By Sanya Oni
Merely by the torrents of indignation that greeted the cruel murder of Favor Daley-Oladele, the 400 level female student of the Lagos State University by her so-called boyfriend Adeeko Owolabi, acting in concert with the self-acclaimed pastor, Segun Philips, one would be tempted to imagine the gory incident as a one-off aberration as against a testament of sorts to what we have become as a people.
After suffering the affliction of the ‘Badoo boys’ and the countless other variants of money cults and their cousins, the hordes of miracle-seeking, work-despising and due-process-loathing compatriots all of which have sadly now become commonplace, perhaps only a minority few still see the feigned outrage as anything but hollow.
And this is hardly an attempt to downplay a tragedy; rather it is to highlight not just the culture of denial of the cancer that threatens to obliterate our pretensions to modern civilization but primed to take us down that perilous route of savagery.
So much for the love of money, the young now wants the fruits of capitalism without as much as bothering about the famed protestant ethic, the hard grind of work and creativity, and the underlying ethos of frugality said to guarantee a prosperous future. Here, the problem really isn’t that our youths want the good life, they would rather have it upfront – the labour can come later!
Don’t ask me if the money-making voodoo actually works. Arguing for or against, at this time, is not only pointless but somewhat academic. It is what in sociology is called a reality sui generis. At least, not when we have a living proof in the multi-billion naira Nollywood in place to sustain the myth.
Or, the hopelessly flawed societal mores that seeks to reward indolence under different guises. Add to these the delinquent youth culture that seeks to torpedo what itself is proving to be a malformed normative order; the poor governance infrastructure which, while shrinking the opportunities for citizens to realize their potentials, effectively ensures that superstition and unquestioning blind faith are allowed thrive. In the situation, the end result cannot be anything but the reign of anarchy of which the cannibal rage is only one out of its many derivatives!
In that sense, the tragedy which took place in Ikoyi-Ile becomes a mere metaphor of a grave societal crisis. Again, only in that sense would the gravity not be seen in the narrow prism of the lone act by the individual who, in this case was willing to pay that heinous price considered socially intolerable all in the bid to board the prosperity train, which if you ask me, is not very much unlike those prosperity merchants who encourage their flocks to pursue their dreams of wealth without work, but in the proper sense of a society in free fall.
Like the Biblical passage that this columnist finds fitting to paraphrase: while the parents may have indeed eaten the sour grapes, it is the teeth of the children that are set on the edge!
Still in doubt? Ask the Naira Marley-ans currently on rampage in streets and neighbourhood corners what force drives them if you want to get a sense of the long dark night ahead!
This takes us to a national pastime – the practice of gazing into the crystal ball at the beginning of a new year. President Muhammadu Buhari has of course spoken of a new decade pregnant with hope, optimism and fresh possibilities notably in security, economy and governance sectors.
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Among others, he restated his administration’s commitment to taking a hundred million Nigerians out of mass poverty over the next 10 years; the on-going overhaul of the national infrastructures particularly the roads, railways and the power sector as indeed the agriculture value chain.
Then of course is the issue of corruption which has become something of an article of faith to the administration. In all, the president seeks not only to deepen the economy but to create a robust environment for businesses to thrive.
To start with, not even the most ardent of its critics would deny the administration some bragging rights in the area of infrastructure. Whether of the frenetic pace of road rehabilitation across the states of the federation or the on-going rehabilitation or is it modernization of the railways, not only is there a palpable sense of hunger to get things done but also at a pace that could be deemed exciting.
The same with its fight against graft. While the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 may have been the brain-child of the Jonathan administration, that three former governors are current doing terms for stealing their states blind says a lot about the seriousness of the administration to get that critical pillar of the justice sector reform actually up and running. Of course, the administration’s achievements in agriculture are only too obvious.
However, there’s no gazing into the crystal ball to know that these achievements are insufficient for an economy in dire need of leapfrogging.
Not at a time youth unemployment is at an alarmingly high level of 20 per cent according to the International Labour Organization – a figure moist Nigerians would insist is highly understated. Not at a time our out-of-school kids’ population has ballooned to 13 million; and certainly not at a time our graduates are increasingly acquiring the notoriety of unemployability!
The reality is that we are nowhere there yet. And this is in spite our famed achievement in the digital and Information Technology sector. Fact is that the financial services sector is trailing light years behind in terms of its readiness to launch into the modern age via a simple investment in identity infrastructure.
And while the banks get pilloried for not embracing the consumer credit as developed and developing do, the banks argue that the kind of broad based consumer lending envisaged would remain a mirage without a fool-proof social security number for every citizen!
Citizens can only imagine what the basic identity instrument is causing the country annually – from automobile to basic household consumer goods manufactures all of which understandably thrive on consumer credit!
Few years ago, we thought 2020 was such a long time. Clearly, if prayers were all that is required to launch a rocket into space, Nigeria would have been there several scores over.
Today, not only are we still battling with the scourge of malaria and polio, we have remained at the level of fierce contestation over whether to rely on science to explain simple, everyday human phenomenon or seek the assistance of voodoo merchants!
Yes – that’s where we are in AD 2020!
Happy new year.
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