A couple of weeks prior to the unexciting and electioneering ritual of 2023- this is of course subject opinion, the masses had one wish—that things be better. After all, and for many Nigerians, the then President, Buhari’s “change” mantra was a journey of decline.
Despite the too many discouraging past, millions of Nigerians, harmed with voters card, got on the street hoping to change the tide for the better. Change is not assuring, For it sometimes announce arrival as progress or regress.
It wouldn’t be malicious to say that the current administration has, in so many ways, worsened an already bad situation left behind by—I suppose we have a long list of bad leaders. It’s a sad thing to have an ineffective leader, and it’s more saddening to have such a leader surrounded by an army of supposed advisers whose only service to Nigerians is summarized thus: “They can go on with protesting, we shall go on with the merry.” Indeed, this is Nigeria—a place where political leaders are more concerned with taking on new debts while ensuring that even when the beautiful ones get born, they’re already dedicated to a third world deity nicknamed IMF loan, World Bank Grant- a debt with no advantage whatsoever except death.
Sadly, while the leaders loot in peace and unity, the masses are fed with miniature issues such as Toke Makinwa’s baby bump. Listen, i have seen ethnocentrism in action. I have heard men say “No be omo Igbo, na dem dey sell drugs for obodo”. What about the yoruba man who simply called one of Late Fela’s son a fool for getting married to an Igbo”
. “Ah, who do us like this na?” To be more concerned with small things is to simply say, “I am less satisfied with all the rubbish.” Many Nigerians know very little about a given subject. For instance, many Nigerians don’t even know that they have a right tofair hearing. Simply put, Most Nigerians are, for the most part, loud and ignorant. They seem aware but very shallow.
Soon, another electioneering ritual will be upon us to make our collective choices known. Again, our choices shall reveal our level of awareness—an awareness often reliant on ethnocentrism, our turn-kind of politics, bias, corruption… A foolish man prepares for a wedding while neglecting the marriage. Come 2027, when we speak, I hope that we do not speak like a newly married foolish man who suddenly says to the wife, “Tonight, there’s no food. I spent all that’s there so that we can have a beautiful wedding.”
-Olayinka Kayode writes from Ogun, Nigeria.
