Beer Parlour Radicals

By

Dahiru M. Maishanu

Graduate Studies Centre, The Hague University, The Hague, The Netherlands

moyijo@yahoo.co.in

Having spent almost half a decade in the city of Denhaag (The Hague), I can pretty well find my way around here just as I can in my home town of Yabo in Sokoto State. This beautiful city that holds the queen of the Netherlands’s palaces, and the International Criminal Court of Justice is a quintessential European capital. The city is the Netherlands’s political capital where the Queen sits in court and both the Prime Minister and the Parliament are based.

The Hague University that has been my second home for the past five years, is a sprawling and beautiful architectural master piece built in the finest tradition of Dutch architecture. The city has reflected its fast growing multi-cultural, multi- religious and multi-racial status in the Netherlands. Here, all live in harmony; the Dutch, the Turks, the Moroccans, the Indonesians, the Surinamese, the Asians and the Africans, all of us.

The Nigerian community has been steadily growing since I came here. Businesses to cater for particular communities like ours have also been springing up. This has been a welcome development as we can now move to socialise with the ilk and folks from our country of origin, no matter our present calling.

There are African/Nigerian shops, restaurants and cafes all over the city. These outlets are used by us to meet one another and discuss issues especially those affecting home. These avenues have witnessed a lot of discussions and debates, some palatable, some funny, some nice, and some nasty and others outright unpatriotic.

Of all these outlets, the one at the corner of Rijsksvijksweg (street) has attracted my interest more and therefore received my patronage the most. Simply called Rose Africa Shop, this restaurant-cum bar is a reflection of any  Beer parlour/bar/restaurant you can find in Sabon Gari, Kano, Obalende, Lagos , Garki village, Abuja or indeed any other city or town in Nigeria where assorted Nigerian delicacies are served with chilled drinks and  Nigerian and Makossa music blasting as loud as possible. You don’t need to be drinking alcohol to be there as that would defeat the aim of the place in the first place. You only need to be a Nigerian or an African or a friend of both to be there. Here, we all meet to discuss everything about ourselves and more importantly about Nigeria and the issues arising.

 I always feel at home when ever I come to see Chinwe and her Dutch, nigerianised husband, John. The company the restaurant keeps is my greatest reason for coming here. Nigerians with all shades and colours of opinions are found here as soon it is 6pm in the evening.  These Nigerians discuss all issues and events happening in the country with a passion and zeal that is fascinating. While some speak of the country as if they will never go back, condemning everything about it, others argue with them vehemently, in support of the country. The most bashed group of Nigerians in the debates and discussions is the Nigerian leadership. These people talk of our leaders with disdain and blame them for every wrong in the land some times with reasonable supporting arguments and sometimes without.

My first impression of these Nigerians is that they are a group of Beer Parlour radicals whose expression, analysis and diagnosis of the Nigerian situation begins and end in Rose Africa Restaurant, at the dictate of the bottle.

I thought here is a group of Nigerians who thought because they had escaped the wrath of NEPA, the epileptic services of NITEL, the death traps called roads at home, the non existing , nevertheless fee charging services of the Water Board and police and army boot kicking, intimidation and brutality, they have finally found the utopian paradise.

At first I thought this group of Nigerians were over shooting the boundary of decent criticism. However, as my visit to the restaurant became more frequent and my involvement in the discussions became more intense, I found some wisdom in the rather harsh arguments that prevail in the bar.

 I have found that the backgrounds of these Nigerians differ. While others knew virtually nothing about the country before embarking on their sojourn abroad, others are at best partially knowledgeable about the issues being discussed, while yet others are a clear evidence of half baked Nigerian graduates, a clear outcome and fall out of our badly managed, crisis stricken, educational system back home. Others are a clear example of our craze for illusive wealth in the so-called obodo land who have either abandoned their education half way or those who have left rather more promising professional callings or those who traded with everything their family had for a visa and ticket to come here for the elusive green pasture, oblivious of the harsh reality they were going to meet. Regrets are often voiced out by these Nigerians remembering their former jobs in the banks, etc with nostalgic and melancholic apprehension.

On the other hand, you can see some highly educated, polished and well articulated, soft talking Nigerians. This group are the lucky ones who are working in International companies, Oil companies, diplomatic circles and business men. This group of well dressed, perfume scented men always keep to themselves and keep an arm’s length from the rest of the pack in a typical Nigerian class conscious passion.

Another group which I belonged to is the group of students, university teachers and researchers who intermingled between the two groups mentioned earlier. Ours is a group that clearly seem to enjoy the intellectual stimulation that is often brought when debates are heated at the restaurant. My group is the group that often gets frustrated and embarrassed when some of these ‘radicals’ comment on issues in a rather blind and ignorant manner. We are divided between the hustlers and the so called white collar ‘jobbers’.

When I started coming here in 2000, the hottest topic was the  Abacha regime and the worst hit group  in the country then was the Hausa Fulani who were  thought to be the main problem of the country. Being one of them, I was often asked what I was doing here when my ‘brothers’ were busy dividing and sharing the national cake amongst themselves.

The coming of the Obasanjo regime was hailed as the advent of the messiah who had come to end the injustice, misrule and sheer incompetence and dominance of the Mallams in Aso Rock. Shortly after that, the Buhari-gate scandal erupted and here came another bashing for the north.

When political killings and assassinations, armed robbery and banditry started raising their ugly heads  more than ever before, our ‘radicals’ started shedding their romance with the Obasanjo regime and suddenly, the regime became the whipping child.

When resignations and or impeachment of the Igbo dominated senate presidency from Nwerem to  Okadigbo, to Pius Nyam became regular occurrences, some felt the Igbos were being ‘persecuted’ once again while others believed  the Igbos were at a sinister move again to discredit the government through their crave for wealth.

The constant confrontation between the erstwhile speaker of the Federal House of Representative, big man Ghali Na-abba (apologies to Mohammed Haruna) and the President despite belonging to the same party was a very interesting episode in the history of our political development. Mr.Na-abba had clearly risen above parochialism and political boot licking and was giving the president a run for his money. It was our conclusion that no matter how he was painted, the speaker had run one of the most vibrant legislature in the history of our country.

When the late Chief Bola Ige promised to solve NEPA’s problems within a short period of time, we all hailed him, saying the Cicero had come to deal with NEPA once and for all. How ever, when the Cicero started shifting posts in the deadline for NEPA, we all started eating our words. The deed was done when the President, in an apparent face saving move removed Bola Ige from the ministry in charge of NEPA to a more familiar ground of the Justice Ministry. We knew both the Cicero and the President had seen defeat in the horizon and were only trying to escape the inevitable.

The proceedings at the Oputa panel prompted yet more rounds of debates in our Rose Africa ‘parliament’ where all issues raised are re-echoed and debated vehemently the following day. The final blow that broke the camel’s back was the conduct of the second Obasanjo election which was dismissed by our ‘radicals’ as a sham. At the end of the first tenure of Obasanjo, these ‘radicals’  could only lick their fingers and  look at  the period as yet another wasted era in our chequered history.

The beginning of the Obasanjo second tenure has seen a lot of issues ranging from bribery allegation by the minister for Abuja against some senate members, the Anambra crisis, the Plateau State crisis and its attendant fall out on the Governor, the convening of the national political reforms conference to the recent sacking of the Police IG and the Education Minister etc. The general concession in this latest wave of sackings is that the president is setting a good example in the fight against corruption but this must go across board. This is how will live in our ever bubbling ‘parliament’ called the Rose Africa Shop, the Hague city.

Call them what I call them; beer parlour radicals, or been- tos, wannabes, country deserters, saboteurs, runaway soldiers, or anything, or everything. However, what you cannot take away from them is their genuine love for Nigeria. Despite seeming inadequacies in some of them, one can deduce that the clear thing in their minds is a prosperous and democratic Nigeria. A Nigeria for all Nigerians where the abundant human and natural resources and opportunities in the land are optimally utilized for the benefit of all. A country that will take its rightful place in the committee of nations; a leader in Africa and a player in the World. The only place they can call home and the place we all are craving to go back to, settle and live in peace, harmony and prosperity. May Rose Africa shop be the beginning of the end of this exodus and the beginning step of our return journey back to the land of honey and sugar, NIGERIA.