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A rash of petulant outbursts has broken out in the land. Temper is flaring left, right and centre. And who can claim, in honesty, not to know whence the spirit of belligerence comes? The country is in bad shape all over and life therein has become one hell of a doggerel enterprise. The economy is on the verge of total collapse. Public policies can no longer be said to be for the good of the majority. Politics, which now supersedes every other thing, is grossly confused and bereft of noble purpose, while social relationship is strained beyond a healthy limit.
In a setting such as presently prevails in Nigeria, aggressiveness is but a natural tendency, as nerves become more brittle. For the citizen, whether average or above average, in socio-economic standing, the present and the future are clearly In peril. Alas, while frustration is boiling over and tempers are on edge, the people have somehow failed to channel their anger towards the primary sources of their diminution. Noy yet. They are still kicking the wall.
Penultimate week, Governor of Rivers state, Nyesom Wike characteristically but still shockingly, tore into Philip Shaibu, deputy governor of Edo State for reasons that did not seem so grievous as to warrant such scurrilous reprimand in the public. Governor Godwin Obaseki promptly intervened to defend his deputy and ally. That drew deeper ire from the Rivers State governor, who, not only bawled out even more, but barred his fangs at Obaseki, with a threat to go further.
Obaseki, always a calmer profile, did not seem to be cowed. He returned the Wike fire with strong but measured fire, telling Wike as it were, to just keep off. Brittle nerves were on show and their excellencies seemed to forget that they were in the eyes of the public. Such is the time. Everybody snaps at everybody, big or small.
Before the combustion involving the PDP governors of Rivers and Edo States, the governors of the ruling All Pprogressives Congress (APC) were at each other, over issues that a proper, well constituted party structure, would have taken care of. Bereft of a soul to fight for, as it were, the governors are fighting for the control of the body of their party. One side in the conflict, appearing initially to be in the majority, had risen against the party leadership under the control of the deceptively harmless-looking Mai Mala Buni.
The opposition governors, led apparently, by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el Rufai, accused the caretaker chairman of their party of being a lone ranger, among other things. On the premise of his alleged offences, the protestant governors proceeded to announce the removal of Buni as APC chairman. They chose Abubakar Bello of Niger State as their new chairman. Emboldened by what they believed was a nod of support from President Muhammadu Buhari, the group of not only repudiated Buni, but declared triumphantly that he was gone for good. For them, it was good riddance.
The group of 19 governors also accused three of their colleagues of being complicit with Buni in his alleged misdeed. They cast aspersion on the Buni collaborators, describing them in unflattering language, as charlatans. The situation in the ruling party speaks loudly of brittle nerves and rising temper in the land. These are manifestations of a house in trouble.
Anyway, Mai Mala Buni has since returned. Interestingly, Buhari is standing by him. The group of 19 is left with their tales between their legs. They may yet take a stand down the road, but then the Nigerian politician is not noted for having spine or for believing in anything definite.
The frayed nerves across the land found another jarring expression last week, this time at the inauguration of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo in Awka, Anambra State. The scenario of Her Excellency, Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu going ballistic and releasing a missile of a slap on Mrs. Ebele Obiano, wife of the departing governor, Willy Obiano at the public event, spoke of nerves already cracked up by Nigeria.
Bianca, once a holder of the crown of Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria and arguably still the most beautiful woman in the land, though strong-willed and well – heeled, is known more for her decorum and queenly comportment than for losing her cool. To be fair to her, the predominant report was that she sat down at the inauguration, minding her business, when Mrs. Obiano, putting on what the video cameras showed as a wayward cat walk, went over, not to greet but to abuse her. She obviously got what she could not have bargained for.
Mrs. Ojukwu’s account of what transpired, is that Mrs. Obiano was intoxicated and reeking of alcohol at the time she came over for the ill- advised encounter, about 9.30 am. That account sounds plausible. Or why in this world will a first Lady of a state, whether departing or serving, create such market-place scene?
Anger and frustration are boiling over in Nigeria and that makes this a rather dangerous season and place to be. No citizen who had a lousy hot night with no electricity supply wakes up in the morning to queue up at gas station for eight to ten hours in a bid to procure petrol and emerges from such torture coordinated and calm.
For over a month, national supply of premium petroleum product has been subjected to official cock and bull stories, with scarcity reigning across states. In a setting of Nigeria’s extremely poor or indeed non-existent alternative mass transportation system, petrol remains the lubricant for economic and social activities. Now, the commodity can longer be procured off the shelf. Officially, the product is not always available. Right in front of the gas stations, however, some urchins have enough supply in their jerry cans to meet most of the needs of the motorists. These have become the new face of petroleum product retailers. How shameless can a country be? And to imagine that this is a major oil-producing country. Diesel is another case entirely. From a price range of about N350 per litre, diesel currently sells at about N750. How is any business supposed to go on?
Nigerians have been pushed to a Catch 22 situation. There is no electricity supply, as the so-called national grid keeps collapsing like a pack of cards. The citizen who has been relying on diesel to power generator both for personal use and for business can no longer afford the product because of sudden price spike. Too bad. So the beleaguered citizen decides to temporarily travel to somewhere else, to guard his sanity. It turns out he cannot travel. Aviation fuel is not available. What is given as air fare sounds like one term’s school fees for a child. As a matter of fact, the airlines are revving to ground the aviation industry due to shortage of fuel. By the way, public universities remain under lock and key, heaping further burden on parents.
Nigerians are passing through a crucible with uncertain outcome. They have borne the anguish of failed policies with unnatural equanimity. There can be no doubt that the pressure is getting home at a faster pace than was the case. The fragile temper, the irritability and the bellicosity that pervade the land at the moment speak of an escalating pressure on citizens.
People are presently taking out their frustration on each other. This should be watched. Government should, if it can, drop all pretensions and unhelpful political posturing and address the mounting socio-economic pressure in the land. Citizens will surely not continue to yell at and slap each other for long, out of frustration. It may be a revolt the next time.
