By Paul Onomuakpokpo
An
impediment to the quest for the full return of history to schools is our fear
of excavating the seamy past of our heroes. We want history to be returned to
our schools so that we can learn about our past and its avatars and draw some
useful lessons for an effective response to our contemporary challenges. But we
are trapped in the tragic paradox of the fear of being confronted with the
foibles and peccadilloes of the past heroes who shaped our history. This
paradox is amply expressed in the warning not to speak ill of the dead.
We are even
forbidden from speaking ill of the living. Fawn on the living, credit them with
the virtues they are crassly bereft of and there would not be any problems. But
attempt to draw attention to their less than stellar qualities and a kerfuffle
is provoked. There is a grimmer possibility of this if the subjects are public
office holders. They would deploy all their might to teach the daring offenders
the lessons that they should not traduce a big Nigerian. With the complicity of
the police, they would throw them into jail where they would be forgotten.
It is in
this context that we can situate the developments around the rumoured death of
President Muhammadu Buhari. To be sure, it is wrong to wish anybody dead. For
neither do we have the power to take the life of someone we did not create nor
know when that person would die. Again, we are reminded of Michel de
Montaigne’s warning that we should not consider anyone happy until his death.
In other words, no human being, no matter his or her station in life is immune
from the storms and tempests of life. Thus, we must not be deterred from
discussing the rumoured death of the president and appropriating some useful
lessons from it.
After all,
other leaders like Nnamdi Azikiwe were said to have died while they were still
alive. Even in Zimbabwe
The reactions of Nigerians to the rumoured death of the president are a mix of
genuine shock and barefaced humbug. How dare malevolent persons claim that the
president is dead? hollered some. If our president had reacted like this to the
recurrent wastage of lives in the country, we would have disincentivised the
propensity for willful killing by fellow citizens or through government neglect.
We glimpse our president’s lack of respect for human life through his
protection of those who allegedly stole the money meant for starving and
sexually exploited internally displaced persons. Obviously, these lives are not
as precious as the president’s. This is why despite the outrage at the sleaze
of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Lawal Babachir, Buhari is
begging the Senate to allow him to stay in office.
If the
president loved other Nigerians as he loves himself, there would have been
better health services. The president would have equipped all the hospitals
under his care and made them to function optimally. The staff of government
hospitals would have been well treated so that they would not go on strike for
months and allow the poor citizens who cannot afford private medical treatment
to die. For it is because the president loves his life that he often goes
overseas at the slightest threat to his health.
How much
does the president really care about the lives of the citizens when he allows
them to be slaughtered by herdsmen in southern Kaduna
This is why
he can watch as religious bigotry is claiming lives and hundreds of citizens
are dying daily because of his mismanagement of the economy. Some are dying out
of starvation while others are being wasted by diseases and taking their own
lives out of frustrations. Still, others are wasted on our neglected roads and
transportation system.
Since the president’s neglect and complicity have made life worthless in this
country, some citizens were unabashed as they rejoiced at the rumour of his
death. They did not see the vacuum that his death would have created in the
polity. Rather, they saw his possible death as what was needed for the
development of the country. This is where the importance of being rumoured dead
lies. It affords one the opportunity to know how much positive impact one has
made on others’ lives. No one wishes dead a person who has been of help to one.
They only wish dead a person who is like a plague to them.
As long as
our society continues to fail to put in place measures to make life liveable
for the citizens, they may not sympthise with any leader who is rumoured or
actually dead.
In this
regard, the president and his friends do not need to curse anybody who wished
him dead. What the friends of the president should do is to get all the
reactions of the citizens to his rumoured death. Using these reactions, let him
weigh himself on a scale and see how much the citizens think he has served
them. After this, the president should reinvent himself and plunge himself into
the pursuit of those policies and projects that would make life meaningful to
all. He could start by acknowledging that he understands the importance of good
health to himself and the rest of the citizens. He should vow to equip the
public hospitals in the country in such a way that he and other citizens would
not need to go overseas for treatment.
If the
president does not have confidence in the nation’s institutions how does he
expect other citizens to do that? It is because of this lack of trust in our
public institutions that is making our leaders to send their children to
schools overseas while destroying the ones at home. Yet, we want the citizens
to believe that their leaders are serving them and when they are rumoured dead
they should only mourn and not rejoice. With the president now knowing clearly
how poorly he is rated by those he claims to be working for, we really hope he
would return home with better health and renewed vigour to serve the citizens
and bequeath memorable legacies to the nation.
*Dr. Onomuakpokpo is on
the Editorial Board of The Guardian
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