Fola Ojo
Nigeria’s history is long, bumptious, and bumpy. It predates 1914 when some strange anthropomorphic arms and legs were fused into an unrecognisable body replete with sickened physiology. Some things you read about Nigeria will make you puke. Some things you read will get you pumped up excited and gladden your heart. A whole lot more you read will trigger you to ask yourself: “How did we get here?”
Anytime a new president assumes power, Nigerians always swerve into a frenzy of expectations that all will soon be well. They dance, they sing, they hope, they pontificate, they postulate, and they prognosticate. Usually, after a few years into governing, the same voices of approval become voices of disapprobation. Hosannah-shouters turn to brazen bellowers requesting crucifixion. What changed? Is it about unrealistic expectations people set for themselves about the leaders? Is it some form of spiritual forces set to destroy and detour leaders who probably mean well at inception? Is it about the character of the system itself that brings a candidate to power? Is it about Nigeria as a malfunctioning systemic machine that bites more than it can chew? Is it a combination of all of these and much more? I’ll start my treatise from the tail-end of military misrule under General Sani Abacha.
Abacha became head of state after a brief civilian interregnum he interrupted in a military coup. He ruled with iron grips. Lives of many who were in opposition to his government were snuffed off. In broad daylight, his foot soldiers killed many in the southern part of Nigeria. Money went missing. According to various international reports, Abacha is suspected to have looted between $3bn and $5bn in public funds. Up till today and in drips, stolen money stashed away abroad is still being repatriated to Nigeria. And then one day in 1998, Abacha slept and did not wake up. News of his sudden death filtered onto the streets. There was much dancing and rejoicing especially in the Southern part of Nigeria that his reign of terror seemed to have targeted. Nigerians believed the man who stood between them and their dreams to live happily ever-after was forever out of the picture. They thought Nigeria would become like Japan in a jiffy! My friends, Nigerians till today are still crying in agony even after Abacha is long gone.
Abubakar Abdulsalami succeeded Abacha. He was perceived as a connecting bridge to the desire of a nation. Abdulsalami hung on for about 12 months; and later handed over to Olusegun Obasanjo in an election that jumpstarted democracy in 1999. Obasanjo brought Nigeria into the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. And he won international support for a debt-relief package that lifted a $30 billion debt off of Nigeria’s shoulders. But under Baba, corruption spread like wild fire. Baba once ordered his men to move on citizens of Odi in Bayelsa State in a maddening massacre of about 2,500 Nigerians. Under his watch, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige, was murdered by hired assassins in cold-blood in his own home. But Baba reigned for eight years and jostled to continue for four more. Nigerians pushed back hard. OBJ was gone and Nigerians were elated.
OBJ was forced to hand over power to Umaru Yar’Adua. When Yar’Adua became president, Nigerians called him “Baba Go Slow”. They were in a hurry, and still are, to get to the Promised Land. Yar’Adua succumbed to illness and died after about three years in power. His deputy, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, from Bayelsa, succeeded him. A meek man Jonathan was. He came cruising in on the plume and brow of widespread solicitude and commiseration. The waiting hands of irate and indignant Nigerians cuddled him like a lush and luscious baby who had been prophesied to be ‘The One’ delivering Nigeria from the hands of the “Midianites”.
Between 2010 and 2012, Jonathan was the man “God gave us”. But later became the man “Obasanjo gave us”. Corruption stank to high heavens under him. According to the US, a whopping sum of about N9tn disappeared into private pockets under Jonathan. His Minister of Petroleum Resources escaped abroad and lives there till today. Illegal bunkering blossomed as Niger Delta militants became billionaires. If you were close to the PDP administration, you could become a billionaire overnight. Jonathan sought to stretch his tenure for four more years in 2015. He lost the bid to Muhammadu Buhari, a bony, bold, venturous and venturesome retired Army general; former platoon leader, former regional governor, former head of sumptuous petroleum parastatal, and former Head of State and Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
When Buhari became president, there was rejoicing in many parts of Nigeria aside the South-South and South-East regions that opposed his candidacy. But he was globally adjudged a man of unquestionable integrity who loathes corruption and indiscipline; and perceived a tower of threat to terrorism and lunatic Islamic insurgency. Buhari was the hope of many Nigerians home and abroad, but today, he is perceived as a champion of an ethnic agenda set to enslave other regions of Nigeria in Fulani chains and shackles. His appointments are skewed. Nigerians believe that his Fulani kinsmen hold top positions; and when a southerner is relieved from a position, a northerner becomes his or her replacement. The security outfit of Nigeria and the nation’s financial sector are ruled by Buhari’s Northern kinsmen. These Nigerians believe. The goodwill this President enjoyed in the last five years is gone with the winds. Even by millions of people who once supported him; Buhari is now seen more as a regional and ethnic champion than a Nigerian President.
Nigeria is presently at a worse state than it has ever been. The people are hungry. Residents in the North-East are slaughtered daily by bandits. There are killings and kidnappings in all the nook and cranny of the country. And our President is mute.
Opprobria with every administration are always loud. I do not remember a time where there was a consensus passmark for any President. We can only compare and contrast. What changes when these people assume power? Is it about unrealistic expectations set for them? Is it some form of spiritual forces set to destroy and detour leaders who probably mean well at the inception? Is it a combination of what eyes can and cannot see? Sigmund Freud, the man who first formalised the idea of psychotherapy, was a profound pessimist about human nature. Freud felt that life is governed by deep, dark drives that we can only tenuously control. He believed described human beings are creatures in need of repair. Whatever needs a repair must have been damaged and defaced in its original form. Nigeria has been defaced and damaged almost in its entire form. Where is he who is the repairer of the Nigerian breach?
No one man’s masterstroke will end Nigeria’s pathetic, complex, complicated and problematic ambience. Revamping of the nation is beyond one man’s call of duty. It is beyond one person from a particular region or religion; beyond one person who speaks in one certain way and who builds around himself a certain creed and breed of people. One warring fighter and determined leader can never be the all-sufficing tool that will clean up Nigeria’s mess. It is Nigerians’ collective duty because of the systemic nature of our challenges. Do we expect a “miracle-working man” who will flip Nigeria into paradise overnight and by himself? It will not happen. If all hands are not on deck, shouts of ‘crucify him’ will always follow chants of Hosanna at the advent of every government. Nigeria is one big pile of mess one man cannot clean up.
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