UNCLE MIKE’S CORNER
With Mike Ikem Umealo
21-03-2014
When Are We Standing Up?
By Mike Ikem Umealo
If Nigeria is to be Free from the shackles that hold it down, every
one of us must play a deeper and more proactive role:
One hundred years ago this year in 1914, the amalgamation of the
Northern and Southern Protectorates formed a Nation and thus created the
country Nigeria of which we celebrate her Centenary this year. When we look
back at the names of the men and woman who were honoured by the president on
the occasion of this celebration, we would see their different struggles to
help build their country; I don't personally believe that any Nigerian leader,
past or present came to power to destroy Nigeria. True though, their ideas and
policies and actions may have been detrimental to the growth of Nigeria, but
never intentional. From 1914 till date, Nigeria has struggled. First, it was
the struggle for independence, but with political independence secured,
economic independence remains a dream to so many of our country's population.
But there is no denying the fact that our story is the story of every people
struggling for one form of freedom or another. The history of Nigeria is well
in line with the notion that Africa has been one of the most exploited continents
in the history of the world. It was once termed the "Dark Continent."
And Nigeria as an integral part of Africa with the highest concentration of
black people than any other nation on earth has suffered all of the pain and
affliction that could be mustered up by other nations. Sometime, I think that
there is a facile connection with all the lowest standards that we can think
about, and the fact that it has been brought into being by the exploitation
inflicted upon Nigeria by the colonial masters; but 54 years is enough for
"self-salvation". Perhaps the irony of the centenary celebration is
that, while most nations celebrate when they became free, Nigeria is indeed
celebrating when their bondage began; and how we have remained in it. In a
typical year, Nigeria budgets N4.9
trillion. N10 trillion in revenue minus
N4.9 trillion budgeted you have about
N5 trillion out there for politicians to play with. If we were to share the N10
trillion naira revenue amongst 170 million Nigerians, every citizen should get N59,000.00 naira each. A typical family of
six will get N354,000.00 a year. So, if
you ask me: does Nigeria owe me? I could say No! But certainly, Gowon owes me,
Obasanjo, Shagari, Buhari, owe me, IBB, Abacha Family, Abubakar, and (for
personal reasons, I wish to leave Yar'Adua out of this) President Jonathan owes
me too. So like me, one day, Nigerians are going to get out their calculators
and add up these figures and start making personal demands for payment; the
treasury is not empty so why is there poverty in the land? Why all the
sufferings? I am tired of the contempt that the Nigerian government has always
shown Nigerians. It is an all-out assault on our rights as both citizens of
Nigeria and as human beings in general, to voice, dissent and challenge social,
economic and political obstacles that hinder our progress, threaten our lives
and derail our destiny. To the point that a huge sum as much as $20bn (twenty
billion US dollars) could be missing and the government is yet to address the
issue. Surely, the government wants us dumb, silent, docile and compliant. Now,
those of us who live in affluent Nigeria tend to ignore those who exist in poor
Nigeria. In doing so, the affluent Nigerians will eventually have to face
themselves with the question that our present leaders chose to ignore: How
responsible am I for the well-being of my fellow citizens? We can't dodge that
question much longer. And that is precisely why I don't hold the leaders solely
responsible for the overall mess in the land; what have you done to uplift
another, even as we face the same enemy- inept leadership? You as a Nigerian,
if you are just concerned only about your own family and self, how can you be
concerned about the folks in Maiduguri, Kano, Aba, or Enugu? Is this not why
certain individuals engage in the madness of Kidnapping, suicide bombing and
armed robbery without the slightest sense of penitence? Is this not why the
murder of your own family member elicits personal outrage and vengeance, but
murders of your own fellow citizens, just like the "ALUU 4" or the
massacre of 43 school children in February by Boko Haram, though a heinous
crime against humanity, is treated by the people as: "the government
should do something?" When the history of Nigeria will be written by those
of us who are omitted to the Cause, it will have to record that the greatest
tragedy of this period of our economic and political as well as social
challenges was not the constant call for "government to do
something," but the appalling inability of individuals to stand against
collective injustice, even if they were standing alone. Sadly, every one of us
is out, with the coat of "what is in it for me" hanging on our
shoulders. This has encouraged a rush for the national cake such that it has
developed into a very unhealthy rivalry and selfishness that inspires men to be
more concerned about making a living than making a life and if possible destroy
other lives in the process. The one evil thing about corruption is not just
that it makes some people rich, very rich, more than the rest of the people,
No! The one evil thing about corruption is that it makes other people poor
indeed, for no fault of their own. And this is a big problem. Of course, there
is always a price to pay for challenging any government. For in my own
assessment, I thought, save God, being the Sole Being of Goodness, Government
is the next most powerful element of Good and evil in any society. And so
anyone who chooses to challenge the status quo must also be willing and ready
to accept the penalty- even death. Now, the most dangerous criminals are no longer
armed robbers or even kidnappers on our highways and in our communities. The
most dangerous criminals we have today are those who are talented and those who
are favoured to be in good positions, but have chosen to align with those who
have no morals, to torment the same society that they could help. And for the
rest of us who are merely tolerating the evil and corruption in the society,
having failed in our greatest responsibility and having unwillingly accepted
the "Nigerian system", it means that we are cooperating with that
system, we have become as evil as those we accuse. We cannot now point accusing
fingers to those who actually perpetrate these evils, if we continue to
tolerate them. Sadly, I have observed that Nigeria is in danger of losing out
completely for an opportunity to transform herself. Something must happen to
awaken this sleeping giant of Africa before it is too late. Our churches and
mosques have a role to play in this. But it seems to me that they are more
concerned with how to go to heaven than they are concerned with how to survive
on earth. Collectively, they are more determined to legislate morality amongst
their members. They are more concerned with what their girls wear than they are
concerned if those girls have education or hold a job. If they so believe that
the teachings of morality is working in keeping the society sane, why has the
teachings of morality failed to end corruption? In fact, I hold our religious
bodies partly responsible for the way our society has turned out. They seem to
hold no particular principle. I thought that, "in order to be true to
one's conscience and true to God, a righteous man has no alternative but to
refuse to cooperate with an evil system." But our religious bodies have
cooperated with corrupt leaders. Often, it is possible that our leaders may not
know that they are doing something wrong because they people are receptive of
whatever the leaders do. One of the most persistent ambiguities we face is that
our leaders like to talk about fighting corruption, but amongst them,
corruption is practically nobody's business and we have watched them helplessly
as they go into office as common citizens but come out as elite billionaires,
while the dispossessed of this nation- the poor, the orphans, the widows, the
elderly and the jobless- continue to live in a very cruel and unjust country.
Angry Nigerians must stop taking out their anger against the lives of fellow
poor Nigerians but against those who are in positions to bring change and
against the structures through which poverty is perpetuated. In truth, the poor
has always been with us, so that is not new. What is new however, is that
Nigeria now has the resources to get rid of poverty. Like I wrote earlier,
getting rid of poverty will not advance on the wheels of inevitability. It will
require dedicated individuals and it will require sacrifice, suffering, and
struggle. So the next round of elections presents yet another opportunity for
the oppressed Nigerians to take hold of their singular mandates and transform
them into effective mandates through the ballot boxes by electing responsible
people into power. Therefore, when you as a citizen of Nigeria, make the wrong
choice of electing criminals and those who have ill acquired wealth into public
offices, you would have handed them the responsibility of perpetuating evil in
the society. You would have helped cut short the same social progress that you
have always desired to expand. This means that we must develop a perspective
beyond ourselves and beyond our immediate needs because, ultimately you can't
achieve good by doing evil. What you put in is what you get out. You can't
elect a former criminal into office and expect him to change now that he has a
greater scope to steal! We must set the time table for our own freedom; no one
else can do that for us. So far, by not standing up against corruption and bad
leadership in Nigeria, it means we are really cooperating with it. But we are
tired now and hopefully, we are going to stand up this time.
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions of our guest columnists
do not in any way reflect or represent the views, standpoint or editorials
policy of Nigerian Hotline Newspaper.
©2014
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