The annual ritual has just taken place. It has been so since the day Nigeria was pronounced an independent state. The early years were exhilarating. Nigerians savoured the newness of the new day. They were happy to see an end to many years of British colonization. Three years after independence, the new state acquired the status of a republic. Power was to belong to the people and their elected representatives. The monarchical setting, which the British overlordship represented, was gone for good. The people had chosen for themselves the system of government that would suit their national aspiration.
It was time for Nigerians to manage their own affairs. But the events that were to follow one year after left no one in doubt that the country was ill-prepared for independent statehood. The fault lines that emerged then have remained indelible till today. In fact, the 62 years that the country has tried its hands on state has been a mixed bag. Each leader that has had the opportunity to preside over the affairs of the country came with his own baggage. The early part of the country’s independence was marked by upheavals occasioned largely by failure of leadership. The civilian regime that took over from the colonialists got enmeshed, too early in the day, in politics of acrimony. The new republic, which operated under civil rule, never worked. The military, in their wisdom, thought they would do better. That was why some radical young military officers sacked the civilian regime.
Unfortunately, the adventurists reaped the very opposite of what they expected. Certain parts of the country felt that the putsch was targeted at them. This eventuated in a counter-coup. Then ethnic cleansing and genocide followed. All of this triggered a fratricidal civil war that was to change the course of Nigeria’s history forever. The military was to give civilians a chance again after a 13-year interregnum. Again, the civil rule that it brought was short-lived. The musical chairs resumed with attendant discordant tunes. In all, the turns and twists solved nothing and settled nothing. The combined efforts of military and civilian leaders could not take the country out of the woods. If anything, the state of the union grew progressively worse.
In the intervening years under review, Nigerian leaders have been indulging in a flight of fancy over the country’s potential. They have tried to give the people the hope of a better tomorrow. They never ceased to tell the people that their country was the giant of Africa and the soul of the black race. They always made oblique references to the patriotic efforts of our founding fathers. They have continually assured the people that the labours of our heroes past will never be in vain. In fact, it has been decades of cliches. The words and expressions have become so familiar that you would think that they were lines taken from the country’s National Anthem.
But the story of the wasteland called Nigeria becomes more poignant when we speak in specific terms. Our reference point here will be the Muhammadu Buhari regime on which our present state is anchored. Some 48 hours ago, the President presented his Independence Day broadcast. That was the eighth and final one since he assumed office. Like others before him, the President has always tried to make us believe that a better Nigeria is coming. Like them, too, he has had cause to pat himself on the back for a job well done.
However, 62 years into the morbid ritual, the people for whom the make-belief has been made to look like a gospel have begun to ask pertinent questions. The Buhari disorder has drawn them out. The streets of Nigeria are peopled by an agitated lot. The people are facing a shocking reality. The man they thought was better than those before him has turned out to be their ultimate nightmare. At moment, Nigerians are behaving like people in a trance. Some imagine that they are dreaming. They are unable to understand how the country got so badly raped and thwarted.
To underline the fact that 1st October of every year has become a day reserved for platitudes, Buhari addressed Nigerians two days ago without bothering to face facts. He rehearsed the usual cliches and ended the ritual drama. He did not bother to say it as it is. In fact, anybody who relies on the President’s address would think that the country has no challenges.
What, for instance, did the President say about the state of education in Nigeria? Nothing reassuring. A proper government would have known that Nigeria is on its knees, based on the fact that our universities have been shut for over seven months. By that situation, the future of the country is in jeopardy. How can the youth, the hope of a better tomorrow, be left to rot away? No country worth its name will allow that to happen. But today, we have a Nigeria that has no hope of a better tomorrow. To demonstrate beyond doubt that he was merely fulfilling all righteousness, the President merely appealed to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to return to classes while negotiation continues. This is a scandalous display of care-freeness. The President has said this time and time again and it never worked. He knows that it will not work now. Yet he decided to just say it. That is the stuff rituals are made of. Just rehearse the same lines and verses in a solemn ceremony. Whether it comes with an outcome or not does not matter.
Certainly, Buhari is not interested in the solution to ASUU strike. If he were, he would have taken concrete steps as he has been advised to do to end the action. The way things stand, Buhari wants to hand over to a new President with our universities firmly shut. If this happens, the future of Nigerian students would have been badly jeopardized. What a legacy of ruination.
On insecurity, we did not expect him to say much here because he has failed abysmally in this regard and can hardly remedy it within the few moths he has remaining. But, again, he made the issue look light. He made it look like there is nothing to worry about. In fact, the First Lady, Aisha, was more forthcoming here. She was forthright about it. She acknowledged the failure of government in this area and apologized to Nigerians on that score. She also admitted, unlike the President, that the Nigerian economy is in the doldrums. Her charge to Nigerians is that they should pray for a successful election that will usher in a better Nigeria. In the absence of a compassionate intervention from the President, the people can at least take solace in the First Lady’s motherly interjection.