If anything, the irrationalities that have gripped Nigeria in the last two weeks, should serve as a lesson for the few remaining idealists who still believe that the Nigeria of our dreams can emerge from the disgraceful ashes of the current Nigeria – which must fall because she is not acceptable, not justifiable, not defensible. Your head is still reeling from the fact that some say that corruption is not corruption depending on the ethnicity and gender of the corrupt. Then the probee jets off to Israel with the prober. Then you find out that, as usual, we are talking about plane loads of treasury freeloaders on that trip to Israel. Then back home, one imbecile in Katsina is using his Federal allocation to build mosques. Then you find out that every single one of these irrationalities has fundamentalist supporters and career rationalizers who have been out splitting hairs, muddying the waters, and doing violence to meaning. Lesson 1(see my essay, “Parable of the Shower Head): the psychology of the Nigerian is our greatest enemy. It is the only clear and present danger we have. Lesson 2: fighting the impunity of corruption is the easy part; the tough part is fighting the impunity of the defenders of corruption, not among the corrupt but among the victims of the corrupt. How do you engage a victim of the corrupt who says: she is our daughter and so what? How do you engage a victim of corruption who says: he is building mosques with our money and so what? How do you engage victims of corruption when they say that their president and half his government are exercising their constitutional right to freedom of religion by going to Israel? How do you engage the impunity of these Stockholm syndromed defenders of corruption among the people? In public lectures, in weekly op-eds, in social media engagements, in conversations with all kinds of groups, I’ve been screaming about the necessity of public instruction, of civics, but it is looking so daunting. How am I supposed to find the time to educate the willfully ignorant, the voluntarily blind, and the intentionally deaf that criticism of this trip is fundamentally about who is picking up the tab and not about anybody’s right to exercise his religious obligations? Who cares if President Jonathan decides to profess Candomble tomorrow and jets off with his entire cabinet to the Orixa shrines of Salvadore de Bahia? So long as they take every kobo out of pocket to fund the trip, that’s their funeral. You cannot fund your trips to Mecca and Jerusalem with the resources of the Nigerian state so long as that state continues to pretend that she is secular. Why should this be rocket science for career justifiers of the irrationalities of the status quo? How is one to keep fighting corruption and the justifiers of corruption within the ranks of the victims of corruption at the same time? I’m starting to suffer irewesi. Maybe this is another strong case for a national conversation. If I want to insist that corruption is corruption and you say that, for you, it depends first on the gender and ethnicity of corruption, then we need a conversation to see where and how we could be together. If I want to build model schools for my children, give them free school uniforms, qualitative school meals, and “opon imo” iPads while you want to build mosques, that’s totally fine. Those are two legitimate priorities but we must first negotiate the terms so that I don’t use your money to invest in 21st century-cutting edge education for my children and you don’t use my money to build 21st century cutting-edge mosques and madrassas for your own people. We need a structure that would allow each to use his resources to fund his priorities and proclivities. We really need to talk.
Posted on: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 12:43:24 +0000
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