By Promise Adiele 

Quit notice is a popular phrase in the legal profession especially in property management and consultancy. The phrase has acquired notoriety for instilling a dreadful feeling of impending homelessness whenever it is used. While some people call it quit notice, others prefer notice to quit while many are convinced it is quick notice. However it occurs, the message is the same, a notice to a defaulting tenant to vacate a property within a stipulated period.

 Incidentally, quit notice has made an unceremonious inroad into our socio-political discourse in recent times. Sadly, it is bandied about by people whose ideological manual is sustained by violence and bloodshed. From the North to the South across Nigeria, the depraved among us have allowed themselves to be entertained to stupor by the symphony of quit notice and regrettably they are gyrating to the ominous beats of its discordant effusions. I am a Nigerian and I believe in Nigeria. My belief in Nigeria will continue to flourish until such a time when the Almighty, in His infinite wisdom decides to divide the country for ease of His own oversight responsibilities. Whether that time is now or in the future, nobody knows. Times and seasons are in His hands. Before then, Nigeria must continue to exist as one country irrespective of ethnic shenanigan perpetuated by people whose stake in the country is self-serving.

The rich, the demagogues have united to divert the attention of the oppressed people of Nigeria by telling a lie that they are all enemies to one another. Poverty is a totally detribalised phenomenon; it does not recognise or respect any race or ethnicity.  The poverty that afflicts the Hausa/Fulani man also afflicts the Igbo man. The same poverty that afflicts the Niger Delta man also afflicts the Yoruba man. Unfortunately, those who have excelled in the manufacture of socio-economic misery, those who have brought this untold poverty upon Nigerians, those who have turned Nigeria into an Eliotsean Waste Land are the same people who are seeking to keep them busy by indoctrinating the poor to believe that ethnicity is the problem. No, I disagree. Let all real Nigerians come together irrespective of their ethnic differences and give quit notice to those who deserve it. I speak to the unemployed, the employed who must bruise their skins to retain their jobs, and to all victims of economic rape. I am speaking to those who Franz Fanon refers to as The Wretched of the Earth. Conversely, there are people in Nigeria who will never be hungry or lack anything even if they do not work for the rest of their lives. Such people should please stay aloof and look away from here. Yes, class war is alive in this country, so let us not pretend it does not exist.

Each time Nigerians came together to fight a common cause, they achieved unprecedented results to underscore the power of collectivity. During the holocaust years of military regime, Nigerians rose in unison and gave them a quit notice, practically chasing them out of office as they ingloriously returned to the barracks. Then, we rightly closed the door on dystopia having survived many years of organized military banditry when men in khaki were committed to liquidate our commonwealth. Even during the democratic dispensation that followed, men and women who were called to service shamelessly abused their offices and stole with reckless abandon. It was a free-for-all invitation to steal, to pillage and to destroy.

Yet, Nigerians gave them quit notice through the instrumentality of voting and brought the current government to power. Power, indeed, resides with the people. Nigerians must come together to give quit notice to those who daily dehumanize them.

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Any serving or past governor who has multiple foreign bank accounts should be given a quit notice. Any serving or past minister who has a bank account abroad should immediately be given a quit notice. Any underperforming government official, senator, governor, commissioner should be given a quit notice without delay. Any judge or lawyer who perverts justice and shields a criminal should receive a quit notice instantly. Any police or military officer who colludes with armed robbers and kidnappers has committed a heinous crime against the people of Nigeria, therefore deserves a quit notice written in bold calligraphy. Any government official at any level who has his children schooling abroad should be given a quit notice. Any employer of labour who pays workers less than twenty thousand naira monthly should be given a quit notice. All those who want to feed on the blood of the poor, daily toiling Nigerians through inflammatory statements should immediately receive a quit notice.

Let us shake free from the paralyzing hypnosis of their daily proselytizing and identify them as our enemies. Let us quickly expunge timid obsequiousness from our collective genome and issue quit notice to defaulting members of the commune. Nigerians, let us not allow ourselves to be used by these same people who have orchestrated our pain and suffering, those who are striving to amputate our collective destiny to nourish their obscene menu. Let us all rise and say no to all forms of manipulation and embrace one another as we matriculate to build a pragmatic system that will affirm our identity as responsible Nigerians.

My Hausa brothers, the Igbo man is not your enemy. Your real enemies are those who call you out to the streets and use you to slaughter your brothers and sisters while they ensconce with their families in their hallowed chambers. How many Hausa/Fulani people died during the war? Today, Gowon is still alive, living well and aging graciously. Kai.

  My Igbo brothers, secession is not the answer, more so when the leading voices of that quest lack pedigree and identity. They call the children of other people out to the streets to be wasted by stray and aimed bullets. They deserve a quit notice immediately. If secession should become necessary, then it must be achieved through peaceful dialogue without bloodshed. Some Igbo families have had their destinies dislocated due to the death of their sons and daughters during the carnage of the civil war. Ojukwu lived a good life, married one of the most beautiful ladies in this generation and when he died at a good old age, he was given a state burial. Odi egwu.

   My Yoruba brothers, those among you who speak from both sides of the mouth and serve two masters in Abuja and Lagos should be given a quit notice immediately. My Niger Delta brothers, your real enemies are those who sold your oil fields and used the proceeds to lace their private bank accounts abroad. Therefore, issue them a quit notice. No more shall we allow ourselves to be used as instruments for other people to advance their inordinate longings. Quit notice, channeled to the right people, is the answer.

Adiele writes from  Department of English, University of Lagos.