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I have been so pained by what we have made of our development trajectory to such an extent that last week I wove the discussion around the question, «Do we really want to develop?» Truth is, one cannot desire good and at same time keep walking on the path of perfidy. It will turn out a journey without direction, no destination, everywhere would become like a road yet it is more likely to be the wrong route.
One thing terrible about going the wrong way is that it won›t matter how long one stays on it and the speed he goes on, the endpoint would always be frustration. We do need to go very far to get validation of the above statement and position our current experience should be enough to bring home the lesson more succinctly. Successive leaders and stakeholders have taken turns to inflict harm on the people and the country by their embrace of small mindedness.
Narrow mindedness stunts growth. It chokes life out of people. It drains the heart and brain of the ability to think. Ruination becomes the clear evidence. Take a critical look at our beloved country and tell us what you see. Confirm if it gladdens the heart. Someone said somewhere that the bad state of a society doesn›t bother those who benefit from the system. There could be truth in it to the extent that there is no breakdown of the pillars on which the society›s foundations are built. But ours is beginning to produce manifest features of a failed state. Increasingly, the government is losing control of its territory. The signs don›t look healthy at all.
We have no vision. We fly like a plane with full compliments of pilots and flight crew but no compass. Vagueness is the state policy. Whoever fights his way to power his personal aspirations become a national vision. Oscar Wilde observed that “most people are other people, their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry.” We saw that with General Olusegun Obasanjo as President when every prescription by western governments and economic institutions was it. Jonathan wanted to be only the governor of his state but manipulators of the system pulled him through to become reluctant President. He was in control and yet not in control.
Buhari came with his deep love for religion and tribe. The country was virtually put on fire. Till today the ripple effects are still with us, making efforts at proper development hellish endeavors. If we recall properly we would remember these men in the height of power couldn›t finish a speech without telling us Nigeria is the only country we have so it must be developed. Yet each was unable to gather Nigerians to stay together and produce a definite definition of the kind of country they want and a pathway to bringing it to reality. This abdication of responsibility has created more problems for the country and her people. We take one or two examples.
The core north that sings the song of «one Nigeria, one destiny» the most has its own national vision to which it wants all to subscribe to. They want a federalism with strong centre the advantages favour them overwhelmingly at this time but they have refused to look to history to see the negative fall-outs of very strong centre for a deeply plural s on taking every section along whether they like it or not. See the irony in the posturing: they know the beauty of keeping their peculiarities while working a near unitary system. They speak their general language, Hausa, elevate religion in a supposed «secular» nation, they hold high Sharia Islamic law well and above the common law, but it is the same run need that sings the “unity is non-negotiable” song the most. Can anyone see the contradictions inherent in the process? Wanting a unitary system but having a liking for attributes of federalism. How does this kind of social engineering add up? What outcome is it expected to produce?
Suspicion of course. Incoherence and dissonance in administrative protocol. To understand incoherence all one needs to do is review insecurity and different layers of security as major panacea. Why would a street inside Aba city be counted a federal road to be tended to by a government official whose office is in Abuja the federal capital. Social tension. Loss of sense of oneness and frequent conflicts. That is happening.
There is clash of vision and expectations. Agitations everywhere. Each group developing on her terms, it doesn›t matter if what they do has relevance to the goal of the whole. I made one observation last week and it is crucial it receives a mention just again for the purpose of bringing the message home very clearly. Citizen Rhoda Jatau, a Christian was only granted bail few days ago from detention where she had spent about 18 months on the orders of an Islamic court operating in a country where the constitution unambiguously pronounces secularity as the guiding principle.
Thank God lady Jatau wasn›t killed by a mob this time again; those who did in other cases are yet to be arrested long after the act. That alone confronts our structure and the philosophy in place. It pushes the question whether we truly are not our own worst enemies. It points to clear inadequacy in the character of leadership in our space.
The big question would be: how come we desire to build a country where citizens are free and such huge contradictions still exist in terms of principles of freedom and legal jurisprudence? What is wrong in analyzing an act and drawing conclusions devoid of abuse? Why would a Christian be charged before an Islamic court? Contradistinction? What is freedom, if right to life and expression are either totally lacking or given as in our case but taken away in another way. Wendi Jade was very right when he said and I agree that, “an environment that is not safe to disagree in, is not an environment focused on growth. It is an environment focused on control.” We have seen command authority. It doesn’t seem like it will abate. We should fear the consequences because it will come.
All controlled environments blow up. Ours is the most recent of the many examples. It is ironic to want a calm, sweet mouth and at same time over pepper the food. The mouth will heat up in pain. We want a peaceful country but we give vent to factors that naturally provoke hate and discontent among citizens. Factors that hinder productivity.
Look at the terrible incident that happened in Tundun Biri in Kaduna State where our soldiers using drones bombed the hell out of innocent citizens. Many of those citizens who had hope for a greater tomorrow lost their lives unfortunately in that incident intended to make the area safe for living and doing business. The act raises serious questions about how we go about our affairs in the country. The incident wasn›t the first, second or third time a similar ugly event would take place in the country. It has continued because tribe and religion blind of us from speaking and doing right.
Someone said history remains itself but another scholar has just said his doesn›t repeat itself, men do.
Evil and particularly administrative incompetence have continued bestride the land because those to put a stop to the trend have themselves embraced selective response and justification. Anything wrong done by their kinsmen or outside their shere attracts no reaction. But they forget the force in nature which would make it possible that when people rejoice over injustice because it favours them, a day must arrive when they took shall be victims and would need to cry for justice.
A location in the North West is hit and the cry is high and pervasive. The danger is ethnic and religious slant to it. This is very dangerous and unhelpful. Like already observed in earlier paragraphs, evil thrives when good men choose to keep quiet, worse when they enter the mode of selective outburst or reaction. When such happened in Borno State in predominantly Christian inhabited areas, Benue and Plateau states not downplaying the South East, true patriots should rise and say this is wrong and unacceptable. They should demand a stop on the basis of national interest.
None did, everyone kept quiet otherwise there were more than enough basis to talk and speak with boldness and seriousness required. Apart from the killing of innocent citizens which itself is abhorrent and shouldn›t be tolerated, there is the more serious concern of training for the security personnel. Intelligence went wrong on the occasions these killings occurred. Could it have been because of very poor training? What about the structure? Who reconfirms? Some of us non security professionals but with lot of wisdom do ask why our security prefer to bomb targets rather than marshall out troops, surround the area and take the felons captive.
We have the war against insurgents lasted this long? Could it be that it is serving political and economic ends? Till today with all captures made we can›t identify the sponsors and the objectives. Why are the moslem insurgents fighting? What do they want. Many highly placed leaders don’t have qualms showing them sympathy. Why? Herdsmen during the Buhari regime virtually ransacked every community across the country yet no solid arrests were made? Are the criminals so invisible?
We have been told very often that in leadership everything rises and falls. That is correct but on the political section the number of patriots are diminishing that is if we are had any. In serious climes when an inner circle member comes to the public to make a serious claim it should be taken very seriously. Chibuike Amaechi told us the Chairman of electoral commission is servant to politicians on stage our reaction was to laugh over it.
When the man used subterfuge to send voters and Nigerians in different directions, we entered the end of product sequence and began to shout blue murder but the tale tale signs were there and very visible. When of all people Supreme Court Justices turned civil rights activists, writing petitions against the Chief Justice in a very conservative setting we all clapped and cheered. When Appeal and Supreme Court justices began to read presidential elections petitions in a tone reminiscent of the political class we became worried.
Off season election was like carry and go. Opposition won Bayelsa State back because Jonathan, who looks like he has sympathy for the ruling party, wanted the opposition candidate given his fight with the ruling party candidate. Else the seed for one party is already sown. The fight in Kano and now Rivers states are just about preparing the final arrival of a one party state. The cooking is almost done with the holding of the presidential election first which outcome forced other gubernatorial candidates to run to the winner to pledge future support. Opposition parties on paper have governors but in reality they have none.
The fight in Rivers State got messier with demolition of the state House of Assembly Building mid week by the state government, all because the whims and caprices must be met else instability and killings would apply. A few words or lessons end. Former governor who is fueling the tragedy about to consume Rivers once spoke right when he said officeholders shouldn›t cross carpet with the offices they won on another party›s platform. Very correct position if the intention is to build a proper country.
But there in Rivers State were his men jumping into the ruling party barely six months after they won elections on a different platform. No word of condemnation came from him. A section of the media is blaming the Rivers governor for not being manly when they ought to blame the people for starting a crisis that in all honesty shouldn›t have been.
The issue of jumping with mandate, a nationalistic judiciary, proactive with sense for history would have since rested the matter on the very great and sound grounds that one can take his right of association by jumping but he or she can›t go with the mandate picked on the philosophy of another party. But we have been torn apart by the same negative matter for years. What Central Bank, currency redesign and scarcity. We saw former Central Bank Governor Emefiele clutching a big Bible. He became a pastor after squeezing life out of Nigerians last December. What about corrupt civil Servants, and all of us, our penchant to cut corners. Unpatriotic citizens. Who are they?
