Nigeria: The Illusion of Change

President Muhammadu Buhari; Nigeria's Leader

The main thrust of the PMB led government is the fight against corruption and appears to be gaining traction according to current perception. But is it? The government seems to think so. It released the sum of money already collected from corrupt officials sometime back but failed to tell the country who the crooks were. The government appears to have mastered the sensationalization of the corruption fight by using the media to accuse, prosecute and sentence its victims. Fighting corruption is one thing, but turning it into a soap opera is anachronistic.

The notion that government, or Nigeria's political elite, to which PMB belongs, can change the country for the better is a pipe dream. It is a fallacy and something we, as a people, must do away with in its entirety.  The notion that those benefitting from the country's prostration would willingly commit political or physical suicide in order to redeem the generality of the Nigerian people goes against human nature and tendencies. Prison officials or concentration camp overseers would hardly want to trade places with their wards.

In Nigeria, change of government often does not engender consideration or care for the poor, though citizens might be temporarily hoodwinked by the illusion of inclusion. The unwillingness or inability of the ruling elite to genuinely excoriate or judge itself is the reason why the recent call by Atiku Abubakar for a re-examination of our federalism should be viewed with suspicion.  Abubakar's suggestion is just babble, playing to the gallery or the effect of too much champagne.

Before the conclusion of the last presidential elections; I said nothing would change, noting that no matter who became president, Nigeria as presently constituted would continue to yield a master/servant relationship between the people and their leaders. The elites, by their divisive roles would continue to have too much power and the citizens would still be deprived of meaningful participation in their destiny. We do not have true political parties that are characterised by genuine Nigeria-based philosophies to help transform the country. All we have are political parrots that are able to mouth what they learned during conferences or studies in London, Washington or Paris without any form of relevance to the poor farmer in Ikot Ekpene. A quick test of their resolve soon reveals a shallowness that betrays their goals of pursuit of power and privilege, not service or upliftment of the citizenry.

To truly gauge a nation's progress one needs to examine the life of its most vulnerable citizens. Look at its children, women and young adults. An impartial observer must conclude that these demographics are the most brutalized, uncertain and stunted in Nigeria. And yet, they are those with the most potential to change the country because they represent the future.

Buhari was part of the military arm of the political elite that have held the country down for most of its history as a nation. Whatever stance, philosophy or mantra he chants today; whether it is anticorruption, an angelic cabinet, grazing rights for Fulanis, diversification of the economy or desire for a new Nigeria must align with the idiosyncrasies of these political elite - not common Nigerians.

To the average Nigerian, government officials and rulers are rare, distant entities to be gawked at on TV or at parade grounds. And yet, their powers and legitimacy are supposed to come from the people. As a citizen, you only need to try getting to the first gate (God knows how many gates they have) of Aso Rock (seat of government) in Abuja to understand the real distance between the people and their rulers in Nigeria. Contrast this with the fact that ordinary tourists (non-Americans) get to touch (some Americans actually jump over) the fence of the White House in Washington DC where arguably the most powerful president on the planet resides.

Buhari's anticorruption is both one-sided and  illusory,  and will ultimately fail because it does not address the root of Nigeria's problems, which includes but are not limited to a faulty, unequal and unfair federation that is based on a less than stellar constitution. A real fight should focus on strengthening people-oriented institutions (try renewing your passport) and laws that would make corruption more difficult. The government should impartially insist on the rule of law, an effective, efficient, self-regulating judiciary, and amendments to the constitution that guarantees equity, justice and the fundamental human rights of all Nigerians. Power must be given back to the people not potentates and their cohorts in the military, industrial and political class. For example, see what the people of Britain did to Cameron’s government.

Whenever people are denied basic human rights, education, and power to determine their destinies, tyranny usually takes over. When Nigerians talk of elections; which in reality are selections, you will think the exercise is the culmination of a cogent presentation of programs, solutions, accountability and participation by an educated and informed electorate. But this is hardly the case and that is why elections have become mini civil wars that eventually degenerate into internecine guerrilla warfare. There is a "winner takes it all" attitude that engenders political patronage and untold corruption, to the determent of our national progress.

The average Nigerian is not an empowered person but a parody of citizenship. Citizens are owed years of unpaid salaries without any explanation other than "no money", and yet, they are expected to go to work or face retrenchment.  According to a state governor, only 30% of those working in his state are needed, so government was just being nice to the other 70%! Yet, these buffoons go home with untold amounts of money as salaries, allowances and security votes. More than seventy percent of Nigeria's yearly expenditure goes to cater for government officials and their coteries. Though Nigerians appear to believe prima facie, that PMB is Spartan in disposition, but how about the untouchable people (so-called kitchen cabinet) he relies on to remain in Aso Rock?

For real change to come to Nigeria, the people must be able to put forth demands and actions that will overturn the present status quo. If change is going to come, it will not come from the top but from the bottom. Nigerians must put aside the petty issues that set them apart or against each other and direct their unreserved anger at the siren-blaring-good-for-nothing pieces of garbage, whose heels have been contemptuously placed on our collective necks for so long.

Has change started in Nigeria, in 2016? No! We have a long way to go and have not even started the journey yet. A country of over a hundred and sixty million, that has produced so-called "world-class doctors" and a president that had access to a clinic that enjoys almost limitless resources and yet was unable to handle an ear infection is purely retrogressive and no amount of self-adulatory grandstanding can change that.

Mummy Bridgette: A public lynching of Nigeria's Citizenship

Faces of the Alleged Kano Murderers

Last week a senior, was lynched in a market in the northern city of Kano in circumstances that are yet to be clarified. As usual, the people doing the lynching were Muslims and the person being lynched a Christian. 

The story goes that a young man in the evening of a particular market day decided to go to the front of Mummy Bridgette's shop to perform the customary washing done by Muslims before prayers. Irked by Mummy Bridgette's resistance to performing ablution in front of her shop, an argument ensued and the young man in typical fashion escalated the confrontation into a mob action by making the Muslim call on other potential murderers to come for the killing feast. Efforts by saner minds to intervene and calm things down failed and the elderly woman was eventually beaten to death right in front of her husband. 

Mob action and willingness to destroy Nigerians who profess other religions apart from Islam has been a recurring theme in Nigeria's quest for nationhood. The attitude of religious superiority is one of the clogs in the wheels of Nigeria's progress and the most ardent culprits are northern Muslims.

In 2001, a non-Muslim woman  traversing the prayer ground during Friday prayers ostensibly triggered the Jos riots that resulted in the killing of thousands from which the city has not yet recovered. Teachers and youth corpers have been lynched for carrying out official assignments without any form of justice meted out to culprits. 

The lynching of Christians or what northern mobs call "infidels" goes to the core of what the life of a citizen is worth in Nigeria. How many lives have to be sacrificed before meaningful actions are taken to forestall such occurrence, and why do organized mobs feel so confident in destroying other Nigerians at the slightest provocation? Why should other Nigerians live in fear of reprisals and death simply by acting out the rights of citizenship? Why does the average northerner think that southerners or non-Muslims are subhumans whose life can be extinguished without compunction?

When confronted with these questions, southern intellectuals and writers, especially those who think they have a stake in the Nigerian experiment bring up didactic improbabilities that suggest killing innocent people by northern Muslims is simple criminality that is similar to extrajudicial killings in other parts of the nation. They give examples of the Aluu four, the Abuja six and other nuanced occurrences to justify a clear religious and ethnic bias regarding killings involving Moslems/Hausa Fulani and others. 

No other form of deliberate genocidal behaviour in Nigeria reaches the extent and impunity of that visited by Moslems on non-Moslems. This is a country where the actions of a misguided cartoonist in Europe could result in you and your family being publicly barbecued alive on a whim, just because you are anything other than Muslim and/or Hausa/Fulani. We are gradually being forced to live according to Sharia laws and those who should know and defend the secularity of the Nigerian state are burying their heads under mounds of political correctness.

The Ramadan period appears to have brought out the worst in those bent on "dealing" with "infidels" in their midst.  A carpenter having his lunch was nearly killed recently in Kaduna by Muslim youths who felt "disrespected" that he was eating during Ramadan.  The government of Gambia has taken ridiculousness to the height of macabre by banning ceremonies, music and dancing during the "holy month of Ramadan."  This happens only in Africa, where the most self-hating species of humans on the planet abound. Not to be outdone, a Muslim body in Nigeria called MURIC (the Muslim Right Concern) has condemned this year's national youth service camp season as "unconstitutional" because the exercise happens to fall during Ramadan. Nigeria, according to these bigots should stand still for a personal proclivity such as Ramadan to pass. In the slangy west, this is truly a 'WTF' moment.

When you step back and view things from a neutral perspective, you will begin to appreciate the fact that on the average, the northerner understands his power and influence in the country. The northern oligarchy and their teeming mass of blind religious bigots act as if they own the country and therefore can do anything to anyone without consequence. For example, there are swathes of farmland and grassy areas in the north but you don't hear of Fulani men sacking villages in Kano, Sokoto, Daura, or Bauchi raping Hausa/Fulani women and children. The unwholesome tyranny is usually reserved for the "infidels" of parts of Taraba, Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, and the big prize - Southern Nigeria.

 What Mummy Bridgette said or did in Kano Market should not have mattered if the machinery of justice and equity of the Nigerian state was intact. But because Nigeria is unjust, iniquitous, and in a crucial sense, non-existent, the death of Mummy Bridgette has become another signpost on the road of our collective journey into perdition, unless something is done to change course.  Nigeria, as presently constituted, guarantees there would be many more Mummy Bridgette. Today, it is Mummy Bridgette, but tomorrow it could be you.

Fayose's Simple Logic

Recently, there were coordinated attacks in parts of Ekiti state with fatalities and the governor of the state, while addressing the affected communities vowed to protect the community. In addition to monetary help, Fayose referred to the fact that since the federal government of Nigeria was failing in its duties to protect lives and property it was time for self-help.

Without any equivocation, the governor banned the herding of animals in the state and sent a bill to the legislature to give the ban legal teeth. He also went ahead to convene a meeting of local hunters to constitute a vigilante group with authority to hunt down and kill herdsmen who might try to cause destruction in any guise. 

While his Benue and South Eastern counterparts were wringing their fingers watching hundreds of their citizens killed by faceless goons, Fayose decided to make provision for giving the bastards a dose of their medicine. Some called the governor's action crude, terrible and some even threatened to take him to court for denying the constitutional rights of Nigerians to live anywhere in the country. The constitution guarantees (on paper), that all Nigerians can live freely anywhere but it surely does not allow for killing innocent lives anywhere. 

If the governor is the chief security officer of a state then Fayose's actions is within the ambit of his duties, especially considering the fact that PMB appears flippant about addressing the murderous actions of Fulani herdsmen in the country. For example, the president acted as if nothing was happening in Benue State when herdsmen were killing hundreds of villagers while he was preparing for a trip to China sometime back. In saner countries, the incident was enough for him to cancel his trip in order to address a serious national issue. His spokesman, who sometimes puts his foot in his mouth when commenting on national issues, announced the president's reaction in a nonchalant statement. The president was going to China to solicit for a couple of billion dollars when studies have shown that the cost of Fulani herdsmen warfare within Nigeria is over 10 billion dollars yearly!

An indication that the steps taken by governor Fayose were right is that the legislature (House of Representatives) has now realized that the only nation that is lootable is the one that exists. 

In a recent move, the legislators called for investigations into the Oke-Ako Fulani attacks and directed release of relief materials to affected communities along with police deployment. The legislator who moved the motion stated that, "...The attacks if not curbed, would lead to reprisal attacks and imminent guerrilla warfare." Well, maybe that is what the country needs right now in order to curb the arrogance of the ruling political class. 

The legislator (Agboola) further stated that, "…The ‘back to farm’ slogan of the current administration to diversify the economy may not see the light of day, as farms were being destroyed by “uncoordinated grazing” in the country. Lives are randomly lost in these incessant attacks and sometimes in a dimension that is similar to genocide…"

                                                                                                                                    

The federal government obviously has a slogan, but it is not "back to farm", it is "die in farm." The government has been more concerned and active in dealing with cattle rustlers than securing the livelihood of farmers. 

Fayose, love him or hate him, has drawn a line in the sand and other affected states have no excuse for not dealing with their unwanted marauders. When a group determines that other lives do not matter in Nigeria and the federal government maintains a passive approach, then doing whatever is necessary to protect yourself is an intelligent approach to the perfidy.  It is one way of curbing the excesses of federal incoherence and perhaps save a failing nation.