Tears For The Generals...Nigeria's Lost Social Conscience

By

Prince Charles Dickson

Jos, Plateau Nigeria

 

A sorry tale again, that we are mourning the loss of a cream of the top brass of our military after their plane crashed and they could get no medical nor rescue attention for over six hours and probably would have not been discovered if a 14 year old boy and his brother were not playing hide and seek in the bush...the synopsis of this is, if only the billions looted by our leaders had been channelled into providing first class search and rescue mechanism, these Generals, fathers, brothers, uncles would still have been here for families and friends...But then where is the social conscience that binds us as a people, where went the traditional values of love, oneness, care, protective spirit with which leadership conducted itself and in turn the led subscribed to it.

 

It was Mahatma Gandhi that said the 'seven social sins are knowledge without character, Science without humanity, wealth without work, commerce without morality, politics without principles, pleasure without conscience, and worship without self-sacrifice'. Nigeria is guilty of these crimes, these are the very problems that are the bane of the Nigerian society. We have a leadership that has perfected the art of deceit, the truth has supposedly gone on a journey of no return. I have asked in recent times where did we loose it all, but very few people can give an answer.

 

Since the inception of the present administration, plane crashes are becoming as common as car accidents, panels are set up, we seem to have forgotten the drama of the Bellview crash, one which the President was personally involved to the point of abusing stake-holders on national television, but the fact is that till today, the report of the board of inquiry is yet to be made known, that is if there is any. Sosoliso then happened, a lost generation was the leftover of the crash. The best I recall was the operator praising itself how it recovered quickly.

 

Till today the Ejigbo crash has been what it is...history and rumour, no one has been told the true story...We were told that the middle cadre officers were going to plane a coup. On the Bellview air disaster, we had the third term related theory that plenty money was on board....I recall even one Rochas Okorocha that missed the flight saying he was the target. the Port Harcourt crash just made an emotional wreck of the nation and parents of those lovely kids on board.

 

Is that these General were going to plan a change of government. Is this how our Generals should die...could there have not been a better transport means, why should all these Generals have boarded just one craft. What is the state of aircraft of the fleet of the Airforce? The questions are many, but they would not bring these men back. The government has set up another panel but I authoritatively say, all is fowl talk...nothing will come out of it and this makes it more devastating for the bereaved and families. A lost social conscience, shaking my head

 

I  have just come back from a tour of the Jos Prisons in Plateau State, while on the tour which was educational I had the privileged of again visiting the cell that hosted then Obasanjo, now President of our big Naija. The tour was not just educative but one that set my mind into motion as I tried to understand the driving force of leadership in Nigeria and the staying power of the citizenry, I tried figuring out why we are the way we are as a people, what makes our sociological frame the way it is. I had asked the warder that took me around if the President on any of his visits to Plateau had come around to see them, sent even biscuits or bibles to the inmates of the Prison and he answered me with a heavy 'NO'. Yet we have a prison reform supposedly on-going, and sadly like all the reforms, the most important reform of our conscience is stagnant.

 

We forget that everyone of us must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness...our leaders have failed in answering life's most persistent and urgent question, which is what are they doing for us? They cannot because...the answer is nothing, all they do is unfortunately geared towards destructive selfishness. The end would not be good, this is an obvious fact.

 

The World Bank has dealt our conscience a big blow by stating that our so-called reforms were no where close to what we are being told by our leaders that have developed a conscience of greed, violence, graft and bad leadership. In a recent report in Singapore we were rated amongst nations likely to disintegrate, call it Western propaganda...a nation with a lost social conscience cares less and our accident was made even worse when another World Bank official contradicted the report. We catch thieves and the next minute they are made national honours awardees and we catch murderers and next minute they are elected into the Senate.

 

So we plan on hiring a foreign coach, that will manage our foreign players, and Nigerians with our foreign shoes, foreign hair attachments, foreign Television sets, not that we have locally manufactured ones, clutching unto GSM handsets made from anywhere to nowhere but certainly not Nigerian...with our lost social conscience that makes these crooks send their wards to seek a foreign education in a foreign land and stay back in a foreign land contributing there, while the President sings his favourite 'foreign' song things are getting better, when indeed the nation is in a State of chaos, and almost total breakdown, this is not alarmist, no it is the reality on ground no paint.

 

The whole of Plateau State and parts of North Central Nigeria has been without Power supply for nine straight days and the authorities are not stating what exactly the problem is, and when they did, it sounded matter of fact...You will get electricity when you see it, no one is perturbed about the losses that has been incurred by the Small and Medium Scale enterprises in these nine days...And to imagine the billions of Naira and Dollars that have gone and still is going into that sector.

 

Two of the survivors of the crash have been airlifted to South Africa for further treatment, not that they do not deserve it but then this is a blow to all the noise of reforms in the health system, when and indeed when will this seeking for further treatment abroad end. The billions we have earned is it not enough to get us a first class medicare for citizenry. While some people walk in the rain others just get wet. Nigerians need to walk the walk of freedom from the tyrannical leadership of the ruling party and its bloodsucking agents., we need to walk the path to self realization that we can do it, we need to awaken the lost conscience of this nation.

 

The foolishness of yesterday should be a thing of the past, only a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change Nigerian, indeed that is what we need. Can the tears we shed for these Generals be the gunshot needed to get us as a nation on the move. Already reports have it that remains of the crashed plane have been vandalized...haba, why do we as fools (apologies) make things more complex, more violent, when all we require is a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction, a direction of the conscienceness of choice between good and evil.

 

If for no good reason, the President cancelled all his waka about for these Generals that paid the ultimate prize, can leadership with the few days remaining get it right, do it right and be right for once, so that steps towards regaining our conscience as a people can begin. May Almighty Allah help us.