Date Published: 09/04/09
SANUSI AND OUR DESTINY
By Hon. Chinedu Opukiri-Nkwonta Kpomnigeria4ever@yahoo.co.uk
I have strongly resisted the urge to comment on the present situation in our country concerning the sacking of 5 bank executives and their other allies. The main reason for this is clearly that I do not have any knowledge of banking or financial management except spending money, like most Nigerians.
So many of us have imputed on this matter both for and against, but the crunch of the matter remains that we all are very frustrated to the point of visible insanity. Nigerians are looking for blood and blood must flow no matter whose. Nigerians have bottled up so much for so long; we all have become militants and terrorists. We are ready to fight and cause damages of fifty thousand naira because of five naira. It has gone so bad that greeting of our neighbours and elders which used to be one of the basics for us have turned to war. The aggression we exhibit on the pages of the news papers and on line sites against ourselves is the same aggression and frustration that kidnappers, cult groups and armed robbers are exhibiting every day.
The leaders are seeing raw anger on our faces every day, they are stealing more and more as to guarantee they protect themselves against us. We are no more the lead; we are the aggressors, the vampires, dogs and criminals that must be destroyed or kept far away for as long as possible, we are threats. Aggression is breeding aggression and there is no one sane enough to control the other. Every one is desperate and hopeless, we have all gone maaaaaad.
The truth must be told, we do know that we are decent people but the real question is how much more can we take? We have never required much from governments except the basics to guarantee we can wake up in our huts and run about our nomadic lives in search of food without molestation either by armed robbers, the police or any one of us. I have always argued that being a one eyed man in the land of the blind is not really a good idea. Very often we witness so much affluence displayed recklessly before us by the affluent and their lieutenants, the masses are languishing in abject poverty. Public servants have taken Nigerians for a ride for so long, the river has over flown its banks, all have suddenly busted, both the sane and the previously insane have all levelled into insanity, talk about pushing to the wall As a matter of fact, because of our natural non militant nature, every one has been pushed through the metal wall, it has run out of every one’s control, we are all on our own.
Sanusi may have acted with no due respect to the rule of law, we all know that rule of law is a decoy for the rich and powerful to escape injustices perpetrated against the masses of the country. How many ex leaders till date have we convicted through the rule of law? Rule of law can only work when the people involved are rational.
The things that happen in our country can never be compared with anything that happens anywhere in the world because these things do not happen there. Since the polarisation of the rule of law, it is obvious that the rich have used that to abuse us all more by conniving with the legal system to rub more salt into our injuries. If the night owl learns to fly without perching, the hunter has no business with aiming, unless the hunter does not want to catch the owl. Someone must be a victim of our present situation but our prayers remain let it not be us. People do not pray for their families anymore because the families have shown them serious pepper especially the diaspora Nigerians. So many times we send hard earned money home for a project or the other; the money is spent with complete disregard to the original idea and the owner, instead they prepare to kill or kidnap the sender. So many of us are tired and frustrated abroad and want to come home, which home? These frustrations have built to great anger that 99% of us today can do anything, we do not care anymore; a frustrated person for me is much more dangerous than a hungry person. A hungry person may get angry but a frustrated person is basically a time bomb, it must explode, the only uncertainty is the time.
Not loosing the point, we are desperate for redemption and our situation has became so desperate that we cannot take it anymore, the same reason why kidnapping is the only paying business in the country today. Any one that can afford a decent car today in the country is seen as the reason we all are suffering. If these banks that sell all these shares, advertise their banks on CNN and take advert spaces at international airports all over the world and talk about all these trillions of naira investments and profits when most Nigerians do not have ten naira and have not eaten for days, they must be accomplices in this massive decimation and desecration of the Nigerian masses by the powerful. The stolen trillions are not packed under the mattresses; they are mostly in the banks and these executives must be conniving in hiding the loot away from the masses. I pity the bank executives because I am sure they never saw it coming but the truth remains that someone must pay the price. The land has been decimated for too long, the gods and the people are angry, there is confusion everywhere, pikin no hear mama and mama no hear pikin, yawa don gas.
I do not believe that Sanusi is pursuing any agenda or vendetta and I also do not think he is better than Soludo, they have different approaches, simple. Sanusi’s approach was a big gamble and potentially could make things worse for the poor masses. It has the potentials of causing panic that can crumble the entire country economically, but may be he understands the Nigeria spirit more than me; we always find a way to survive. He could have quietly dealt with the situation, achieving same result without panicking the entire economy that is so volatile today which I suspect may have been Soludo’s approach, but wait a minute; does that really work with us? With the same Nigerian spirit and knowing how powerful these individuals are and then with their powers collaborated, they have the capability to scuttle the efforts of the Central bank governor thereby making him a lame duck, it is a dodgy one for Sanusi, I do not wish to be in his shoes.
We are used to helping our families first traditionally. If you do not use your position to help family and friends then you are not seen as a good person. The same family and friends will collect the monies under serious promises to repay back but in the typical Nigerian spirit, we often do not. We would rather shower the executives with mouth watering gifts and money which automatically compromise their positions. The banks may have been having serious issues amongst themselves as to recover these loans, but the borrowers are never in a hurry to pay back, who now takes the blame, it is obvious it is the bank executives.
This singular action by the central bank must have sent the right signals to all bank debtors and I am most certain that debtors that have been incommunicado for years are all resurrecting suddenly with stacks of cash to run settle their debts because another Ribadu is in town.
All these remind me of Tunde Idiagbon, we can never move unless we are pushed and treated like animals. May be we can begin to understand why the police has to treat us the way they do, they are equally frustrated, they are all Nigerians, part of the insanity. It is only in Nigeria that a man without any weapon will challenge another with gun; life is no more worth living for so many.
I have always known and have stated clearly that Nigeria needed strong hands to pilot us for some time before intellectuals, we do not understand grammar, we understand koboko and language of force, common move!!!, idiot, it is our only working language, I guess it is working for Sanusi at least for now.
Our major problem as a nation is that we lack continuity. The gap between the poor and the rich has widened so much that all are now involved in this rat race, the mentality of grab without care. All of us that are shouting crucify the bankers are meddling in one illegality or the other, the only difference is that we have not been caught yet. Nigeria is a country of turn by turn; it is now a bad time for the banks, tomorrow may be for the traders, the civil servants, the corporate bodies, the students etc, there is so much wickedness all over the places
In the United Kingdom especially and all over the world, most colleges and Universities are now referred to as University of Nigeria. We are crying wolf on the visit of American President to Ghana but we are the first to agree that we are not worth anything to deserve such visit except that we are Nigeria, the most populous black nation on earth, rubbish. So many businesses in the UK owned by other nationals survive, thanks to Nigerians, we still do not see the visible hand writing on the wall, we all have gone maaad. I was not surprised to hear a Jewish man speaking Yoruba to me in a shop in Liverpool Street market in London, we have debased ourselves and the outsiders are laughing at our ignorance and milking us dry, we all have gone maaad.
I wanted to suggest that it is only God that can deliver us from all these but quickly I reminded myself that God has created all human beings in His image, He has done his work, we are all on our own. We all need deliverance, we all need to stop, both the leaders and the lead, we need to re-evaluate ourselves. We need to find a way to rediscover ourselves, build confidence and learn to be comfortable with each other again. If that does not happen and soon, we all shall over-boil and things shall really get out of hand. The massacre in the North, the militancy in the South South, the kidnapping in the South East shall all be child’s play. May be the President, the Legislators and the State governments shall then re-locate to some other parts of this world and administer the country from there. I will not be surprised tomorrow if a State governor is kidnapped, may be that would be the needed sign for us all to come out of this maddening trance.
If we do not stop the insanity going on today in all of us, let it be clear that no one will rescue us, our destiny lies in our hands and I do not care how insane we all have become.
I salute you all.
