I once had a very good friend who worked with an American aid agency here in Nigeria. We liked to hang out a lot and our discussions were mostly political in nature. We argued a lot and never saw eye to eye. The reason, we were both on different sides of the divide. It was pretty much obvious given our difference in nationalities that we would lock horns in our fierce patriotism for our beloved countries. Frequently, we ended our meeting with headaches and fatigue from incessant arguing.
One fateful day, as the 2007 elections approached we were embroiled in yet another confrontation. He was furiously trying to sell the recent intelligence report by an American agency that the upcoming elections would be so bloody given the terse political atmosphere and it was a matter of urgency for all their diplomats to be airlifted out of Nigeria to safety . I was enraged, spitting venom at my bespectacled friend and the odious intelligence report. “What is America?” I spat with flashing red eyes and a sense of renewed patriotism “a prophet of doom? Well tell your country to airlift everything including your flag, after 2007 we will continue to exist as one country”.
That was two years ago and before the frail and gentle looking ex governor of Kastina state became the highest office holder in the land. From the moment we saw the uplifting hands of the PDP presidential candidate, Nigerians went agog with speculations about this relatively unknown governor. News went around town that the reason for his frail looks was as a result of a terminal disease. When he was rushed out of a rally ground after he slumped, Nigerians were shaking their head at another unfolding political drama. Somehow by sheer providence or the grace of Almighty God, we had the elections without any major bloodletting apart from the skirmishes that left many wounded and disillusioned about the political future of the country. The American intelligence report was wrong, my friend was nowhere in sight for me to turn my nose at but Nigerians wanted more than the charade that was presented as elections but the point here is whatever the Americans saw was as a result of misunderstanding the astute complexity of the black nation that remains for so many the symbol of the African diversity and strength.
So now, two years after, Nigeria has come to a standstill. The giant looks undecided at this point, whether to stumble forward or collapse in a heap. As our leaders surround themselves with political jobbers who further detach them from the reality of the day, the decay has become so ominous that so many Nigerians no longer say the national pledge with pride and if they do, they say “to serve Nigeria is not by force(with all my strength)”. A country where the rule of law is merely paid lip service and violated with so much impunity, I wonder what role the judiciary has to play now. There is absolute no respect for laid down norms and obeying the law is even outdated. There is a system that has replaced what every normal society is built on. It is that system that has seen inefficient ex governors become ministers, incompetent ministers become governors and completely useless house of representative members replace departing senators. It is a system which has become all too powerful for its good because it cannot see beyond its own nose. It is a system which has reduced the state of Nigeria into a prehistoric jungle where the predatory few feast on the powerless majority. It is a system that convinced the president to ignore section 145 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria several times when he sought medical checkup abroad. Section 145 states as follows “Whenever the President transmits to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives a written declaration that he is proceeding on vacation or that he is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary such functions shall be discharged by the Vice-President as Acting President” and yet the president turned a blind eye. Am I blaming the president? No of course not. I blame the system. The system which makes leaders see governance as a means to strip themselves of conscience and common sense, a system which is now a joke and must collapse for its own good. I wonder how we feel when we see the same African countries we canvassed freedom for, sent soldiers to and doled huge amounts of free money to salvage, pass us in a huff. I wonder if the governors feel some decent amount of patriotic outrage enough to pass their tenure putting their position into good use. I wonder if the president looks around his immaculate ward in Jeddah right now and think to himself “why can’t we have this in Nigeria? We have what it takes”. I wonder how the wives of political office holders feel in their finery when they see another woman’s child with the distended stomach of kwashiorkor. Maybe they just shrug their dainty shoulders and thank God their children are safe in the pleasures and benefits of western civilization but if the answer to all these is in the negative, then a lot of people are in for a shock. These people and their allies home and abroad who by putting the pressure on the masses through epileptic power supply, countless strikes in the educational, labour, medical, legislative and judicial sectors of the economy so that they lose faith in their country. Who threaten the populace with riots in the name of religion and ethnicity when things don’t go according to their plans, those who join to sweep the Halliburton, Siemens, NEPA scandals under the carpet are in for a shock. Nigeria will always survive and outlive them all. They will never leave behind any lasting legacy, so Nigeria will forget them. If you think this is blind patriotism, read carefully the history of Nigeria and her past crises.
I cannot for the life of me celebrate the illness of the president because of the fear of God. President Umar Musa Yar Adua is a victim of circumstances. Those who put him there knew of his condition before convincing him to do this final dance for them. Those who are complaining and calling for his resignation should have known when they sat down and allowed the office of the president to become so powerful that it revolved round the man occupying the position at any given time. The center is too powerful. The center is in King Faisal specialist hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And if the president is on life support as rumour mongers say, then the center is on life support. Nigeria is on life support. We share the president’s labored breath as we sweat under the unforgiving sun to fuel our over used second hand cars. We are inextricably entwined with the tubes giving him support right now. That is our problem, the all powerful center can no longer hold and yet as precarious as the situation is, things will not and can never fall apart.
The president’s weakness is his health and it is not his fault that he suffers from acute pericaditis. It is our fault that we still cannot put our intelligence and resources into use. It is our fault that we allowed a system that is evil to choke the seeds of national progress. It is our fault that every public office has become a personal throne. Nigerians must learn that silence loses its attractive golden gleam in the face of hurriedly departing multinational companies, bad high way roads that claim lives, corrupt officials that dance to their heart’s content at lavish parties while children sit at home without education, leaders that pay lip service to their obligations and the blood lust of politicians who threaten people to submission with paid terrorists from neighbouring African countries, leaders that hold the people of the Niger Delta region to ransom while they clink glasses with environmental degradation and pollution in their fine mansions.
The late Ahmadu Bello told his friend and fellow patriot Nnamdi Azikwe “Let us understand our differences” and I agree totally with him. When we forget our differences we make crucial mistakes that threaten our well being. When we understand our difference, it would matter very little where a leader is from as long as he performs his functions with a sense of national pride and obligation. At this point of National tension and speculation on what happens next, we must protect what we have. It is commendable that leaders of the North are adamant that the constitution be followed and I enjoin the rest of Nigeria to think in the same way. Every part of Nigeria whether a major part or a minor part is entitled to leadership so long as the rule of law is respected and adhered to. I believe in Nigeria and I am very proud to be a part of Nigeria. No country including America should be allowed to undermine her democracy. In as much as I respect the values of the American society today, I resent their interference in Nigeria and anywhere else for that matter. The American intelligence will never understand Nigeria, they should quit trying. They should use their intelligence to find Osama Bin Laden and Al Zahiri. They have enough to contend with including some of the emigration of some of their citizens to Canada to escape being enlisted into the army to fight unnecessary wars that only protect their selfish interests.
America will wield CNN as a weapon any day and their interviews with some questionable characters only show their obsession with Nigeria. Several statements have being made on that media platform that represents very little of the Nigerian consciousness. I bet they are already rounding up another “intelligence” report again with their eye on the current situation but if they are wise they should remember their own former president Roosevelt, his fragile health and the mysteries and lies his henchmen surrounded him with till he died at his desk.
We are on life support, the precarious nature of a personalized presidency having been exposed. We know that only a radical leadership can defeat the evil system. We reject the repeated circulation of poorly equipped leaders. We reject manipulated election results and the political selection that follows. We must protect the dreams of the founding fathers. Nigeria is a survivor, a titanic that defies all logic and continues to sail smoothly after hitting the iceberg. When the dust settles the giant will move forward because our survival is crucial to the pride of the black race. So let us raise a toast, to Nigeria, a multi ethnic, multi religious, multi regional and multi cultural country who has known many miracles. We will rise again casting away burdens of the past, mistakes of today and malicious intelligence reports. Nigeria will exist till the end of time, thank you America for listening.
A Country On Life Support was published
In Guardian Newspaper Nigeria on December 7 2009.