What Am I Thinking?
With the world cup underway, and Nigeria not playing, we still have managed to find ways to dominate social media with not too complimentary news about Nigeria. if social media information were to be reviewed by aliens, they will wonder if anything positive ever happens in Nigeria. I just do not understand why we as a people are so quick to point out our flaws for the world to see, we are not the only country that has challenges.
Part of this behavior is this proclivity to quickly brand anyone who is not aligned with us politically as a tribal outsider. It appears we want to force monolithic thinking whereby any person belonging to a tribal group must conform to the same thoughts as ours. This is not acceptable behavior because we are hardly monolithic. As someone who has worked in government for some time, I am concerned as to how we perceive people running for political office as if they are messiahs destined to swoop in like Jesus Christ and save us from ourselves while erasing our suffering. We are so brain dead and lazy that all we aspire is to be able to handover our wellbeing and destiny to someone else or anyone who could coin a good slogan or catchy phrase. In some cases, we will even coin those phrases for them. Hence, phrases like “Atikulate,” “Emi Lokan” and “Obi’dient”, are now part of the Nigeria lexicon and have dominated our political space as we willingly work to elect one of these individuals to shepherd this flock called Nigeria. I am here to postulate that regardless of who wins this election, we will be grumbling in twelve months about how they have been unable to deliver on their promises, forgetting that we have unrealistic expectations and only we can rescue us from our current predicament.
So, what am I thinking? I think that Soludo, the not so long-ago true son of Anambra and anointed Governor of Anambra state, who was very beloved by his people who crowned him Mr. Solution, is now in the doghouse. His crime was that he dared to challenge another anointed son of Anambra on things that I think were reasonable free speech for any concerned citizen. No one took the time to verify whether Soludo’s claims have merit, but we resoundingly rebuked and shouted him down simply because he said some things that may be true, but contrary to our own beliefs. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion regardless; we all should be free to express whatever opinions we hold without being abused by the mob! And my friends, if Governor Soludo does not have the right to express his opinion, then we have no right to criticize him for his comments. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. Soludo has the right to express his views and that expression does not make him a devil or minimize his ability to perform in his job as Governor. Today, all his actions are being called into question, simply because he dared to speak up.
What am I thinking? I was wondering whatever happened with the Herdsmen/Farmer conflict that was the talk in Igboland not too long ago? Barely 24 months ago, every killing and/or conflict and atrocities was attributable to the Herdsmen menace. However, with the emergence of the unknown gunmen, it has become apparent that most of those crimes had very little to do with the Herdsmen. As we have come to realize that they were in fact a product of the activities of the “unknown gunmen” who we now know are our own sons and daughters. I wondered how many lives we would have saved had we maintained our collective sanity and faced the truth regarding these killings as they happened and as we are doing today? A reality that was very apparent at the time but refused to accept it due to having a common enemy that we could blame. Now that we know the true story, can we scream at the top of our voices just as we did when we believed it was the Fulani Herdsmen? I do not see anyone calling on the world bodies to come and save us from our own children. Whatever happened to our collective rage?
What am I thinking? I think we lack the will and capacity to save ourselves from ourselves. I look at the level of looting and pillaging of Nigeria wealth by politicians and wonder why we have not been able to pull our educated minds and learning together to plug these loopholes? Could it be that we lack the knowledge to do so, or might it be that we really do not want the system to change, per chance we may be elected into public office, and it will Emi L’okan. I think that until we agree that anyone who pilfers public funds deserves to be punished regardless of tribe, we will continue to wallow in our own self-destructive ways. Stories abound regarding how much money was pilfered by elected officials but my people who amongst these embezzlers have been duly punished for their crimes?
What am I thinking? I think this presidential election has two very capable individuals that we can chose from for the office, however, we will fail regardless of who we choose because we lack the capability of managing our own affairs and hold our elected officials to account. The reason is that, once again, we foolishly believe that a messiah will come God of Allah and rescue Nigeria from our current predicament. We as a people have refused to put in the effort necessary to make change. Look at what is happening in Iran, despite the brutal showdown with the police, they have refused to quit! Not us. We ignore the elephant in the room, namely TRIBALISM which is the Nigerian kryptonite. Our every behavior reek of tribalism, our laws are deeply rooted in tribalism and religious sentiments and catalyze our worst tribalistic tendencies. So, you tell me, how could a society so flawed be fixed? The truth of the matter is that this election, once again, is a display of our tribal sentiments and division. Anyone can delude themselves, but we are a true testament that the person we lie to the most, is tribal selves and until we admit this, we will never move forward as a people. We can keep fooling ourselves, but for any decent decerning mind already knows, “it is, what it is!” They say that the first step to recovery from any vice, is admission that you have a problem. We cannot even bring ourselves to admit that we have a problem, talk less trying to find solutions to those problems. Well, we can see how far that has gotten us since independence.
What am I thinking? I think that we should have more respect for the dead in our society. Nowhere in the world will you see dead and mutilated bodies so easily displayed for public consumption. Hence one of the reasons the rest of the world views us as truly barbaric. How can you blame them when they see us strip men and women naked and parade them through village squares in humiliation for allegations that have not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt? People commit more heinous crimes all over the world, but you will not see any civilized society beat and paraded their people for the world to see. That is why there is the judiciary. This year alone, there have been several mass shootings in America, however, not one time did you see the gruesome images of dead people displayed online like we love to do. We hear confessions from some of these purported criminals, but forget that people sometime will confess to crimes they did not commit to avoid being beaten to stupor. And sometimes these people may be individuals with mental disabilities just as happened recently with a lady confessing to killing all her siblings who are still alive and well.
To cap the above for me is how eager we are to display dead and mutilated on social media. In fact, people will come upon an accident or crime scene, rather than help the victims, would rather whip out their cell phones cameras and begin recording. This is how much morality has been degraded in our country – we have absolutely no respect or pity for the dead and have no reservations about posting morbid images on social media regardless of who we offend. Yes, we have lost all our scruples to the extent that nothing fazes us or makes sense anymore.
What am I thinking? I am thinking that just like Soludo is dealing with the backlash from his comments, whoever is elected the next Nigerian president will deal with a similar rejection and mockery due for not delivering on improving our quality of our lives immediately. This is Nigeria where we believe that the government is responsible for our every need, and have refused to take responsibility for ourselves. We lack the ability and resolve to work for what we want. Yes, we are very successful in the diaspora, but should never forget that our successes in this foreign space are a product of sacrifices made by others to create an enabling environment which facilitated our successes overseas. For what it is worth, our generation is the worst generation that graced the Nigerian soil. Our fathers did everything they could to set us up for success, but all we have done is to take advantage of those opportunities but contributed little to the benefit of the generation coming after us. We blame everyone for our lack of progress and opportunities rather than finding ways to create enabling environments to nurture the ambitions of the next generation. But there is hope. Let us be reminded that every civilization went through trying times such as Nigeria is experiencing today. Just like those civilized worlds, it will take the effort of concerned citizens such as you and me to pull up our booth straps, strap on our saddle and work towards making our country live up to its expectations.
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