Here are few reasons why I believe our political leaders will not learn from history, and are therefore frantically preparing their own ignominious ending – a mere footnote in the political history of Nigeria.
STATE
OF THE NIGERIAN STATE
To
the chagrin of only few Nigerians (because we are very few indeed who still
believe anything the government of Nigeria says or promises), Prof. Barth
Nnaji’s stentorian pledge to make power (electricity) a near stable commodity
in 2012 is likely to remain a mirage even a year before the next election
(2014). Frankly, by that election he would have been long removed, and at least
two others after him would have been disgraced from office in desperate haste
to beat the magical 2015. Obviously, unforeseen security calamities would not
be a good enough excuse not to provide stable power after trillions of naira
frittered over the past 10 years.
The
ongoing charade over the investigation and prosecution of oil subsidy
fraudsters and the re-probe of complicit Fuel Subsidy probers will peter out in
shameless cloud of incoherence and political compromises. And as we are regaled
with the diverse strands of dramatic departures and extensions from the main
issues of fuel subsidy over-payment or non-payment or non-existence, the farce
will deteriorate to such a stage that it will no longer worry them to
discontinue the entire embarrassment, and dig up another scandal to entertain
the gullible and irritate the conscientious.
Inflammatory
statements and condescending declarations from the highest quarters will flow
freely in the two years preceding the 2015 elections that will infuriate
Nigerians but amuse and astound the democratic world. When the President of your
Senate contemplates muffling voices of dissent on a global information highway,
and wags fingers at apparently rude remarks of angry and oppressed citizens as
if warning roast-beef hawkers on the rickety highways to Otukpo… you must
shudder at what our politicians still have up their sleeves.
There
used to be a period in our national life that we proudly declared certain
obscenities witnessed in some banana African, Asian or Caribbean countries of
the 70’s and 80’s could never happen in the largest black nation on earth. We
have since perished such infantile outbursts. That was then! We have tumbled
down from that delusion. Was it not in our presence, that a state governor
walked into an auditorium to swear-in new permanent secretaries; yet strolling
in beside him was one of the new appointees, Nigeria’s very Own, Africa’s
leading First Lady, the venerable Dame Patience Jonathan? Two hours after her
“mates” had sat patiently waiting for the governor (ostensibly kept waiting by
the new super secretary who had to snatch herself away from graver national
duty in Abuja to make the ‘maritime’ ceremony). And we used to generously
deride Uganda, Lesotho, Burundi, Bahrain, Panama, Libya, Tunisia and such
enclaves where primordial insanity appeared to have gazumped national
self-restraint and rule of law. Guess who the same people are laughing at now?
Without
doubt, the ongoing scandals rocking the legislators and MDA’s are mere flakes;
barely escaping the protective eyes of rollicking grand-daddies of corruption
(or perhaps they were deliberately thrown in the air to bring some recalcitrant
devotees into subjugation). Surely, we shall all live to witness greater and
sadder disclosures of more repulsive scandals, frauds, looting of recovered
loots and overt back-stabbing in high places!
All
these activities of unbridled wastage, unrestrained gluttony, indecent
pilfering of the public treasure will only last for a little while, as Karmic
eruptions are bound to express themselves as from 2013, when, as usual in
Nigeria, corruption will shoot itself in the feet, and tumble fantastically on
account of its ungainly and unbalanced weight.
These
scenarios aforementioned are nonetheless exhaustive. Our atmosphere is riddled
with unsubstantiated litany of criminality and perfidy against the people and
their treasury. Who will confirm our fear? Who will ascertain the veracity of
our doubts? Who will arrest the arrogant sponsors of state power? In a corrupt
twist of faith, moneyed friends of powerful politicians are conducting sting
operations to deflect our attention and burst our bubbles over pretentions of
crusaders who appear to be fighting for the people but are indeed lining their
own caps with gains of subterfuge.
The
people of Nigeria understand and appreciate their searingly hopeless situation.
They often find vain refuge under such idiomatic canopy like: ‘’the unlucky
tail-less cow must depend on divine assistance to repel attacks of flies’’.
They can feel, and have for many years lived with the arrogance and petulance
of astonishingly corrupt politicians calling each other names and enrobing one
another in derogatory apparels on national television - only to rollick
together at nightly confluence of cake-sharing rituals. Yes, we know of their
grandstanding, we know of their stinking wealth and unrestrained obesity
fuelled by ill-gotten riches… such was the case of a certain powerful
politician, Alhaji Umaru Dikko, who in 1982 swaggered and trampled all over our
consciences in untrammeled pomposity. He was too powerful to be checked by the
supine President; too connected to be challenged by constituted authorities;
too street-smart to be outflanked by the troublesome intelligentsia. But by the
end of 1983, he had vanished into the Britannic air - his feathers in tatters,
his profligacy a tale told in rebellious shanties by the same people he
violently dehumanized both by his withering words and self-serving actions… the
pompous politician barely escaped cratal deportation in 1984. And so on and so
forth.
As
we look towards 2015, our current leaders need to avert the approaching
disaster, not by paying professional weepers to fast and pray in our numberless
mosques and churches; not by paying titles and building more churches and
mosques. Sending people on pilgrimages and feeding thousands of beggars after
Jumaat prayers will not cut the ice.... Our leaders must, within the next two
years, take a paradigm twist away from this sickening dancing on one spot -
they must identify the immediate needs of the people… deliver immediate
palliatives and erect a long-lasting superstructure to erase the people’s pains
and devastation.
Our
leaders should avoid the sort of leadership provided by Governor Babatunde
Fashola (of Lagos State) who will destroy marine shanties of Makoko area of
Lagos State, where people have dwelled for decades. Without suitably decent
alternatives, he wiped out their quarters and left them high and dry on the low
seas. What sort of political leadership is that? A state where government
officials daily assail the airwaves, threatening hard-working Nigerians with
one penal knock or the other, and in failure to comply, should leave ‘’their’’
state for ‘’them’’. What sort of democratic dividends is that?
Our
leaders now throw bric-a-bracs of shame at each other… a party whose notable
member, the Lagos State speaker, is embroiled in despicable allegations of
massive fraud, could find it convenient to demand for the resignation of
another party’s leader whose child was acting true to type ( he was recently
arraigned for fuel-subsidy fraud). Or the Imo state governor whose itchy hands
sacked opposition chairmen of local government councils on the premise that the
election that gave them mandate was obtained in spite of a court order which
halted the conduct of that election. And the governor was later told by a
superior court that since he was not the bailiff authorized to execute court
orders, the chairmen should be reinstated. Yet the unfazed governor wondered
aloud recently why the court could not see that he was only promoting peace and
maintaining the rule of law!
If
such maladies are allowed to become prevalent and overwhelming - driving out
sense and decency from the streets. Then, of course, their bastard brothers
(anarchy and irreverence) will over-run the streets of Nigeria; and our wish
for a successful transition in 2015, will remain just that… a wish.
But
to my fellow country men and women, let me encourage you to remain steadfast
and do not condescend to the inglorious levels of your corrupt leaders. Many
people, especially well-known politicians and their strategists, believe they
have you in their palms; that they can manipulate you as they want… that they
made you vote for GEJ and not PDP in the South West, and can “do” and “undo” as
the case may be. I strongly believe that their day of reckoning is fast
approaching, when confirmed riggers, forgers, fraudsters, drug addicts and such
low-esteemed drivels occupying the heights of our politics would be soundly
demystified and their caps thrown into the mud of undisguised defeat and
dislocation. The time is fast approaching when thrones that refuse to clean its
palaces will be ravaged and despoiled. Then truth, decency and merit will stand
and rule firm and respectable.
While
we await the glorious days when Nigeria can boast with pride and wit again, I
recommend you crunch on this vigorous statement delivered by a leading member
of The Zikist Movement in a 1948 lecture (The Age of Positive Action). Mallam
Habib Abdallah exclaimed:
“I
hate the Union Jack with all my heart because it divides the people wherever it
goes… it is a symbol of persecution, of domination, a symbol of exploitation…
of brutality… we have passed the age of petition… age of resolution… the age of
diplomacy. This is the age of action – plain, blunt and positive action”.
Note:
In place of “Union Jack” you can affix any name that represents to you a
current source of irritation or despair.
As
they say in my side of town: let the house rats holler to the bush rodents…
Beware of 2013, oh thou corrupt politicians… there is perhaps wisdom in
wistfulness.
Femi
Akintunde-Johnson is a Writer, Journalist & Author. Contact:
fajswhatnots@yahoo.com
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