There is time for everything under the sun. Time to plant. Time to uproot that which was planted. Time to kill, time to make alive. We have had good times as a nation.
We have had the time of surplus. When it was unfashionable to travel out of the country in search of greener pastures. When it wasn’t commonsensical to search for quality education outside Nigeria. We have had time when our naira was very strong and it was needless to kill ourselves for the American dollar. We had a life. A sweet life that earned us a place in Africa and beyond.
Then, Nigeria was the giant of Africa. The return to civilian rule in 1999 brought a ray of hope. We took a shot at a government of our own. Democracy was born and the lights were lit everywhere.
The ‘Ebora’ of Owu Kingdom, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, reigned for eight years and that was the end. Let’s give it to former President Obasanjo. He did well in some areas, but we will never forget that he laid a solid foundation for open corruption in Nigeria. He exalted the politics of money. He destroyed the conscience and sanity of a responsible National Assembly.
Moneybag politics was in vogue. Just to subvert and twist our constitution to suit his greed, he went for the men and women of low virtue in the National Assembly.
They attempted to take our constitution to the slaughter but God rescued us. Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua became a child of circumstance. He was a direct reward of long time camaraderie.
He reaped from the sweats of his late sibling, who was at a time a military officer of great reputation. He became the president shortly after he left Katsina as a governor.
Late Yar’Adua did his best. To be frank, he was the only honest leader Nigeria ever had since 1999. Condemning the election that brought him to power, his own verdict was better than that of the Supreme Court. He indicted Prof. Maurice Iwu-led Independent National Electoral Commission and Obasanjo, the president under whose watch such evil was perpetuated.
Yar’Adua didn’t waste time. He established the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, granted amnesty to militants and the unrest in the Niger Delta region went solo. His 7-Point Agenda were clear.
Unfortunately, we lost him to death. Although, his reign also brought some twists to our national life. And it almost threatened our collective prosperity before the doctrine of necessity was invoked. Democracy nearly became Monarchy.
President Goodluck Jonathan came to power to complete the remaining two years of his principal, who died in office. After all, there is no vacuum in nature.
He later thought it wise to run his own race, as opposed to his luck right from his childhood. He contested and won. Let’s nail it that President Jonathan had all it takes to salvage things. He had the best of hands in his cabinet.
He paraded some of our best. True to his name, he was lucky to have had a soothing economy. He reigned in a period of boom, but he didn’t save for the raining day like the biblical Joseph.
Instead, men and women with kleptomaniac fingers wrestled with our national purse, plundered everything till we went bankrupt.
Do I talk about incessant killings in the North-East? Or frequent down tools by the organized labour? We had gross mismanagement in his tenure.
After all, stealing isn’t corruption. Let’s give it to the man from Otuoke. He respected our collective wish. He left gloriously. He didn’t even challenge the imperfect system that produced the winner.
We had a president who allowed protest of any kind to go on. We had a president who believed his ambition wasn’t worth the life of any Nigerian. President Jonathan is indeed a great man despite his monumental flaws.
Then, entered President Muhammadu Buhari. Quite intense campaign, accusations and counter accusations, outlandish promises, outright lies or open propaganda brought our current president to power.
We were promised a change from the old order. N5,000 for the unemployed, massive employment, good roads, electricity, water and even good wives and husbands.
We were careful to have a glimpse when it took Baba Buhari six to eight months to get the likes of Adebayo Shittu, Solomon Dalung and Lai Mohammed to form his cabinet. We should have known then.
It’s half time and we are still not in the promise land. We are still fighting corruption and corruption is fighting back. We have killed Shekau and about 21 Chibok girls have been rescued.
Tactically, Boko Haram has been defeated, except that some have reincarnated to kill our best brains in the military. Go to the market, you will be shocked.
Thank God Aso Rock has organised task force to check the prices of commodities in the market. We must buy Nigeria to grow Nigeria, yet our president cannot rest in Daura again, but London.
We have been badly screwed and people like Governors Ayodele Fayose and Nyesom Wike are giving us ‘didn’t we warn you’ kind of look. I didn’t understand the import of Fela Kuti’s ‘’man dey suffer, he fit talk na condition, man dey suffer, he no fit talk na condition too,’’ until we have been tactically banned from protesting for suffering.
What could have made a onetime prosperous nation return to abject poverty? Truth be told, we all contributed to our downfall. Yes, all of us, in our little ways. We lost the future on the altar of greed, selfishness and corruption
It has never been this terrible. What could have made a onetime prosperous nation return to abject poverty? What could have happened to our sweet history? Who and what were responsible for the sharp and gradual decline? How did we toe this line of destruction?
Truth be told, we all contributed to our eventual downfall today. Yes, all of us, in our little ways. We lost the future on the altar of greed, selfishness and corruption.
More importantly, nature has gifted us our kind as leaders. They have shown ineptitudes. They are insensitive. Since we have less of natural disasters, we have been gifted with human disasters.
We can’t afford to dwell in hopelessness. We will sail through. Irrespective of how many Jews killed by this Hitler, we know he will die too. We know there will be light to this darkness. We will have our peace again and we will never trade it for pittances. Nigeria and Nigerians will survive eventually.
Abire, a post graduate student of Mass Communications, University of Benin, writes from Benin, Edo State
