It is no longer in dispute that the Nigerian elite have failed spectacularly. Big time, and in historic manner. By their complete irresponsibility, Nigeria, a jewel in the sun, with high promise and high optimism at independence, has been brought to her knees by blunders committed by her elite, the very group that should have fulfilled its promise.
Nigeria today lies prostrate, at the bottom of every developmental ladder, ridiculed abroad for its supreme contradiction of stupendous potential and scant achievement.
In fact, the country has been retrogressing. Despite all the wealth that has come unearned, into the country, the elite have contrived to create a monstrosity, a curio, an entity that defies all logic in all the things she routinely introduces to the world.
These grim facts are no longer contestable. This writer is one of the most patriotic Nigerians alive. I am also an optimist. But the wounds and the confusion at this point in time are truly horrendous and mind numbing.
Corruption has taken on an unheard of dimension, threatening the very existence of the state. Like a shadowy alternative government. Gradually, governments around the country (and regardless of what we think, there are several governments around the country though the followership in their indolence routinely focus on only one, the Federal Government. We have one Federal Government, 36 state governments and 774 local governments.
That is 811 different governments! Add the FCT administration and we have 812 governments. Yet there is failure of governance everywhere. What governments should provide are routinely undertaken by non government actors.
Militias provide security while the country is being run on generators. Landlords associations build and maintain roads that local governments should build. State governments re-build and maintain trunk A road, properly the purview of the Federal Government, for which humongous funds are allocated.
All these are governments that should cover for failure of another tier. But no. Almost all governments have derailed and abandoned governance, so much so that they sometimes take on the hue of organised crime. The Nigerian elite worked some strange things into the constitution so that most of the heist are done in accordance with the letter of the Law. Security votes are allocated to governors. Lawmakers earn the highest in the world.
Budgets are made (from funds meant for the welfare of the people), for feeding in government houses, running into millions.
How can a country run along these lines be financially stable? How can it provide infrastructure on which a country’s development is based?
Add to all these is the childish inability of the Nigerian political class to clobber up an elite consensus for the development of the country. Put in simple words, the elite could not come together to manage their greed. Due to lack of Vision, the elite mismanaged the country so much that the masses, who ordinarily are satisfied with the basics, have begun to notice and have started to take revenge. Revenge war of all against all.
Boko Haram was an early sign of the dissatisfaction of the masses against the ruling class. Militancy upped the ante. And finally now, free-wheeling, country wide kidnapping for ransom has finally put it beyond all doubt what the masses think of this country and the performance of its leaders.
The fact that a section of the elite, especially the political faction that is presently out of government, have chosen to weaponise all these signs of impending explosion of violence does not detract from the fact that actually, what is happening, the near state of anarchy, is NOT a Fulani matter. Truth be told, all the lumpen proletariat around the country are involved. They have finally had enough.
It wears no toga of religion or tribe. The downtrodden have just realised that they have options to help themselves, Rather than relying on the lies of the failed politicians.
Anyone who doubts this analysis of the general mindless criminality as being a revenge of the oppressed should just listen to, and explain to us, the news coming out of Zamfara that : “ Bandits commanders agree to suspend attacks in Zamfara after dialogue with state government, security officials…”
Just imagine this. Government and security officials meeting with “bandit commanders” and lobbying them to please suspend attacks.
This is a clear sign that the marginalised people of all tribes (Not just the Fulani) and all professionals (not just “herdsmen’) are at last coming into their own. It is also a sign that a faction of the failed ruling class has finally acknowledged their failure and put themselves at the mercy of the bandits.
It is selfish and cruel to weaponise the death of Mrs. Funke Olakunri, the daughter of the Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti.
For sure, the rebellion of the poor has taken on a new twist at least seven years previous to now. While swathes of the country was carved out into ungoverned areas, like the Sambisa forest, kidnapping became a cottage industry for others around the country.
Before the murder in Ore, Zamfara mentioned above had been a hotbed of rebel authority.
Just this week, indiscriminate killings have taken place in Zamfara as well as Sokoto. Is that a Muslim agenda? The killers in Sokoto, seat of the caliphate, seat of the kingdom of that great Muslim Fulani leader, Dan Fodio, is that where the Fulani would fight their fulanization war? Zamfara, origin of the shariah debacle, is that where the killings would go on?
It is a historic failure of the fourth estate of the realm that they continue to feed the fantasy that APC or Buhari is to blame for the general break down. 812 governments have failed us, and that is the truth.
And, as the carving out of ungoverned spaces have shown, it is a rebellion of the misgoverned masses.
It is disgraceful that our pressmen, the columnists and the publishers have not cottoned on to the Truth, nor have they realised what is happening.
A pity, because until the problem is properly diagnosed, a correct solution cannot come.
All these agitation is a call on the Nigerian elite for good governance, and a renegotiation of our union, for a more perfect union. So, it can be said that whatever is being done are mere palliatives.
Without a Sovereign National Conference, to renegotiate Nigeria and the terms of our existence, we shall continue to grope in political wilderness.
Nigeria has walked away many times after being pronounced dead by political pundits. We do manage to defy political pundits and rise from the ashes of near death many times. Nigeria is an acknowledged past master of political NDE (Near Death Experience).
Many times, Nigeria has walked to the edge of the cataclysmic political Armageddon and danced on the edge for long periods, putting everyone around the world into anxiety. But at the last minute, Nigeria always manages to dance away from the edge. Not solving the problem, but not falling off the edge either.
But this may be the last chance to dance to the edge of the precipice and then be allowed to dance back unharmed.
The way to go is a National Dialogue. The aim should be to return to the 1963 Constitution under which Nigeria achieved its greatest development. That should be the minimum; a kind of re-calibration of the country.
This should be a better bargain than the Zamfara template of separate governors cutting separate deals with warlords: the bandit commanders.
This is the best way, short of allowing the situation to simmer so long that a Jerry Rawlings will become the attractive option. And let no one kid himself that if the situation is left unattended for a few more months, a Jerry Rawlings solution may be preferred by some who will take the law in to their hands…
We do not pray for such, surely?
