Christopher Odetunde, Ph.D.
More than 44 years ago, the first violent takeover of our government took place in Nigeria. During the past 44 years of spectacle dis-achievements, the nation’s democracy was systematically dismantled, her fragile unity as a nation was stampeded, her petro-naira and British built infrastructures were left in shambles and in some cases completely destroyed. Some that witnessed the takeover of post colonial government did not stand up to challenge the “terrorists” of the time (the coup plotters) but instead, they waited for the African gods to come down to rescue the nation, the nation that gave so much in terms of security, freedom of association, freedom to find loyal buddies, to receive scholarship, to have outstanding education, freedom to love Nigeria and care for fellow citizens. As years went by, more daring military boys took over our government, our resources, our minds, our hopes, our struggles to be truly independent, our educational system, our political system, and our confidence as we began to bend to their will. Unfortunately, Nigerians with conscience literarily died with each succeeding illegal government.
It should be remembered that these coup planners and their allies were trained with our fathers’ hard earned money to defend the nation against all external enemies. Instead, we became the enemies and the targets on which they practiced their war games. They became vicious, looted our treasury at will, trained killers, initiated the use of letter bomb to kill fellow citizens and these leaders gave us those that are today rudderlessly taking over the senate and the house with looted funds. As long as some of us were not directly affected, we turned deaf ears. Instead of some of us standing up to defend Nigeria, we sold our soul for crumbs from their tables. Now, the chicken has finally come home to roost.
Years later, some of our fathers who turned deaf ears are jobless. Daughters are becoming the sole bread winners in most household by anyway necessary. Healthy young men and women, after toiling through the universities, are unable to find jobs. As such, armed robbery increased, kidnapping is competing with 419, immorality is a rule rather than exception and, indeed, prostitution in our society is informally accepted and is now the order of the day for our bright and beautiful daughters.
Our energy sector too did not escape the rude awakening because the wicked amongst us decided that they will rather make profit making from generator selling than allowing Nigeria energy sufficiency that will increase our nation’s standard of living, and increase our capacity utilization. Our energy supply is now in the Stone Age; and our industrial capacity is much lower when General Gowon was in power. Because of our unstable energy supplies, the multi-national and Nigerian owned companies are moving to as near away as Ghana, and as far away as South Africa. Our educational system is a shadow of its former self, parents cannot trust children, no one is loyal again, and human sacrifices have become the order of the day for those that want to belong to the emergency billionaires’ club and those that want to keep their political positions at all cost.
When the Igbo were being destroyed, we sat on the fence and failed to speak out because we were not Igbos. When accurate census was prevented from taking place, we acquiesced since on a temporary basis, it did not affect us. Knowledge of accurate census is needed for planning resource allocation, locating healthcare facilities for all citizens, locating best schools for the benefit of all, etc. Those that claim to have higher but bogus population took majority of our resources and now, we can no longer speak out against them because such an unwritten rule is now engraved in our subconscious. The older generations are tired of fighting while the younger ones have seen nothing good about Nigeria in their life time. All they have seen has been re-enforcement of negativism (corruption, 419, disloyalty and now, kidnapping). As Rev. Fr. Martin Niemoller aptly noted, “In Germany, they [the Nazis] first came for the Communists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak up, because I was not a Jew. Next, they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak up, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me – and by that time no one was left to speak up," Nigerians are currently in Rev. Fr. Niemoller mode and we need to begin to retrace our footstep for the benefit of next generation.
To retrace our steps, the above preamble was necessary for the analysis of 2011 candidates. How convenient it could have been to forget history but he who forgets history will end up reliving the mistakes of the past (story of Nigeria).
Some of the self imposed heads of States or unelected presidents now stand to state that the youth cannot govern Nigeria successfully. They forget that they were young, wet in the ears, and untrained for governance when they took over. These same “leaders” were unpatriotic citizens who lacked vision with their inexperience and even with the absolute power of gun they welded they could not move Nigeria over the thresh hold of success. These so-called leaders bastardized the nation’s economy, introduce corruption, became insanely rich at out expense and have the audacity to state that the youth are inexperience to move Nigeria to the 21st century. We recall that when a king was to be chosen in the house of Jesse, God chose David, the youngest. Though, David was inexperience, he became one of the greatest kings in Israel. So what are these zoning politicians telling Nigerian citizens? So, fellow citizens, let us wake up from our slumbers and elect credible Nigerians for ones and hold them responsible and not continue to be intimidated.
If I were Babangida, I will just become a true mentor to a young energetic leader that will help correct the mistakes I made. If Babangida insists he wants to rule Nigeria, however, he should know that he is doing so to his own detriment because, even, most of our politicians, Governors, Senators, House members never had principled objections to the way the country has been governed. The only time these politicians objected was whenever someone tried to stop them from sharing (within their group) the allocation meant for a whole state. Babangida and people of his generation and ideology never had manifesto capable of moving Nigeria forward and unfortunately, the citizens, at the same point in time, neither sought nor were ready to vote for credible candidates because of their own selfish interests that trampled our national interest. The combination of Babangida and the uneducated citizenry will be a bad omen for Nigeria come 2011. The other unfortunate issue is that our nation’s ability to embrace corruption is now as ubiquitous as gravity. While Babangida is only an example of the No Future Association, NFA leadership, we need to resist them with all our might from taking over this time.
May be our constitution needs to be modified such that no one who does not have a business to go back to after leaving office should run for Presidency, Governor, Senate and House because. It is believe that the only job in Nigeria is politics and this is why politics has become a do-or-die affair. We believe that once a job creator enters into politics, it is easy to get out since he would have a job to go back to. When a true leader reaches new height, he desires to carry citizens along. Our past power usurpers have been a drag on the system and really destroyed the system we inherited and the democracy we acquired. It is time for them to go.
Those that ever ruled Nigeria must never be allowed to contest again. There are more than 200 million Nigerians, therefore, one person; one family cannot take a nation or a whole state to ransom because of greed and selfishness. We reject insults from individuals and corporate entities who believe that Nigerians are perpetually stupid. It is time for us to wake up from our slumbers and it is also time for them to go back to wherever they came from.
That as it may be, it is time to think about a way forward from: a) Nigeria’s inability to progress; b) Her inability to think through the consequences of the PDP’s zoning formulation which places square-peg in a round hole; c) A leader that sees dead citizens on the road side and joyously drives by with siren blasting; d) Her dilapidated healthcare infrastructure; and e) Her deadened conscience of robbing the treasury dry and of robbing each other without flinching and transferring the funds out for others to enjoy. It is time for Nigerians to refocus and regroup. For the youth, this is the time to fight and get your government back from those who used their life time, your life time and absorbed your children’s opportunities. Some fight because they want their voices heard in order to have instant rewarded but you must fight because you must in order to save the next generation and have your faith in the future for humanity sake. You must prevail in the struggles of your time.
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