BURNING POT BY
PRINCE CHARLES DICKSON
I love
Hearsays
pcdbooks@gmail.com
He's written some 20 plays thereabout, six novels and half a dozen
collection of poems, and Africa's first nobel laureate. His name is
Wole Soyinka!
So sitting down as part of the audience watching the stage
performance of Soyinka's THE LION AND THE JEWEL, at the Alliance
Francaise in Jos, Plateau State was a privilege.
As I watched the play, which was performed by the famed Jos
Repertory Theatre, I reflected on the themes of the work: Bride
Price/Child Bearing/Polygamy and Gender. These were issues
interwoven between the conflict of modernity and tradition.
Very interesting play, though I am not talking about Wole Soyinka or
the play but a line caught me by one of the characters--"I love
hearsays..."
Nigeria is a nation that is hasty with denial; we do not know what
the issues are. In the words of Theodore N. Vail, "Real difficulties
can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are
unconquerable". Our problems in Nigeria remain very imaginary.
We live in the land of hearsays, its stranger than fiction--Mr Efosa
Idehen, the Head, Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement of Nigeria
Communication Commission (NCC), on Monday said some Subscriber
Identity Module (SIM) card registration agents were using the
pictures of goats and foodstuff instead of human beings.
I used the above to illustrate the absurdity of Nigeria, before I
treat in few paragraphs, Mr. Sanusi, a topic with lot of hearsays.
Sanusi's suspension on google, on an average 0.28secs gives you 11,
800, 000 entries. You will be shocked a bulk of that is a compendium
of opinions, thoughts, and news items, commentaries laced with loads
of hearsays.
So did you hearsay that "The FRC report says: It is important that
quick and decisive action is taken so that opposition to the Federal
Government does not take advantage of the information and use it to
attack the government that your Excellency was aware of the lax in
CBN and allowed it to stay for political reasons.
So I hearsay it was the Financial Reporting Council report that was
the body under the Sanusi suspension saga.
Did you hearsay that The Nigerian Stock Market turned
RED while majority of the global markets closed GREEN, as the NSE
All-Share Index declined further by -1.34% to close at
38,295.74bpts, as against -1.47% loss recorded.
Did you hearsay In the Foreign Exchange Market, the naira plunged to
a record low against the dollar and the stock exchange fell to the
weakest level in three months. The currency traded at N166.25 per
dollar by 10:43 a.m. in Lagos, the lowest since at least
1999, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
In the interbank market, the naira also fell sharply from N162.9 to
N170 to the dollar on the back of news of Sanusi’s suspension, but
later closed at N163 as a result of the intervention of the central
bank.
I hope you hearsay all these was because of Sanusi.
Or did you hearsay that all these is to contribute to shifting the
focus of government from the real issue, which is finding the
alleged missing NNPC $20 billion oil money
I hope we all recall the Islamic Banking drama, all that hue and cry
over the attempt by CBN to introduce 5.000 naira note into
circulation by first quarter of 2013 and to redesign the existing
N50, N100, N200, N500 and N1000 notes with new security features,
while N20, N10 and N5 notes would be changed to coins sparked
controversy in the country and was unsuccessful.
I hearsay all that banks' change of name, in first quarter of 2012
did little in change Nigeriana, Access Bank Plc and Intercontinental
were fused into one entity, Ecobank acquired Oceanic Bank, Spring
bank became Enterprise Bank Limited, First City Monument Bank
acquired FinBank, Bank PHB became Keystone Bank Limited, Afribank
became Mainstreet Bank Limited, Sterling Bank acquired Equitorial
Trust Bank while Union Bank of Nigeria is now owned By African
Capital Alliance Consortium.
I won't bore us with the hearsays of Sanusi versus NNPC or the
Federal Government versus Sanusi.
I hearsay forensic auditing, suspending Sanusi for financial
recklessness is the turn of events, but trust me on this one too, it
will all disappear, after a few knocks here and there, we will
discover there was just too much drama, no substance.
Its tough separating the the facts from the fiction. But I know as
many million Nigerians that whether its $40bn or just $20bn, its no
use bothering, the money is gone--Simplista!
The Sanusi era best reminds me of this riddle--
A wife is sleeping in the middle of the night, she suddenly shouts:
"Get up quickly my husband is here!"
The man gets up from the bed, jumps out the window, hurts himself
and then realizes "Damn, I am the husband!"
Who's guilty in the situation?
The hearsays will continue, everyone is saint and equally guilty.
The affairs of Nigeria like a baby requiring change of diapers and
toys at each cry, remains a hearsay, missing monies, financial
recklessness, suspensions, and little progress: but for how
long--only time would tell.
with compliments
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