Weep Not For My Country

Weep Not For My Country

Many are of the opinion that democracy is the best system of governance, a view which I share to a large extent. Whether the system fits us as an entity or not, I can’t really say with certainty. For the umpteenth Nigeria as a country was faced with the challenge of producing a leadership that would ordinarily fix its numerous problems, through the power of the ballot box. From my observation, the latest election for once again, only confirmed the tragedy of this product of amalgamation of the Northern and Southern colonial protectorates.  The cracks in this nation were laid bare for everyone to see. It is crystal clear that religious and ethnic sentiments have eaten away the fabrics of this country. Except for the very few people that were lucky to have won some tickets based on popular mandate, most of the elected officials literally bought their seats, if the money they spent to secure it is factored in the arithmetic.  By and large, we only had a free but fair election. The major stakeholders are not yet ripe for a fair play in true spirit of sportsmanship. We have a government that populated by some desperadoes who would not stop at anything to cheat the system. The electorates have also proven that they would rather choose to toe the line of misery and forsake their future just for a few coins.

In the past twelve years since the return of this juvenile democracy, majority of Nigerians blame the ruling party for most of the ills in this country. We as a nation are as rich as United Arab of Emirates, but our basic statistics are only comparable to that of war ravaged Afghanistan; or rather only slightly better.  An apt clause which describes our unfortunate situation is: poverty in the midst of plenty. We have been day-dreaming and drumming about of joining the top 20 economy of the world by the year 2020, while all our actions are suggesting that we are heading in reverse gear to join the top 20 poorest one. ‘Cigaban mai hakar rijiya’, you may say!

Yet after all the blame games, sentiment worked on our collective psyche and the majority of us deliberately turned down the option that has apparent capacity to salvage our precarious condition. Despite the obvious excellent start of ACN in the parliamentary election in Southwestern states, it ended up technically endorsing the PDP option in the presidential race- which may not be unrelated to the Amala politics that typify some political leaders of the region. We had seen how they used Nuhu Ribadu as a decoy with which they opened up a trade fair to attract best prices. Now with all that had happen the jaundiced view of our political leaders still cannot pass the barrier of regional divide.

It is pertinent to remind us about how we metamorphosed to this sorry state, The Central Banker, Sanusi Lamido, once told BBC Hardtalk that 60% of the tomatoes produced in Northern part of this country gets spoilt between the farms and the market. In over 50 years of our independence nobody has acted deliberately to add value to that huge chain that ends being wasted. Even just recently, I travelled to some part of Jigawa state and I was baffled by the discovery that Sahara has gradually taken over a large chunk of that axis. The only few genuine attempts  made at stopping such unwanted climate change were the plantations that I grew up seeing in existence and I don’t know for how long they have been there. Every year billions of naira is voted for interventions like that in the name of ecological funds and various financial terms under the ministries of environment and Agriculture. The point that I want to drive home here is that we have never lack in blue prints or plans that are written by the best brains. But why are they not translated in what they ought to be? If every Kobo will count and leakages are blocked, 80% of Nigeria’s problems are solved. The trickling down effect of taming corruption will increase our productivity and efficiency in manifolds. We all knew from the options made available to us during 2011 election who has the capacity and capability to do just that, but we chose to pretend we could not see.

Since we have decided to re-engage the ruling party for another 4 year contract, I hope we are ready the bear whatever the consequence of our actions or inaction. North is projected by the pundits to be the biggest loser in this scenario, but in my opinion the entire nation would be a loser. Poverty, insecurity and poor healthcare knows no bound and respect no region. If there would be anything that North stands to lose, perhaps it would only be a problem to a few elites who want to be appointed into lucrative positions. I foresee a scenario where there will not be any united North to canvass for power shift. The elites have to be contented with what the South decides to share with them but that surely should exclude the presidency. From now on it won’t matter to a commoner in the North who occupies that exalted seat. We will reach that bridge and many would want to appeal to our sensibilities but that is when we should teach them the bitter lesson.

Our great General Muhammad Buhari has promised to retire from contesting from this very election he had lost. However, I want to plead with him to stay around the political scene and groom some successors. Buharism is an ideology now that needs nurturing. He might not have won the election, but he has already established a movement that would sooner than later sweep away the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice. I sign in for his ideology and I hope everybody will join me in this struggle for a new Nigeria. The journey begins the day you say ‘no’ to corruption and ‘injustice’, no matter who is involved!

NB: this article was first published by Daiytrust in 2011, immediately after the result of the 2011 presidential election was officially announced.