Credibility at Breaking Point

Credibility at Breaking Point

Michael Okoye

My people are suffering due to lack of knowledge – Jesus Christ

The empire of the future is the empire of the mind – Winston Churchill

Sometime in the second Republic, a prominent Kano politician came back from an official trip to India and was thoroughly invaded at the airport by the local press the way US marines invaded Iraq lately. They asked the man series of questions and one of which happened to be. Why India, a third world country; is fast developing and Nigeria another third world country living below expectation. The man simply told them that India was fast developing because they do not have a tribe called Yoruba in India.

From the mid 50’s to date, the southwest had constituted themselves into a lethal opposition force, opposing both themselves and their fellow Nigerians in virtually anything one can imagine. Currently, their son is calling the shots from Aso Rock and they had since, successfully converted the ruling party into both the ruling and opposition party.

Personally, I do not support any group overthrowing OBJ’s government. Why? It must be on record that the southwest was given an opportunity to prove themselves to Nigerians, but they only succeeded in proving to the world with a deafening silence that they have nothing to prove. They need to be given this chance so that subsequent regimes would not be unnecessarily terrorized like they did to Shagari, using their unnecessarily noisy print and electronic media.

The Oba of Benin’s recent market square, high-octane rhetoric had suddenly placed the credibility of both the Oba and that of the southwest at a breaking point. Well I believe the Oba would be in a better position to tell us the basic truth because the other party concerned have always been known to be economical with the truth. It is quite difficult to comprehend why both literate and illiterate southwesterners in Nigeria would readily hold dear to their hearts, the Disneyland fantasy story, that spreads the idea that Oduduwa (Whoever he is) climbed down chains from Heaven. To the best of my knowledge, chains are readily associated with an environment under siege and the heaven can never be under siege and if the God I worship really created that poor soul (Odudwa), then he must have escaped the known Hell then – the hangman from Benin.

A people that are confused about their past, can never believe their future when it comes and are bound to constitute a serious threat to the peaceful growth of any society. When a people have unnecessarily constituted themselves into a plague, with the sole aim of destroying anything that is not Yoruba, it is equally left to another people to constitute themselves into a cure for such a lethal plague. And cure we must cure this huge open sore that had kept the nation on her knees since independence. They must be allowed to finish their two terms or else subsequent regimes are in serious trouble.

You see, an average Yoruba is naturally fetish, unnecessarily petty, intellectually immoral, mentally trapped in what I consider the Awolowo-induced inferiority complex, and is emotionally hyper-unstable. These are not qualities of a people with a proud past, but rather the qualities of a people in bondage. This had led them into equating western Nigeria with the industrialized western world. Adopting some strange western names like Henshaw, Haastrop, Agusto, Braithwait etc, had not really succeeded in helping them cleanse them from the sad memories of the past. They now wish to start building presidential libraries.

The empire of the future is the empire of the mind. People had come and gone; nations had equally come and gone. Empires had equally come and gone and the reigning empire epitomizes this fundamental truth. The reigning empire is that of America and is unlike the old Roman and British empires that achieved greatness by military conquest/colonization. The American empire achieved greatness not by military conquest/colonization, but by creating opportunities and rewards for academic/commercial excellence. It takes intelligence and the grace of God for one to be humble enough to appreciate and be proud of ones root. Most Americans including their Presidents have Irish Roots and they happily tell anyone who cares to listen that they their root is Irish. From President Kennedy, to Reagan, to Clinton and many other Americans. Today, there is no basis for comparison between Ireland and the US but Americans are still proud of their Irish, German, Italian, Polish roots and they celebrate their festivals. But here in Nigeria, the Oba of Benin is about to face the spiritual battle of his life for daring to make such a lethal conclusion about the origin of Oduduwa .

Science and technology is the catalyst driving American empire and the products generated from their R&D, pledge unalloyed loyalty to some of the world’s greatest and most beautiful minds found in the US. Modern and fast developing third and second world economies are products of great and beautiful minds too. From Chile to South Korea, from Singapore to Botswana, from South Africa to Kenya. From Mahatmir Muhamad to General Pinochet. Ideas drive modern nations and not falselife style.

Whether Oduduwa is from Benin or not, Nigerians have the right and are demanding that right to good life, peace and real progress from this Yoruba government in office. The Yorubas have since been investing wrongly without knowing it. When you invest wisely you reap happiness and when you invest wrongly, you reap nightmares and I feel it’s past midnight since the Oba of Benin made his famous pronouncement and nightmares had since descended on southwestern Nigeria. There are fireworks everywhere, high-octane rhetoric emanating from virtually every high chief in southwest Nigeria, firing from every available cylinder.

It is not the fault of Nigerians that Awolowo never became president. It is not equally the fault of Nigerians that Abiola never became president. It is squarely the faults of Awolowo and Abiola and their kinsmen. So stop investing your anger wrongly on Nigerians with your incessant increases in fuel prices and on the Edo people for the Oba of Benin’s accidental use of a part of his lethal tongue.