Sometimes –many times- when I can afford it, I soliloquise about the creature called human being. Was the class misnamed or did we switch names? That is, were we to be named animal instead? Because, I cannot understand why we are so inhuman while animals are so human.
Examples abound that speak for themselves. Human beings develop nukes, bombs, guns, landmines and such other weapons of mass destruction; all targeted at human lives. No animal does that. No animal destroys itself or others like it the way man does. Human beings constantly shoot ourselves in the foot.
Go to Ukraine and see for yourself what the animal called man has done to human beings Iike himself. I can bet that in the animal kingdom, human beings are called animals. I am sure that in their meetings those guys like to sit around and laugh at how foolish they perceive us. Are we not?
How much I hate this discourse. Alas, what choices has the human race left me? Even animals call us animals -and, they are not disrespecting us. We carry on like animals.
We destroy, we steal, we kill. These are animal (not human) tendencies. We hate, we war, we curse. These are the nature of animals, not of human beings.
If the human being represents God, then it is the animal who does Satan, right? Wrong, man is the satanic one. Man is selfish, man is evil, man is arrogant. Animal is different, and even if it occasionally isn’t: what else do you expect of an animal?
Over the weekend, you must have witnessed something that happens all the time. The majority always look out for themselves. Their members know when and how to sacrifice individualism for their class to win. Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state is not an Atiku Abubakar person like that but finding themselves and by extension the north on the People’s Democratic Party presidential primaries stage on that night, the former had to reduce for the latter to increase.
In doing that, Mr Tambuwal completely and conveniently forgot his last outing on that same stage; when Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, in the deep South, did everything for him to emerge. That point is immaterial though, because politics Nigeriana is not a morality pageant. Plus, our politicians have dwarf memory. They hardly remember one good turn.
Back to what we were saying. Mr. Mohammed Hayatu-Deen, an excellent presidential material, withdrew from the race in the nick of time, I am sure in the interest of that same agendum of brightening the chances of the North. And, it worked. PDP now wants the North to rule for 16 unbroken years!
Excellent! We are making progress, even if retrogressively so. What do I even know, sef? In a country as desperately, as incurably and as cruelly clannish as ours, the minority should blame no one but self for not winning.
The minority are almost always too greedy, too egoistic and too fragmented. So, Gov. Wike couldn’t have stood behind Gov. Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom (also in the deep south)? Sssh, don’t call me out; I am only defending my own part of the territory. Which is what Nigeria has reduced us to.
If you are Rivers, no one should begrudge you for being angry that our Gov. Emmanuel didn’t back your Gov. Wike instead. If you are Igbo, you are not wrong to be irked that Governors Emmanuel and Wike didn’t step down for former Gov. Peter Obi (of Anambra State in the South East), the failure of which forced the man to crosstitute to Labour Party.
(To be continued next Monday)
Would money make you less malleable?
Every Nigerian -especially if involved one way or the other in politics- must personalise that poser and field it. The world is interested in our answer. If you were rich or wealthy, would you show more balls and more uprightness while dealing with our leaders?
That is, if you were surer of survival going forward, would you be bold enough to refuse to rise and fall at the prompting of a political master as well as never lie to them? This is one no-holds-barred conversation we must have immediately, both at the intra- and interpersonal levels. We need to sit self and power down and speak truth to them.
We need to look at self in the mirror and declare never again shall we be as pliable as politics and politicians make us. I mean, look at the quality across the board of line-up 2023: do you in good conscience believe this is the team to rescue and restore this country? Is it poverty, is it greed; just what forces us every election cycle to pefer chaff to substance?
National Orientation Agency should wave off its funding challenges and work to re-engineer the Nigerian mindset. We need to urgently restructure our mentality, the fundamental reset button. We need to get Nigerians to love Nigeria as we love our state, local government area and village.
As things stand, no Nigerian loves Nigeria. Everyone cashes in on every opportunity, to cash out. Leaders do it, the elite do it; ditto, the masses.
Who would love their country and position the sort of people we’ve lined up for the next lap of the leadership relay? Who would love their country and allow universities remain shut for months on end, as we have done? Nigeria is in serious trouble, in 2023 and the future.
However, the good news is that the problem is not the other person. The problem is self. The way out is for self to call self to order.
The change Nigeria needs must begin with self, with me. Let’s begin by loving and respecting self a little more. That way, we can begin too to love and respect the country.
That’s the medicine Nigeria needs. Let Nigerians -big and small, rich and poor- love and respect Nigeria. Enough of commodifying our country.
If 2023 holds, we should defy political correctness and select can-do (not can-pay) leaders. Selling our personal and national pride and dignity for a mess of pottage is the basest form of self disrespect. We must stop trading leadership roles to the highest bidder.
Nigeria is going nowhere other than downhill because of this neanderthal practice. Enough of vote buying. Enough of vote selling.
This mercantile electioneering has hurt our country in ways recovery might take centuries, if ever. Why are primaries in Nigeria only about which aspirant is outspending which; rather than serving as a marketplace for ideas to contend? Gawd, who cursed Nigeria such that Nigerians sing and dance for aspirants who have neither clearly communicated the problem nor how to tackle it let alone the timeframe, cost implications and source(s) of such ad hoc funds?
Who did us this strong thing? What lack, what frustration, what desperation, what idiocy, what insanity can convince me to sell myself short? How can I accept a bad choice just because it is the say-so of my political leader (another human being) who won’t be there to suffer the consequences with me and on the other hand, why do I need to deceive my political boss just for my selfish interest?
My governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, says every Akwaibomight should stand up per time. I have stood up and remain standing to be counted. You too, please stand up for your rights and the rights of our people.
Counting has started. We are conducting a census to know those who are ready to fix self to fix country. The numbers don’t look good at all but Rome was not built in a day!
(… to be continued next Monday)