NIGERIA ON THE CUSP
The elite should shape up or ship out of governance, writes O. Jason Osai
At no time in the history of Nigeria have the manifestations of years of acrimonious attrition, hate-bartering and endless recriminations so violently split Nigerians as in recent times. Yet, at no time in the history of Nigeria have the masses risen in one discernible voice to condemn the level of ineptitude, corruption, and kleptomania in government as it is now. And at no time in the history of Nigeria has the electorate demonstrated so much consciousness of the goings on in government. Naturally, these are outcomes of the psychological warfare waged on the people through unemployment and prolonged frustration due to failure of government to play its fundamental constitutional role. This has resulted in distrust of government and overarching angst at the pervading insecurity and consistent pauperization of the masses by a government that exclusively serves the interest of the minority elites to the criminal neglect and glaring detriment of the masses. Matthew Hassan Kuka laments “the inefficiency, corruption, and shameful degrading life of [Nigerians] today”.
Across the religious hedgerow but with a highly disproportionate percentage on the Christian side, communities have been subjected to the trauma and tragedies of kidnapping, killing, desecration of places of worship and other assaults by miscreants that now audaciously reign supreme on the highways, railways and communities across the country. This has introduced the phrase “abduction economy” in the Nigerian lexicon.
Interestingly, Kashim Shettima, the Vice-Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC) averred that“Nigerians have [acquired] the capability to see through the worn-out rhetoric and sophistry of pretentious politicians. Toeing the same line while fielding questions on Arise News’ Prime Time Television program, Professor Usman Yusuf said that though APC government is “driving [us] blindly into a ditch”, Nigerians are waking up to the responsibility of making the right political choices.
In the above circumstance, criminal conjectures and outrightly malicious falsification of information have become the order of the day, and the new norm that exacerbates the already touchy social situation; this is buoyed by conspiracy theories from the factories of merchants of centrifugal forces. Truth remains that Nigerians now know that it is an us-and-them battle between the unrepentantly selfish elite and the brutally battered and pauperized masses. For instance, the combined ANNUAL budget for Healthcare (N46b) and Education (N48b) is N94b for a population of more than 200 million people while N125b is the budget for 465 legislators. These are public officers (some of whom earn N37m MONTHLY) that have refused to increase minimum wage from N18k to N30k per month What a travesty of justice.
More and more Nigerians from across ethnocultural and religious lines have realized that the dividing hedgerows are economic. They have been shocked by seeing the seemingly warring political figures exchanging pleasantries and bear hugs clearly demonstrating the superficiality of their publicly touted differences. The masses are now conscious of the divide between them and the elites masses and how the elites have exploited them to feather the nests of their luxurious lifestyle in the face of abject poverty. The youth and the masses know better now and they are a whole lot more emboldened. Need we be told that with the proliferation of illegal arms across the land that any sequel to ENDSARS will be hard to quell.
In a video clip that has gone viral, Mohammed Ibrahim Tafida, a Hausa alumnus of Kaduna State University, decried the divisive orientation Northern children received. He expressed the pervading realization that the orientation was elitist propaganda to create bad blood towards perpetuating elite interest. Therefore, he called on Northerners to eschew religious and ethnic sentiments and vote wisely. This standard of liberalism is hitherto very rare in the political experience of Nigeria; it is evident that Nigerians are transcending differences and tearing down man-made fences towards harmonious co-existence, insistence on good governance and prosperity for all.
Nigeria is on the cusp and 2023 Elections is the meeting point of the two curves where a change is imminent. What that change portends will depend, in the short run, on the outcome of the election and, in the long term, on the attitudinal disposition and behavior of the elite, especially political and public office holders who will emerge in office following the elections. Peaceful protests will be rampant and, drawing lessons from ENDSARS, the organizers will make every preparation to contain and counter any attempt at armed repression. At that point, a confrontation will surprisingly be the starting gun for various ethnic militia groups, armed bandits, unknown gunmen, etc., to pursue objectives that have been kept at abeyance for long. And that may be the beginning of the end; a deafeningly thunderous declaration of “to thy tents oh Nigeria”.
John F. Kennedy (JFK) it was who said that “those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable “. Nigerian masses now know that there are enough resources for everyone’s need but the excessive greed of the elite class has created the paradox of a highly endowed country spotting the inglorious and ignominious moniker of poverty capital of the world. They know that their state of abject poverty is as a result of elite conspiracy to weaponize poverty and illiteracy thereby keeping them perpetually docile and malleable. The game is up. It’s either the elites shape up or ship out of governance and permit patriotic Nigerians to take over the saddle of leadership in the interest of all. Nigerians are now braced to audaciously demand accountability from public office holders. Drawing from JFK again: “if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich”. And if I may paraphrase Awo, the children of the rich will not be able to sleep because of the thunderous rumblings from the empty stomach of the children of the poor.
Finally, it is said that a lost nation is one in which hungry and jobless people blindly support those responsible for their poverty, agony and misery. Nigeria is not being destroyed by politicians; rather, it is by the overwhelming majority including youths who are beclouded by primordial sentiments and therefore continue to elect old and discredited politicians irrespective of their dismal and abysmal performance in office.
O. Jason Osai
