Our leaders have this mentality that once there is a country and all instruments of government and governance are in place, especially tools for exercising legally sanctioned force, nothing else matters. No matter the level of contradictions thrown up, nothing can threaten the foundation of the union. This position is not only faulty, but also misleading. It has its root in grass ignorance.
If only our leaders were students of history, they would have known this one very important fact: that a country can collapse and not only that, but it can also disintegrate without anyone firing one bullet. The Roman Empire offers us a good lesson. At its peak of glory, it was not just an empire with so many vassal states under her control, it was as well the centre of power and authority in the world at the time. The empire rolled in grandeur. Now nothing even of the disruptive kind happening within it suggested a day would come when without a push the kingdom would convolute and then disintegrate, never to be again. Yugoslavia is another one.
In the case of Yugoslavia, it even had one of the world’s greatest leaders in the person of Tito, yet it just went down in a season and out; there was no fighting, the people just woke up to say enough was enough about manipulations and living in fear. The story of Yugoslavia ended there. It is a very recent history before someone thinks it is a 16th century recollection. No. The Soviet Union is another of the most recent examples. Her traducers called her the “Iron Curtain.” By political estimation the territory was considered impregnable, yet it fell into splinters with so many new countries coming out of it. Examples of subversions and its untoward effects on people and society are many to recount here.
It is not revolutionary or transformational pushes alone that kill or better still, destroy countries and societies. Contradictions from leaders and of course the people, do pull down entities. The tiny stones we throw into the river may look insignificant and of no effect, truth is they always raise tiny ripples that create their own impact. There is this lesson about the axe and razor, even though capacity to bring down a tree may differ, both are nevertheless very potent in doing that cutting job.
People often neglect small things under the erroneous thinking they hold out no danger, whereas effective dynamites come in very small packages. Those in religious circles, especially Christianity, often warn about the potency of “little foxes.” The man in the street driving against the traffic even for once is invariably sowing a negative seed that requires only a little time to germinate and blossom.
The same thing for the citizen who has made it a habit to jump queues or give gratification to secure undue advantages. The same for the group that extols might over order and those who have this penchant for subverting due processes for whatsoever reason. Every act of abberation opens up the fault lines of any society and stands it ready for eventual destruction. It was at the university when “lecturers taught what they were not supposed to teach”, with due respect to late Prof Jubril Aminu, then Education Minister, that we were told that contradictions of a society will always rise up to deal it fatal blows. It is just a question of time. If we have not made much progress, it could well be that our contradictions outweigh our genuine steps and efforts. Some of us can confirm that it is so.
It is time we begin to tell ourselves the truth. I have repeatedly said in this space for over one year running and I will never be tired of saying it again and again for the simple reason that when eventually we or majority of citizens know the truth it will set us free. See, our dilemma is that we don’t love truth. Malcom X captured it in these words: “You have to be careful introducing the truth to the Blackman, who steadily has refused to know the truth about himself. The black brother is so fixated that he may reject truth when he first hears it.” That is the challenge but he advices those bent on telling the truth never to get discouraged, they may be hated and rejected but it should not be reason to retreat. I say same to progressive forces in the country, let there be no retreat nor surrender.
We must begin to drop some truths to ourselves, not necessarily those in power currently but to ourselves as Nigerians. It is about collective guilt now; we all have a hand in what the country is turning to. Everything is closing up and impunity is becoming the order of the day yet no one or group rises to say no, no more except when they become direct victims. Last week some leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, among many others poured into the streets in Abuja to stage a protest against the very poor conduct of the presidential election held on February 25. Some of us saw it and couldn’t help laughing.
Not that it wasn’t a serious business; by any standard it was. Protest is a part of democracy but many of us saw that and wished it has been a regular part of our democratic practice. If demonstrations were part of our democratic culture as it was in time past many acts of impunity and wicked policies designed to virtually emasculate the far greater majority of the population won’t happen. Take this: no leader would be brave enough, let alone having the audacity to manipulate something as crucial to national survival as a national election. When good men leave the political stage, vagabonds take over and with them on the saddle vices become norms. In the course of time society is set on edge. We are at it now. Strange people on the throne.
The President Muhammadu Buhari administration rode to power on a very popular acclaim. It came amid the highest level of legitimacy but within days of assuming power the signs were so visible it would be the worst in terms of all that is negative about poor governance. In the first major press interview the Buhari gave he disclosed he would be a divisive figure. It didn’t matter to him that democracy was about choice after that one union. He kept to his words making government of a federation a prize of family and cronies. We saw it and nobody including those who sing a song about national unity could say a word of caution let alone staging a demonstration. Everything was right since the person from the right circles called the shots.
Before Buhari made the presidency he had participated in a protest against increase in petrol price. While running for office he promised to cut down on the price and to build refineries; he never did any rather he increased suffering in the land by arbitrary increases in the price of the product not once or twice, yet nobody could talk. Civil society organisations that stood in before for the people suddenly went dumb and finally dead, killed by associates of those who climbed to power telling us they were the messiahs for our today. The country went from increase in price to petrol scarcity and more confounding huge claims of expenditures in the guise of “petroleum subsidy.” The situation having turned far worse from what Buhari inherited, still no voice-outs nor protest. Protest was very good against President Goodluck Jonathan from Southern minority but under a president from the right section it became an anathema.
The Buhari regime later embarked on a borrowing spree to the point the country uses more than 80 percent of her earned revenues for debt services, still no words of condemnation simply because he comes from the right side of Nigeria. What he does and what happens to the people and their country shouldn’t be of general concern; that is general attitude. Yet the country is going down very rapidly.
There is no need talking about the evil called “currency redesign”, see the timing and manner of execution and you can see deliberate wickedness to undo people just to realise narrow ends.
It was executed very close to the presidential election so that a rudderless ruling party that has ran down what is supposed to be a great country can have funds to win a poll it was meant to lose very well.
The opposition would not have money to spend especially in a atmosphere of deep hunger and derivation made terrible by a policy designed to turn the scale. Opposition parties ever gullible and desperate for power fell for the trap. While they couldn’t find cash to push even for logistical needs, the ruling party had more than enough at least Mrs Oluremi Tinubu wife of the announced winner of the presidential election told the country she got 2 million naira from the wife of the Vice President-elect. Mrs Shettima.
Some of us wished the protest Atiku and Co embarked on last week would have had more meaning and produced far reaching results if PDP saw the need to start demonstrations against bad policies and negative political attitude about six years ago. It would have put the leadership in power in check and possibly prevent the sham the February presidential poll turned out to be in spite of deceptive assurances made to the people by those in-charge of our destiny. For one, wicked and rudderless leaders fear the people pouring into the streets, they know the implications. They hate to hear dissenting voices expressed openly. There main expectation is to see everybody go dumb. Unfortunately, we don’t have opposition, we have only political desperados who think they can play card their way to power. The election of February 25 was highly manipulated, and the signs were there early enough that it will be so.
Everywhere he went, the president spoke about credible elections as his legacy, he spoke about it even in places that weren’t necessary, some guessed he had to prepare minds against what was to come. It is the way of hypocrites; deception precedes a strike. Some of us told close friends what was about coming, it was written here too. After that the President began to appeal to all to accept the outcome of the poll, this was long time before the actual voting date, the last was to tell whoever may not be satisfied to take a recourse to the courts. Some of us saw a man battling with his conscience.
Eventually our fears came through when it was time to upload results the electoral umpire under pressure now disclosed the servers to receive the results couldn’t work again, a demon from hell had stepped on machines and they couldn’t work again. a pure cock and bull story. It is the kind of story told children in Disneyland not in real world. Technocrats tell citizens they spent hundreds of billions of public funds to achieve failure. The greatest wonder is that the culprit in Chief still keeps his office to perpetuate more harm. When a society distorts the leadership recruitment process, every other thing runs on the mediocre level.
We don’t have a country, what the electoral body has just done is part of the reason; we won’t have a country in real sense if we continue this way and the truth is we will end up taking ourselves to the point the union would just break down without anyone firing a bullet or stage a protest. More than 60 years after independence we should be ashamed that we are unable to do rudimentary things as simple as electing true leaders. When we manipulate elections, it means the old decadent order can’t be changed peacefully. We forget that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable. We may think differences in tribe and religion may provide buffer, we will soon find out it is not.
It is difficult to sustain unity and cohesion in an atmosphere of impunity and injustice. Both reckless acts hit at the heart of emotion. It leaves deep wounds on individuals and groups. The effect of the Civil War is still very much with us. It is demonic to allow people waste resources and expend energy to run a race that wasn’t there at all. Apart from political instability it engineers, the economy receives serious hits, political instability inhibits investors’ confidence; it won’t matter if it is local or foreign. The Buhari political engineering is the most dangerous, it is not nationalist but rather tainted with religious irredentism. It will explode. Don’t say anyone told you but you have heard it.