By Tochukwu Ezukanma
\nAs usual, on October 1, 2019, Nigeria held her annual ritual: the
\ncommemoration of Nigerian independence. The day that was celebrated
\nfifty nine years after is October 1, 1960. On that historic day, the
\nNigerian Prime Minister, Alhaji Tafawa Belewa, concluded his speech
\nwith, \u201cI open a new chapter in the history of Nigeria and of the
\nCommonwealth, and indeed, of the world\u201d. Understandably, Nigerians were
\noverjoyed by the new chapter in human history that the prime minister
\nopened on that momentous day. They were proud of their nascent country.
\nThey were hopeful and optimistic because with her enormous mineral and
\nagricultural resources, and the most educated work force in sub-Saharan
\nAfrica, Nigeria was potentially \u201cAfrica\u2019s superpower and a stabilizing
\ndemocratic influence in the region\u201d.
\nLamentably, fifty nine years later, our pride in Nigeria has been
\nbattered, our hopes dashed and our optimism sullied. The entire spectrum
\nof the Nigerian society is troubled; every institution is dysfunctional.
\nThere is hunger and disease, violence and bloodletting, lawlessness and
\nstrife, in the land. The political class is contemptuously indifferent
\nto the plight of the Nigerian masses. Thus, social injustice and
\ninequity thrive; and the economic gulf between the elite and the masses
\ndeepens and widens. The level of corruption is terrifying, and threatens
\nto unravel the social fabric of the country. Not surprisingly, despite
\nits historic significant, the independence anniversary lost its luster
\nto many ordinary Nigerians. They find little or nothing worthy of
\ncelebration in an oil-rich country, where the generality of the masses
\nare consigned to ignorance, poverty, joblessness and hopelessness.
\nOn the other hand, in their total disconnect from the people they
\nsupposedly represent and serve, the power elite were, on that day, in a
\ncelebratory mood. Attired in meticulously spruced-up\u00a0 agbadas and
\nsheltered in the VIP dais, they gleefully relished the pomp and
\nspectacle of the occasion. After the event, the Senate President,
\nrhapsodically, declared to the press, \u201cNigeria at 59 has achieved a
\nlot\u201d. What achievement was he talking about? It must be this false sense
\nof achievement that informed that baffling and disgusting triumphalism
\nthat marked the event. And to the press, the Secretary to the Government
\npreached a disingenuous sermon, \u201cThe change must begin with each and
\nevery one of us. \u2026we must begin to change our attitude, our ways of
\ndoing things, become lawful citizen\u2026.\u201d His sermon was self-serving
\nsophistry because any realistic moral and ethical change must start from
\nthe top and filter down to the bottom. The change he demands must start
\nwith the power elite, not the masses.
\nThe Nigerian rulers should change; they must stop behaving like colonial
\nmasters or Apartheid elites, totally estranged from the plight and
\nyearnings of the people. They must change the present unconscionable
\nsystem that relegates Nigerian workers to vegetate on the lowest minimum
\nwages, and makes our legislators the highest paid legislators, in the
\nworld. State governors must stop embezzling between five hundred million
\nnaira (N500m) and one billion naira (N1, 000m) each, every month, as
\n\u201csecurity vote\u201d, in a country where 70% of the population live in
\npoverty, and some state government employees labor for months without
\nbeing paid their salaries.
\nNigerians are nostalgic for the 1960s and 1970s, when corruption was an
\naberration, and our leaders were relatively accountable to the people.
\nDespite the enormous powers of their offices, the likes of the prime
\nminister, Tafawa Belewa, and premier, Michael Okpara, remained
\nrelatively impecunious because they were not corrupt. Then, the
\nnotoriously, incorrigibly corrupt were accused of misappropriating ten
\npercent of the cost of government projects. \u201cNEPA\u201d \u201cdid not take light\u201d.
\nElectricity supply was virtually uninterrupted all year round. Street
\nlights functioned, almost faultlessly. They automatically came up at 6pm
\nand went off at 6am. It was when Nigerians respected the sanctity of
\nhuman life; and the levels of crime and violence were extremely low. In
\nthe days preceding the civil war, the police were not armed with guns;
\nthey could maintain law and order with just batons.
\nAcross board, academic standards were very high in Nigerian schools.
\nAdmission to the universities was on merit, not through bribe and
\nconnections. The lecturers were content with the impecuniosity of their
\nprestigious and venerated profession. Thus, they did not sell hand-outs,
\nsort out, trade good grades for money and sex. Nigerian universities met
\nglobal standards, and the University of Ibadan, especially, its medical
\nschool was world renowned. Nigerians were not as selfish and insatiable;
\nexpectations were modest and reasonable. Money was expected to be earned
\nbased on individual abilities and resourcefulness. Illegitimate wealth
\nand unexplainable riches were despised and excoriated.
\nUnfortunately, over the years, everything changed dramatically for the
\nworse; and at 59 years old, Nigeria is one of the most corrupt countries
\nof the world. Even, ordinarily, strongholds of morality and integrity,
\nlike the judiciary, academia and the church are corrupt in Nigeria.
\nThose in power are not accountable to the people, and have no qualms in
\nstealing everything within reach; they steal public funds with the
\nruthlessness that will flabbergast, even, the most vicious armed
\nrobbers. Electric supply collapsed and darkness holds sway over the
\ncountry. We lost our sense of outrage, and Nigeria degenerated to a
\nbastion of moral squalor honeycombed with bandits, kidnappers, killer
\nherdsmen, armed robbers, con artists, ritual killers, etc. An exhaustive
\ncatalog of the woes of Nigeria is beyond the scope of this article. The
\npoint however is that without being figurative or hyperbolic, Nigeria is
\ntotally \u201cjaga jaga\u201d and everything about her, totally \u201cskata skata\u201d.
\nTherefore, October 1, 2019 should not have been a day of celebration,
\nbut lamentation. We should have lamented the unfulfilled potentials of
\nNigeria and the indescribable rot and wretchedness that engulfed our
\nbeloved country.<\/p>\n
A onetime American Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, once summed
\nit up, \u201cThey (the Nigerian ruling elite) have squandered their oil
\nwealth, they have allowed corruption to fester and now they are losing
\ncontrol of parts of their territory because they won\u2019t make hard
\nchoices\u201d. It is the refusal to make hard choices by a series of
\nirresponsible and corrupt governments that explains our seemingly
\nintractable multi-facet problems. With the much-hyped selflessness,
\nincorruptibility and gutsiness of Mohammadu Buhari, Nigerians
\njustifiably expected his presidency to be a watershed: a break from the
\npast. This did not happen because he refused to make hard choices.<\/p>\n
He cannot make hard choices because President Buhari and his entourage,
\nand the shady and self-seeking cabal that pulls the oligarchic strings
\nfrom behind the fa\u00e7ade of democracy are benefiting from the anarchy and
\ncorruption that suffuse the land.<\/p>\n