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World Gone Mad By Kevin Etta Jr.
Series’ of overlapping events across the global spectrum of social and political discourse have left one gasping at times for breath. It would seem that the world is caught up in the throes and birth pangs of its own folly. Dante’s The Divine Comedy aptly captures the spirit of the times, as the peoples of the world find themselves, as it were, traveling firstly through hell, then purgatory, and then prayerfully expectant of the divine moment when they are escorted through heaven’s gates. However, if Dante’s La commedia captures the spirit of the times, the poor in spirit are hard put to find their Virgil, that sense or symbol of reason, who would guide them through the horrors and inequities of hell in search of redemption through purgatory and the hope of salvation in paradise.
First it was advertisement of Nigeria’s national folly when a reputable local airline suffered a terrible accident killing all 117 passengers and crew on-board. The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) willfully disseminated falsehood by relaying at intervals the news that the aircraft had been found; 50 % of on-board passengers were recovered alive, and even gave indication of the location of the downed aircraft. Being outside the country, I was frantically searching for news of the crash moment-by-moment because I had a close relative that was due to travel to Abuja from Lagos to start a new job and wasn’t exactly sure of her travel plans, etc., i.e. I didn’t know if she was on the Bellview flight or not – and I desperately wanted to find out.
My heart initially softened when CNN and Reuters reported on the Web that per Nigeria’s NTA the aircraft had been found and there were survivors. However, something very strange quickly began to unfold. These otherwise reputable news sources later retracted those reports and relayed the news that other sources had confirmed a different site for the crashed aircraft and there were in fact no survivors.
As if that was not enough tragedy, we heard the news that the wife of Nigeria’s president, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, died suddenly in Spain. That was terrible news. But it was soon followed by something even more devastating: Mrs. Stella Obasanjo died from complications arising from a cosmetic surgical operation at the exclusive Molding Clinic in Marbella Spain. That tidbit of information cut me to the quick.
Some have called that day Nigeria’s Black Sunday. The finality of death’s cold fingers snatching the lives of so many unsuspecting people on a single day, and mostly people of note. My relative was not among the dead, evidently. That did not necessarily make the overall experience any easier to swallow. We have mourned as a nation for all the fallen on that day.
But of particular note, and one that will not go away easily, is the fact a Nigerian public official such as our First Lady (and I know some will quickly jump up to say: “Ah, but the office of First Lady is not recognized by our constitution. True. But by national custom and government practice we have ipso facto accorded official status to this title, regardless) traveled overseas for medical purposes, but not even because she was ill or anything. She traveled to an exclusive plastic surgical facility for cosmetic enhancements to her body, i.e. to make her more beautiful or to make her younger or both. Marbella’s Molding clinic is reputed for its many cosmetic procedures, notable of which is the molding mask famed for its ability to make you look 20 years younger. What a travesty!
That any public official in Nigeria should have to go overseas for medical purposes is an indictment against public administration in Nigeria. Not that one should not do it if one must, but if things were as they should be in governance one shouldn’t have to. And things are not as they should be; they have in fact become worse since 1999. That a public official should go abroad not for medical reasons proper but for cosmetic surgery (be they Governor or First Lady) is scandalous. They have scandalized Nigeria, and this that was the point the revered Gani Fawehinmi was trying to make in his public treatise to the president. What was shocking was some of the feedback from sections of the media, particularly some otherwise respected public commentators. It seems that some of us for whatever reason still find it difficult to come fully out of the closet and accept what we are, and we become occasionally confused about where we stand on issues of public interest from one full moon to the next.
As if we had not had enough excitement, we were greeted very recently with the news that Sgt. Rogers, Abacha’s assassin, has been recalled for duty by Military Intelligence. And then we also heard that some sections of our National Assembly have put forward a recommendation to allow the president, whoever he is, a third term in office. Immediately the news was released the same parliamentarians began competing for who would shout out the loudest: “nobody will get any extension of their term in office.” Or its variant: “nobody can smuggle ‘third-term’ into our constitution.” As if we are all fools. Or are we?
Nigeria is currently in the process of parting with a whopping $12 billion to the Paris Club of creditors under the guise of debt relief and terms that are as yet not etched in stone. A substantial part of the write-offs are still subject to the process evaluation of a new PSI implementation and the staggered negotiation of yet-to-be-determined terms. But we are still bent on parting with the money anyway, and people are giving our Finance Minister kudos for a job well done. Bravo. That is, you are in a car lot negotiating the purchase of a car and you are willing to pay the list price in hard cash first and then negotiate further retro-rebates and specials later – after the money is in the pocket of the car dealer. I wonder, is there no better use to which we could put $12 billion of Nigerian money?
Let’s not also forget how our patriotic and diligent parliamentarians (I’m sorry, National Assemblymen) assembled themselves to appropriate N40 million to buy the most brilliant of all our Senate President’s a bulletproof Lexus car. We are told the one used by his predecessor broke down. Pity. One hopes it was not as a result of any juju left behind to welcome his successor.
While all this is happening, millions of Nigerians are marching like Dante through their own daily hell, not understanding why there is increasing poverty in the midst of so much aplenty. They search for Virgil, the sense of reason, to help them understand why. But sometimes even Virgil is absent and hard to find. Will they ever reach purgatory, talk less of paradise? Time will tell.
While all this is happening, across the world our so-called Western comrades, the ones we love to emulate, are instigating their own brands of confusion. I recall when during the erstwhile National Political Reforms Dialogue the delegates shot down any hope of introducing a forged government-sponsored document for the purpose of extending the incumbent president’s term, the BBC did not offer so much as a whisper of commentary. But, lo and behold, as soon as word came out about a recommendation of a Parliamentary committee (one amongst three others) that supported the idea of a third term for Nigeria’s president the BBC flashed a big bold headline on its website: “Nigeria’s president receives third term boost.” Now, if anyone thinks what is happening in Nigeria today is not a result of tele-guidance from the West (despite Richard Grozney’s oft repeated statements to the contrary) they need to wake up and grow up.
As if this was not enough, it was also reported, again very recently, that the US government has now admitted, after initially denying, that white phosphorus was in fact used against Iraqis in last year’s assault on the city of Falluja. For those who do not know what white phosphorus is I encourage you to take a little time, if you have the resources, and do some research. You will be amazed. White phosphorus is akin to napalm, which was used in the Vietnam War. It is an incendiary weapon occasionally used to illuminate the battlefield for targeting purposes with conventional munitions. It is also, though not classified as such, a chemical weapon. Weapons experts will tell you that it is a matter of legal nicety favoring certain quarters that it has been excluded from this category, because its nature and action is similar to that of any chemical weapon. When used against human beings it burns through the skin until it burns itself out, devoid of oxygen. It has therefore been known to burn straight through to the bone. Evidence of its use was reinforced by Italian journalists highlighting the clothes of fallen Iraqis still visibly intact whilst their bones were all that was left inside. This is the same America that went into Iraq under the pretext of eliminating Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, i.e. chemical and biological agents, now using munitions that are arguably considered chemical weapons against the same Iraqis.
In the midst of all this global turmoil, some instigated in Nigeria, some of it in Iraq, and some in America, someone turned to me the other day, a white American lady who is by all accounts a decent Christian woman, and said: “the world [outside the US] is immoral because it respects Mr. Bill Clinton (a womanizer) more than President Bush. Bush is sent from God to help us (America) through these difficult times.” I replied by telling her that her statement and point of view (to which she is no doubt entitled) is a demonstration of the same extremism and absolutism her President claims to be fighting in his war against terror. She terminated our conversation immediately after that.
And so, the question I ask (to no-one in particular) is: has the whole world gone mad?
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