Needed Urgently-- One Mahatma Only

By

Tope Fasua

topsyfash@yahoo.com

The other day Madam Minister of Finance attempted to justify in a write-up, the government’s quest for debt forgiveness. She ended up simplifying the subject and demonstrating that Nigeria could actually pay off the debts and probably emerge as a creditor nation and super-power in 2 years. This brings to mind that fact that Nigeria (or whatever the name may be after we may have agreed to dump the nigger/colonial name), is burgeoning and rearing to go, due to its good fortunes lately. Precisely, with Foreign Reserve at $22billion and yearly excess crude proceeds at close to $17billion, Nigeria does not have any business being a debtor nation except of course we want to stay tethered to the IMF and World Bank in order to perpetuate our colonial destiny and slave mentality.

Meanwhile, I’m not quite sure what kind of organization the World Bank is that continues to have as its Managing Directors, American Secretaries of, wait for this, Defence! Consistently! These are interesting times, no doubt. I think the world is in trouble, especially the so-called third world, with the nomination and unopposed selection of the likes of right-wing, pro-American-world-domination-monger, Paul Wolfowitz.

The other interesting aspect is that his predecessor is also James Wolfenssohn. Note that the ‘wolves’ which are common to their names are not particularly friendly animals. Figuratively, ‘keeping the wolves from the door’, means making ends meet. The challenge for a third world country like Nigeria is actually and aptly to keep any American –appointed ‘wolf’ from our doors, rather than name boulevards after them as was done by the Obj government. America, never the world’s capital of humour, has been rather sadistic with regards to its nominations to key world bodies especially also with the recent nomination of such a cynic as John Boulton as the US ambassador to the United Nations (probably to put the bolts on that body. Mr Bush is regressing us all back into the Hobessian state). These are issues for another day anyway.

I cannot seem to decode what the Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO) means that our debts are unsustainable and that we should remain shackled to the ill-informed dictates of these world bodies, when by my calculations we should, borrowing from Craig David, ‘walk away from the troubles in our life’. DMO and all the rest should simply face a truth – that the price of crude is not about to crash in the nearest future; that we should seize this golden opportunity to get out of our debt bondage; and that merely sharing the excess crude to hopeless state governors and a lackluster federal government, will never be as productive as downloading same to pay off the debt overhang! Suffice to say that evil reigns in this corner of the world. Maybe our people’s thronging of Churches and Mosques are justified afterall.

The critical factor to our achieving in good time our rightful place in the comity of nations, remains leadership. Without sounding immodest, Rt Honorable Dr Chuba Okadigbo of blessed memory (even though I do not agree with such litany of titles), took it out of my mouth when he asserted that our current great ruler, Obj, had no quotable quotes whatsoever in his first 4-year term. The type of leader that can go against the grain and meander his way through the murky waters of international politics while ensuring the greater good for the greater number of its citizens is what Nigeria (again I don’t like that nigger/negro name) needs today. That is where Mahatma (Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi) comes in. It is clearly not good enough for our ‘baba’ to simply fly the whole world over thrice (in his words), spending 512 days (2 working years out of 6) out of the country, begging ‘oyibo’ men to please forgive us niggers for existing in the first place and cajoling them to come and invest in our economy plus to forgive our debts, while he deals his own subjects and the already hapless citizens of Nigeria, very hard blows at home.

The present government, whatever its achievements, failed in governance 101. It constantly admits its inability to sell its good intentions to the people for whom they are meant. The reason for the further deterioration of the country’s fortunes in the past few years is that it seems the people cannot just bring themselves to comprehend the final analysis of the good intentions of government, whereas the government as well is in an apparent quandary as to how to explain its mission to the people, in very simple English or vernacular. The result is the perennial clashes between the rulers and the ruled, bi-yearly shut down of the economy due to fuel price increases, inflation rate in the 30’s and a growth rate that is actually in the negative. On the flip side, there is a clear likelihood of insincerity on the part of government in dealing harshly with its own people, by inflicting more pains on their luckless souls, where the issues may simply be that of accounting entries. Concisely, I always ask myself that if the government is getting so much from excess crude, why all the complaint about NNPC being broke and the consequent increases in PMS/DPK/AGO prices which shut down the economy and increases the cynicism displayed by the people to government policies and their willingness to subvert government’s ‘good intentions’.

Also, as at the time the Obj government finally threw the livelihood of Nigerians to the wolves in the name of ‘deregulation’ they could have simply introduced a vehicle tax that will be based on the value of the vehicle and would have eventually reduced the propensity of Nigerians to acquire dozens of vehicles, while generating revenues and eventually reducing local fuel consumption. This is the practice in every right-thinking country. Obj simply protected the ‘big men’ by not choosing this path, so where is the much-touted altruism? I recall that in the wake of the Brent Crude hitting $50 per barrel in 2004, Belgium (as developed as it is), first cancelled all taxes on the importation of crude so as to reduce the brunt borne by its people, while the Thai government set out to regulate the price of Diesel or AGO at 1/7 of what it should be (probably to protect its industries), while it asserted that the price of premium motor spirit will have to go up. Thailand it must be noted is not a major oil producer. In this regard, it took years for the great Obj to let Nigerians know that he never knew the price of Kerosene, that ever present requirement for cooking in poor Nigerian households. The price of Kerosene by then was 50% more than that of Premium Motor Spirit.

Welldone, baba! The leader Nigeria needs today should be able to mount the rostrum and deliver a speech, ex tempore, that will fire the people up in a positive manner, that they will readily buy into government policies and go the extra mile to liberate themselves in every way.

Ex tempore, because it should be borne out of the deepest crevices of his earth. Moving, because he should possess a deep understanding of the problems and he should be ready to put his all on the line.

The best we have heard lately is ‘I see hope’. Said with much glee as if it took the same effort to discover that quip as it took to invent the light bulb. To me ‘I see hope’ is hare-brained and hollow.

Hope is not to be seen, but to be felt and lived-in.

Seeing hope probably portends that ‘hope’ is still somewhere in the future, like light at the end of a tunnel. The leader Nigeria needs will do a deeper job than this business of seeing hope. Clearly, Nigeria, at the present crossroads must anchor on a positive ideology asides from psychological battery of its people for being ‘indisciplined and corrupt’ and all that begging of the white man to forgive our debt, and all that ‘agbada-trotting’ all over the globe. The lessons to learn from Mahatma are those of consistency, courage, truthfulness, genuine nationalistic passion, unparalleled selflessness, humility, readiness for martyrdom, honour, self-discipline, broad-mindedness, tolerance, non-violence and constant meditation. It is important to note that his name was really Mohandas Karamchand Ghandi, and that he regretted to his dying day, his christening as Mahatma (the great one) by his admirers. In fact he never answered to ‘Mahatma’ for one day. Of course Mahatma died for his country’s emancipation. Criticisms apart, his death pushed his country forward some notches. He promoted tolerance of other races and religions, in fact he almost became a Christian. He chastised himself by constant fasting and in fact became celibate after having a few children. He needed this strict focus in order to achieve his God-given mission. (See The Story of My Experiments with the Truth, by M. K. Ghandi) By contrast, our ‘rulers’ in Nigeria today are afraid of their own shadows and of the people they rule! The only thing they are good at is how to cordon off the people over whom they lord it. All they are concerned with is how to save their skins. They are adept at sealing off roads for hours for ‘VIP movement’ and for hanging several rickety passenger airplanes in the air for hours too for the same reason. Their entourages of 100 people in 30-car convoys are prolific in the art of running innocent drivers off the road and of veering off track to kill one-year old children, and then dashing off as if nothing happened. Not for them religious tolerance and open-mindedness. Humility does not occur in their dictionary. They acquire titles like magnets do iron filing. It is not out of place to see one person’s name start with His Excellency, Chief Dr. Right Honourable Alhaji Engineer Prince, MON,DSC, HND, HSC, WASC... Of course most are charlatans who do not deserve a single one of these prefixes or suffixes. Least of all the Excellency bit; if they were excellent Nigeria won’t be what it is today. Yet they strut around in Agbada and Babariga which makes them look and feel ‘bigger’ than they really are, all in a bid to strike awe into the minds of people.

Our ‘rulers’ today, down the rank and file, bow their graying heads to teenage girls that are the age mates of their grand children. They are skirt-chasers in their twilights. It is not uncommon for them to suddenly find out that their wives of old have suddenly lost class and panache. They then take on new beauty queens whom the title of first lady befits. They forget the toils that their first wives went through when they could not open their mouths to ‘toast’ a woman. They overeat and stain their agbadas with palm oil soup. That is why you always hear of plots hatched over ‘pounded yam’, every single time.

Most are drunkards and heavy smokers too. Old age has slowed down their reasoning but not their vices and flippancy and foolish pride. Our ‘rulers’ are adept at everything except how to impact positively on the lives of the people that they rule. That task is just an impossibility; it is not likely that in the nearest future any policy that will benefit the majority or impact them directly, will be formulated.

The people themselves are despondent. That is why billions of US Dollars are disbursed to states every month with nothing, absolutely nothing, to show for it. That is why the first item on every state governor’s list of achievements, if any, is ‘the building of an ultra-modern ‘State House’ or ‘Governor’s Lodge’ or ‘Presidential Lodge’ as if that translates into a better life for the people. That is also why Nigeria supplies power to Niger Republic and that country’s light never goes off while our people wallow in self-induced darkness. That is why other countries, even developed ones, thought of ways and means of softening the punch of crude oil prices on their people, but ours preach the god-forsaken mantra of ‘deregulation’. Well, that is why the rulers and the ruled appear God-forsaken. Oh, and lest I forget, our rulers are also highly skilled in the art of churning our refugees by demolishing houses (even though the land papers were signed by their predecessors), just as they are good at planting flowers and beautifying a city for the admiration of a starving people! Let me close by rehashing a story about Mahatma Ghandi. Before India’s independence, Ghandi delivered a speech in the British House of Commons. Clad in his loin cloth, the saucy MP’s first made jest of him.

Then 5 minutes into the speech there was pin-drop silence as everyone listened with rapt attention. The silence dovetailed into a crescendo as he got a thundering standing ovation. The speech was delivered ex tempore (no prepared speech). After the speech , a British journalist approached one of Ghandi’s assistants and asked ‘How come this man, in spite of his dimunitive stature, could deliver such a moving speech without preparation?’. After much thought, the accent-laden answer he got was- ‘you see Ghandi, what he thinks is what he says; what he says is what he does….’ On another occasion, a mother begged the great sage to help tell his 4-years old son to stop eating sugar for the sake of his health. Ghandi refused to utter a word. The disappointed mother left. Some years later this mother saw Ghandi and accused him of not assisting her when most needed. Ghandi answered ‘ I could not tell your son then to stop eating sugar, because then I was still eating sugar’. There is a natural flow in the thought process here that makes for unalloyed consistency and oneness of mind. It is the culmination of a consistent striving towards perfection and a readiness to continually reform and improve oneself by jettisoning primitive hangovers and fantasies. Pray do we have only one person like this in our ruling class? Just one? I’ve searched far and wide; I’ve scrutinized all the so-called saviours of the Nigerian project, but I cannot find any Ghandi from amongst the lot!. They think one thing, say another and do yet another. Their lives and deeds are a bag of contradictions. They thrive on deceit, and selfishness and recklessness and greed and gluttony and perversion and woman-mongering and they wear the Machiavellian toga of total suppression to perfect their evil mien. They are not the ones needed for this impending soaring of the Nigerian state.

Mahatma, where are you? Moses Kolade Abuja