Misplaced Priorities

Misplaced Priorities & Sheer Callousness Shock Us No More

Farouk Martins Aresa

We are now getting to a point where nothing shocks the hell out of us anymore. As a Nigerian, it is almost hypocritical to comment about the new plane President Museveni of Uganda is bent on buying for $48.2 million. After all, a Parliamentary committee gave him approval. The old plane once used to fly his daughter overseas at a cost of $30,000 to deliver a baby takes too much in maintenance. It reminds me of our world frequent flier former President who never had a cart as a boy.

It seemed the curse that had been put on Nigeria, was infectious and other African countries had caught it like mad cow disease. Mobutu and Haile Selassie were not the only one who forgot their account numbers in overseas banks. It is embarrassing still, when they negotiate the purchase price of these toys to the point where their foreign partners, who they use to siphon hard currencies, hold their feet to fire. Warning: they could report the deal to EFCC or expose them in newspaper.

Recently one of our former Governors had to lodge a bitter complaint that the London Metropolitan police stole some of the money he stole. We also heard about some foreign lawyers stealing stolen money from their client. Some of the commissions and user fees they pay can light up a village with solar power. You see, nothing shocks us anymore.

Indeed, former Nigerian leaders watch with envy the amount of money realized from oil sale and wished they are now in power imagining all sorts of good things they could have done for Nigeria, not for themselves. As they did while in power? So they lament all the waste the governments after them engaged in. Oh, they have to get back in power. There is too much money floating around and they missed a piece of the action. Militricians, as others, jockeyed to be in good company of the reigning leader, only to dump him if out of favor, as he leaves office. Give it to Wada Nas, he stuck with Abacha, even in death.

Africa, who cursed us?

There is no more fear of being caught; all they ask for now is just one term to settle their own pockets. Yet some of them are hidden in holes like Sadam of Iraq, in boxes, dragged on the floor, in a moving car, through the pages of newspaper and paraded in front of their children, wives, husbands, friends and foes without any show of remorse. Nothing shocks us anymore.

It is therefore surprising that there are still people in Nigeria who still believe that if you do not run into sudden wealth, you can not die suddenly. “Eni ti koje gbi, ko le ku gbi.”

We still have more decent people in our dear Country than crooks. They are not those who belong to the old school alone. The only problem is that they are the silent majority.

On many occasions it has been asked what it will take, short of a revolution, to wake them up. They are not content with their lives in Nigeria because even radical leaders have disappointed them.

We write, swear, organize and even risk our lives to change Africa, only to become complacent once we are enthroned. Those who renounced their old ways and decided to turn a new leaf are pulled down in their slippery past or murdered in cold blood over and over again with promises for fish out the killers. The police would rather boast about how many desperate poor people they kill. So nothing shocks us anymore.

In the name of fighting for justice and equity, brothers and sisters have turned on one another. No one is more related in Nigeria than the Ilaje, Ijaw, Urhobo and the Itsekiri. They have destroyed harmonious relationship in families and cities like Warri and Port Harcourt. It got worse; they are kidnapping their own children, their own grandparents and their own traditional leaders. And nothing shocks us anymore.

This is why we are economic refuges spread all over the world. There used to be a time when you can hardly find Africans over the age of thirty making a permanent home overseas. These days we are all over the place. Those of us in Africa in our old age wish we had children we could stay with in those cold countries. If you ask those over sixty if they are visiting their children, they boldly tell you they live there. A pride or a curse? You see, nothing shocks us anymore.

How else can anyone with an average or good salary in Nigeria afford healthcare and buy a house overseas? Some of the older folks can afford to live in Nigeria and overseas if they saved and invest their money well while working and going to school in their youth there. Others just want to be like them. So they steal. But there are those with medical conditions that make it hard to live continuously in Nigeria. Since medical care is no more widely available the way it was, one has to be vested in their insurance, to get care.

African youths are drowning all around the shores of Africa trying to land anywhere on any dry land but Africa. It used to be between Africa and Spain. Many would die in hostile desert before they get to Libya or Algeria to cross to tiny islands with the hope of reaching the Promised Land. As many of them are left in the high seas to die, many of them are deported only to try again and again. It used to be crazy for anyone to leave the comfort of the people who love them to risk the callousness of those who in the best of times can only tolerate them. Almost on a monthly basis, our children are drowning all around Africa trying to get to fertile lands. But it shocks us no more.

There used to be times when ten years stay overseas automatically grant you the title of Mayor in Nigeria. If you stay too long, people wonder if you want to kill your mother in grief. Now they plead with you to stay and send money home. Better still, send a letter of invitation and a ticket. Even the older people have heard about sleep-over or security jobs. Little do they realize that the stress of working just to pay bills cut into their comfort and their lives. Nobody tells them that. How much can these old bodies take?

If we do not love ourselves, our own material labor, our own products and patronize one another, misplaced priorities and sheer callousness will subject us to the whims and caprices of those we love and whose material products we cherish. Africa barika!