Dr. Lansana Gberie, my friend, a fellow political historian, a well-travelled journalist and author of The Dirty War in Sierra Leone, and I shared some fond memories reliving the tragic events which devastated his home country, Sierra Leone. I remember my boastful gestures to the effect that what befell his country could never happen in Nigeria, my beloved country. I indulged in comparing two countries with manifest differences in terms of origin, size and experiences. As the French aphorism goes, it is futile to place small and great things on the same pedestal and not expect disappointment (Il est vain de placer de petites et de grandes choses sur le même piédestal et ne pas attendre déception). President Goodluck Jonathan Reuters Nigeria has, evidently, fallen on bad times. If anyone had predicted that our country would dwarf Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan concerning daily occurrence of sordid events, he or she would have been dismissed as an amateur shaman or a desperate swindler. The pro-democracy struggles of the 90s, for which many of us suffered privation of varying degrees of injuries, with some unfortunate ones paying the ultimate price, could not have contemplated the disastrous consequences of our passivity and, sometimes, active connivance. Nigerians watched with trepidation as General Olusegun Obasanjo imposed a sick man and a mediocre personality on us as the President and the Vice President respectively. The man is, currently, pontificating on the best way possible to rule the country. He expresses regret, in a characteristic display of hypocrisy and mischief, on the state of things in the country today. History reserves for him and his cohorts a very harsh judgment. The impostors at the seat of power shocked the knowledgeable around the globe with a ludicrous claim that the country is the largest economy. They ignore the simple economic logic which places production at the base of any realistic economic development. A country that can hardly boast of 4000 megawatts of electricity, which prides itself on being about the only place in the world where importation is based mainly on what is produced locally, where life is the cheapest commodity and security seems an utopian possibility that no news is considered tragic and shocking any longer, celebrates her status as the importer of anything. Any article of trade, considered of little or no importance, finds acceptance in our country. Is it not shocking that some people, among whom are World Bank and IMF agents, will talk about rebasing an economy that is monolithic? Could there be any doubts with regard to the itinerary of this government? Is there anyone who still harbours any hope of redemption coming from these elements in government? Since the current handlers of our affairs have surpassed their predecessors in nation wrecking through unprecedented profligacy, recklessness bordering on banditry, must we continue to waste our time discussing the suitability or otherwise of having these directionless elements as our burden as a people? Who will deny the fact that the economy is comatose? All the commentaries on the state of the country, both informed and downright ignorant, appear to ignore the fact that the nature of the economy determines all other things. Insecurity, unemployment, thuggery, collapse of infrastructure, promotion of mediocrity in place of merit and other social vices, associated with evil spirits by commercial pastors, are symptoms of a failing state. Furthermore, empty postulations on Gross Domestic Product, GDP, and per capita income by IMF and World Bank pundits have been nothing other than dubious attempts by paid agents of the state to hoodwink the ignorant with figures which stand at variance with the harsh realities on ground. Talking about gross domestic product in a country where virtually all industries have folded up, where the generation of electricity has become a perennial campaign point and a veritable source of having slush funds for looting, where about 90% of the revenue is derivable from one source, crude oil and unemployment of the most critical segment of the population, the youths, has been embarrassingly high, making the claims of the current impostors a huge joke and, most importantly and deplorably, where there is seamless regression into the Hobbesian state of nature, is cruel. Can there be any better befitting epitaph on the cenotaph of the worst profligate government in the history of this government than this distressing anecdote? Giving this background, is it not tragic that the President, Goodluck Jonathan, is seeking to renew his mendacious mandate from the battered, dispossessed, and serially abused citizenry? How else can one explain this brazen disregard for the plight of Nigerians? What is democratic about this conscious expropriation of the commonwealth by a cabal?
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 14:06:45 +0000