own country. We are content to live in our fool's paradise.
But they are wrong. Everything in life is always a matter of time. We all take our cosmic turns. Nigeria will never be an exception to world history. I predict that our time will come, and pretty soon too. Nigerians will wake up from our narcoleptic state, and bid farewell to our collective stupidity. We shall rise up one day soon and discover that it is a new dawn. We shall discover the power of registering to vote, and endure the pain of queuing up for hours to exercise our civic rights, like the Americans did for Obama. We shall build our tents at INEC centers, and protect our votes with all our might, from the barefaced thieves, and expert forgers. Our police and other law enforcement agents would soon learn how to say no to foolish instructions, and save their institution from public odium.
Nigerians will seek competent, bright, energetic, visionary, smart, charismatic, incorruptible leaders, from any part of our nation, and torpedo the age-old beliefs that only weak and incompetent leaders have a chance here. The warlords that dot the landscapes of Nigeria would soon be shown their report cards. That they have wasted about 50 years in the life of our otherwise great nation. And have only succeeded in killing the dreams of most of our people. They would be told in clear terms, that whatever has a beginning must have an end. That our walls of Jericho will collapse, and those who have held us down would have to be shoved aside as we work hard to rebuild our nation, with every sense of urgency and seriousness. Out of this rubble shall emerge a new tower of hope, standing proudly like the Egyptian pyramids.
We shall give power back to the real people, to those who have the capability for modern governance. We shall rebuild our power and energy. We shall upgrade our schools. We shall till the fields together and abolish the era of awarding useless contracts. We shall revamp our hospitals, and attract the best medical personnel, and so many other talents, that we have so generously donated to other countries. We shall lay our rails for efficient and modern trains. We shall construct new roads, and showcase elaborate motorways. We shall build new cities, and clean up old ones. Employment would be generated with these activities. Our people would never go hungry.
God has given us the most fertile lands for our crops and the energetic hands to cultivate them. Our cocoa, groundnuts and other natural resources once fed this nation. We grew different species of rice, like Ofada, Abakaliki, and alabere. Our tomatoes were juicy and inviting. Our organic chicken was delicious. The eggs were robust. We slaughtered ducks for Christmas. The Otukpo yam was legendary. Its combination with our pompous garden eggs was pure delight. And the Sallah rams were intimidating. This good life will return.
Nigeria will tear down the walls of superstitions and deceit, and show the foolishness of selecting leaders on useless sentiments. What has Kano gained from producing presidents? The Aminu Kano International Airport is the worst you can find anywhere. The city is comatose at night. The talakawas are yet to find another Aminu Kano to give them hope. The streets are in pitch darkness most nights. All our leaders live in Abuja, yet this newly created city cannot boast of ordinary traffic lights. The proponents of zoning are yet to tell us that Minna has become as beautiful as Dubai for producing two heads of state. We are yet to see the physical progress that Yorubaland enjoyed in the eight years of their luckiest son in power. Not a single road was built or rehabilitated.
What was the gain of Adamawa when her son became the most powerful vice president in Nigeria's chequered history? What was the gain of Abeokuta and Ota with their most powerful man in the presidential villa? It would probably have been better if the people had no president in their midst. If the gods could not make our lives better, they should have left us the way they met us, says a Yoruba adage.
I'm not daydreaming. Nigeria will rise again. We'll never give up on Nigeria as most people have. We are reasonably assured that we have all it takes. The world is wide awake, and Nigeria will be on the march again. Those who hope to continue their business as usual are in for the shock of their lives. Those waiting to give us leaders from their database of very weak leaders would soon discover the futility of their dangerous exercise. They will discover that we are no cows to be led to the abattoir. Nigerians are crying for the best leaders to emerge. We are not willing to accept leftovers when we can have the real thing. We have been long suffering and deserve very active leaders who can lead us into battle against poverty, ignorance and diseases. We require a president who can talk to Obama, and the G-20 leaders, eyeball to eyeball. We crave a president who can lead us into prosperity, and not one to drive us into perdition.
Nigeria parades some of the greatest human beings on earth. Everywhere we visited our friends taunted us about our inability to choose right. How come we always end up with leaders who cannot represent our greatness as a people? Only last week, we saw how President Obama took over Europe with his awesome charm and audacious poise. We saw how the tall, handsome man mesmerized his captive audience. We were all jealous because we know Nigeria has the capacity to produce many Obamas. Only this week, we saw the greatness of Italy on display, as the country was hit by a devastating earthquake. The country's leadership promptly rose up to the elemental challenge, in a rescue operation that was described as monumental. We saw Berlusconi at work, and he was on top of his game. We saw a leader with an acute knowledge of what was at stake. Nigeria has the ability to produce many Berlusconis.
Again we saw the importance of American citizens to America. Only one of her vessels got hijacked by some irritating miscreants off the coast of Somalia. Within hours, an American warship had sailed to the troubled spot to protect a few American souls. Our Navy can do the same. We have the brilliant and well-trained officers on ground, who lack the basic equipment to keep them at sea. We have leaders who seem disinterested in defending our nation against local and external aggressors. The same can be said of our crippled Air Force. You only need to see the eyesore on display at their base in Murtala Mohammed Airport, where our ageing Hercules aircrafts are parked. I share in the frustrations of those daredevil fighter pilots who must have been dying to fly the best jets a nation like Nigeria should parade. I pity our impoverished Police Force, and its poor officers who are forced to operate under the most excruciating conditions, and yet unfairly expected by all of us to perform miracles.
No nation can be considered serious when her armed forces' personnel are treated with such levity and disdain. When the morale of those trained to defend us are at the lowest ebb. We are a people with infinite capacity to endure the worst epidural pain. For too long, we've allowed our leaders to toy with our lives. We've watched with our arms akimbo as they mortgaged our future, and sentenced us into slavery. We have the resources to build several Dubais and Dohas. God gave us everything we needed to be amongst the greatest of the world. He gave us the most brilliant and exceptionally hardworking men and women. Yet we had everything frittered away by our rulers, and they have shown no remorse, nor the intention to change their rapacious inclinations.
But here lies my confidence that Nigeria will rise again. The collapse of the American system gave life to the ascendance of a Black President in America. The abject failure of the Bush government prepared the ground for the bloodless revolution that took place in America. The determination of the American people to say enough was enough, and broke the age-old prejudices that divided their nation along racist lines. Nigeria has now reached that point of no return. We shall cross the bridge.
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PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH YOUR CONSTITUTION, IT IS NOT A TOY, YOU LOOK TO USA, WE HAVE AMEND THE CONSTITUTION 26 TIMES OVER 233 YEARS. MAKE NEW LAWS THAT WILL STAND UP FOR ALL CITIZENS, IF NOT RIGHT, THEN LET YOUR COUNTRY'S SUPREME COURT, TO DETERMINE IF IT IS WITH THE SPIRIT , IF NOT THE LETTER. OF THE CONSTITUTION. HOWEVER, MY COMPANY AND I, WILL STAND BELOW THAT BRIDGE,. WITH STEEL AND CEMENT, TRYING WITH ALL OF YOUR PEOPLE HOLDING IT UP FROM FALLING. UNCLE TONY
NIGERIA'S RISE FROM THE RUT IN THE ABBYSS CAN ONLY OCCUR BY A CHANGE IN THE CONSTITUTION THAT WILL ALLOW SEPARATE DEVELOPMENT OF EACH OF THE SIX GEO-POLITICAL DIVISION OF THE COUNTRY.