THE DEVIL IS NIGERIAN. As the convoy of vehicles coasted by, thousands of spectators lined the streets chanting, singing and cheering to welcome the members of the international football governing body. Hordes of television crews, both international and local, meandered through the human sea, granting interviews and capturing the captions of numerous placards and most of them in Portuguese: Deus e Brasileiro read one placard as the cameraman focuses on the bearer of the sign. Deus e Brasileiro (God is a Brazilian) he beamed excitedly into the lens. Halfway across the globe, I viewed this spectacle on the tube and made 3 observations. Firstly, the fellow was black (his skin probably darker than mine). Secondly, he was about my age, but most striking was the enthusiasm with which he chanted his mantra, as if he believed God to actually be Brazilian. Being a Nigerian, I find it virtually impossible to imagine God as a Nigerian. To sum it up, a popular slogan in my locality says God na Eboh (God is a white man). While I reflected on this scenario, the words of Charles Dickens in his classics came to mind: it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness...; we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way.... I contemplated Nigeria, the giant of Africa and Brazil, the behemoth of South America. A paradox of two nations, very similar yet so different. The South American giant and the West African stalwart are the largest countries by population in their respective continents. The duo celebrates a rich black cultural heritage. The world-famed Brazil carnival has its ancestral roots in the Lagos carnival of the late 1800s. Geographically, both countries lie along the equator, enjoying a tropical climate with its characteristic high rainfall and lush forests. The Amazon River in South America has its correlates in the West African rivers Niger and Benue. Both nations are among the worlds largest producers of crude oil with Brazil ranked 12th and 13th position by quantity produced. Politically, these twin republics operate a presidential system of government and have adopted democratic leadership after 30 years of military rule. Brazil in 1988 and Nigeria, 11 years later. Flip the coin, and youll discover a different tale altogether. In a few weeks, Brazil will be hosting the largest sports festival on the planet, the FIFA World Cup. An attempt to host a tournament of such magnitude, not only tests the economic and infrastructural stability of a state but also a testament of the her maturity in organization and security, in order to cater to millions of visitors from all over the world. This is a stark contrast to the organizational ineptitude in Nigeria, where the recent recruitment exercise of the Nigerian Immigration Service ended in a complete fiasco, as scores of innocent and not so innocent were trampled to death. Surprisingly, not only did the insolent producers of this satirical episode refuse to accept responsibility of their show of shame, they had the temerity to blame the dead for their deaths with arguments like; they should not have come if they were pregnant; they shouldnt have come if they were hungry ad nauseam... Globally, much emphasis is laid on female empowerment and gender equality. Brazil in this regard boasts of a sitting female president; Ms. Dilmar Rouseff. I try to imagine a woman coming through the ranks to become the president in our male chauvinist dominated fatherland, where months ago, a bill was passed in the national assembly endorsing the right of patriarchs to take paediatric brides barely out of their diapers. Your guess is as good as mine. The last time a woman aspired to such lofty position, her dreams was truncated at the party primaries. Ms Sarah Jibril scored a miserable lone vote, the one she cast herself! Its little wonder Brazil has the seventh largest economy in the world today as due emphasis is laid on energy generation which is the backbone of business in the 21st century. The Lusophone country spent $51bn on electricity between 1998 and 2013 and increased its energy output from 61,000 megawatts to 114,000 megawatts of electricity, an upgrade of over 50, 000 megawatts. In a rather fiendish miracle, the giant of Africa has spent $25bn between 1999 and 2014 and has amazingly lost about 1,450 megawatts, a downgrade from 4,250 megawatts to 2,800 megawatts to cater for the energy needs of her over 160 million citizens, thereby ensuring the lowest power generation per capita in Africa. The etiology of this trend is no farfetched. Consider the Itaipu Dam in Brazil which is the largest dam on earth on the basis of power generation, accounts for a major chunk of the countrys energy production. It is also currently ranked as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. In a paradox of contradictions, Nigerias largest dam, the Kainji dam, has never functioned at full capacity, and its recent partial collapse was a major contributor to recent flood disasters that rendered hundreds of thousands destitute in their own country and sent thousands to their water graves. About 6 million tourists visit the Amazon forest annually, earning the country approximately $7bn annually. Also, vast coffee plantations ensure the Brazilians are the worlds largest exporter of coffee. Conversely, the Nigerian forests have become theatres of horror and terrorism training institutes as seen in the Soka and Sambisa forest in the South West and North Eastern regions respectively. The abysmal state of healthcare delivery system is no cause for concern to the government, provided the private jet flying elite class can go abroad on medical pilgrimages. It is a tragic irony that the nation ranked as Africans largest economy based on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has some of the worst indices of life expectancy and maternal and infant mortality rates. It is appalling to note that the West African economic juggernut is among the only 7 countries on the globe yet to eradicate polio, alongside the likes of Afghanistan who have been at war for the better part of the past three decades. Petrobras, the state controlled oil company in Brazil is ranked by international news network CNN as the 23rd largest corporation in the world, a far cry from Nigerias NNPC which has been plagued by sacrilegious mismanagement, and fraud of which the recent $20bn scam (or was it $50bn?) is just the latest in the long list. It is mind boggling that certain individuals can cart away $20bn [N3.14trn] of public funds in a country where federal universities were under lock and key for 6 months for want of just N130bn. It is not suprising that our leaders today play Russian roulette with the future of tomorrows leaders. Now students are either targets for terrorists to test their marksmanship in Buniyadi or as sacrificial lambs for savage burnt offering in Aluu. In spite of all these, our capital city was recently agog as drums were rolled out and the political class washed their hands to dine in celebration of the centenary anniversary of our social experiment even as the drums of war sounded and renegade herdsmen washed their hands in the blood of helpless villagers just over 300 kilometres away in Benue. To complete the saga, the condemner-general and consoler-in-chief of the federal republic, appears on state media to condemn the attacks and console the victims, reassuring them that the government is on top of the situation and the perpetuators will be brought to book. We sit and wonder when they will be brought to book or if the book even still exists. The pope may be Argentine, but God is Brazilian, is the slogan which depicts the prevailing national affect, as my imaginary Brazilian friend and his compatriots bask in the crests of ecstasy and exhalation, while my comrades tether ever so closer on the brink of apathy and despair even as national institutions collapse and laurels and encomiums are bestowed on villains past and present in extraneous ceremonies. Caution is thrown to the wind with no one taking responsibility and we blame it all on what we call the Nigerian factor. What is the Nigerian factor? My hypothesis is that even as we know that Ojuju is from Calabar, the devil might just be a Nigerian!
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 14:44:06 +0000
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