I am not of the type who speaks and protest behind cubicle with sealed mouth. We owe it a civic responsibility to say the blunt truth even if others chose to look away and follow the route of “suffering and smiling”.
Our nascent democracy has on many occasions raped and butchered by political hyenas, saboteurs and electorates who sold their rights for penny and stand as accomplices.
As they drag the battered carcass of our nascent democracy, we may not look away for the fear of being hounded, gagged or to sound politically correct in the face of the drivers of iniquity and their abettors.
It’s quite unfortunate that we found ourselves in a country where those with power have no ideas, those with ideas have no power and when the latter tries to change the narrative, they are sabotaged, tagged political neophytes and fought by the same people whose future have been mortgaged by the saboteur that commissioned them to fight those that would have made a difference.
The latter’s spirit to make a difference must not wane, “the heroes of the world community are not those who withdraw when difficulties ensue, not those who can envision neither the prospect of success nor the consequence of failure but those who stand the heat of battle…” – Hubert H. Humphrey.
The current political ambience is that of political pawn whose major weapons are bait and sophistry to sell mediocre to the victimised people and have their way back to the temple of treasure, but sooner than later, the manacles will be broken, the drivers, cheerleaders and the accomplices of the sailors of iniquity will then realise that power is truly transient and the evil they propagated and left behind as legacy will surely be pinpointed in their names.
I am neither surprised of the unfolding events nor am I in anyway taken aback by the actions of the cheerleaders who are complicit of the misrule. I am a student of the age long axiom which holds, “the sway of misrule may carry as many as possible who wants to dine with the king who eats without building the future and holds the rights of the masses hostage except those that sing his praises, but as the kingdom lives, the king will definitely see his end in the throne he holds without planning to leave legacy project that will sing his praises when the commissioned praise singers look the other way.”
It is quite absurd that the supposed confluence of opportunities has been reduced to a mocking arena, the larger percentage of the people have long been cowed into stockholm syndrome, a perfect example of proverbial slaves who resorted to praising their oppressors to the high heaven for daily bread instead of continual struggle for emancipation and end of the manacles of hopelessness.
Unfortunately the youth who are supposed to drive the campaign of an end of the sorry situation are divided along ethnic lines throwing stones at each other while the larger percentage chose to mortgage their future through motorcycle and car gift and praise every wrong step of the government of the day.
Without prejudice, the so called ruling elites and the crop of politicians in the state who have chosen to pursue their personal interest and amass wealth at the expense of the poor masses are what H. L Menchen described as, “Jackasses running the democracy in form of religion and the state has become the worship of Jackals.”
This metaphor brought fore the extent to which Jackalism took to the lofty political space now run by opportunistic omnivores, predators and proficient scavengers like how jackals does at dawn and dust.
Umark Sadiq Azimazi was so true when he contends in his book, “Ebira at Crucial Crossroad”, that these set of people “managed everything through recklessness and with foolish belief that they will remain there forever.
They grounded the state and pushed us into a deep trap of no rescue but long lasting liquidity trap. The entire government activities appear to glorify morbid attachment and patronage of mediocrity and utter malfeasance.”
Without mincing words, it will be just to say that our problems started with our desertion of the path of honour which stands as the footprint of our forefathers who were known and respected for standing by truth and saying the truth to their ‘own’ and the power that be to protect family, community and tribal reputation which forms the basis of our historical lexicon.
Unfortunately, this has been conspicuously exterminated thereby genuflecting and picking up the vainglorious pursuit of worldly affairs.
Unequivocally, our greatest undoing is that we have within our reach everything it takes to be transformed into the most industrialized state in Nigeria, but somehow, each time there is one unfortunate thing standing on our way to greatness.
The hope for Nigeria nascent democracy was dashed by those that ought to have be its guard, it has been raped and butchered severally with the carcass oscillating in the jugular of political jackals.
As the unfolding event continues, we may not be able to wind back the hand of the clock they had set anticlockwise and undo all the damages they had inflected on us but we can surely take care of the future, as much as we can from this very spot.
But then, every discerning mind trying to make a difference must take a leaf from the invaluable words of Confucius, “our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
– Isah Bala
