“We have governors; they go to China and spend one month on a tour and what do they come back with, MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on debts. China will lend you $1.8bn to build light rail. This light rail will be done by the rail workers from China. The trains will come from China. The engines will come from China. The labour comes from China. The driver is Chinese.
“At the end of the day, what do you benefit from it? Your citizen will ride on a train and when you ride on a train, in northern Nigeria, in a state like Kano or Katsina, where are you going to? You are not going to an industrial estate to work. You are not going to school? You are not going to the farm. You borrow money from China to invest in trains so that your citizens can ride on them and go for weddings and naming ceremonies.”
If we stretch the above blend of intelligence and caricature from the former Governor-General of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the current Emir of Kano, Mohammed Sanusi too far, it will be clear to us how bad things have gone. The statement revealed the emptiness of Nigerian policies. As it is in Abuja, so it is from Abakaliki to Zamfara. The glowing culture of goal-barren policies is a price Nigeria will pay for centuries to come.
Sanusi did not only puncture the leaders, he harped on the masses. The cosmetic policies are served to the masses because the citizens are just too gifted in low mentality. It is not about illiteracy, there are chunks of otherwise university-educated citizens who because of peanuts they get from government choose to tread path of neurosis. While we acknowledge good quality road in some states, sometimes, we celebrate cosmetics projects like flowers and fountains as government’s achievement in a land where millions of citizens have no water to drink or cook their food. These are clear indicators of how far we have been raped psychologically and our narrow-mindedness tuned to its highest velocity.
Ask ordinary political fan on the street about the achievements of his party, you are likely to get answer that can force a right thinking pregnant woman into a premature labour. When Sanusi talks of those who join train to attain wedding and naming ceremonies, he indicts Nigerians who have acquired foreign tastes without commensurate foreign skills for their sustenance.
We have talked much about leadership. We seem to forget that a followership is no less a problem facing Nigeria democracy. The way Nigerians rate the performance of their leaders leaves no one in doubt that they are divorced from what governance is and what a leader is to the people. Nigeria is not just at war against bad governance. We are living at a period of low-thought and expectations.
The collapse of standard is manifesting in all territories of ordinary people. Sometimes, a medical director calls for press conference to present a mortuary he has repainted in a hospital that turns up millions of Naira daily. Do we count how many lives we lose in the hands of some doctors who have lowered standard ethics in medicines?
What about engineers? Nigeria has highest number of collapsed buildings because the manufacturers, the marketers, the engineers, and even the workers who mix the building materials are quick to lower standard often at cost less than five hundred naira. This is how we have ended up setting a system that swallows families, tourists and pregnant mothers and children in the name of building.
If we expand our curiosity, you will realize that no leader steals money without compromise of financial experts who often are ordinary citizens. What reward do they get more than chartered flights and accommodation in a hotel and a good food for two weeks after the falsification! How many go to testify to the EFCC how the monies diverted and yet we expect government to succeed?
The church? Forget her! Every day now brings Nigerians closer to the prophecy of Jesus that time shall come when those who need to worship God in the sincerity of their hearts will no longer go to Jerusalem and Bethel. Really, that time has come in Nigeria. More often than not, people return from Nigerian churches more wounded than they have gone. Insults and extortion by clergy always form weekly topic that destroys productivity period of otherwise artisans.
If gold can rot, why wouldn’t iron decay? The Justices of our Supreme Court are now on trial because they compromised and they will all soon be acquitted because the trying judges will still compromise too. When they are acquitted, citizens who are victims of elite corruption will celebrate their freedom and fight themselves in social media.
Yes, people get the type of leaders they deserve. If the leaders are corrupt, the citizens seem to be more corrupt. If the leaders are clueless, the majority of the citizens need to be more gullible and clueless to be fooled for a whooping time-lag of 8 eight years.
After years of watching Nigeria and every part of the world with imprint of my nativity and profession degenerating, I have resolved to write less and do more of meditation. I have seen signs that our response will be long postponed. Every rising sun contrasts further the size of hope.
How do you explain what we read on social media these days? How do we explain how we glorify government who sits on our future? How do you explain the behaviour of the masses who chase rats while their houses are on fire? We not make light of everything. We have lost direction.
On Tuesday April 4, 2017, the Nigeria President, Mohammed Mohammed in his tweeter page wrote: “I’m pleased to announce that I will formally launch our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) (2017-2020) tomorrow, Wednesday April 5. The ERGP is our medium-term plan to not only restore Nigeria;s economy to growth, but also build it to become globally competitive.”
Right or wrong, Nigerians’ response to the tweet point out to the direction we are going. We sample two of such comments which have gone viral. Comment I: “Pls, remember your tenure expires in 2019, this one your document is extending to 2020. We don’t want any rough play.” Comment II: Mr. President, pls wat is important now is for Efe to win the #BBNaija show this weekend. This ur plan can wait till next week okay.”
Nigeria is a victim of our collective rape. We are under the siege. We are held hostage by political cabals made up of all our elected and appointed leaders. But no one wants his own thief to be prosecuted. We are still living in denial and only good in buck-passing. The consequence is that there will always be certain social problems in Nigeria.
It is now a year since I published ‘Stories For the Next Generation: The Mafias, The Masses, The Messes.” The collective mess has not left us. I am skeptical even of a generation ever rising from a prevailing public and political culture we have created today. Mtcheew!