Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Prof. Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia, Jnr., opinion contributor to USAfricaLIVE.com, is the
Convener of the Country First Movement in Nigeria
It is said that Nigeria is 64 today, October 1, 2024, and that’s what we have on paper. But are we truly 64? Are we even the reverse, 46? I don’t think so, Nigeria wobbles, falters and stutters like a 6, and a 4 year old Child. Certainly not like 64.
Nigeria is NOT a Nation but a Rogue State superintended over by Rogues. Rogue Partisans and Rogue Political Operators. Rogue Ethnic Paladins. Rogue Clergy (Rogue Imams, Rogue Pastors and Rogue Traditional Worshippers). Rogue Activists and Cashtivists. Rogue Generals and Rogue Military Operators. Rogue Police. Rogue Electoral Umpires. Rogue INEC. Rogue Big Businesses. And a Rogue Citizenry. Our Country bleeds for lack of the requisite manure necessary to grow patriotism and patriots. Mayday!
At 64, Nigeria is NOT a Country that regards the Truth. State Operators pride in the ability to deceive. Falsehood and tommyrot are considered priceless to State Propaganda. The President lies, the Vice President lies, the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President swim in the sea of falsehood, and so is the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, they are proud Yes-men Rubber Stamping everything the Executive desires. The Judiciary is a place of Justice for Hire or Justice for the Highest Bidder with our Judiciary adjudged the most corrupt institution in today’s Nigeria. Are the sub-national governments different? Your guess is as good as mine.
Nigeria has no place for REALITY, no room for empirical thinking, no knack for expertise, no commitment to due process, no love for order, no desire to build a reliable future for posterity, and no dedication to duty. We are fans of debauchery, of platitudes and of deceit. We are easily dribbled and deceived. At 64 the President just read a Nationwide Broadcast full of platitudes and promises without empiricals. How can an economy grow where the Cost of Energy, of Power, and of funds are astronomical? How can an economy survive when the cost of doing business is killing businesses? How can an economy and a nation grow when inflation is on a steady rise, when the value of the currency is unsteady, unpredictable and glaringly on a jingle-over? Mayday!
Nigeria is NOT yet on the path to recovery, be not deceived. And that is why this Mayday Call at 64 is rife, trite and recondite. How can a Country that has no reliable statistics proudly say that things are getting better. A nation that continues to talk about removal of fuel subsidy without a near exact figure of the millions of litres of Fuel/PMS it consumes daily. On what statistics was this nation paying fuel subsidies to rogues and big businesses? Until people are called to refund the monies so stolen. Until the opaqueness of the operations of the NNPC LTD is put to an end, and all those who have headed the Corporation since 1999 called to account for the over 1.5 billion Dollars spent on the endless Turnaround Maintenance of our ‘Scrap’ Refineries. Until those who govern put primacy on the safety of lives and property, on growing national infrastructure, on education, on true fiscal federalism, on devolution of power, and on a holistic overhaul of the dysfunctional enterprise called Nigeria, our search for redemption would amount to the proverbial Wait For Godot. Mayday!
Did you hear the lie on winning the War on Insecurity? Nigerians clearly feel more unsafe anywhere and everywhere in Nigeria today than before. The past 9 years have seen the democratization and liberalization of terror. Non-state Actors are in charge, holding command over spaces, places and taxing Farmers before allowing them access to their farmlands whereas the Commander-In-Chief busies the country with promises and platitudes. Whereas Spokespersons of Mr President engage in ethnic baiting and baying, fiercely deepening our fault lines and deviously dividing the Country even more. Mayday!
The democratic space is under siege, the greatest siege since 1999. The present watch and system hails State Capture. Supports and sides with electoral larceny and corruption. Superintends over flawed polls and elections. Stifles the right to dissent. Harasses and harangues Protesters, Journalists and Whistleblowers. Hails criminals and looters as BIG MEN, lampoons critics, and calls whistleblowers BLACKMAILERS. How more degenerate have we become. Mayday!
The present crop of leaders or is it looters are ensconced by profligacy, waste, wanderlust, they are men and women of very poor leadership credentials. They spend money on everything that is unserious and unnecessary, new Official Cars, new Official Houses/Residence, new Presidential Jet etc without effectual, efficient and effective investment in the things that matter. How can an economy grow where the government majors in profligacy, waste and wanderlust? Mayday!
Hope according to the Sage Obafemi Awolowo is the last milk in the human breast. Yes, we are a Country of very religious men and women, we have men and women of ‘God’ whose merchandise is faith and hope, and the light in our space is perennially dimmed by those who swallow the deceit, the demagoguery and the shenanigans of political operators. Of what use will a 30 Day Youth Concert be, when the whimsical dialogue of the deaf remains the predilection of State, when the young people are talked down at and denigrated, when young people who expressed their rights to protest ditto the EndSars and recently the EndBadGovernance Protestation are still in Prison and Police Cells across the Country. Who is gaslighting who? Who is deceiving who? Mayday!
I shall continue with this series hopefully leadership will think and do right. Yes, the sequel is loaded. In the interim, let it be known beyond the obfuscating blindfolds of politics and politricks that at 64 Nigeria is NOT yet a Nation; that at 64 Nigeria is more divided than it was some 30, 40 years ago; that at 64 Nigeria is but a theatre of absurdities where perfidy, mendacity and debauchery is the Act of State; that at 64 the political ideology of political operators is yet ‘me, myself and I’; at 64 Nigeria is yet to grapple with the urgency of now, we are yet to accept that save and except this dysfunctional superstructure is RESTRUCTURED the present slide in the abyss will remain. Mayday!
But, Nigeria is NOT dead yet, Nigeria is however in the INTENSIVE CARE UNIT seeking the urgent rescue and redemptive intervention of Thinkers and Fixers. I pray we oblige our Dear Nigeria this time tested call. I still believe in Nigeria..
