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Leave Nigeria Alone! By Josiah Z. I have always been proud of being a Nigeria, after all, where else can I claim to be from. Africa’s largest collection of people, with immense diversity and prospects has failed. Years of military barbarism and infrastructural decay coupled with social decline have brought Project Nigeria to its knees- a state which had (and still has!) the capabilities of leading Africa and the rest of the Black race to light from years of poverty, deprivation and neo-colonialism. She has been brazenly raped by people of all character- thieves posing as Generals, gangsters calling themselves politicians and maniacs claiming to be leaders. Nigeria has seen it all. From the constant ethno-religious riots in the North, to the Oil crisis in the Niger-delta, abject poverty, corruption, unemployment, poor economy and an educational system in doldrums. Its people have been abused, trampled upon and led over the years like dogs, yes the common man has been led like a dog over the years, watching its masters control her like filth with no iota of respect. In a country where billions of dollars has been earned through oil since 1953, constant electric supply has never been guaranteed, water is a privilege and poverty is everywhere. A nation with about 70% living below a dollar a day has people commanding billions stashed away in local and foreign banks and property splashed all over the land, yet 70% of its people live below a dollar a day! Where is the justice and fairness in this! What good are we today as a people if we watch daily as people calling themselves leaders continue to ride on us as if we were donkeys? Are we donkeys? Only donkeys are this stupid. Everything Nigerian today is stupid. The police are stupid, universities are stupid and administration is stupid. Robbers pose as pastors, preaching prosperity and the average donkey doles them out his hard earned salary. Politicians who steal from the treasury, manipulate the system and engage in thuggery are identified as pace-setters, heroes and recipients of national awards. Chris Uba, Joshua Dariye, Lamidi Adedidu, Ibrahim Mantu, Tony Anenih among others are the names synonymous with the Nigerian political scene. These are our leaders; the people who administer our polity, who decide for us, they are our mouth-piece- our representatives. Now, in a nation of 120 million people, all we can boast of is a Mantu as senator, a Dariye as governor? Are we so deprived of right-minded individuals that we pick jobbers to be our leaders? Dariye recently confessed how Plateau state funds were shared among himself and his cronies, funds meant for the common man, yet he still remains the Governor of Plateau state. Do donkeys reside in Plateau state? Why hasn’t Dariye resigned or impeached and tried in the face of this revelation- rather he still remains “Distinguished Governor of Plateau state”. In other places, even in Africa, a stunt like that will earn the actor a resignation or forced impeachment followed by shift persecution. However only Nigeria would pay him a “courtesy visit”- the same Nigeria where a governor jumps bail disguised as a woman and receives a hero’s welcome on arrival at home. The return of democracy in 1999 gave us hope; hope for a new Nigeria, for a bright future, a stand to claim her place as a giant and leader. What don’t we have in Nigeria; brains, resources, potential, innovation? Rather we invest in fools and work hard to see that the system fails. Seven years now we have had democracy- government for the people. Contrary to that however, the people clearly have seen nothing done for them. Yet some of us call for continuity for another four years after two terms of misrule. Are we allergic to progress? The constitution needs revision- to make right the wrongs ingrained in it. Nigerians are not against that, they never were. But to revise the constitution to extend terms of office for our executive was never sought for. After holding shady conferences across the federation, the Mantu committee in the Senate approved the extension of terms for the executive to three. Is that what Nigeria needs? At a time when cartoons published in Denmark and across Europe led to the death of hundreds in the North and reprisal attacks in the south-east coupled with the Niger- Delta crisis speaks well of how effective our leaders are. People who swore to protect us at our hour of need engaged in third term propagation while its citizen ran for their lives. Senator Omar Hambagda from Borno state according to Vanguard Newspapers is most likely to vote ‘Yes” on the senate floor for a third term, having promoted the idea for a long time. Now, Borno state was one of the theatres of killings in the guise of cartoon protest. Yet Hambagda has not come forth with a reason or names of perpetrators of the beastly act in Borno. He has however advocated for an extension of term. Will a third term find the root cause of the fracas in Borno? No. The same goes for Senator Ararume, Arthur Nzeribe among others. Mantu according to Thisday Newspapers said the recommendation was “what the majority of the people want”. Please which “people” is this man talking about? Is he sure he knows who he is representing? Now I do not know what Obasanjo is up to or if his hands are deeply involved in this. But if all that has been pulled regarding third term eventually points to him, he will lose the respect he has got left from millions of Nigerians. Obasanjo has the world’s eyes on him. I implore him to leave the Nigerian political scene together with the two term governors in 2007. He says he can die for Nigeria; Nigeria however doesn’t want anyone dying for her. She has seen enough deaths already, her roads can testify to that. Prepare to leave please before you start calling God’s name again, we don’t want you no more. After 7 years of misgovernance, failure and decay in almost every structure left in Nigeria, I see no basis for continuity. Shame is what these people should have and mercy is what they should seek from Nigeria. Shame on you if you perpetuate yourself on the people, shame on you if you advocate on power extension, shame on all those in support of this agenda. To right-thinking people like Senators Udo Udoma, Saidu Dansadu, Iya Abubakar, Olu Mammora, Idris Kuta and Chukwumerije among others, I urge you to ride on. These are true democrats, representing the yearnings of the people. I implore them not to falter in seeing an end to the injustice about to cloud Nigeria. They remain our last line of hope. Lastly if injustice prevails in Abuja, I beg the politicians and INEC not to manipulate elections once more in 2007 or else our very existence will falter. 2007 should be the voice of the people – let them please have it!
Josiah Z. NewYork, USA.
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