Who Will “Bell” The Cat!
With the recent arrest of Dele Farotimi on allegations of defamation, one wonders what type of country we are running here. I live in a country that follows the rule of law, and one thing I know is that the law is the only equalizer for the average citizen. It is that one branch of government that offers protection to its citizens regardless of status. We know there are no perfect legal systems, nevertheless, citizens of these nations of law understand that the law will offer them some protection from their government and abusers no matter how little. In these countries, defamation is not a criminal offence but rather a civil matter that would not elicit time in jail. Only in Nigerian would someone be jailed or remanded in prison for a civil infraction. Looking at Nigeria today, we continue to regress in all progress indices and development, one wonders if there will is any hope left for Nigeria. It appears we are fully
committed to destroying our own country despite the abundance of human and natural resources.
Everywhere you look crises abound. In the North it is the Boko Haram menace, in the South if is agitation for separation, and in the East and specifically among the Igbos we want Biafra. The riverine states are dueling with the federal government over oil wells and have resorted to doing everything to sabotaging oil companies and the federal government. There is no corner of Nigeria that is devoid of some form of crises, and this is excluding the plague of corruption and embezzlement by our political leaders. Meanwhile, our judiciary is non-existent and will bend to the will of whomever is the highest bidder. There is simply no recourse for the average Nigerians who just want to live an average life. Meanwhile, inflation, hunger, kidnapping and ritualistic killings are now the norm rather than exceptions.
My question to all Nigerians is, when will enough be enough? It appears that no matter how bad our situation degenerated, Nigerian citizens would just adjust to the situation and continue to live their lives in perpetual penury, suffering and bondage. All over the world, third world countries are deciding that they have had enough perpetual suffering and chaos, and are taking their countries back. But in Nigeria it appears we are oblivious of the effects of the current state of the country and its impact on the lives of the average person. I think that the average Nigerian would rather live in perpetual penury and bondage rather than challenge the status quo. For us, enough is never enough provided we can live and breathe every day. Regardless of the level of crises and cries about the unbearable conditions, we seem content with adjusting to these horrible conditions. We just lack the will power to ask and/or agitate for our God given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of justice. This trait is innate in us! It is simply how we are programmed. It is what our education has taught us, explain away your suffering and never rock the boat. We lack courage, we lack enough balls to challenge the status quo, we lack resolution. All we are good at is adjust to whatever crippling conditions that befalls us, and we call that courage or the Naija way.
To cap it all, religious teaching has stifled our progress. We have literally adopted the notion of a better place when we die and therefore, no need to seek a good life on earth. In fact, making things easy for a Nigerian is a sign of laziness. We equate resiliency, suffering and “penance” as a sure pathway to heaven. This has stifled our progress. The way we interpret the bible and Koran so literally has led to the false premise of replacing hard work, innovation and invention with prayers as a sine-qua-non to progress. We no longer see our parents embrace of patience, building solid foundations, and hard work as necessary. Instead, we have opted for short cuts and quick access to success regardless of who is hurt or damaged in the process.
There is no cohesion between the three major tribes in Nigeria! In fact, it appears that each tribe blames the other for their shortcomings and failures. Instead of looking within for solutions they seek redress through xenophobic attitudes towards other tribes. Politicians seeing this rift has taken advantage of it to maintain their grip through the ideal of divide and conquer. While we blame and fight each other, they continue to siphon our monies, and we will even protect these thieves and justify their behaviors provided they are from our tribe. What level of stupidity. Every day, drumbeats for secession, clamor for Aso Rock are so loud they are drowning out common sense and any voices of reason. I remember how the cries for independent states were attributed to marginalization and suppression. How some Nigerians have effectively used propaganda and fear to goad their tribesmen into doing all manners of thing that are negatively impacting us today. But today we all now know the truth but still will not do anything to salvage the situation. Regardless, the Igbos have continued to hang onto these elusive visions of secession by their continued practice of these wasteful sit-at-home orders. Who did this to us? Why are we so gullible when it comes to religion and these endless quests for something that is not attainable?
As we approach the Christmas festivities, some of these individuals pillaging our resource are offering “palliatives” to the poor. The result was the deaths of over 68 people clamoring for mere bags of rice. Yes, RICE! The most disheartening part of this was the wanton display of these bodies on social media like they are dried stockfish on display for sale. Are we that heartless and totally devoid of any respect for the dead? It is now common practice that the average Nigerian will not offer help or assistance at accident scenes or kidnapping scenes but will gladly record the horrible and sometimes morbid images for the pleasure of posting on social. We see it every day at gruesome accidents where onlookers are all busy videotaping the gruesome images instead of offering help. I was so disgusted by the callous display of these dead bodies that I aggressively challenged every member in any forums I belong regarding the reasons they would indulge in such repulsive behaviors. This shows our total loss of value for life and disrespect for the dead. These are people who claim they love life!
My other frustration are towards the handlers of these so-called “philanthropists” who are now working to absolve their masters of any culpability in these stampedes that killed innocent citizens. In my view, they should be held responsible for these deaths. In fact, if this happened in the USA, most of them would be bankrupt following the amount of lawsuits that will follow these unfortunate events. The fact is that because you are giving palliatives to the poor does not absolve you of your responsibility to ensure that your good deed does not lead to tragedy. Yes, we applaud you for sharing your wealth with the less fortunate, however, you must be held responsible for the damage caused by your actions whether good or bad. But Nigeria has no laws, and these deaths are for naught and will represent wasted lives. Rather than celebrating yuletide, these families will be mourning and burying their dead.
The Nigerian police, not to be left out have issued a ban on sharing palliative – rather than arresting and prosecuting those responsible for these mishaps, the best they can do was to place a ban on palliatives and offering their services for anyone wishing to do such events. What hug wash! It will mean giving the security personnel another opportunity to extort the poor who will gather for such palliatives. What a country! Conversely, the individuals who showed up in these numbers should take some responsibility too. Our greed and this idea of not to be left without whatever palliative let to the surge the caused these deaths. We must note that greed is alive and well in Nigeria. Many of these folks went to collect rice not because they needed it, but due to GREED! So, whatever happened to the Igbo extended family system? Growing up, I observed that the more fortunate members of every family ensures that their less fortunate family members have some food to celebrate Christmas? How has our country and culture changed!
This leads me to the caption for this article of “Who Will Bell The Cat? Is there really no hope for Nigeria? Have we lost whatever glories that earned us the title of “the Giant of Africa?” Everywhere you look, there is hunger, frustration, crime, political violence and the continued pillaging of our national resources. Meanwhile, we have individuals who we voted into power to help create an enabling environment for citizens to thrive be the ones abusing their citizens. We know that our security personnel have only one interest and that is to extort as much money as they can from poor motorists and anyone who venture to come their way. We know that our elected officials have one objective, and that is to grab as much as they could while in power to help them relocate to another country when they finally lose election. We know today that even the diaspora Nigerians, despite our level of education and experience have no interest in helping Nigeria grow. We the diaspora Nigerians falsely believe that so long as we send our tiny miserly token to family members, therein ends our responsibilities to our dear nation. We know today that the average Nigerian wants to get rich in a blink of an eye without hard work or sacrifice that it takes to succeed? We know that Nigeria has redefined the meaning of hard work to mean scam work, cultism, kidnapping, baby snatching etc. We know that civilized nations are content with us trying to borrow our way out of poverty and are willing to oblige us thereby keeping us in perpetual bond. We know that Nigerian tribes hate each other so much that we are willing to destroy the country than to see the right person help the country out of its current predicament. We know that for 64 years now, we have been unable to provide electricity, good roads, running water and good sewer and storm systems to our people. We know we have no ability to monitor what is being imported and/or produced in the country leaving the average citizen at the mercy of bootleggers and counterfeit manufacturers who produce products that is killing thousands of people. Now it begs the question… WHO WILL RESCUE NIGERIA? In essence, WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?
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