AVOIDING THE ROAD TO KIGALI, The heavens are weeping again but not in Rwanda. But this time, for Nigeria. For Nyanya, Madala, Suleja, Damaturu, Dikwa, Bunin Yadi, Maiduguri, Bama, Chibok, Gujba, indeed for the entire country. Nigeria is in the grip of insurgency. She’s in the throes of transition, with her lifeblood being drained, her jugular in a death grip, her tongues protruding and her eyes turning and turning, almost popping out of their sockets. Nigeria is on the road to Kigali. On Sunday, scores of our compatriots were alive, and had plans for the new week, just like us. On Monday morning, they left their homes, bade their loved ones goodbye, promising to see them later. Just like us. But for them, it turned to be a final goodbye. They ended up in bodybags, some with heads missing, others with only their legs found, yet some others with just their torso intact. One hundred? Two or three hundred? Nobody knows the actual figure of casualty. In Nigeria, you never know, as officialdom tries to keep the figure as low as possible. The waters of Nyanya turned crimson. Even the ones in bottles and cups turned red. You would think Moses and Pharaoh were slugging it out again, when every water in Egypt turned into blood. All the variables that sparked genocide 20 years ago in Rwanda are present in Nigeria. Talk of hate; we have it in prodigious quantity among the ethic nationalities. What of malice? We are not mean in that area at all. Suspicion? That is the middle name of Nigeria. Religious intolerance and insularity? That is the water some Nigerians drink daily. They even bathe in it. Nigeria has all the potentials to become a Rwanda. And our politicians are not helping us. In Rwanda, the minority dominated the majority for long. But when a majority got to power, he died in a plane crash. And the heavens (or rather, hell) fell on the country. In Nigeria, it is the flipside. A minority is in power for the first time. And what an uncomfortable ride he’s having. But I always pray for President Goodluck Jonathan. May he finish his tenure in peace. For the sake of the country. Anything else should not even be considered. May God allow him to finish in peace, in one piece, and go in peace. For the sake of the country. Do you also pray? Please do. We need it. But our politicians are not helping us. They are hindering our prayers. Through their conduct and utterances, they are becoming like the Prince of Persia, who withstood the answer to Daniel’s prayers. You know the story? Daniel, according to the Holy Bible, had prayed. And God heard immediately, and sent an answer. But the angel bringing the good tidings was confronted on the way by the Prince of Persia (the Devil). And for many days, the angel could not pass. Till God sent the warrior angel, Michael, who bulldozed the Prince of Persia out of the way, and Daniel got the answer to his prayers. After Nyanya on Monday, I could not believe my ears when Olisa Metuh, spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) should be blamed for the bombing. Did Metuh actually utter those words? He did, as the statement was credited to him, and widely circulated in the media. He has not denied being the author. But to say the least, the statement was careless, reckless, foalhardy, ill-advised, indiscreet. Metuh simply crossed the line of decency and sensibility. He crossed into coarseness and gross ridicule Yes, the APC issues statements on almost everything under the sun, from the sublime to the ridiculous, but never has the party crossed the line recklessly like Metuh did. How could the PDP National Publicity Secretary have spoken so imprudently, without the slightest scintilla of evidence, and while the blood of our compatriots was still flowing like water in Nyanya? Such utterances can only further divide the country, sow deeper hatred and malice, and speed our feet faster on the road to Kigali. When the APC launched its roadmap for the country’s future recently, was it not the same Metuh that described it as a Janjaweed document? I hope all these utterances by Metuh do not have the imprimatur of the PDP. If they do, then we are firmly on the road to Kigali. I have watched with unease and disquiet how religion is becoming a tool in the hands of politicians in the build up to general elections next year. Doesn’t Nigeria have enough problems without opening another battlefront, this time on something as highly emotive as religion? If we must avoid the road to Kigali, our politicians need to repent. If they continue to emphasize our fault lines, play on our centrifugal forces like ethnicity, language, clan, religion, all because they want to rule, soon, they’ll find that there’s no country to really rule over again. The cohesion of the country may have been destroyed badly now, but we still trudge on. However, if politicians continue to talk and behave recklessly, then the rickety contraption we have will not continue to hold out. Things may fall apart, and the rest of the world will just say of us: truly there was a country called Nigeria.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 11:30:41 +0000
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