By WakdokSamuelStephen.
General Ironsi: Where is Mohammed? They killed me for enacting a decree making Nigeria a Unitary state. I only acted in the best interest of the nation. I wanted Nigerians to live as one.
Colonel Fajuyi: Morning Sir, I shared in your passion that was why I remained loyal till death. I would have been a bad host to let you die alone in Ibadan that fateful day in July. After all I knew the back gate of Mokola barracks if I wanted to escape.
General Ironsi: Thank you my loyal officer. See how over centralized the government has become. Why will a president give orders to a governor in a democracy? Is that the federalism they killed me to protect?
Sir Tafawa Balewa: Toh, General. Your boys started it. They interrupted democracy and intruded into politics. They killed not only us; they also killed the Nigerian vision when they struck on 15th January 1966. Imagine; they dumped my body on the express way.
Sir Ahmadu Bello: Abu, when I sent you to Lagos to head the federal government and stayed back in Kaduna to head the northern region, it was because in a truly federal system the regions (states) are not subservient to the centre. But that boy of mine (Nzeogwu) came and blasted my life away.
Chief Obafemi Awolowo: I do not support shedding of blood, but I am very sure if your NPC led government had not taken sides with Akintola and jailed me for treason, the tension of the 1st republic will not have degenerated into killings.
Sir Tafawa Balewa: It was Nnamdi who refused to swear me in after we won the 1964 general elections. That heated up the polity.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe: Abubakar, there were widespread irregularities in that election you still claim to have won. I only did my presidential task with uprightness. That was the beauty of a parliamentary form of government.
Colonel Fajuyi: Welcome Murtala. Gen. Ironsi asked after you.
General Murtala Mohammed: I went for prayers. Though Dimka killed me on a Friday morning I have not lost faith in Allah. I have not missed a single Jumat prayer since I came here on the 13th of February 1976.
Lt. Col. Dimka: Gen Mohammed, ASUU is on strike again. Ditto for SSANU and NASU. I killed you because of your overzealousness. If you didn’t confiscate primary and secondary schools from the churches and mosques, the government would have had enough funds to cater for the universities today.
Col. Ibrahim Taiwo: Dimka after killing us in Ikoyi 33 years ago, the least you can do is to be remorseful and let’s navigate out of this Nigerian puzzle.
C.P. Joseph Gowmalk: Taiwo, my brother Dimka is right. Look at me. Why am I here? My sin was standing up for the liberation of the middle belt. I went as for as Ibadan to bring a university to Jos. I wanted my people to be free of the tyrannical feudal lords up north. Obasanjo and his smoking deputy roped me into a coup I knew nothing of.
Lt. Gen. Shehu Yar’Adua: Haba Joseph. What has my cigar got to do with this? Was it not your cousin Garba who announced the overthrow of your brother Gowon? It was the tribunal who recommended the death penalty.
General Bissala: Yes Shehu. The kangaroo tribunal you set up.
Maj. Gen. Joe Garba: I apologized to Uncle Jack (Gen. Gowon) before I came here. The interest of Nigeria has always been paramount to me. Gen. Murtala Mohammed wanted to stem out corruption. I did my best to advance the image of Nigeria when I was the president of the U.N. General Assembly.
Major Dimlong: The Nigeria we fought to keep as one, see it going up in flames. I even married a Yoruba lady. My son is known by his Yoruba name and not his plateau name. Thank God he married a doctor from Shendam.
Brigadier Bako: What about me? I was the lone casualty of the 1983 coup. I exchanged my life for that of Shagari. Today, both the military and the civilian regimes have failed me. I sacrificed my life for an ungrateful crop of people.
Maj. Gen. Tunde Idiagbon: Bako when we charged through on that 31st day of December 1983, you failed to see our objective. You wasted your life. Do you see why Nigeria needed people like Buhari and me? Poor Buhari he is still battling to win an election when all we needed then was a gun.
Maj. Gen. Mamman Vatsa: That was why I attempted to ease out my course mate. I saw the maradonic tendencies in him as far back as 1986. Unfortunately he killed me, and eventually killed June 12.
Major Orkar: General Vatsa, I read the scripts of your unfinished poetry and decided to continue from where you stopped. If only we ostracized those northern states we mentioned, all these religious strife and Boko Haram saga will not have occurred. But people like oga Bello aborted our mission.
Col. U.K. Bello: Gideon, I was one of the finest soldiers of my time. I would have failed as an ADC if I had let you kill Gen. Babangida. So I had to take his bullet.
Lt. Akogu: I was a fine soldier too. The painful thing is I didn’t face the firing squad standing like others. I was in a wheel chair because of my injuries. Anyway, is Nigeria not in a wheel chair 49 years after independence? Sick nation. Why did we fail on April 22nd 1990?
Prof. Olukoye Ransome-Kuti: I knew the physiology and pathology of Nigeria’s sickness that was why I vigorously pursued the primary health care programme. The healing must start from the roots.
Col. Victor Banjo: Chukwuma, you sneaked out of bed to go for morning mass. We have been holding a conference on the plight of Nigeria.
Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu: We all need God my brother, especially those we left behind in Nigeria. When we struck in 1966 to salvage the fatherland they called us tribalists. Now see what Nigeria has degenerated into. “A dying giant.”
Col. Banjo: Don’t feel bad. We know that we were not tribalists. Did I a Yoruba man not fight on the Biafran side? I captured the Midwest and was on my way to capture Lagos if not for Murtala and his 2nd Division.
Maj. Gen Usman Katsina: Victor, even if you had crossed Ibadan I was already on my way with the 1st Division. Was it not the same Ojukwu who executed you?
Ken Saro-Wiwa: We told the world this was bound to happen. In death our blood is our voice. Look at Ogoni land, look at Niger Delta, and look at Nigeria.
Fela: I can’t stop singing; suffering and smiling. That is the lot of Nigerians.
Lawrence Anini: They killed us for robbing the rich and sharing the loot to the poor. We now know the real robbers. They rob the people of their votes and wealth. Shame!
Chief MKO Abiola: When Sani incarcerated me, he held the hope of Nigerians hostage. Nigeria would have been better if I was allowed to assume my mandate.
General Sani Abacha: Kai MKO, don’t call my name. Thank God for GSM, dial Nigeria and talk to your friend IBB. He annulled your election. When I dissolved ASUU, suspended NLC and pursued NADECO, I was labeled an autocrat; the fruits of democracy are MEND, MOSSOB, OPC and all the strikes. Where is my vision 2010?
Bola Ige: So annoying that my brothers will kill me to prevent the truth from been heard.
Isaac Boro: I saw nothing good in that British induced marriage called Nigeria that was why I launched the secession of the Ijaw nation.
Chief Rotimi Williams: We may sit here all day lamenting. The problems of Nigeria are multifarious. I suggest we go to the Supreme Court for adjudication.
Bishop Idahosa: My dear friend, you can’t appear as a counsel here. The only advocate here is Jesus.
Chief Akintola: Then let us go into a parliamentary session. Who has a mace here?
Dr. Chuba Okadibo: The political sagacity taking place back home calls for an urgent resolution to be passed. I came with the mace I hid; we can use that for this special sitting.
Col. (Maj. Gen.) Effiong: These civilians want to scheme us out. They are aware we soldiers can not sit in parliament.
Aminu Kano: Do not worry Philip we are all Nigerians here. No soldiers, No politicians. It is my talakawas (masses) I feel for.
Chief Michael Opara: Are we using the parliamentary or presidential constitution?
Chief Enwerem: Let’s use the presidential.
Dr. Bala Usman: We can’t afford to keep arguing about parliamentary or presidential, military or political while Nigeria burns. The Historical materialism is the issue at stake.
Archbishop Ganaka: In the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Our loving and merciful God, Nigeria needs you now as always. Send down your Spirit of love, justice and Peace. Look at Jos my beautiful bride; she is now a blood bank.
Pastor Bimbo: Heavenly father, forgive our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who have divorced their hearts from your ways.
Sultan Maccido: There is no God but Allah. The infidels are those who loot the treasury and exploit the ordinary people. The unbelievers are those who cause untold pains to your children. Cleanse our country of evil men and their wicked acts.
Cardinal Ekandem: Deliver Nigeria from further damnation through Christ our Lord.
Sunny Okuson: Ziga Ozi! Nigeria is ours for ever. We either win it or loose it for ever. Freedom is now or never. We have to win it and keep it for good.
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Saturday, August 22, 2009
Police and Thief: The Nigerian Identity Problem
By SamuelStephenWakdok
Growing up in the 80s, a game was common. We played this game of Police and Thief. The bad guy of course was the thief. After much chasing and hiding, it was normal for the police to catch the thief or for the police to shoot and kill the thief. That was based on simple logic, the triumph of good over evil. Dele Giwa once said that the triumph of evil over good is temporary, because in the long run good must triumph over evil. Even as kids it was very clear to us that evil must be quashed. Looking back into history, I can not really say how it went wrong, but definitely something went wrong.
The police and thief game shows the picture of how the larger society ought to be. The police in this piece are not limited to the men and women of the Nigerian Police force; rather it is the Nigerian State. It encompasses all the institutions of the state and their various agents. It does talk about the machinery of government with due reference to those saddled with the responsibility of governing the country. It is both the elected and public officials, both civil and military. It talks about the security and law enforcement agencies in the country. The dictionary defines a State as: a country's government and those government-controlled institutions that are responsible for its internal administration and its relationships with other countries. Or: a country or nation with its own sovereign independent government. It went further to define a government as a political authority: a group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws for a country or area. The state is therefore viewed as the ruler; the state and its administration are viewed as the ruling political power. A government thus assumes the mandate given by the people. Since every one can not be law unto him/herself, the citizens surrender their power to a government who then has the authority to rule on their behalf. The legitimacy of any government is derived from the people and that is why popular participation mostly through free and fair elections seems to be the best form of coming into power.
It is only justifiable that after giving up their power to the state to rule with their mandate, the people of any country or nation will expect certain duties and responsibilities on the part of the rulers in exchange for the rights and privileges the rulers gain from occupying public offices. These include but are not limited to the security of lives and property, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure, employment opportunities, social services, enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive among other things. In fact I can summarize the responsibilities of any meaningful government to; developing, sustaining and even improving the human development of the people by utilizing the resources at the disposal of the government.
Like a day which gives way to the setting of the sun, the situation here has become blurred. It is no more Police and thief but has over the years become a case of the Police is the thief. And for me this is the crux of Nigeria's Identity Crisis. Identity is defined as what identifies somebody or something: the name or essential character that identifies somebody or something or essential self: the set of characteristics that somebody recognizes as belonging uniquely to himself or herself and constituting his or her individual personality for life. How ever Identity crisis is defined as anxiety about social role: a period during which somebody feels great anxiety and uncertainty about his or her identity and role in life and society. It can also be defined as anxiety of a group: a period of anxiety or confusion about the nature, aims, and role of a group, organization, or business and in this case a nation. Nigeria is a study in contrast. The country is both a giant and a dwarf. It is rich and yet one of the poorest nations on earth. Rich in resources both natural and human, but her people are poor. Nigerians are a very religious people, yet violence and crime rates are very high. Nigeria has enormous body of water but there is scarcity of water for human consumption and commercial use. We are the sixth largest exporter of crude oil (may be seventh now since Angola has overtaken us) but also one of the heaviest importers of refined petroleum products. The country has a vast array of arable land but majority of her people are starving. Nigeria has many educated people who have excelled in all endeavors of life but our basic problems at home have not been solved. We have many sources of generating and distributing electricity but we exist perpetually in semi darkness and are the largest importer of generators in Africa. We export very few (crude oil and prostitutes) but import almost everything (including tooth pick and cotton buds) . We spend huge funds and lives to ensure peace keeping and enforcement in warring countries but we can not keep simple law and order at home. Nigeria has an over centralized government but recent literatures and reports describe the country as a failed state. Nigeria is a juxtaposition of different things.
The state and her institutions, the government and her organs, the people, have all connived to ensure that Nigeria does not become the pride she was destined to be. Nigeria has been wandering between obscurity and oblivion. We have no meaningful identity to present to the world or even ourselves. The state has failed in its primary role of harnessing the resources of the country to the benefit of the generality of the citizenry. Rather corruption has become so endemic that it has been elevated to become the official language of governance. Corruption has become the fuel which burns the governed but cooks the food for the elite club who has hijacked power. Various governments have been hypocritical in fighting corruption. They only fight it with their lips but oil its wheel with deeds. We have school buildings but the standard of education has nose-dived. We have health professionals but our hospitals have become an ante-room to the grave. Air transportation has become a flying coffin, water ways are not available, rail system is out of service and our roads are death traps. We have more streets than homes in this country, more churches than Christians and more mosques than Moslems. We have more crises than solutions, more rogues than patriots and more contracts than projects. We destroy faster than we build and do not maintain at all. We have a government but we are been compared to Somalia which has been without a functional government since 1991. We talk so much about development but achieve nothing or at best so little. In the midst of all these, Nigerians won the survey of happiest people in the world some years ago. The contrast defers scientific rationality.
Nigeria is the only country where political parties campaign during elections without a manifesto. Obviously it means the government has no ideology. Any government with out an ideology is a car without a driver. It can stop at any time in transit. It may skid off the road; it may summersault and may even drive itself into an ocean. And that is exactly what is happening. Nigeria has been driving on the road of insecurity, driving into the ocean of dehumanization with reckless impunity. We have no safety valve to gauge the volume of air in our tube. Meaning we may burst at anytime due to excess pressure or may go flat due to inadequate air. Life expectancy in Nigeria is at a lowly 47 years in a millennium where technology, research and development have used science to demystify most health related problems. Given Nigeria’s resources, abundant talents and the size of this country both in terms of population and land mass, Nigeria ought to be what United State is to the American continent, or what India is to Asia or what Brazil has become for Latin America. Unfortunately we keep falling on the scales of development indices.
The police and thief of the days gone beyond has become the police is thief. The state has not stood on the side of justice, equity, peace and development. The act of governance has become the route to exploitation. The Nigeria's identity problem calls for serious concern. If the police is now the thief, who will the victims run to for help? If the state is the bandit who will the citizens run to for reprieve? The police is the thief. Yes, that is the crux of Nigeria's identity problem. The state is the terror. Political, social and economic terrorist.
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Growing up in the 80s, a game was common. We played this game of Police and Thief. The bad guy of course was the thief. After much chasing and hiding, it was normal for the police to catch the thief or for the police to shoot and kill the thief. That was based on simple logic, the triumph of good over evil. Dele Giwa once said that the triumph of evil over good is temporary, because in the long run good must triumph over evil. Even as kids it was very clear to us that evil must be quashed. Looking back into history, I can not really say how it went wrong, but definitely something went wrong.
The police and thief game shows the picture of how the larger society ought to be. The police in this piece are not limited to the men and women of the Nigerian Police force; rather it is the Nigerian State. It encompasses all the institutions of the state and their various agents. It does talk about the machinery of government with due reference to those saddled with the responsibility of governing the country. It is both the elected and public officials, both civil and military. It talks about the security and law enforcement agencies in the country. The dictionary defines a State as: a country's government and those government-controlled institutions that are responsible for its internal administration and its relationships with other countries. Or: a country or nation with its own sovereign independent government. It went further to define a government as a political authority: a group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws for a country or area. The state is therefore viewed as the ruler; the state and its administration are viewed as the ruling political power. A government thus assumes the mandate given by the people. Since every one can not be law unto him/herself, the citizens surrender their power to a government who then has the authority to rule on their behalf. The legitimacy of any government is derived from the people and that is why popular participation mostly through free and fair elections seems to be the best form of coming into power.
It is only justifiable that after giving up their power to the state to rule with their mandate, the people of any country or nation will expect certain duties and responsibilities on the part of the rulers in exchange for the rights and privileges the rulers gain from occupying public offices. These include but are not limited to the security of lives and property, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure, employment opportunities, social services, enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive among other things. In fact I can summarize the responsibilities of any meaningful government to; developing, sustaining and even improving the human development of the people by utilizing the resources at the disposal of the government.
Like a day which gives way to the setting of the sun, the situation here has become blurred. It is no more Police and thief but has over the years become a case of the Police is the thief. And for me this is the crux of Nigeria's Identity Crisis. Identity is defined as what identifies somebody or something: the name or essential character that identifies somebody or something or essential self: the set of characteristics that somebody recognizes as belonging uniquely to himself or herself and constituting his or her individual personality for life. How ever Identity crisis is defined as anxiety about social role: a period during which somebody feels great anxiety and uncertainty about his or her identity and role in life and society. It can also be defined as anxiety of a group: a period of anxiety or confusion about the nature, aims, and role of a group, organization, or business and in this case a nation. Nigeria is a study in contrast. The country is both a giant and a dwarf. It is rich and yet one of the poorest nations on earth. Rich in resources both natural and human, but her people are poor. Nigerians are a very religious people, yet violence and crime rates are very high. Nigeria has enormous body of water but there is scarcity of water for human consumption and commercial use. We are the sixth largest exporter of crude oil (may be seventh now since Angola has overtaken us) but also one of the heaviest importers of refined petroleum products. The country has a vast array of arable land but majority of her people are starving. Nigeria has many educated people who have excelled in all endeavors of life but our basic problems at home have not been solved. We have many sources of generating and distributing electricity but we exist perpetually in semi darkness and are the largest importer of generators in Africa. We export very few (crude oil and prostitutes) but import almost everything (including tooth pick and cotton buds) . We spend huge funds and lives to ensure peace keeping and enforcement in warring countries but we can not keep simple law and order at home. Nigeria has an over centralized government but recent literatures and reports describe the country as a failed state. Nigeria is a juxtaposition of different things.
The state and her institutions, the government and her organs, the people, have all connived to ensure that Nigeria does not become the pride she was destined to be. Nigeria has been wandering between obscurity and oblivion. We have no meaningful identity to present to the world or even ourselves. The state has failed in its primary role of harnessing the resources of the country to the benefit of the generality of the citizenry. Rather corruption has become so endemic that it has been elevated to become the official language of governance. Corruption has become the fuel which burns the governed but cooks the food for the elite club who has hijacked power. Various governments have been hypocritical in fighting corruption. They only fight it with their lips but oil its wheel with deeds. We have school buildings but the standard of education has nose-dived. We have health professionals but our hospitals have become an ante-room to the grave. Air transportation has become a flying coffin, water ways are not available, rail system is out of service and our roads are death traps. We have more streets than homes in this country, more churches than Christians and more mosques than Moslems. We have more crises than solutions, more rogues than patriots and more contracts than projects. We destroy faster than we build and do not maintain at all. We have a government but we are been compared to Somalia which has been without a functional government since 1991. We talk so much about development but achieve nothing or at best so little. In the midst of all these, Nigerians won the survey of happiest people in the world some years ago. The contrast defers scientific rationality.
Nigeria is the only country where political parties campaign during elections without a manifesto. Obviously it means the government has no ideology. Any government with out an ideology is a car without a driver. It can stop at any time in transit. It may skid off the road; it may summersault and may even drive itself into an ocean. And that is exactly what is happening. Nigeria has been driving on the road of insecurity, driving into the ocean of dehumanization with reckless impunity. We have no safety valve to gauge the volume of air in our tube. Meaning we may burst at anytime due to excess pressure or may go flat due to inadequate air. Life expectancy in Nigeria is at a lowly 47 years in a millennium where technology, research and development have used science to demystify most health related problems. Given Nigeria’s resources, abundant talents and the size of this country both in terms of population and land mass, Nigeria ought to be what United State is to the American continent, or what India is to Asia or what Brazil has become for Latin America. Unfortunately we keep falling on the scales of development indices.
The police and thief of the days gone beyond has become the police is thief. The state has not stood on the side of justice, equity, peace and development. The act of governance has become the route to exploitation. The Nigeria's identity problem calls for serious concern. If the police is now the thief, who will the victims run to for help? If the state is the bandit who will the citizens run to for reprieve? The police is the thief. Yes, that is the crux of Nigeria's identity problem. The state is the terror. Political, social and economic terrorist.
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