SIR: Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centring on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence…
A long-time television staple, Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience that consists of children, teenagers and adults, and has also been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema. In 2000, TIME named the series one of the greatest television shows of all time.
I watched the federal and state governments fight each other like Tom and Jerry over who was responsible for increased poverty or put succinctly, multidimensional poverty. They basically threw banters at each while citizens suffered and found solace in supporting their own ‘thief’.
Every nation has one dichotomy or the other, if it is not the north vs south, it is blocs, religion or even ideological dichotomies. There are several reasons why such dichotomies exist. Sometimes it is a function of creation or political correctness like we have in the Nigerian case.
Dichotomy is used by political apologists as a socio-economic weapon. Apart from the positives, our dichotomy has been used to exploit and bamboozle the masses without major consideration being given to the dynamics of the law of development which in essence deals scientifically with the unity and struggle of opportunities and opposites.
We end another year, having fought all kinds of Tom and Jerry without recourse to providing an answer to the question: are we a nation? We go into a general election without answering the national question scientifically in relation to the phenomenon of our socio-political economic development.
The national question “is a question of solving vital national problems of social development, abolishing national oppression and inequality, eliminating obstacles to the development of peoples, including achievement of factual quality and internationalism in national relations.”
Everything we have done so far, brings to question the concepts of “national character”, “national culture”, “national consciousness”, “national philosophy and psychology” all often used and discussed without carefully and critically understanding their contradicting class nature in antagonistic societies and their relative independence.
Nigeria should be a nation of a lasting historical community of people constituting a form of social development based on the community of economic life in combination with the community of language, territory, culture, consciousness and psychology. But are we?
Are we a nation of various ethnic groups moving towards greater realization of cultural togetherness, peace and stability for all?
The summary of this admonition is both a warning and a challenge; it is only fair and fitting to direct our critical analysis of the Nigerian political climate in the form of serious warning that all is not well. We cannot abdicate our responsibility to do and say what is right and choose which battles to fight on the premise of parochial locus standi.
We need to come to grips with realities of the moment which point to the inevitabilities of the future, because time is running out. We cannot continue our Tom and Jerry stand if we are serious at initiating a hurricane of social revolution.
- Prince Charles Dickson Ph.D.
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