By Bolaji Tunji
I have always agonized
and been concerned about this country Nigeria Nigeria
 |
| *Buhari |
All these our leaders see, why is it that they
do not show concern or feel such would be good for their country and try to
replicate here?
The answer I get is that our leaders really do not have any love for us.
They do not care about the people they govern, they only pay lip service to all
they claim concerning the masses, it does not touch their heart. We
are just statistics to them. We are faceless. They do not see us or feel we are
human. Decisions about citizens are always taken cold-bloodedly. The problem
did not start with the person who holds the highest office in the land,
definitely not the president. He can not do everything and he can
not be everywhere. That’s why we have ministers and other government
officials to advise and make the job of governance easier. It also starts at
our own level, the ordinary citizen. Do we, the ruled, show love to ourselves?
That Hausaman that guides
your gate, do you have any kinship with him or you only see a hired
hand, who must open your gate or safeguard you while you sleep?
Do you ever wonder whether
he has a wife or children? Have you ever wondered how he takes care
of them and what he feels being so far away from his wife and children
or we think he does not have the same feelings that we have?
When you see two people fighting on the road and one breaks a bottle, what was
the intention? And when you stab the other person, you now claim it was the
devil. What was your intention when you broke the bottle in the first place? If
you had considered the implications of that action or put yourself in the
position of the other person, would you have considered stabbing or killing
him? We are all responsible for our actions at every point in time.
At a macro level, one wonders
at the action or inaction of people charged with minding us and why it never
bothered them to take action when necessary.
The other
day, there was an accident involving a vehicle belonging to
Peace Mass Transport Company along the Umuahia end of the
Enugu-Portharcourt expressway. Of the 15 passengers said to be
in the vehicle, only two people survived. The accident occurred on
Sunday, May 22. Less than two weeks after, another incident occurred
involving another vehicle belonging to the same transport company. The driver
was said to have lost control and drove the vehicle into a ditch with all the
passengers. Again lives could have been lost.
According to the post of one of
the passengers on the social media, it was an avoidable incident except that
the driver was not concentrating. You now ask; what are the people
saddled with the task of road safety doing? An accident in which 13 people died
should have been a major concern which should have made the Federal Road Safety
Commission (FRSC) suspend the operations of the company while a
thorough investigation was carried out on the company’s fleet of vehicles, the
state of mind of the drivers in the employment of the organisation and other
sundry things.
Questions should also have been
raised about the state of the road. Did the road contribute to
the accident? I am not sure that was done and if it
was, nobody got to know the outcome, least of all the transport company
involved which should have learnt one lesson or the other. That’s why the
company still had a vehicle on the road and could have killed some
more people. What investigation has the FRSC done on the accident? And
what lesson can be learnt in the course and cause of the accident which could
help prevent future occurrence?
If it had been a plane crash,
would the airline still be operating? Why shouldn’t the same
rule apply or is it because road transportation is for the masses and air
travel is elitist?
It goes on and on, the other day, the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar captured the problem of this country at a book launch.“Here we come back to the same economic challenges that are facing the country but we also have a leadership that is not prepared to learn from the past and a leadership that is also not prepared to lead”.
It goes on and on, the other day, the former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar captured the problem of this country at a book launch.“Here we come back to the same economic challenges that are facing the country but we also have a leadership that is not prepared to learn from the past and a leadership that is also not prepared to lead”.
I am especially concerned with
the part of his statement about the problem confronting us as a nation
and “a leadership that is not prepared to learn from the past”. Why has it
been so difficult to learn from our mistakes? Does it take rocket science to do
what is right? Why do we need an Atiku to point out what we
all know? How long is Nigeria going to be in this darkness and I am not talking
about the darkness brought about by the electricity companies but
darkness of the mind, darkness of seeing the right thing and not
doing it.
Darkness of arming herdsmen to
go and kill some other people in their homestead because they do
not want you to graze your cattle across their farmland and destroy their means
of livelihood. Why do we continue to apply the ideas and logic of the stone
age to a twentieth century problem? Why must everything been seen
from a narrow, parochial prism? In most countries of the world is it not about
cattle ranches? But it serves the purpose of the elite cattle owners to have
some people doing that job of cattle grazing. They are the ignorant, the
uneducated, the cannon-fodders who could be used and discarded at will.
Why are we not a nation? Why are we individualistic and prefer to hold on to
our own section to the detriment of the collective good? It is something
that our leaders have always realized. They spoke on that problem decades
ago.
In 1948, Late Sir Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa, Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister said: “Since 1914, the British Government has been
trying to make Nigeria into one country, but the Nigerian people themselves are
historically different in their backgrounds, in their religious beliefs and
customs and do not show…any sign of willingness to unite … Nigerian unity is
only a British invention”. This was further echoed by the late sage,
Chief Obafemi Awolowo when he said: “Nigeria
Today, nothing has changed. The
country is still as divided today as it was when the statesmen made the
statements. Where then are we going as a nation? How can we get it right? And
when can we get it right? Some people have said we should renegotiate the basis
of our association as a country. The progressives have always advocated this,
that we should hold a sovereign national conference. The noise over that has
become muted. Why is this so? Some people have also called for the
implementation of the recommendations of the National conference organized by
the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. The present administration has not
said anything about it.
That is also another problem
with this country. The administration could be reluctant to look into this
because they did not organize the conference. This should not be the case.
Whatever is good in that report should be adopted irrespective of those who
made the recommendation or who organized the conference. It is when we start adopting
attitudes that are devoid of suspicion and do things that would bring benefit
to the greater number that we would get to that promise land. I remain hopeful.
*Bolaji Tunji is a
public affairs analyst and newspaper columnist
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