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A Nation In A State Of Emergency By Prince Charles Dickson Jos, Plateau Nigeria
Gang war, gang rule, playing with anarchy and chaos, constitutional breach, a rape on the constitution...between constitutionalism and politics.., a coup within a democracy.., others say it is normal for democracy, others say its an aberration, democratic rascality. 4,427 sacked in Works Ministry, FCT to sack 4000, people will be sacked in the Education Ministry, Unity Schools to be privatized. Airplanes crashing like when Okada Motorcycle hit your car bumper.
The voters' register is moving on to failure as only Governors and top government functionaries have been registered. It took Atiku 40 minutes to get registered, the registration machines are functioning like children Nintendo games experiencing all kinds of technical problems and in many cases the machines are not even available and yet the electoral body speaks of going ahead with electronic voting.
In Anambra, it has been chaos unlimited, Oyo is witnessing uneasy calm after a doze of violence days back, Plateau is a case of a matter of time. Like I asked a year ago during the Plateau State of Emergency, after the emergency in Ekiti what next, has the problem been solved. The nation is in a state of emergency, the only success we witness are on the pages of newspapers and they are paid for. When a man with three kids and a loving wife still has to prove that he is a man, then definitely something is wrong.
With all the drumbeats of success of the reforms, the nation's name was missing in the list of growing economies, the list included nations such as Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Ghana and Cameroon, we have failed as a nation and this may not be as a result of laziness or that we have not made considerable progress but with the political violence that is rampant that progress is hardly noticeable.
The Nigerian case is most obvious because the violence we are witnessing is a factor of people seeking power, people holding power and by people in the process of loosing power...The PDP is using violence to defend the status quo, the Niger-Delta and such are using violence in the name of justice. Politics is conducted with a sizable amount of bitterness, so political camps are likened to warring camps.
With all the hopes, the promises, we have decaying infrastructure as evident in the school system, as evident in the health sector, as obvious in the aviation and transport industry. Nigerians are disillusionment, the people have lost confidence in governance, few weeks for the first time in ages the PTDF was doing supplementary adverts on the pages of papers to show what they have done, all this courtesy of the PTDF scam.
Everyone acknowledges that we have earned more in the last few years, we have recovered millions according to the EFCC, we have earned taxes in trillions, sold oil wells and drums, we have privatized to the point the government itself is a business government having been privatized by the PDP and despite the billions of Naira that have come in, we still witness the hypocrisy of government, a lack of accountability, and incompetence in the running of the nation's affairs. As the terminal date for this 'regime draws near we see wasteful spending on elephant projects, hippoptamus dreams and an accursed Presidency.
The nation is in a terrible mess so we take a slow motion progress forward and take fast and backward retrogressive steps into a worsening state of unemployment and bring the melodrama of a pension scheme to cushion the foolishness. The sense of insecurity is as obvious as the air we breathe and the government of the day keeps moving around in an endless circle of indecision. Statecraft has been reduced to an animal kingdom fight, even then our leaders forget that in the animal kingdom there are rules but ours is something else.
It is in this light that we are approaching an election year and the candidates are yet to give us a map of direction, a plan of action. The campaigns have been an issue of sentiments against meritocracy, one of tribal and ethnic jingoism, one which mediocrity has been greatly exalted. The situation we have is that of asking the devil for a good thing. Often I have asked of what benefit is governance, leadership when all actions are of intent and purpose good but then are either wrongly executed or done with a malicious intent., like of what use is it running in the wrong direction.
Agreed that Rome was not built in a day but concerted efforts were made at giving it a firm foundation. Most of us that are critical of this administration, do so from a vantage position of where we stand. I am not a government contractor, I do not get patronage from any local Councillor, so objectivity, truth and for public good guides my views. I have never hesitated to say and with evidence that apart from this present Obasanjo administration none had the kind of intellectual manpower that the IBB regime had, with all the eggheads, professors, academicians and politicians that participated, the Tai Solarins, Wole Soyinkas, Professor Clarks, Fafunwas, David Wests and Norths to the Better and best Women, MAMSER and then the SAP retroviral, but today all that went with the wind, all the promise that we should endure all went like that and today we are told to make sacrifices for a stronger tomorrow. Why should we trust Obasanjo and his PDP?
Again the scenario is the same, a picture of imbalance, progress here and there but failure virtually in every facet of life. Tell me why must Mr. President keep Borishade who is either inefficient or unlucky, even in football the luck element is a factor for which sacrifices are made for the general good of the team. Could the President not sacrifice Borishade? Certainly not and this is no fault of his, but due to the gross inefficiency of the Senate and the ineptitude of the Legislators, if not why should the President always have his way even when we know that he is wrong. Why has someone not told him that Nigeria is not a Primary School in his Owu homestead.
Is Nigeria cursed with the Leadership plague, is it that the blood of the innocent has vowed that we will know no peace, the questions are many, answers few, in cases solutions hardly adhered to. Almighty Allah cause a revolution in the land that mere mortals may know that Your silence is not consent but a clear warning that change is needed either naturally or by forces stronger than the ordinary.
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