It will be trite to say here that Nigerians are in dire straits. They are faced with a situation they never anticipated. This is all because the rat race for the soul of Nigeria has gone berserk. Some political marauders are holding the country by the jugular, trying as it were to exterminate what is left of the essence of the entity. The ongoing effort to neutralize these nation-wreckers is what is playing out. The ding-dong battle appears headed towards a cataclysmic end. The horizon is looking bleak. All this points to the sad fact that the country is not about to improve. If anything, it is drifting inexorably into the abyss. Each passing day has its disconcerting story. There is hardly anything cheery.
For some 10 months now, the inhabitants of this blighted star have been grappling with the pains of a manipulated election outcome. Some fellows had delivered a coup de grace on the country, ensuring that its doomed voyagers stay condemned to a life of privation and deprivation. The perfidy had thrown up inverted minds who appear to be in a scramble for the soul of the country.
The leader of the pack has been showcasing prebendal politics as his stock in trade. What we have under him is government of a clan, by a clan and for a clan. Consideration for the country is manifestly missing in the scheme of things. The country exists only in the abstract.
The executioner-in-chief is surrounded and aided by a vicious and predatory clan who believe that they have unqualified right to government revenues and resources and must use same to gratify their cheer leaders and other members of their confraternity. In their bid to institutionalize greed and bigotry, they have thrown the country into convulsion. They are re-enacting the pitiable and loathsome situation that Evelyn Waugh, a twentieth century English novelist, freely lampooned in his novel, “Decline and Fall”. The malaise in Nigeria of our time approximates to what Waugh portrayed in the 1928 novel. Nigeria is being held hostage by political convulsion and general disorientation, culminating in a social bedlam of immense proportions. The reverberations of the ugly situation are all over the land. Hunger, anger and their associated pains are tearing through the social fabric. The people look forlorn. They have been raped by those who ought to give them succor.
The most disturbing in all this is that the ensuing confusion hit Nigerians like a thunderbolt. They did not see it coming. Instead, they had hoped that rescue would come their way after the lackluster reign of Muhammadu Buhari. They thought that the 2023 presidential election would lead to a welcome outcome.
Long before 2023, the people had looked forward to a new day and a new beginning in the affairs of their country. But little did they know that entrenched interests would stand in their way.
But if the power-mongers had snatched power and given the people a little bit of good life, the pains of the loss and manipulation would have been somewhat bearable. But the real tragedy lies in what followed. Instead of good governance, the power grabbers are inflicting hardship on the people. The confusion arising from this is unspeakable. Nigerians do not seem to know where to go from here.
As the people amble along in a confused state, a crop of behemoths has taken over the system. They are the brand new headache that Nigerians are being forced to live with. One of the products of this ribaldry is a fellow called Godswill Akpabio. He is the President of theSenate who glides from one gaffe to the other. He has brought a tragi-comic dimension to our present state of perversion.
The latest in his unsavoury stock was delivered when he told Nigerians that those who killed the 16 soldiers in Okuama community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State may be mercenaries, not Nigerians. Yet the same Akpabio said Nigeria is not in a state of war. So how did we come about mercenaries? Who are they fighting for and for what reason? Certainly, Akpabio did not think through his delivery. Thoughtlessness in high places is a major disability that the country is grappling with at moment.
When the Akpabios of the present disorder are not entertaining us with histrionics, elements like Nyesom Wike are seen prancing about. A few weeks ago, Wike flew off the handle. He told anybody who cared to listen that nobody will challenge them in the coming election. Here, Wike was boasting of what the clan he belongs to would do in 2027. Having stolen someone else’s mandate in 2023 and got away with it, Wike now has the temerity to flaunt the violation. If Nigeria were to be a proper country, those who threw the people into this spasmodic fit would be hiding their heads in shame. But here, they rub impunity into our eyes. Wike is playing God. He obviously does not know that tomorrow does not belong to anybody.
Even more revolting in all this is that Mahmood Yakubu, the man that manipulated the elections on behalf of the predatory clan, is still around. He is still talking to Nigerians about elections. And he expects to be taken seriously. This can only happen in a country where there is no shame. Nigeria is one such place and that is why Yakubu is dancing on the people’s grave.
The confusion in the polity and its graduation into aggravated hunger and hardship have led to other unpleasant outcomes. Terrorism, which used to be an isolated phenomenon in the country, has now assumed a life of its own. It has become full blown. The mass abductions that we witness in northern Nigeria on a daily basis have become frightening. The entire setup makes Nigeria look like a jungle. Where is our safety? Where is the government that should ensure the security of life and property? Something has certainly gone wrong.
Even more distressing is government’s knee-jerk response to the malaise. Rather than take decisive steps towards arresting the slide, government is pointing accusing fingers at whoever and whatever. It said it has identified some of those financing terrorism in the country. It has also gone ahead to declare some Nigerians as terrorists. What we have here is a clear case of beating about the bush. Government is yet to recognize that the situation before it calls for emergency actions. Theorizing about terrorism will lead to nowhere. Rather, it will make the blood suckers to become more daring.