Elementary social studies taught us that the essence of government was the welfare and security of the people. Government is that entity to whom the people surrender their freedom in exchange for protection. Before Western political thought birthed social contract as a concept, Africans, if not people everywhere, had lived in organized societies and their lives were regulated, functional and fulfilled. People everywhere had their lore and mores before the imperial intrusion. The presence of an African civilization thousands of years ago attests to the socio-economic cum political worldview which would have evolved in a wholesome manner, but for the accident of history that torpedoed the natural transition. The new order which assailed our forebears centuries ago eroded the African genius. Our past, no matter how distant, as Chinua Achebe aptly puts it, “was not one long night of savagery from which the first Whiteman acting on God’s behalf came to deliver us”. The African past, which the colonizers denigrated, recorded great moments of flourish. There was governance albeit different from what Europe foisted on us. There was an economy. There was socialization. So were education, arts and sports. Verbal arts, the most relevant index of civilization, were in excess in songs, proverbs, folktales, myths, legends and mores. There was agriculture and our ancestors could tell the seasons and know at dawn whether it was going to rain or not. They conjured rain and also stopped it from pouring. They put the sun and the moon at their service. Our mothers had culinary skills unknown to other humanity. We were also spiritual and the essence of our spirituality ensured that everything was rational and life achieved an equilibrium that augured well for all. There were those who prospered and there were those who got pauperized on their own account. Stealing and corruption was minimal and whenever it reared its shameful head the spiritual retribution came in a flash.
The advent of colonialism and Western civilization altered everything about us and arrested our march to greatness. The new order that assailed Africa ruptured that past and led us in the direction of today’s destitution. Yes, ours has become a destitute condition. All that our people stood for hundreds of years ago had become will o’ the wisp and today we are grounded and stranded on the road to the meeting place of civilization which is now defined by Western standards. Where is African civilization? Where is the authentic African way of life? They have all been derailed, lost and no more. But for that derailment we would have made giant strides on our path like the Chinese and Japanese have done and like the Indians too are doing now, but we lost our way. Today, we are in distress as a people and only those with political power and their allies are enjoying relief. The old order that we lost at the onset of colonialism, imperfect as it was, would have engendered prosperity and fulfillment. There would have been no manipulations of our lives and the way things are supposed to be done. We probably would not be talking about petroleum subsidy and its removal. There would have been no crude oil theft. The devaluing and floating of the naira, our currency and the symbol of our economic being, would not have been. Our roads would have been in good condition. Our schools and hospitals would have been among the best in the world. Our youths would not have thought of “japa”. They would have remained here and deploy their talent and energy to develop the land.
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Sadly, the foregoing has been our lot because we lost our way. The Ghanaian novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah painfully lamented the loss of the way in Two Thousand Seasons, an epic novel which rues the consequences of the different eras of intrusion into Arica by foreigners. We jettisoned our creed and embraced a strange way that corrupted us. If we hadn’t abandoned our creed would there have been corruption and all the other ills plaguing us today? The answer is left to conjecture. And if there was there would have been sanctions to deter them from festering. In the days of yore, there were sanctions, spiritual and physical, that prevented the kind of deeds that brought us here. Crude oil thieves would have received their comeuppance just like corrupt government officials, deceitful tycoons and all those who thrive through excess profiteering would have slept and not woken up. They would also have had swollen feet and stomach and be dragged to the evil forest. Those fortunate to survive would have undergone expiation. Our society would have been the better for it. But we lost our way and the potency of what was once upon a time and here we are disillusioned with our land lying prostrate like a wasteland.
I do not know whether to concur with the thinking that Nigerians have been subjected to the worst form of suffering. The present state of ultra-disillusionment has cast a pall on the landscape and we have become in the words of Ola Rotimi “the living dead”. My inability to agree with the thinking that we are experiencing the worst of suffering hinges on the fear of the unknown, which is what tomorrow really is. Our lot in the last forty years has been patterned in a manner that when we thought we had seen the worst of our situation something more devastating than worst pops up and we look back with nostalgia at that era that we thought was awful. It appears that some malevolent forces have programmed us for suffering and would not yield or let go until we were extinguished.
Lexicographers need to invent appropriate lexical items to describe our present ordeal. A few years ago, Nigeria was said to have dipped into multi-dimensional poverty as the country took the trophy of the world’s poverty capital. Condition of living, insecurity, poverty and allied indices have plummeted to frightening depths that are worse than when our country was said to be multi-dimensionally poor. What then is our condition now? Is there a name or descriptive phrase for it?
What is apparent at the moment is that those who should run the affairs of state and ensure our security and welfare have given up on us. We have become dispensable variables in their reckoning. We no longer matter. That was why the pronouncement “subsidy is gone” was made without taking the opinions of stakeholders into consideration. The pains of the moment derive from that catastrophic pronouncement. Gone with subsidy was less than the little ray of hope that the citizens held onto in the last eight years. The one who promised us change offered us chains and abandoned us. The one who told us about “renewed hope” has rendered us hopeless because he has also given up on us. Nothing seems to be adding up for him. The chaos and disaster that the country has become manifest daily as lives no longer matter. Law enforcement is near zero and those who should set things right have themselves become the violators of the ideal. We are being asphyxiated. For how long can Nigeria survive this downward spiraling? Hope is dimming and the light is fading fast. Nigerians must see and sense what is at stake and begin the process of national rebirth now. No one else will do it for us. We must reclaim Nigeria and turn it around. The time for this onerous task is now. Time is ticking. If truly they have given up on us, shall we give up upon ourselves? No.
