A friend of mine sent me series of messages on Whatsapp, not waiting for me to reply. I could imagine his hands were burning with the urgency to get answers to the questions on his mind. He seemed rather deflated with the Nigerian situation. He then asked me, where are the good people of Nigeria?
What is the defining moment, what must happen to bring us back to reality and get us moving in the right direction? A civil war, coups, the June 12 crisis when MKO Abiola won the elections but the election results were declared null and void by Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida: repressive and corrupt regimes have not nudged us in the right direction, so what will?
These questions obviously come from a Nigerian that has concluded that the state of the country is that of hopelessness. A discouraged youth. And I thought about these questions he posed and that has been my food for thought. Is it that the conscience and humanity of Nigerians has been so seared that Fela’s song suffering and smiling is the mantra of the country?
The Libyans experienced relative peace and at least had a buoyant economy, but despite that, the Arab spring caught up with Gadhafi. Many Nigerians then expected a 'Nigerian spring,' especially after Goodluck Jonathan increased the price of fuel from sixty five naira to one hundred and forty naira in the New Year, January 1, 2012. There was a lasting protest for close to four days, then the Nigeria Labour Congress called off the protests, just like that.There has basically been no stable government in Nigeria for close to fifty years, and Obasanjo’s regimes as well as Goodluck Jonathan’s government have not brought about much sought after stability.
Nigerians were deflated. The government obviously had become immune to protests. Life continued, people complained and condemned the government. But the government obviously knows the kind of people Nigerians are. They make noise for a few days; they get tired and finally keep quiet. The government ends up having its way. So what will nudge Nigerians in the right direction?
Nigerians have learned how to adapt to any situation. Generators provide power supply when the government fails to perform its duty. Many houses have wells and boreholes, since there is no piped water that is supplied by the government. The police are among the most corrupt in the country, and neighbourhoods can’t entrust the security of their properties to them, so they pay community vigilantes.
Public schools are not performing to expectations, and most parents that can afford private schools send their children to private schools, and also employ private tutors. So tell me, when the Nigerian does not need the government for anything, but has created his own small economic sectors at home, would he be concerned with what is happening in the political scene? If a goat rules the country, it is none of his business as long as his life is not interrupted.
Currently, elections have been postponed. There are already allegations of rigging and changing of the electoral chairman, postponement of elections for political expediency. These elections determine if the ruling party will remain in power, or if a new government promising change will step in. It is important that Nigerians get it right during these elections.
Religion has played a serious eroding role in Nigeria’s political and social scene. And until recently, many Christians never voted. Their kingdom and government, they believed, was not of this world, and they became extremely passive in political matters. Parents would tell their children not to protest or cause trouble. The result was a passive political population, until just recently when the political scene in Nigeria awakened, and everyone all of a sudden became interested in these elections.The ruling party has already been implicated in a circulating tape that shows they rigged the elections in Ekiti State, a state in South West Nigeria. If rigging takes place at the national level, what would be the response of Nigerians? If military regimes, as oppressive as they were, could not make Nigerians take to the streets, what will?
Will these elections be the turning point in Nigeria’s political scene? But if nothing changes, can anything ever again make Nigeria change? A country that ought to be promising, and offering its youth hope, decays and everyone watches with folded arms.
I strongly believe in the canonical words of Frantz Fanon, that ‘each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it.’
It is crystal clear what the mission of my generation is, and I hope they fulfill it. "waza"
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