May Nigeria Not Become A Kenyan Nightmare?
I was told of the joke that when God created the earth and was
distributing resources He made sure that there was equity in the
distribution of same, almost at a rate of one per nation, to those He
gave oil, He denied water, or rainfall in abundance, to some He gave
water, and denied oil, others had technological prowess, and my
apologies I think some were given daftness as a gift.
In the course of these sharing arrangements we saw how others got the
Amazon forest, the Sahara deserts, and so forth, then came the turn of a
people, West of Africa, He gave them everything, resources both human
and material, intellectual and economic potential in abundance, He made
sure they lacked nothing. When others noticed the ‘partiality’, they
started complaining, and all God had to say was “wait and see the kind
of people I put there”.
It is against this backdrop that I write this essay from the Nigerian
capital Abuja. As I drove into the city to resume on my desk as Group
News Editor of Leadership Newspapers Group, I took time to reflect on an
assignment given to me by a comrade and friend that I have not met. He
had asked me to while driving into Abuja to look, to see, to notice, how
that was possible I did not know but I tried and the following are my
observations.
Indeed I looked, I saw, I noticed, though not for the first time, but
quite deeper this time, from the young innocent boys that had become
mechanics not by choice but by circumstances, to the ones that lined up
the roads hawking everything and nothing. I saw our mothers and indeed
our fathers, above all these I saw a people with faces that told the
story of a marginalization carried out by their own leaders.
My friend had asked that I take notes, and in my notes I was supposed to
ask why; with the marked difference I would notice in Abuja, do our
farmers in the villages still use hoes and cutlasses. I was supposed to
find out what the problem was, I was asked to think up solutions and
help draw the ignorant Nigerians out of their ignorance. While I went about this task I took the opportunity to reflect on the
whole saga that has become Kenya, I reflected on Kenya as a nation,
yesterday, today and what all the present impasse would lead to in that
once upon the cradle of democracy in Africa.
In Kenya, the elections were rigged no doubt about that, and the
reaction is a function of many factors, poverty, illiteracy, years of
neglect, or maybe a lack of better options to express their
dissatisfaction. Some have called it an ethnic bath, and off course
another opportunity to call Africans savages, but as usual when the West
does it, we call it revolution.
Well less I deviate from the issue at hand; whatever it is that has
brought Kenya to its feet is not far away from Nigeria, we rigged our
own elections, we are still jaw jawing at the various tribunals, and we
are still a far cry from any semblance of providing the basics of life
for our citizenry.
We have refused to look the issues in the eye; all words no action,
another electoral reform, even when the report of the Committee on
electoral reform of the National Political Reform Conference could do.
As I drove into Abuja I watched in broad daylight like we say in these
parts as poverty ravaged the land, bad roads, no fuel, fake mechanics,
corrupt cops on the road, villages without electricity, not that the
city Abuja can boast of any consistency in providing same And then I
asked myself are we any different from the Kenyans.
Despite the façade that God is a Nigerian we have not been able to
exploit it. And anyway, if God is a Nigerian is the Devil Kenyan, it has
happened everywhere, a case where a people long exploited wake up and
say no, a time when enough is enough, when that time comes, would we be
ready, can it be avoided, is our own Kenya not around the corner?
Judicial workers went on strike, doctors have issued a warning…most
times I ask what manner of nation and a people are we. We treat the
incredibly important as nothing and kill ourselves over infinitesimal
issues. In my lifetime I have seen, the police go on strike, teachers,
from primary to tertiary too, doctors including psychiatric ones; I
recall a point in the Obasanjo era when legislators threatened a strike.
The farce in Kenya is a function of a system that was neglected, while
it collapsed the people turned a blind eye, it was the usual things were
getting better that was the theme song, underlying a vast tourism
market, a seemingly stable democracy laid a time bomb of displeasure, a
people bottled up in their feelings, and it was just an election, an
ordinary election and that bomb silently diffused into the present
disaster.
In the time the Kenyan political imbroglio would have lasted many
analysts may have lost touch of the Kenya that through same coalition
ousted former President Arap Moi, many saw a victory then, but beneath
very little had changed. The graft, corrupt practices, ethnic jingoism
and parapoism were there.
Government through leadership continued to rape the treasury and the
picture of sanity that was painted, only temporary.
In Nigeria it is only a matter of time, we have tried to justify the
go-slow nature of our gentleman President, Mallam Yar’Adua, and we have
said he needs more time. How much time till we get to Kenya. There is an
emergency in the power sector, several states have one emergency or the
other, it is only a matter of time, with all the agendas, either seven,
ten or ‘one hundred thousand of them’. The fact remains that we are far
from reality.
Did the Kenyans see it coming, no, but with an old man, it is said that
what they see while sitting a young man cannot see while on a tree top.
Most people often tell me I criticize a lot and offer very little in
terms of solutions and I say in return that there are several files with
panel reports on what needs to be done in every facet of our national
life.
When a number of tragedies strike in most developing or third world
nations, and especially political ones we often say that it is not our
portion in Christian parlance, and I ask in my mind what then is our
portion, the right to suffering, a life sentence to poverty and
servitude by our leaders, lack of the basic necessities of life, what
really is our portion.
We do not deserve to be like Kenya, but do Kenyans deserve their present
peril. At the pace we are going the obvious is being stated. Daily we
stare at a looming political disaster, and daily we deny it, the
question is not why, but we are lucky for now as very few can place a
when and how to when our Kenya would come.
If I am asked today, with what I have seen of the Federal Capital
Territory, all I can say is that we are far away from reality; we are
dancing to a false beat. For a nation that prides itself as a giant yet
still crawls, for a nation that sees 2020 now and still will get their
defective, I earnestly hope that hope will not cave in for not only our
sake but our children’s sake.
I end in the following words, “endless hope is better than hopeless end”
though I honestly believe that none of them is any better, because some
day we may look back and wonder why, how, and when did it all go
wrong…questions that may never be answered. With all the opportunities
this nation is blessed with, again I pray that the Almighty Allah save
us from ourselves.
Prince Charles Dickson
Group News Editor
Leadership Newspapers Group
Visit leadershipnigeria.com
News like Never
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By Prince Charles Dickson
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Abuja, Nigeria