Agonies of an Optimist

femi Akintunde-Johnson

Dear politicians and political office holders, whatever the civil servants, ardent supporters and spin doctors are telling you, the case of today’s average Nigerian is distressing, almost hopeless, and verging on the suicidal. Most Nigerians are frustrated, disillusioned, low in self-esteem, prone to anger and/or hunger, and more often than not suspicious of any government plans to make their lives better. 

Of course, most Nigerians do not trust this present government, and are willing to disbelieve any hints of success or positive impact traceable to the incumbent. Yet, it is difficult to dismiss this awkward and sad development, because by its own reckless and oftentimes inconsiderate actions, appointments and pronouncements, this administration has proven complicit in dividing, polarizing and inflaming different sects and sections of the Nigerian society along primordial sentiments and fault lines. 

 Even when we have another successful civilian-to-civilian transition of power in May or June 2023, the biggest task ahead of the new administration is how to reunite Nigerians, and reignite hope and belief in our problem-solving capacity. The chances of that happening will depend largely on how the Muhammadu Buhari’s outgoing administration handle the transition period with deliberate efforts to appease the people by providing and producing sound and selfless leadership; responsible and equitable empathy, and even-handedness in piloting the nation towards free, fair and transparent elections, and all that is needed and necessary to midwife a successful power switch, irrespective of the winner.

 Is there anyone out there who is happy with the state of our markets and kitchens? While few of us may find the question funny or strange, I can easily hazard that the vast majority of us would respond in knowingly diverse and aching ways. Simply put, the markets, like the streets, are not ‘smiling’. Those who tagged us as the “happiest people on earth” years ago, were probably using data from many decades ago – as far back as the 70s, and to a lesser degree, the 80s. 

Today, we are not happy. We are worried and frustrated because we do not have a sense that our circumstances would be reversed positively anytime soon. We can hardly afford the scanty stuff in our markets; the sellers are even complaining more than the buyers. They struggle to convince their customers that they are as hapless and frustrated as the buyers. The costs of foodstuffs are so prohibitive that many choose to buy barely edible castoffs and almost decaying offals to feed their families, as the better stuff are leaner and dearer – virtually un-negotiable, unless you have corrupt access to funds and privileges loitering around our power caucuses.

 Back home, we are worried sick about the sort of culture and environment we are creating for our children – the so-called ‘leaders of tomorrow’. Where the younger ones are able to go to schools, the fees are astronomical, yet there is a mild apprehension about the quality of education and orientation they are exposed to. Those who cannot afford the high fees of the numerous private schools that have supplanted the usefulness of public education, have condemned their children to the ill-equipped drudgery and criminal negligence of public schools. The more educationally insensitive a state governor, the sorrier the state of public schools.

The older children who are not opportune to attend expensive private universities, or the few better-run state institutions, are cooling their listless heels at home waiting for their lecturers and their government to make up their minds when they would return to campuses and re-engage what they are conditioned to do at this stage of their lives. Some homes will be severely tested and strained by the prolonged university closure as the natural tendency of the young to explore, associate, and respond to external stimuli would be sorely challenged and discomfited by dysfunctional exigencies of beleaguered parenting.

  If the home is worrisome, the roads are even worse. The spate of killings, abductions, banditry, kidnappings, and such organised calamities have castrated many homes, and rendered vast areas of Nigeria a no man’s land. The wave of insecurity is not concentrated in one state or region. Terrors have overwhelmed the land, and our valiant security forces have been stretched and sometimes sacked. The impunity of the criminals has grown so pervasive and imperious that bandits and kidnappers callously demand and successfully receive ransoms in millions of dollars. More demoralising were allegations of complicity by some rogue elements in our armed forces who collude with these criminals, or simply turn their backs on their activities as they skim and skin their victims in sickening abandon. In extreme cases, the criminals collect ransom, and still kill their victims! 

  The body language of the commander in chief of our armed forces has sometimes jacked up the anxiety levels of many citizens when they merely read letters of condolences after reported acts of these criminals; or when media reports quote the leader of armed men basically surrendering the security of the nation to the reverent custody of the Divine. Such scenarios merely heighten our sense of hopelessness in stemming insecurity by a retired army general who, during his 2014 campaign stump speeches, charmed us with a steely determination to get the job done in a matter of months. 

  It is therefore difficult to disabuse the conspiracy theorists who browbeat us, now and again, about a Fulanisation agenda which has supposedly been hatched and aggressively put in motion from the advent of the Buhari administration; and that the sporadic and devastating onslaughts of criminal actors around the five geopolitical regions (save South South) are essentially the affirmation and crystallisation of jihadist ideology’s drive to overrun and overwhelm the secularity and posterity of the Nigerian nation. Note: not Nigerien!

(To continue)

Three Faces of Campaigns to Come

During the week, the Nigerian Bar Association provided the platform of their 62nd Annual General Conference, held in Lagos, a putative grandstand to showcase the foretaste of the timbre and tenor of presidential campaigns slated to start from September 28, 2023. The presence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi (LP) and Sen. Kashim Shettima (proxy for Alhaji Bola Tinubu of APC) added colour, conviviality and substance to the day’s activities. Few other political parties were also represented, by the way, but this is a mere glance at the three main contenders who turned the NBA space into a campaign ground, sharing their ideas on how to unhinge the Nigerian economy. Curiously, the judiciary was not at stake.

  Atiku Abubakar exuded the calm experience of “we’ve been here many times before”…bordering on the staid, laid-back predictability…which in some cases may be an advantage. He showed how lucky he was to be alive to grab the opportunity of uniting a divided and insecure nation. A little listless…a bit underwhelming.

  Peter Obi was in his natural elements – charming, courteous, data-crunching, and mildly sarcastic with his closing jab: “we need a leader who is visionary, ‘articulated’ and competent…”. Did you detect a faint smirk of a bullish campaigner?

  As for the former Borno governor, Kashim Shettima, he projected a hard-faced, tough-talking, data-spewing, ready to rumble co-flagbearer, at the NBA “campaign”…and indeed he spoke fairly well. But, is it the same old story…or there’s something redeemable somewhere there?