SOMETHING HAS GOT TO GIVE

Lauretta Onochie

Nigerians who are lucky to be alive have something to celebrate today. And that’s about all they have to celebrate, yes being alive, some barely. But that’s where the celebration ends. Except of course on Facebook where many Nigerians celebrated the good old days of Awolowo, Azikiwe and Balewa.

Since the military incursion in our national polity, it has been a story of one woe after another. The military were high-handed and it is generally believed that corruption was made solid in our nation by the men in uniform. Nigerians suffered human rights abuses, and lived with the effects of corruption in the hands of these men in uniform. Civil rights groups around the nation, began to agitate for a speedy return to democracy. Who would forget Nigerians like Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehinmi, Balarabe Musa, Chuba Okadigbo, Beko Ransome Kuti and his brother, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who used the Afro beat musical genre to hold the military to account. The military succumbed and made way for democracy. Or did they?

However we have come to the point in our so called democracy, where Nigerians are now calling on the same military to return to power. We have not fared better by embarking on democratic processes. This is primarily because Nigerians have never been given a fair chance at electing their leaders of choice. Very corrupt Nigerians have held firmly to the reins of power, they would kill and maim in their bid to maintain the status quo. Most of these men, who are now grandfathers have effectively marginalised our young Nigerians who make up over 70% of our population. How can a dying generation who do not know the difference between email address and website, preside over a nation with a large youth population that is glued to the Social media? How can these antiquated people bring us to the twenty first century, in line with other progressive nations of the world?

We are devastated that we have not made the anticipated gains of democracy. It has progressively gone from bad to worse over the last 13 years. It has been a decade when the People’s Democratic party (PDP) has taken the nation captive and backward. They have mortgaged the future of all Nigerians for the personal interests of a few. They have not drawn a line between our common wealth and their private pockets. Crude oil-wells are gifted where bouquets of flowers would have sufficed.

PDP is the ruling cult in Nigerian. And like every other cult, PDP only caters for its members at the top of the hierarchy. If ordinary members of this cult are not looked after, how does one expect the PDP to look after ordinary Nigerians who are not members? The truth is that they owe Nigerians nothing or at least they feel that way. Most of the elected politicians were not voted for by the people. This party does not need the people’s vote to “win” in an election. The PDP rigging machinery has perfected the act of rigging elections and falsifying the outcome of election results. And why not? They appointed officials of INEC, the not-so-independent electoral commission and the PDP official stamp of illegitimacy . But that’s just half of the story.

President Jonathan is a member of the PDP. He is dedicated to the espirit-de-corps of the PDP and his loyalty is wholly to the party. Dr. Jonathan does not care about the sufferings of Nigerians. He is working hard at making sure that lootable funds are made available to his party stalwarts. Structures left by the military are now in a state of disrepair. Electricity supply remains epileptic. Bottled and bagged water replace clean portable water at great expense to Nigerians. Nigerians are daily faced with kidnappings, armed robbery, starvation and poor health they have to put up with.

Th government of the day, which thrives on rumours, gossips and hearsays, does not believe in correctly informing Nigerians. They tell one lie after another and have become experts in the use of visual recorded evidence to blackmail those who oppose them. Nigerians would be told five different versions of a story by their leaders. You are never sure who is telling the truth and in most cases, none.

Nigeria is the only nation who has a president that reasons and talks like a four year old child. According to him, he sacked the Energy minister, Barth Nnaji to make way for his kingsman, Reynold Dagogo-Jack, who was undermining the minister. It did not occur to him that the news was already out that Barth Nnaji, the energy minister was caught in a web of self interest deal. What mattered to this clueless man was that his own man, was effectively installed to make way for his cohorts in the PDP to shamelessly benefit from the privatisation of the energy sector.

Again, President Jonathan declared on Monday that he was now serious about fighting corruption and by Sunday, Nigeria had become second, only to America in the fight against corruption. When Ghana-born George Ayittey opined that Jonathan was insane, only a few Nigerians questioned how he came to that conclusion. No sane leader would start the war on corruption on Monday and declare the next Sunday that he was now nearly at par with America, a nation that has been consistently serious about fighting corruption for decades. Nigeria ranked 134 out of 183 countries in 2010, and 143 out of 183 countries in the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, right under President Jonathan.

President Jonathan, in his last media chat, posed the following question, “If the Nigerian economy was not booming, why would the international community like China, India and Lebanon be doing business in Nigeria?” Who in their right mind would preside over a nation where China, India and Lebanon, some of the most corrupt people on earth, are the only members of the whole international community wheeling and dealing corruption in that nation? What does that say of our nation.

In his feeble attempt at propaganda and at discharging himself from the responsibility he owes Nigerians, Jonathan opined that the problem of Nigeria today is rooted in the amalgamation of Nigerian in 1914. Nigerians are not the least interested in such baby talk, they want the good life they had when Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo held sway in our nation. If that is not possible, they want the little they had under some military regimes. The Igbo man who lives in Kaura Namoda, the Hausa man who lives at Onitsha and the Yoruba man who lives in Port-Harcourt do not care about 1914. They care about today and that they are safe wherever they live, something Jonathan alone has only at Aso Rock.

Listening to leaders of other nations bring hope to their people even in hopeless situations. Listening to President Jonathan brings nothing but depression. When a woman is repeatedly raped, physically and emotionally abused, she would age beyond her years. Nigeria is that woman. Nigeria’s useless leaders have flagged off a one year praying project. They keep Nigerians on their knees, praying to a God that wonders why we have not beheaded our leaders. In the meantime, while our eyes are shut in prayers, the mad King Jonathan jets around the globe with an entourage reminiscence of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcus of the Philippines, depositing sacks of dollars in safe deposit boxes around the world. Their lesser looters use courier services to transport hard currency around the world. How about doing right by Nigerians?

Something has got to give and it is not the ordinary Nigerian who has known nothing but hardship. Who cries himself to sleep most nights because he cannot provide for his immediate family. Who struggles to buy kerosene for his lantern while sandwiched between two homes with massive generators that deny him sleep. Who endures bouts of illnesses and cannot even afford the charges of the merciless quack down the road. Who, if he finds sleep at all, wakes up each morning in a panic, afraid to face the new day. Who has been told that his problems are caused by a particular tribe, section and/or religion. Who has lost hope of a better tomorrow.

Something has got to give and its those who sow the seed of discord among Nigerians. Those who reap where they did not sow. Those who arrogate to themselves and their families, our collective common wealth. Those who work round the clock to keep our people in abject poverty. Those whose conscience have been seared as with a hot iron. Those who have no feelings for those they have impoverished. Those who honour corruption but deny their pensioners their monthly dues. Those whose ears are blocked to the cries of Nigerians. Those who hop from airport to airport to avoid meeting ordinary Nigerians in their suffering estates. Those who lavishly maintain their families abroad at the expense of the rest of us leaving Nigerian children sitting on the floors of dilapidated classrooms.

I am not talking of those honest Nigerians who deserve the good life they toil for in a harsh environment.
Something has got to give and it is not us Nigerians, it is them!

Follow me on Twitter @Laurestar

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