While other nations are creating smart, self-sustaining cities and reshaping the minds of their citizens to conform with ideas of the future; Nigerians of the future (Nigerian 2.0) are been re-conditioned by selfish politicians using artificially concocted hate and sometimes outright falsehood to think first with their religion, then with their ethnicity. Now as in the future, the first reaction of your typical Nigerian to any situation is, and will be shaped by pastors and imams; and, ethnic champions in the guise of Fani Kayode and Nnamdi Kanu and in many instances by self righteous Northerners trying rather too hard to be seen as liberal even at the expense of the groaning realities of the Arewa.
So many events of the not so distant past will shade more light on just how damaged the thought process of Nigerians has become and how we have collectively ingratiated ourselves to hypocrisy and other unsavoury practices of how not to be a nation.
Let me cast our minds back to the case of Ese Oruru and the young boy Yunusa which has recently returned to limelight for all the wrong reasons. Now, while Yunusa’s misadventure of not just eloping with Ese, but also admitting her to the oath of a new religion without the consent of her parents is condemnable and should be so condemned by all reasonable Nigerians, the outrage that it generated was in fact beyond the act itself. It was motivated as it were by, well – it doesn’t need to be repeated now does it?
in these same South and Eastern societies and indeed every Nigerian society really, where children are raped and impregnated as early as age 11 sometimes by their uncles, village heads and even fathers; while some are sentenced to prostitution and Baby Factories as machines; all this in the face of deafening conspiracy of silence and sometimes brazen and contemptuous cover up from the society in cahoots with a highly biased media thereby condemning the victims to a lifetime of trauma, one wonders why one young boy’s misguided understanding of love and marriage could have generated so much in the way of rage?
I was both surprised and drained by the reaction at the time. This is because, in these same South and Eastern societies and indeed every Nigerian society really, where children are raped and impregnated as early as age 11 sometimes by their uncles, village heads and even fathers; while some are sentenced to prostitution and Baby Factories as machines; all this in the face of deafening conspiracy of silence and sometimes brazen and contemptuous cover up from the society in cahoots with a highly biased media thereby condemning the victims to a lifetime of trauma, one wonders why one young boy’s misguided understanding of love and marriage could have generated so much in the way of rage? But then, it was not the act itself that was put on trial – no, no no! Hate mongers finally got a chance to put a certain religion and Tribe in bad light and they were not about to let the opportunity slip through their fingers.
Fast forward to some days ago, when news emerged of a kidnapping ring that abducts children from Kano and sell them into slavery in far away Anambra State. As you will expect, the news was greeted with outrage at least by the Hausa media machinery including yours truly, responding in kind to the oft handling of the Ese Oruru case which obviously left a bitter taste in their (our) mouths. And, any vengeful thinking individual can’t blame them. This was just a proper occasion to avenge a wrong, especially as it involves a people that have never failed to insulted their high rate of procreation. Nothing like seizing the moment when it presents itself is there?
But wait! Are we talking about this same North of Nigeria where we have hundred of thousands of children below age 10 out of school, whose parents don’t even know where they sleep, how they feed or cloth etc.? If Nigeria were anything close to a serious nation, shouldn’t the harrowing conditions of children all over the country, but especially in the North be more of a fitting excuse for outrage and widespread angst? No! Not in Nigeria. We have better things like hate to dish out so, no time to worry about the plight and welfare of children of the poor. I mean, of what good are they anyway, right? If it’s any consolation, our leaders of the future do not need to do too much because they are born, not made! They have been selected by a fortune of childbirth, and have been sired by golding sperms. Our leaders of tomorrow, are born with golden spoons and have blue-blood coasting through their veins. These Blueblooded morons will be educated not in our sex-for-marks cum cash-for-marks prevalent public institutions – naaaa, they will be too good for them. Only the best foreign institutions will do and as they are returning with these super Oyinbo degrees, they will be helped to secure posh jobs in CBN, FIRS, NNPC, DPR, DMO you name it, in preparation for a tommorow where they will lord it over the rest of us. You will think this is enough grounds for outrage! No, at least not to Nigerians.
Let’s look on the bright side though. All these social catastrophes have earned Nigeria a permanent mention or two in humanitarian agencies’ budgets who keep churning out numbers to justify why Nigeria needs aid as if we are under any illusion as regards our accident of mindset, while the spy NGO’s they send continue to undermine all attempts to free ourselves of insecurities.
I still remember with daylight clarity what transpired a few years ago when government proposed the establishment of a multi million Naira Film City with the potential to greatly improve not just the economy of Kano state, but also provide direct and indirect employment to many indigenes of the North and other Nigerians. As it turned out, the proposal was outrightly rejected by a committee of saints who reasoned that the project will bring moral corruption to Kano state in particular and the rest of Northern Nigeria known for its piety. It would have been preposterous to expect any collective outrage from the people of Kano who have been shackled by cultural and religious manacles. Yet, the fact that the outrage wasn’t registered doesn’t make the situation any less outrageous. It becomes even more befuddling, if you factor the fact that the people of Kano frequent Dubai – into the occasion. Why, isn’t Dubai what it is today because the Shar’s decided to take a more liberal approach to business? Isn’t this what has transformed a desert into one of the best business destinations of the world? Is Dubai any less religious today than it ought to be? Well, I have never been there. Perhaps those of you who have seen the city can report to us.
Annoyingly, if we are to believe recent numbers coming out of the North as regards criminal activities of all shades, then we should be demanding a public apology from these saints of Kano for despite delivering the expert advise on the basis of which a money spinning project was moved out of the North, Arewa is not any better today than it ever was.
Believe me, if we were to re-enact this scenario and word were to have gotten out that Film Villages were approved for all regions of the South except the North West, these saints nay hypocrites would have maintained a dignified silence when cries of marginalisation from so called enlightened folks of the region take over the airwaves. One wonders why these committee of saints whose children overtly or covertly watch all kinds of movies didn’t cash-in on their victory at that time, to also demand for an immediate and final closure of Kannywood. That would have been a fitting end to moral corruption if you ask me.
Now let’s go down South. In Onitsha, a fuel tanker misshaped, caught fire razing down a market and killing many, including a baby whose charred remains rested on top of her mother’s lifeless body. That picture stayed in my head for hours, blocking all my attempts at reason thereby ruining the whole day for me. I believe it is now pertinent to ban the sharing of such gory images, especially as some do without warning. Ah, Forgive me for digressing.
Now where were we? Ah, yes, accidents. Yes, accidents happen – that’s a fact of life. However, putting necessary facilities in place to mitigate the effects of the accidents when they do happen is a fact of governance! I am sure it doesn’t need saying, that if Onitsha was with a functional fire department complete with enough firefighters and firefighting equipment, the damage to the market may have been if not completely averted, greatly diminished and the loss of life reduced. If you ask me, this failure should have been a valid point for national outrage but what is the response? Prayers! Yes, prayers… The governor looking for a fall guy first fires his Fire department chief before calling for days of mourning and prayers. This call will be re-echoed first by the president, then across all the pulpits in Nigeria. Nobody demanding for action. Nobody demanding that government establish functional firefighting stations in all cities, glorified or real, post haste in preparation for the future. In a few days, the dead would have been helped to bury their dead and business will return to ab-normal to wait for the next mishapp perhaps in another unfortunate place happen. But mark my words, if a story, even a fake one were to have emerge that government did in fact release funds to an Hausa or a Yoruba person to build a Fire station in Onitsha and the funds went in typical Nigerian style to the drains, the outrage would have been instant, thick and threatening to the one-ness of the nation. Such duplicity is the nature of our coexistence as a nation!
From all the foregoing, it is safe to conclude that Nigerians do not understand priorities. This will be the only reason why a great many Nigerians will dedicate time and resources to trend the matter of a phantom marriage between the president and one of his ministers on social media. Or why so called public officials charged with ensuring there’s food for the hunger ravaged Nigerians while also maintaining the dignity of labour will come out to boldly declare that there’s no hunger in the land or that some 20 thousand or so of our highly undervalued Naira can comfortably feed a family of four and I suspect, educate them as well! Yet, no serious energy is dissipated to give them the bashing they deserve for insulting our collective sensibilities. And oh, I hear slots for the ongoing NNPC recruitment have been shared among our sinnators, honorary members and I am sure the presidency as well who by design should liberate the lion share for its mini-stars and other lackeys. Hahahaha, I leave all of us to our conscience and the judgement of posterity.
