Nigeria
has become a cinema of clowns. Every
new week has a drama that occupies, engages and sustains all of us till the end
of the week. These dramas as if they have been recorded and kept in a hard drive
are played in such a manner that even though they are serious issues, we all
end up laughing about them and making them sources of entertainment. Burning
issues which should be frowned at or dismissed are so painted stupidly that
they are withdrawn from the category of sensible matter then turned into
laughable skits and videos clips for the public. Meanwhile, the nation itself
is daily losing its soul and driving itself to a point of no return. The
stories that flood our timelines, our dailies, blogs and other media astound me
greatly that I think we have collectively become a generation of idiots. I ask myself many questions that
are not really rhetorical but of which I cannot even present sensible answers
to them. There are actually no answers anywhere- a one-of-a-kind situation
where everybody is groping in darkness. Such a thick darkness that it appears
there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The same reaction and maybe a
little more intense than what I am feeling about our nation was captured in a video
that went viral last year by one of these spontaneous road side interviewers. A
woman sitting inside a Keke maruwa was
asked about the situation of things in Nigeria in this dispensation and the
woman’s response was an aggravated hopelessness. She said: this Nigeria e no go better again, the woman went further to portray
the density of her frustration when in anger she said: I will leave this country and go to my village. With such confusion
and frustration all over her, she could not even make out where her village is
in that video. After that viral circulation, we all watched it and laughed. I
sincerely think we should stop laughing and see that we are all going down the
drain.
Where should we even start from? Should we start from
the missing budget or our missing girls or our missing President? With all the
shady ministerial lies, photo-shopped
pictures, discordant reports, dishonest updates from supposedly trusted
authorities, inconclusive statements, conspiratorial meetings, congregation of cliquish
cabals, ethnic threatening statements and undiplomatic utterances. Truly the
president has a right to a faceless
vacation, but when everything becomes dishonest and it involves the health of
the president, the country has a right to know the truth and more importantly
as such vacation involves the health of the President. It is quite unfortunate
the way some of our politicians think. They go abroad every day without
learning any virtue- it is quite sad and horrific! (Thank God he is back!)
Should we not mention too the overrated celebration and reception of an internationally acclaimed thief. When I saw the footage, I was
shocked! If ordinary civilians were celebrating so intensely the triumphant
entry of the so-called messiah, should
law enforcers who should know better not show some decorum in such jubilation?
Instead of respecting their uniforms at least, if they had forgotten the
precepts of the law, they were found jumping and disdaining the honour of
whatever they represent. Nevertheless, their sins should not even be compared
to a Man of God who in his homily during the thanksgiving service for the
return of this international ex-convict describes this man “as a gift of God
and he compared him to great men of God in the Bible, like Jesus Christ, Moses,
Joseph, Samson, Paul, Jonah, among others who suffered tribulations in the
course of their duties to God.” I wonder what kind of man of God would say that, and what kind of Church is that, that
would even put Jesus in such category as a great
man of God. This is the country we have become. An obvious truth cannot be
spoken for how much? Anyway, this is not the first time someone is journeying
from prison to political palace after
all. In fact, the prison to political
power syndrome in Nigeria is a characteristic of anointed presidents of our country. We should expect that this man
will soon campaign for the presidency, and again, very sad, we will vote! The
ripple effect of this is that, many now long
to go to prison so as to move to power- only in Nigeria of course! What
legacy is there for our youths? You can steal and still be anointed in
stealing?
Should we mention the fight against corruption that has
always been a mere distraction, a media façade, or at best, noisy harassment
without solid prosecutions? Yes, they have been returning the money, the more
the return, the more we want to borrow for our budget. Recently, it was reported
that 90 billion Dollars was returned by a woman as a part from what she stole.
How would somebody steal that much in just one lifetime? That is about 27
Trillion naira which if divided according to the equivocal population of Nigerians at 170,000,000 people each person
will get over 158 million naira or did I not get the information right? And for
those who have been stealing- whose houses have been clutched, why would they
steal that much in just a lifetime, why would they have so many estates and
cars? Why would she steal that much?
And yet she is returning them instalmentally
from her UK’s vacation, that’s even if truly she has returned that much, (you
cannot trust any News in Nigeria) why are we still borrowing and still
lacking?
Should we talk about the ongoing corruption? The 250
Million gatehouse, the 6 million used to construct 6 toilets in a secondary
school, the 40 million naira feeding budget for wildlife in Aso Rock and the
other things happening that we are not yet seeing. What of the miracle money found with a man claiming
to be gifts about 500 billion naira or so? Gifts from who? God? Such person
even had the guts to approach the court for the return of his money, he will still wiggle his way through, if they manage to
even get the money from him. We can continue to mention more and more of these
woes and laments! When these thieves are caught, they return some and nothing
is happening thereafter. So others will continue to steal, at best they will
return some and everybody can then be at peace! In such traditions of stealing-returning-freedom, what legacy
are we bequeathing the Youths? To steal and return and then steal again and
return and then steal?
What is my concern in all of these? My uttermost
concern is not even for the present time which is already swallowed in
atrocities, crises and decay. The filth is so thick, the dung is so deep and
smelly that we cannot even see what we are scraping off. My fear is for the
future which is obviously bleak. I am so afraid that the future will be worse
than what we are experiencing today. The youths and children- the supposed leaders of tomorrow are being
bred into these filthy cultures and traditions. And what they have even started
doing…. only God will save us. If Nigeria continues like this, the future is
not bright! Tell me, what youth will get in power now and would not steal as his
forefathers had already done. Even children in the womb are already infested
and infected. And what do we even see? The children of these thieves are the
ones succeeding their fathers- Yourba people will say: omo ekun l’ekun jo- the cub must resemble his father- the Lion.
What hope then do we have for our future? What actually is the cause for this
succession of evils?
The fear that things are going to be terribly messy is
truly imminent because our country is devoid
of mentors. There are no leaders, icons and mentors the youths can look up
to. A society without mentors is already a society heading for ruin. In other
words, when there is no mentorship, there can never be a credible future. The
society is created in such a successive pattern for its continuity. The
continuity of excellence is in the fact that there are people who tried to be
excellent and others after them emulate such excellent virtue. However, in our
dear country, there is little or nothing virtuous our children are emulating.
It is mostly about the celebration of thieves, rogues, mediocrity and lack of
conscience. This is where our collective concern should be.
In the past, we talked about Obafemi Awolowo, we
talked about Nnamidi Azikwe, we talked about Adekunle Ajasin, Usman Dan Fodio
just to mention a few. These men lived not perfect lives but left some legacies
that others can talk about and emulate, we now even study them in Universities
for the perpetuation of their legacies. In this our dispensation, who are we
talking about? Who is leaving any legacy? What legacies are we celebrating? Legacies
in stealing? or in bad politics? or legacies in unpatriotic proclivities? What
exactly is this generation leaving behind for the future?
My submission is this, we
need an internal revolution among the
youths. This is an open letter, if you like, to all youths. Our leaders
have eaten sour grapes, our mouths should not suffer its pangs. Youths must
occasion an internal revolution among themselves to revive the soul of this
country. Recently, I spoke with a number of youths individually and I saw that
the future is not all together blind and bleak if we can collectively do a mental-attitudinal
revolution among the youths. At every level, in every group, at every
association, there must be an ideological, psychological, emotional and
spiritual baptism. After all, it is
not as if we do not know that our fathers have failed and they have failed
woefully, we know! Then, we need that revolution from inside and take back this
country from these wolves. We must create mentors, we must change things, and
we must save our country. It is our responsibility, it is our call, and it is
our work! Every industry ministering
to the youths must have this restructuring program at the back of its mind,
nobody is pleased with what is going on. The entertainment industry- which is a
powerful wave of change (should leave behind its empty, non-profiting,
exaggerated, profane and salacious projects) and collaborate with others
industries, together we must rise up to this challenge to save Nigeria from the
claws of these lions! Together let us save Nigeria before she dies, let us save
our dear country.
