A Voice Against The Voices

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It is often said that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”. For a leader to be considered any good, he or she must make sure to listen and to do the will of his subjects. In a progressive family, the father makes the final decision but in doing so, a good father will always listen to the opinion of his wife and that of his children. Afterwards, he makes sure to carry everyone along. This is the ideal model for leadership.

However, while the above is a simple thing to do, it is also a hard thing to follow through. In Nigeria, those elected and selected into political office rarely listen to the plight of the masses. In fact, statistics that suit the masses are readily discarded while on the other hand, whatever statistics that puts the government in limelight is well received. That explains why Kankara school boy’s rescue story had too many claimant. While the government is made up of only a few member of the society, they are responsible for almost all that goes on within.

The voice against voices is a journey into many tales which reveals lies told by one entity against a whole. It is also a story that ultimately calls the people a fool all of the time. It is about telling the story of a people as though the teller knows better than they.

In the year 2020, the government of Nigeria told a lie against her subjects. Through the distinguished office of the minister of information, Nigerians were told that peace had returned to the northeast. Furthermore, Nigerians were told to be thankful to his Excellency for a decrease in daily bombing. At least, it is better to be kidnapped than to be bombed right? Since peace has returned to Borno state, Reno Omokri is willing to pay a certain minister a whooping sum of $30,000 if he is willing to sleep over in one of the troubled region. Hopefully, someday we will see the end of this.

When the people complain, a leader and his entire team are supposed to listen instead of lashing back at them as nay-sayers. Without doubt, any fellow who is familiar with the Nigeria before and the Nigeria now will agree that the loopholes are becoming far too many to contain.

Even if it counts for nothing, the recent #EndSARS protest is a pointer to the simple fact that Nigerians are not satisfied with their leaders. The ruling class in her wisdom tagged the protest as a ploy against the north. While this claim remains a delicate item to meddle with, the fact still remains that Nigerians have never had it this bad. However, when the world was alerted, the voice of the government reigned supremely above the masses. The massacre story was thrown to the dustbin. However, ‘all of the people cannot be fooled all of the time’, according to the words of late Lucky Dube.

On the 26th of December 2020, Bishop Mathew Kukah had this to say summarily about the current administration ‘if the south had practiced so much nepotism as evident in the President Muhammadu Buhari era, there would have been a coup’.

While this of course seems to hold basic truth, the representatives of the government took it in bad fate. They warned the cleric and as usual wrote their own story. If only Femi Adeshina had published the names of the southerners who got juicy political offices, maybe there would have been no need to cry foul.

Many are the agitations from various quarters of the country and few are the defendant of them all. Ironically, these few are suppose to know better. Since it is a crime to disagree with the government sometimes, anyone doing so should be ready to be called a whore or a bastard at least.

Regardless, the government is primarily for, by and of the people. The people ought to have a big say and should never be chickened out at any point. However, while the custodian of the peoples mandate continue to defend the government, they should remember that nothing last forever.

They should be fair and admit fault whenever they err. After all, no knows it all and no one has ever done it all.

– Olayinka Kayode Kingsley
Email: olayinkakayodekingsley@gmail.com


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