Tag: Abuja

I think all this theatrical mix of absurdities will make this country’s past national elder statesmen turn in their graves

Honestly, dear reader, this last week has had my senses swinging wildly from left to right and back again. Events that I can hardly still believe have happened. All week, my emotions have swung from the serious pathos exerted by the sight and sound of mothers in agony over their missing daughters to the serious hilarity occasioned by the presidency over the same missing girls. I have tried but I honestly have found it difficult to get past the televised sniffles of the first lady.

Seriously, as I watched the now-gone-viral video of the encounter between the first lady and the government functionaries she invited to Abuja, I really did wonder and also made a few wishes, mostly wishes. First, I wondered why now after nearly three weeks. Then I wished that after the girls had been found, the first lady would do one more weeping: over Nigeria and what she has become. I wish she would weep for this giant of a country that had so much potential but which has now been brought to its knees by corruption and inept leadership. Then maybe the heavens would hear her sniffles once again and come to our aid, you know, like that book titled Cry the Beloved Country. We digress.

Today, I want to mention that absolutely nothing prepared me for our presidency’s retort to the western powers last week. It seemed to have just come out of the blues. It’s not every day you hear the president tell another president to ‘give me the equipment’ and I’ll take care of boko haram. This, as I read in a news report last week, was in answer to the demand of the presidents of the major world countries to Nigeria to free the Chibok girls reportedly captured by boko haram and end the entire occupation crisis.

Now, many facts immediately come to mind in that retort. It is well known that Nigeria earns millions of dollars a day from petroleum alone, only a part of which is used to execute the national budget. It is also well known that the largest chunk of that budget goes to defence, quite apart from the many other spendings approved for the same purpose. Yet, the soldiers facing the insurgents are forever complaining of being under-equipped and ill-motivated; and no one has explained to this country why this is so. Yet I believe that it is possible to dress and equip twice the size of the Nigerian army in the most modern form and the latest gadgets if the will can just be found somewhere beneath the rubbles of corruption and stashing aways. I guess that is the real problem – the corruption.

Then came the performance to oust all performances from the… err… first lady. With the press awash on the fact that the presidency had done nothing for over three weeks to help the abducted girls; that the presidency did not care because none of their own daughters were involved; I guess the president’s wife felt it was up to her to save the day. And save the day she tried to do. In a mixture of emotions ranging from incredulity that the principal of the Chibok girls’ school had come to a bidded meeting in Abuja without her retinue of workers (Na you alone waka come?); to a triumph nearly equal to the triumphal entry (She always achieves results when she is involved in a matter); to breaking down in tears (The lady wept!), the president’s wife showed her stuff. In her eagerness to salvage the situation, the first lady forgot a few things. The first lady forgot the little fact that she did not quite have the power to send for any governmental functionary because she is not their boss. She also forgot that she was not voted into power, only her husband was. Above all, she forgot that she is the woman and her husband is the man. A little mistake there, but then it can happen to anybody. In my house, I sometimes forget I am not the man of the house and do some table-lifting – big mistake.

Certainly, the presidency could have handled this abduction saga a little better. An earlier and more sensitive approach would have guaranteed greater results instead of this absurd theatrical mix long after the trail has gone cold and the criminals have forgotten their crime. By now, those girls may have been compromised. This is not good enough. It does not bespeak sufficient seriousness on the part of those in charge of the affairs of this country. This is why other governments more serious than us in this country now have the onerous duty of flying in to save us from ourselves.

That’s right; it gets me indeed that the American troop has had to come into this country to rescue Nigerian girls captured in Nigeria by Nigerians. You know why? It is because in every sphere of human existence in this country, I believe that Nigeria has some of the best trained officers in the world. Just think about the army, police, academia, anything, Nigeria has got it. What the people of this country need is the chance to prove themselves when the circumstances are equal, such as in a good system. American troops are able to fly into any rescue operation anywhere in the world because they are properly kitted out and the funds meant for them find their ways to them as at and when due.

But, imagine this. We are here unable to hold our country together in any way: no good transportation, inconstant power supply, sputtering water supply, very bad roads and no road networks, etc. Instead of working at these things, leaders are busy stashing things away. In the meantime, we have even gone and created a problem we cannot take care of by ourselves. I really do wonder for how long we are going to remain a baby that needs to be wiped and have her nappy changed by the bigger powers.

Let’s look at this American troop thing. Can you imagine what their presence here says about us to the rest of the known world? It says a great deal actually. First, it says loudly that we are incapable of any good thing. When it comes to corruption index, we are top of the cards. When it comes to human rights index, we are top of the table. When it comes to maternal mortality, we are top in the labour room. However, when it comes to good governance, the country disappears off the radar.

All of us are very interested in just getting the girls back, and may that be so. Any means will do, nationally or internationally contrived. The problem the country will grapple with afterwards, however, is that that rescue will constitute a compromise of the nation’s political power and will. The sanctity of the country’s sovereignty will now be compromised. There is an adage that says when one accepts a gift from someone else, the receiver becomes the slave of the giver. That is so true. Whence can this country hold its head high again if and when the foreign troop brings the girls home? How will I now be looking at you?

Lastly, I think all this theatrical mix of absurdities will make this country’s national elder statesmen turn in their graves. If they were to wake up today, they would look around them and at each other before voicing the only question running through their collective minds: ‘Is this the independence we fought for, or there is another to come?’ I can take only one lesson home from all this: there is indeed another independence to be fought for, and well may we win that.