Nigeria is a 55-year-old country in the body of a yet unborn nation. Half a century after Independence, the closest we can say we have formed as a nation is the inchoate stage. Even that is so one does not say we haven’t even started to form. As it is, our country has been storming since 1960 and despite a few moments of respite, this country has practically been on the brink or just before the brink for the better part of our existence. It is hard to admit we have had progress since 1960 but it is impossible not to have at least achieved some accidental progress ever since. The truth is, we have been more intentional about missing the point and getting things wrong than we have been about being committed to getting things right. All in all, we have helped to deprive the black race of its greatest country ever.
There is so much ugliness out there; an Italian-Nigerian being denied protection by the Nigeria Police and left in the hands of miscreants and land grabbers in Ikoyi, Lagos. In this case, a court ruling is not even enough for the authorities to do the right thing. Students of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta have come to the acceptance that armed robbery is the norm and the default state of their community. Female students getting raped by robbers and despite the state Police HQ Eleweran being right in the centre of the community, the students remain at the mercy of armed robbers even as we speak. A policeman reportedly shot a student during a student protest in Port Harcourt two days ago. We have a common thread in these three stories: The police being very much in the picture yet either aiding the breakdown of law and order or pretending to be asleep when much needed by citizens. The police have had good days and that must be said but no amount of success should excuse an apparent consistency in failing to do the right thing. These stories are the cover of a book of many failings of our law enforcement officers. It is the responsibility of the police authorities to own up to these failings and look at ways of fixing them. Citizens should not be made to feel like they are on their own because once that happens, the breakdown of law and order will become the norm. No one really knows how such scenarios end up.
The Executive and the National Assembly are fighting over the budget while Nigerians are fighting in fuel queues all over the country. It is nothing short of a mess. I also find it shocking that supporters of the administration are excusing this impasse. At what point does this become about the Nigerian masses? There is a tragedy of the elite that helps them explain away things when they go wrong; for the poor, the only reality they know is the increasing cost of living. It may be insignificant for the average privileged person; it is life and death for many homes where poverty held sway and now poverty has been emboldened by the fact that the budget that was supposedly on its way to unlocking opportunities for the Nigerian masses has now become a ball of blame being tossed about between the Executive and the National Assembly. It was easy for the All Progressives Congress leaders to sit at a table and assist the incompetent President Goodluck Jonathan out of office; why has it been so hard for them to gang up against incompetence itself? If the APC continues this macabre dance into 2019, they will be remembered as the political party that was trusted with power, got the power and expended it on internal wrangling and petty politics. How can people crave power so much, get it and burn so much goodwill and trust in so little time? The APC had better come together and fix the budget impasse.
The story of Nigeria’s press is the story of Nigeria’s struggle for nationhood, Independence and democratic freedom. But like many institutions this side of the world, our press has taken a battering and its products and productivity have been the worse for it. It is shocking that by merely sending out a viral WhatsApp message, you can get a sizable number of Nigerian dailies to publish falsehood as news, the sort of falsehood that would have needed only a search in publicly available documents to correct. This also came to the fore when a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, presented a paper at the University of Lagos. She had offered a robust position on how Nigeria could better fight corruption explicitly stating that the definition and scope must cover the private sector, that when a person abuses his or her position of trust for other stakeholders and personal benefits at the expense of the rest, such a person is corrupt, whether in a public or private office. One of the other speakers narrowed the former minister’s definition, played on the emotion of the students in the audience and essentially submitted that, “See, we are all corrupt so there is no use fighting corruption.” The audience clapped, the bulk of the reports from the session missed all the great points made by the more expansive and rational speakers; it was all about the misrepresentation of how one person defined corruption. Nothing was said of her points on the essence of a morally strong top most political leadership, preventive measures that reduce the opportunities for corruption, punishment of corruption as a deterrent in society amongst other useful points. Those who did not attend the session at the University of Lagos would have thought the entire presentation was the “rebuking” of the seated students. We can do better.
I’d love to write about the good but there are those who need to be fed the ugly and the bad to appreciate the good. Not to mention those who no matter what you say about progress, they just cannot be shaken from their delusion that since Nigeria did not go in the direction of their intention in March 2015, then Nigeria must by all means fail! But no, Nigeria will not fail.
It will be two years since the abduction of the Chibok girls on April 14. In all of this, one cannot but honour those who have remained steadfast calling on the authorities to keep the search on. Some of us are inspired by their belief, the strength of their hope, their persistence and their doggedness in the face of hatred from those who insisted the movement was about getting the last administration out of power. May this end up in a happy ending some day soon. Nothing is impossible.
This is a telling phase in the history of our country. We cannot afford for Nigeria not to get most things right between now and 2019. Many invested all of their hope in the Buhari-Osinbajo team. It will take more than both men to unleash the promised prosperity. It will take all well-meaning Nigerians, in and out of government, to commit to and make that change happen. It is not enough to know what we don’t want; we must decide what we want and commit to making it happen. We will talk about the good someday!
PUNCH
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