As I write this article with Fela Anikulakpo-Kuti's Army Arrangement playing in the background, I feel the visionary maestro turning in his grave at the current happenings in Nigeria. The only word that sufficiently captures how I feel right now is rage. You should feel it too if you knew the cause of my rage.
There was chatter this morning about iPhones on social media but I didn't bother to investigate as I was very busy. However, the news came to me during lunch time and when it did, I can swear that my heart stopped for at least 5 seconds!
Here is a country grappling with man-made problems that threaten her very existence. The north has been ravaged for over two years with serious insurgency problems; we have witnessed heights of unemployment previously unknown; ASUU has embarked on what could probably be its longest strike yet in a bid to force the FG honour an agreement it signed with it over a decade ago, which is going on its third month yet the priority of this administration is iPhones!
The list of problems bedeviling Nigeria under the current administration can be represented by a number a whole lot larger than Metuselah's age but in the usual utter disregard of what's important, many Nigerians are still reeling from the shock after a foreign newspaper reported that the Nigerian Government have placed order for 53 gold-plated Apple iPhones engraved with the coat of arms, a shield and two horses worth N689m to commemorate Nigeria's 53rd Independence Day celebration!
Pray tell, Mr. President, what independence are we celebrating when the nation is in bondage? Bondage to corruption, insurgency, dilapidated infrastructure, a fatally-afflicted educational sector, a crippled health sector, the list goes on and on. Yet, a government that has refused to honour its agreement with ASUU, claiming it would shut the economy down can afford to go on splurge to buy 53 gold-plated iPhones with hundreds of millions, build a Centenary City for the FCT to celebrate the 1914 amalgam of Northern and Southern Protectorates with billions when existing cities can't boast of functional infrastructure, spend billions to maintain a wasteful fleet of private jets, contract our territorial waters security to militants to mention a few. If ASUU never had a reason to strike until their demands are met, they have one now. This is a fight that must be fought to finish.
It breaks my heart that these men in authority, our so-called rulers are not straight or measuring up and have hearts as black as endless pits. Their souls are evil as evil itself. How these oligarchs can, in the face of all Nigerians go through on a daily as result of visionless leadership, make such decisions without the fear of God or anything close to it continues to baffle me. It completely stupifies me that these acts continue over and over again, each worse than the former without fear of any form of consequence.
We the downtrodden, have contributed in empowering the political class to continually shit on our faces, taking it with a smile. In the eternal words of Fela Anikulakpo-Kuti, "suffering and smiling". We have given them the license to treat us as slaves because we have refused to open our eyes to realise our worth. We have refused to see that we have the power. We have adjusted to and are content with to live with the current culture of abuse.
I resigned a long time ago that the Nigeria of today is not yet ready for change. We have watched with folded arms as Nigeria became a theater of the absurd with each stupid and reckless government policy surpassing the other even though we thought it not humanly possible. We have the mind of a great mob - we don't think. Its easy to whip up sentiments and send us all on a wild goose chase with a catchy phrase and after we have expended our energies, a new distraction is put in place and in no time, we forget all that is really important.
With the current crisis going on in PDP, it has been my most fervent prayer that majority of Nigerians will snap out of their hypnosis and realise what a hydra-headed demon PDP is and for once, work to install a suitable replacement. Even with the massive political awareness because of social media, there's still a long way to go. As Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon said, "...2015 is inherently laden with a political thalidomide...". I'm inclined to agree, except we rise up and make concerted, co-ordinated and sustained efforts to ensure that sanity returns.
Enough is enough!
Malcolm O. Ifi.
