By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
If you are in Nigeria and you have not done this
before, try and do it right away. Just open a Nigerian newspaper near you. Go
through its pages to find out how many people were described in that particular
edition as “credible” politicians or “honest and selfless” Nigerians. You
would be shocked to see the number of people that recklessly allowed themselves
to be associated with such superb qualities even when they are fully aware that
by what most people know about their character and vile history, it might even
be considered a generous compliment to dress them up in the very opposites of
those terms.
*Leaders of the PDP and the APC meet before
the 2015 elections in Nigeria
Indeed, these are some of the words and phrases that have
been so callously and horribly subjected to the worst kinds of abuses in Nigeria with
hardly anyone making any attempt to intervene. I won’t in the least, therefore,
be surprised if I wake up tomorrow to hear that decent people in this country
(or even outside the country) have begun to protest and resist any attempt to
associate them with those terms any more.
In these parts, we appear to be such exceptional experts
in the effective devaluation of all that ought to inspire awe and noble
feelings. I can confidently predict that there are now some Nigerians who would,
for instance, feel greatly insulted should their dogs be nominated for our
country’s “National Honours.” Especially, since the Obasanjo regime, the
“National Honours List” in this country has sadly distinguished itself by the
ease with which people who ought to be in jail star prominently in it.
And as you look at the haggard or even dilapidated and grossly
impoverished nature of a country with a long list of “illustrious” and “honest”
sons and daughters annually honoured for their “selfless” and “invaluable”
services to their fatherland, you cannot help wondering how indeed their
so-called “immense contributions to the growth and progress of the their
country” were not able to leave some bit of positive impact on the same country
and its people. Why is a country with
such a long and intimidating list of “patriotic achievers” and “nation
builders” still one of the most backward in the world despite being endowed
with enviably abundant natural resources?
Many Nigerians, especially, politicians, do not care about
the credibility of their pronouncements before they open their mouths to drop
them, especially, before mammoth crowds. It is in Nigeria that a very tall man
would not have the slightest hint of restraint telling everyone how incredibly
short he is (because of the rich gains such a gross misrepresentation would attract
to him at that time) without bothering about the evidence before everybody’s
eyes which brutally contradicts what he is saying. We live in a country where
consequences hardly follow actions, so, people everywhere flaunt their ability
to behave anyhow and make wild claims with utmost impunity.
Now, I feel very highly insulted each time I see a public
officer, say a Nigerian governor, who virtually everyone seems to agree
deserves to head straight to jail once he leaves office due to his mindless
plunder of the country’s resources, come out (before an election) to tell the
world with sickening brazenness how his party would wage a successful war
against corruption if elected into power! By allowing himself the revolting
recklessness of uttering such an outstanding blasphemy, the person is only
calling all of us fools who are incapable of using our brains. And the mere
fact that this same odious fellow would automatically be rewarded with very
ecstatic ovations from supposedly rational human beings who constitute his
audience and who would also go ahead to give him their votes is one reason most
people easily conclude that something is very horribly and disastrously wrong
with Nigeria, and that we live in one of the most unserious societies on
earth.
In Nigeria ,
anybody can suddenly become an “esteemed” and “respected “anti-corruption”
crusader. Even if you have a very horrible criminal past, it would not matter.
Somebody once boasted to me that the only way to effect lasting, positive
change in Nigeria is to become a public officer, acquire boundless wealth by
looting the treasury pale, and then with your enormous loot, seek to sanitize
the system. Moreover, Nigerians are always interested in the present. The same
Nigerians who had called you horrible names while you were busy criminally
accumulating humongous wealth would start hailing you once you start attacking the
incumbent regime. Soon, you will be crowned an “eminent statesman” or even the
“conscience of the nation,” celebrated by all.
Even the foreign media which will not tolerate such
hideousness in their own land will join their local counterparts to decorate
you. And if the current government attempts to investigate the organized
banditry you effectively supervised during your tenure, you would just call a
press conference and grant lengthy interviews to allege that they are
persecuting you because you are exposing their corrupt acts and then promise
Nigerians that you would not be deterred by any acts aimed at intimidating you
into silence! I can assure you that if you act “wisely,” you would get eager
influential defenders in the media, among opinion moulders and even from some of
your “more liberal comrades” in the human rights community.
You can also always rely on our media to never attempt to
remember your past, but to continue to emphasize how you are the hope of the
country. They will readily help our nice and easily forgiving and forgetting populace
to quickly consign your past to the bin and embrace your new “Mr.
Clean” image.
Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA),
late Alao Aka-Bashorun, one of the country’s most principled activists and
legal luminaries, once said that if a gang of armed robbers rose in Nigeria and
seized power that he knew some of his colleagues who would fall over themselves
to “serve” in that regime and blame patriotism for their abominable choice.
Aka-Bashorun made this statement during the heyday of military rule when coups
and counter-coups were the country’s worst afflictions, and military
adventurists, largely motivated by selfish interests, did not seek the mandate
of the people to rule them, but just seized power and imposed themselves on all
of us.
I wonder what Mr. Aka-Bashorun would have said today if he
were still alive to see overfed and belching thieving public officers
addressing mammoth crowds and receiving deafening ovations from the same people
whose commonwealth they were busy mindlessly plundering and whose future and that
of their children they are zealously mortgaging. One is at loss as to how to
categorise a people with such a tragic mindset.
Late Lawrence Anini was once a nationally dreaded
Benin-based armed robber. But, were it possible for him to reappear today and use
the polluted proceeds of his violent robbery to become a wealthy and
influential politician, and is able to get very efficient “professionals” to
duly “package” him, he can comfortably win an election in Nigeria . Of course, he would very easily get some in our
media to describe him as very “credible”! Indeed, I am now willing to believe
that most of those who pen those flowery profiles do not really care to understand the meaning of some of the words
they carelessly throw about.
Nigeria may, perhaps, be one of the few countries where a
man who once, as the head of an anti-graft agency, investigated some public
officers for looting the public treasury, told the world how horribly corrupt
they were, and even charged some to court (where some of the cases, however,
eventually died quietly) could turn around to collaborate with the same set of
people in the same party to seek power. And such a man would not even feel any
shame or sense of self-diminishment as he mounts the podium to tell the same
audience (that once heard him call those men thieves) that the men were our new
messiahs, the most “credible” (that word again!) politicians in town. How human
beings are able to do this without doing untold damage to themselves remains a
horrendous mystery? And because this is able to continue to happening is the
core reason Nigeria
goes nowhere and might remain stuck at a place for a long time to come.
Now, to say that politics in Nigeria is largely about crude
self-interests is merely to state (or rather restate) something that has since
become all too obvious even to the worst hare-brained fellow out there. It is
difficult to see today a Nigerian who is seeking public office whose eyes are
not solely glued to the amount of money he is intending to cart away and the
influence he is itching to peddle once he assumes office. But what is most
heart-shattering is that there’s hardly any adult Nigerian who is yet to come
to a full realization of this brazen fact; yet this same Nigerians still
willingly and eagerly submit themselves as very cheap preys to the crude, unintelligent lies by these
politicians that they are in politics to seek their welfare. Rather than look
them directly in the face and dismissively call them shameless liars,
Nigerians, most pathetically, still largely prefer to loudly demonstrate that
they believe them (even when they may not) and troop out en masse to hail them as the new set of messiahs just arrived in
town.
Now the matter would not have been so hideous if our
elected public officers were content to make do with their already outrageously
inflated salaries and allowances. No! They will also massively and heartlessly
loot the public treasury under their watch and cart away millions and billions
of naira with utmost impunity to ensure that long after they have left office
and become professional idlers, they would continue to wallow in limitless
luxury serviced with mounds and pyramids of unearned wealth.
But instead of the people from
whom they brazenly stole all this money to feel outraged and rejoice at any
opportunity to make them face the consequences of their crude thievery, they would
go out of their ways and take additional pains to defend and offer them support
in their well-earned travails. Not a few would engage in verbal and even
physical combats and might end up even wasting their lives to defend and
support the right of these public officers to loot the treasury pale. Yet, deep
down their hearts, they are fully aware that many of these officers are no
better than common thieves out there.
An event that took place a few
weeks before the 2015 general elections helped to solidify my doubts about the
willingness and ability of the perennially deprived and impoverished Nigerians
to participate in the urgent reclamation work this country requires – to rescue
it from the hands of resilient leeches who are bent on sucking the very life
out of it.
I was in one of the state capitals
and what were on virtually everybody’s lips at that period were the media
reports on some choice structures and juicy investments allegedly belonging to
a former governor which were believed to have been acquired with the proceeds
of his mindless looting of the state treasury. Opinions were divided on the
mind-blowing report. Although some people rose in stout defense of the fellow,
what I thought was unimaginable was that some others could go to the sickening
extent of openly boasting that what the man was alleged to have stolen was
“their” money, so, why should it be the business of anyone who was not from the
state!
One evening, I went to a nearby
kiosk to make a purchase, and there, I saw two young men who, judging by their
haggard appearance, should belong to the lowest wrung of the country’s social
and economic setting – the worst victims of the programme of impoverishment
that successive thieving politicians have unleashed on this country. As one of
the young men expressed outrage at such mindless stealing by the former
governor, the other one barked at him: “go
back to your state and talk about the stealing taking place there and leave our
state alone. It is our money that was stolen and it does not concern you! Just
shut your mouth, we are okay with that.”
It was difficult to comprehend what
I had just heard, but the fellow was dead serious repeating the same words to
the other young man, becoming angrier as he spoke and showing clearly that he
could initiate a physical combat if the other fellow continued to discuss the
matter that “did not concern” him. With people who reason like this fellow
abundantly existing across our country, why should any thieving public officer
ever think of exercising any restraint?
Now, when Nigerian leaders
advertise their resolve to fight corruption, they usually have in mind some particular
corrupt people they are targeting. And while they go all out with undue fanfare
to arrest and prosecute them (or just rubbish them with elaborate media trials
and sentencing), they surround themselves with even more horribly corrupt
fellows – unrepentant criminals who are still neck-deep in their vile but very lucrative
career of criminal accumulation, even under the “anti-corruption” regime.
And what about us – the perennially
exploited Nigerians? What is our attitude towards corruption? Indeed, what is very difficult to
deny is that when we shout against corruption and the need to punish those
involved in it, we, like our leaders, always have a set of people in our minds.
And so, when the anti-corruption effort now goes beyond our expectations and
starts straying into the camp of our sacred cows, we would immediately discard
our loudly advertised revulsion against corruption and rise in solidarity with
the looters. We will try to dig up reasons why we think they are rather being persecuted.
And politicians always take full advantage of this to shield themselves from
the just consequences of their shameless thievery by igniting some fire among
us with two prominent inflammable substances, namely, Religion and Ethnicity. But
when they gather to steal the nation blind, they do not consider these two
intoxicants.
Before I sign off, let’s narrow
this discussion to the present situation in our country. There are Nigerians today
who would eagerly go to any length and might even lay down their lives to defend
the Buhari administration, despite the fact that it is becoming obvious that,
perhaps, the only difference between the former regime and the current one is,
like somebody said recently, the broom, and maybe, a more effective propaganda
machinery deployed by the latter. The undisguisable truth is that they are all members
of the same decadent and ultra-greedy political class which has held this
country down for several decades sucking it to death like unrelenting leeches.
As I opened my laptop bag a few
minutes ago, I saw again a copy of the Nigerian Observer of March 23, 2015,
which a friend in Benin
had helped me to obtain when we learnt that it had republished one of my
articles entitled, “Is
Robert Mugabe’s Fall Symbolic?”
As I leafed through the good old Observer, I wondered how such a
paper with the enviable history of having helped to groom several reputable
journalists in this country since it debuted on May 29, 1968 could have been
allowed to so badly depreciate in quality, even under the very watch of the “People’s
Comrade,” the fire-spitting Governor Adams Oshiomole.
Well, on page 3 of the paper, I
saw a full-page advert placed by an association that called itself “Change
Advocates of Nigeria (CAN)” asking us to give our votes to General Muhammadu
Buhari, then presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC). The
association gave four really tantalizing reasons why we should give our votes
to Buhari. Permit me to reproduce three:
1. “Vote for
a leader who will not appoint any corrupt person in his government.”
2. “Vote for a leader who will give social welfare package to the
unemployed monthly in our nation Nigeria ”
3. Vote for a leader who matches his words with action for the overall
benefit of the people of Nigeria .”
That sounded so nice, didn’t it?
But why am I suddenly having this feeling that these statements sound even more
hollow now than they did when they were first uttered? Indeed, how many people
who had eagerly swallowed those sweet promises which the APC, its candidates
and agents were recklessly throwing about during the campaigns would still be
able to view them with even the tiniest bit of seriousness today, given the
very demoralizing starting signals the APC regime has already served Nigerians
these past few months?
Now, is it possible to find any
reasonable person in Nigeria today (even among die-hard APC warriors) who still
believes in all sincerity, I mean, deep down his “heart of hearts,” that President
Buhari “will not appoint any corrupt
person in his government” as boldly proclaimed in the Observer advert?
Again, how many APC chieftains
would still be able to repeat today the (now clearly fraudulent) assurance
Buhari gave Nigerians during the campaigns that he would “give social welfare package to the unemployed monthly in our nation Nigeria ?” And
with what we have already seen in the past couple of months since this regime
took over in Abuja, who in Nigeria today can confidently say that we now have a
leader who “matches his words with action
for the overall benefit of the people of Nigeria,” except, perhaps, the APC
megaphone, Mr. Lai Mohammed, and some others of identical mindset.
But these are the very attractive
but empty packets the APC boldly waved before Nigerians in order to obtain
their votes. Today, the party’s “credible” leaders and the regime they
installed are not only by their words and ‘body language’ distancing themselves
from those very marvelous promises which they had clearly made, stressed and
repeated on countless forums during the electoral campaigns, they are equally
showing that those who believed any of them did so at their own risks. And to
thoroughly erase any lingering doubts about their exact intentions and
completely remove any further pressure on them to fulfill their campaign
promises, the Buhari presidency and the APC came out recently to disown in an
unambiguous language the very documents that contained those mouth-watering promises
with which they persuaded Nigerians to give them their votes – after the votes
had put them in power! Can you beat that?
No doubt, President Buhari and the
APC are yet to realize that Nigerians are already feeling that they were deluded
into pouring their water into a leaking vessel. Mostly on the social media, the
APC foot soldiers are always quick to ask “what about Jonathan” any time anyone
pointed to any of the howling failings of the current regime. Much as former
President Goodluck Jonathan deserves to take his fair share of blame for the
dilapidated state of this country, the truth is that his regime is now history.
Rather than bore us daily with drab tales of the sins of the previous regime,
Buhari should motivate the various anti-corruption agencies to go after those
who had abused their offices and ensure they are duly prosecuted. Corruption is
not combated with countless front-page-grabbing pronouncements which sometimes
sound as if they are merely targeted at removing our attention from the obvious
lack of clear direction of the current regime. Nigerians want to see concrete
actions. Let the looters (in the PDP and APC, the North and South) be
thoroughly investigated, tried and jailed if found guilty by duly constituted
courts. The APC-led regime should, therefore, shake off its campaign mood
(since the elections are over), roll up its sleeves and start fixing the rot it
met on ground instead wasting a lot time and resources in endless and
debilitating lamentations.
By the way, one had thought that the
current regime had announced itself as a healthy alternative to the previous
one, so why is this penchant to use the failure of the last regime to justify
its own failures? Are we to take it then that the “change” the APC promised is
nothing but the amplification of all the failings of the Jonathan regime? If
that is the case (as it is gradually appearing to be), then, indeed, Nigeria has
moved from disaster to more, unmitigated disaster. And the fact that many Nigerians
are still trapped in the false feelings created by the tantalizing campaign
promises the APC was dropping like overripe fruits during the elections (and which
the party has long disowned) and so are unable to see through the fog of the
continuing propaganda to read the very clear, ominous handwriting on the wall
is the real tragedy.
*Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye,
a Nigerian journalist and writer, is a regular contributor to SCRUPLES (scruples2@hotmail.com;
twitter: @ugowrite)
The best analysis about Nigerian politics, government and people I have read for a very long time now. Kudos for this
ReplyDeleteEvery Nigerian needs to read this article and think deeply about it. Shall we continue like this, killing our country and looking for whom to blame?
ReplyDeleteBuhari's aides must print this article immediately and serve it to him breakfast this morning. What a nation
ReplyDelete