Are we safe?

The drama ended abruptly on Monday the Sixteenth of January, when the Federal Government shifted grounds and instead of the previous raise to one hundred and forty-one Naira, it moved it to ninety seven Naira. Organised labour capitulated, well some still insist that it was a sell out, and the industrial action was suspended - we know better.

Whether the action taking by Nigerians who came out in their multitudes to denounce governments wastefulness is a success would be hard to tell. Especially knowing that the government is a good negotiator and would have had it in mind to shift grounds somewhere along the line when the mess of the removal of the subsidy hit the fan.
For a much detailed expository of my thoughts on the issue please refer to http://sheyhunsays.blogspot.com/2012/01/why-blame-president.html.

I won;t bother trying to explain the already explained. Only that I have so many questions I wish would be answered by those who are styled as leaders but who do little to advance the emancipation of their people from slavery - leaders who would rather spend their days devising ways to keep the led in perpetual mental and physical captivity. But then I have these questions I can't ask  the leaders- what would they have to say that would convince us otherwise of what their actions tell us? Can I ask the led?- their perspective is already tainted by poverty, lack of education, repressed psyche and lack of objectivity in gathering information.

Now I am getting so far ahead of myself it is becoming difficult to stay focused. How the heck am I supposed to keep focused or calm when the government can't deal decisively with threats to lives of citizens by the terrorist fanatic sect in the Northern part of the country, but it can unleash the military to tear gas a group of harmless demonstrators protesting the anomaly  of governance. How do I keep a focused mind when after having paid for a pre-paid meter, five years later you still haven't seen it because there is a conspiracy to make you pay up to 4 timesmore than the amount you have used up. How do I shut up when a thirty one year old guy, who could have been me considering that I also work in the media, was shot dead while at work as a journalist gathering information for his employer. How the ....... Okay let me just bone. The more I write the more furious I seem to be getting.

Yes I do love this country. But with the rot that is eating into the very nerves that connect the body parts to the heart, it is becoming increasingly very difficult to really stay the love. Gosh!

God save Nigeria!

Why blame the president?

It's been more than a week of multitude display of emotions in words and actions by friends and fellow countrymen at home and in the diaspora over the recent fuel price hike. We all sound so passionate and eloquent in baring our thoughts. If words and emotions have brought regimes to a halt/demise in the recent history of the world ('Arab Spring' in mind, which happened just about a year ago); the present Nigerian government would have been history within the last couple of days. Well, with the on-going nationwide protests over the fuel subsidy removal, the outcome of the industrial strike action is labouring in the womb of time. Nevertheless, from ensuing arguments and counter-arguments across the numerous social media sites, I cease to pass the bulk of the blame on President G. Jonathan alone for the present situation in the country. Simply put; do I blame President G. Jonathan? No!

While the current president appears weak and clueless in the face of the anomie beguiling the nation, I blame Nigerians; you and me for our present predicament. It is the misplacement of our priorities over the years that has enabled the rise of the quality of people at the helm. My country has had, for a long time, this 'insensitive' hike amongst other things coming her way. This is the dividend for voting with so much bias, sentiments of all sorts that eventually lead to political 'selection' rather than viable 'election'. Times without number our reasons for going to the polls are not based on sound judgement and clear articulation of the needs of the nation. We think with our 'stomachs' in contrast to the warning signs in our heads. History they say repeats itself but with Nigerians it means nothing because we are too fickle-minded to remember, not to talk of learning. Hence charlatans and intellectually barren politicians hold sway over millions of us year in, year out.

An average Nigerian is so conditioned by decades of austere economic measures that he/she has developed a thick skin towards the problems or wellbeing of his/her neighbour, and the nation as a whole. We are solely concerned with our household alone. This reminds me of a Yoruba chant by supporters of one of the political parties during the Second Republic: 'I'm well fed (x2), I don't know/care if my neighbour/anyone is hungry'; i.e. once my family is well fed, I don't care about others. Is this social behavioural malaise the fault of President Jonathan and his cabal at the FEC? The absence of genuine love and humane predisposition to one another is part of the cancer that has eaten into the fabric of our nation. It is our way of life that enables the powerful and those in government manipulate, at will, the lot of us at the lower rung of the national ladder.

Nigeria is a blessed country and her people are so religious and full of piety. However, these religious sentiments that equally clouds our reasoning and obscures our vision of followership does more harm than good to the nation. In the spate of recent protests and outbursts by all and sundry, a large percentage of our spiritual leaders have been mute; save a few whom we heard joined the protests. Where are the shepherds when the flock needs their protection and guidance from the wolf? This is just true of what has befallen our society today. We flock around one another in times of plenty and quickly take to our heels when adversity sets in. Sadly, it is everyman for himself in Nigeria. Religion is ridiculed; our genuine faith in God is questioned. This is the jungle we have made our country become. We have become Babel of voices, disunity reigns supreme. And like J.P Clark's The Raft, the nation has been teetering in turbulent waters for decades.

We are responsible for this great disservice to Nigeria. Our unhealthy habits: of nonchalance towards our state of affairs as a people, our self-centred attitude over the years, disenfranchising ourselves at the poll for "handouts" from politicians and communal heads at city/town hall meetings, our continued celebration and veneration of mediocrity because the candidate is my brother, sister or friend; baseless expressions of tribal or religious sentiments on state and national issues. We are too busy in our own world to ask viable questions about how we are being governed. The differences among us are being manipulated to exploit us. The diversity of the multi-ethnic peoples of the nation should be a great bonus to Nigeria; instead disunity, distrust and insincerity are the orders of the day in our diversity. We have made it become so easy for the government to set cats among the pigeons to achieve ends that continue to subjugate the populace.

So why should I blame President Jonathan and Co. for taking advantage of our incessant myopia? Obviously, this is a character who has been riding on the back of his superior officers' agenda ( Alamasiegha and Yar'Adua), until fate gave him his day/tenure to chart a positive developmental course for his fatherland in a rapidly revolutionizing world. But like a true mediocre, which piggybacked his way to the top, he has been found out as a stooge, an opportunist (with sermonizing stories of a shoeless childhood); and his display of gross ineptitude and incapability. Yet we cast our votes for the same lame duck, who failed in his first term of about 2-years after the demise of President Umar Musa Yar'Adua in May, 2010. He made promises of constant power supply and improved standard of living in the latter part of the Yar'Adua regime which he inherited but he never made good his promises. In contrast, when he raised the motion for fuel subsidy removal, it was swiftly implemented within a short space of time. More so, without adequate consultation and temporary palliative measures in place for the good of all. These are the kind of characters and degenerating situations that selfishness and 'I-don't-care' attitudes often displayed by citizens of a nation towards personal, communal, national affairs and citizens' wellbeing breeds.

Our collective responsibility for one another has to be re-ignited. We need to cultivate the feeling of brotherhood, shun tribal sentiments and above all religious manipulations and blind followership. The time is now, to wrestle the reins of leadership from President *'Esu and his vagabond FEC minstrels'. God save Nigeria!!!

*The Raft is a play written by J.P. Clark; it is a metaphorical play about the state of a nation on the brink of disintegration.

*Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels is a play written by Femi Osofisan; where Esu is characterised as 'the trickster' deity in the Yoruba pantheon of gods. In the play, Esu deploys his manipulative powers over the minstrels in their tribulations and wanderings.

Muheez
(Twitter: @m_careca5)

For the eagle in you!

Don't spend major time with minor people. If there are people in your life that continually disappoint you, break promises, stomp on your dreams, too judgmental, have different values and don't give their backing during difficult times...that is not a friend.

To have a friend, be a friend. Sometimes in life as you grow, your friends will either grow or go. Surround yourself with people who reflect values, goals interests and lifestyle.

Over the years my phone book has changed because I changed for the better. At first you think you're going to be alone, but after a while new people show up in your life that make your life so much sweeter and easier to endure.

Remember what your elders used to say, "Birds of a feather flock together. If you're an eagle, don't hang around chickens: Chickens Can't Fly! 

To the very best of years yet ever - Happy New Year!

NB

* I don't know who authored this but it sure does serve a good purpose on a day like this.