Today is Independence Day. Nigeria at 63. As is usual with backward and unserious people, we have lined out activities. Infact the “celebration” began last Thursday, running along the same old procedures, gathering prayers no one is certain crosses the roof of where it is offered from. We have already Ty seen leaders and their cohorts in the act of ruination of society walking tall and talking triumphantly, the amid manifest destruction of all we hold dear and what gives us semblance of nationhood. Even those whose acts of commission have spoken and gave us words on “new hope” Hope based on what some of us keep asking?
In characteristic style, the Federal Government led the way to usual acts of chicanery with public announcement of intention to mark this date of statehood on Monday the 25th of September. It gave us theme which to the critical segment amounted to clear admission of a crawling giant at 63. it termed this year›s celebration, «NEW HOPE OF UNITY AND PROSPERITY.»
Many won›t believe this but it is true, a lot heard this and couldn›t help but laugh. It was a laughter that took quite a while to abate. We understood the folly in all of it. Cycle of national stupidity, a people always turning the wheels of backwardness and on another breath talking about «NEW HOPE», based on no visible foundation or change of operational strategy. Words are good but we all know and agree that actions speak far louder than words. Someone said if wishes were to be Cadillac even beggars would ride them. Excellence is made of great stuff, this is the lesson of history.
Exactly 63 years after independence we still run on hope. Hope without anchor can only bring far bigger complications. Many of those raising the banner of hope actually know what it means to carry hope. How many of them are aware that the a realm that dwells not on assured ability but rather on «feelings of expectations and desires that a particular thing may after all happen» is hope without substance and this is the kind of hope we have paraded that has tormented us, stalled development and has taken us to the precipice of what we see is a very deep clive. Our society is in deep mess, we got there running on hopeless hope. It can be taken further.
It is part of the reason we have kept running very fast on wrong roads. The faster anyone runs in a wrong direction, the more he gets off the mark and the more this is the case the higher the frustration he gets. Check out our society, many of us find it difficult to call it a country because we have not taken pains to try to build one; and see if the entire tale and experiences are not essentially abou
t stunted growth if not outright retrogression with attendant deprivations and necktwisting dislocations.
Citizens have been knocked silly if it were in boxing observations would say they have become «punch drunk». If truth be told which is what is required at the point we are currently, it has become a clear case of a «song not worth singing». Our society is the most blessed in the world, never in any part of the world would one find nearly all kinds of natural resources and huge population added in one, yet.. You can fill the missing gap.
Some of us have had the rare privilege of listening to speeches by leaders from other countries, particularly African countries. It is true to say it is only in our society and perhaps Libya of very recent days, we hear leaders begin and end their addresses with unity. Each one of our leaders insist national unity is sacrosanct; some of them claim the ridiculous by saying «unity is non negotiable.» This frequent reminder all through 63 years of nationhood should be enough evidence to doubting Thomases in our midst that something fundamental is wrong with the foundation we have laid. The truth we refuse to admit is when the foundation is faulty, there is little anyone can do to keep the object standing.
If the edifice doesn›t collapse it will continue to shake terribly to the discomfort of the occupants. Our society 63 years after is yet to build a fusion of her component parts. Those who know keep reminding us of the necessity but those who hold peripheral advantages think it is a pre-supposition of conquered people or «ne›er do wells who naturally would be groping looking for excuses but it is not exactly so. Society is built on pillars that propel the next level seamlessly. Countries are created.
Successive leaders have so much talked about building a great country and subsequently a majestic nation but the experiences so far have been that of glib talks, in terms of always speaking good from the head and then mouth but not from the heart. The major bane is found in this negative disposition. We have elevated to state policy the devious act of «doublespeak», of saying one thing to deceive and divert attention, to enable misguided fellows do another with the intention to take undue advantages as well as to expand areas of territorial influence. It is working for them but such acts leave behind them big questions. Have rat races helped?
It is not like this is a new phenomenon, far from it. The trend began even before independence when our founding fathers cept for one of them Nnamdi Azikiwe fought for narrow spaces. The compromise was an agreement on federalism. Barely six years after statehood the concept that would have offered us opportunities for progressive forward movements was done away with by the military who in truth had no business jumping into political governance. They anyway emerged on the scene claiming to be «messiahs» but eventually they turned out to be worse than the ground they supplanted. They turned far bigger evils.
Their inglorious entry into politics became for us the greatest albatross. They balkanised the political architecture in a manner they thought amounted wrestling advantage for their ethnic and religious divides but they never knew they were sowing seeds of discords and retrogression. We are into outcomes currently, elders seeds don›t grow into maturity same year they are planted, it takes a while ;apart from economic strangulation and retardation , we have lost our peace totally. Peace and stability are always first casualties when so many contradictions stoke a land all at the same time. We feel the heat and it is not pleasant at all. Tremblings everywhere. None is sure what could give in next. Our space has all the trappings of the «Hobbesian state» quite often taught in our institutions of higher learning.
Human life has become the cheapest commodity. Animal›s life attracts far higher regard to the point even last week, at a time sensible countries are reinforcing efforts to gain a foothold in space, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress was regaling us with stories of intended plan to create special colonies for cows and their private owners across even areas not culturally fitted for trade in cattle. Shame of a people and a supposed country. We act this way severally and still turn around to wonder why things have turned out the way they are. A people that can›t do even rudimentary things that have existing examples. This knowledge haunts.
It provokes nightmares. It has released so many. They are not only traumatized they have have been beaten to a state of subhuman. They are not living, just barely existing on fringes of life support. If ours were a country of statistics be sure the figures of those transiting daily to the world beyond would shake many feet off their standing positions at such a number there would be trepidations everywhere. But we are not, we live on chance, close walking on all areas.
What should worry us should be the vain attitude of talking and talking when the issue should be direct confrontation of our challenges. Analysis paralysis is our bane. It is our fate. Thursday and Friday the leaders gathered themselves to talk over problems they already know.
Or do they need to be told unity is a challenge, it is not a commodity that can be wished into existence, it is a substance to be cultivated. It is a product of deliberate acts of perceptive leadership. Very important thing to note.
President Bola Tinubu was a member of NADECO that hid under struggle for MKO Abiola mandate›s reclamation to call for democracy during the military era. One of the items on their agenda was restructuring. The group made so much fuss about restructuring, thsr western Nigeria which is acclaimed as bastion of radicalism and advocacy made it a cardinal demand. What is happening now in the era of Renewed Hope? Why is that you dear President Tinubu in all his speeches so far kept moot on restructuring? Or is it no longer a viable option in national development? Will Tinubu ever be bold to touch the word restructuring again? Or as we asked earlier has it become a non-issue now the manipulators of power have out of political craftiness to save their hegemonic stranglehold found a way to take him to power. Our leaders harp so much on unity but pay less heed to what it takes to build a country where things work and life is very abundant.
We don›t have space to chronicle what is wrong and where we are, but the pertinent questions to all of us at this time of introspection should be: If anyone of us got one chance to apply a solution to our challenges, what exactly will you do? What is the foremost thing you will apply? Well targeted solutions that hit on targets, no rigmaroles any longer. Many of us hold the strong view what we need most is a change of mindset. Everything man does to himself boils down to mindset. Out of the mind proceed critical issues of life. Once a human is up to 12 years all his/her actions proceed from his or her thoughts. Wilful actions so to say.
Our thoughts have been wrong. Everyone is confined to his narrow experience and hence limits his vision to unhealthy supremacy moves. That is very prevalent in our development trajectory. It is the cog in the wheel. What is the grand vision for our society? What actually is the destination? If you know don›t hesitate to say. If we have clear vision Boko Haram won›t come on, secession won›t emanate, no fellow citizen will rise to kill the other, it will be easy to know that a society blessed with natural resources should not stand and watch it will go into turning raw materials into finished products, knowing that is where competitiveness, good life and dignity is.
On a final note, can we have a «national conference» outcomes of which would be acceptable to all Nigerians. Isn›t time we return to Federalism? When will merit driven system begin to make sense to us? There is no way of doing right things for wrong causes. It won›t produce good. We require right vision and right acts to have good. Questions begging for answers we must provide appropriate answers and when we do in less than fifteen years a new Nigeria will emerge that would baffle the world. The good news is our challenges are not insurmountable. Where there is a way, there must be a way.