MY BELOVED COUNTRY ON TRIAL At the dawn of each day, I lay on my bed, my eyes wide opened while my mind travels round Nigeria. Two thoughts fight in my mind. One says, Tony don’t be Lazy, get up and prepare for work and the other says Please, value your life and stay at home; Boko Haram are around. I can’t afford not to go to work, anyway, because I am not self employed. When it involves going to work, I see myself obeying the first voice. I must confess that for almost a year now, I have not gone to the church because of the warning of the latter voice. Each day, these two stubborn thoughts continue to nag my mind like a pestle on mortar; gbami gbamii gbamiii. Do I hear you say I have no faith? I can even hear you quoting passages of the Bible, no weapon fashioned against me shall prosper in Jesus name; greater is he in me than he in the world. Honestly, your faith is not stronger than mine. Let me tell you, the thousands of soul that have perished in the Church or in the Mosque so far has greater faith then you and I - the Rev. Fathers, the Imams, the pastors and the faithful. Or do you think that God love them less and so he has to allow then to perish in his houses? I tread the street of Nigeria with the gentility of a chameleon and the slowness of a snail. Every dustbin I see or any car parked makes my heart to jump. What if a bomb is hidden in this dustbin or that car is ringed with dynamites that could explode any moment? I dread to go to the market or go near any crowded places. These are the target of Boko Harram. Crowd attracts them like rotten mangoes attract all kind of insects. Whenever I am in crowded places, I can’t help but pray. I wonder how a normal person could, after seeing those beautiful faces, innocent faces, faces of both the young and old, men and women and of children, have the courage to detonate a bomb and kill all of them. Anyway, any man who can afford to take his own life no matter how worthless it is can take anybody’s own. Besides Boko Haram, the fear of being kidnapped is another fear that continues to eat away my heart. What if I am mistaken for Millionaire and kidnapped by these trigger hungry youths who want to be millionaires at all cost? So, as I walk the street of Nigeria, I look to the right, left, back and front, not for an incoming car, anyway. Every person on the street is a suspect, even you reading this piece. Don’t blame me because we are wearing the same shoes. If a highly placed man like a former deputy governor of a state could be kidnapped and killed after collecting ransom from his relatives, what is the fate of the common man walking down the street? Common ritualists could just pick him up while people are helplessly watching and taken away for money making. Nigerian roads are death traps. There is no day one travel from one state to the other without witnessing multiple accidents. Our leaders hardly use the roads. They fly. If they must use them, the roads must be closed to the common man one hour before their arrival and twenty minutes after they must have passed. The widening gap between the leaders and the led has created an implacable war between the two classes. The other day, I watched with dismay as a fierce looking soldier, an escort to a governor, came out of his car and dragged out a man from a jeep, gave him a very expensive slap while the man crumbled to the ground with a thud. The man must have seen stars of rainbow. His offence was that he drove too close to the governor’s car. It is disheartening to note that these are politicians of yesterday that could even worship the ground you thread when they were conversing for votes. Now that they have been elected, we have become outcasts to them. It is not even unusual for one to be in his house, eating and a plane will crashed into the house, killing him and his family. Fear walks naked in Nigeria, my beloved. At night, I slept with one of my eyes very wide open. I am afraid of the multitude of the unemployed graduates in my estate. These are brilliant graduates who have walked the street of Nigeria for several years without success smiling at them. You could read their frustration and desperation from their eyes. A hungry man, they say is an angry man. Circumstances are the greatest determinant of a man’s character. These youths, no matter how strong their moral characters may be, could, one day, succumb to criminality to makes end meet. An idle mind, they say is the devil’s work shop. What if they have been recruited to the army of armed robbers and assassinators? This is my fear. How can I sleep? ‘If the poor cannot sleep because they are hungry, the rich, too, cannot sleep because the poor are awake. At every police check point, I hold my breath. Though, I ensure that all my car particulars are up to date, but you can never satisfy a Nigeria policeman. Their major role is not corrective but punitive. When there is no offence, they must manufacture one to delay and extort money from you. This day, it is not only the police that frustrate the lives of the people. There are so many government agents that fraudulently generate money for them. About a month ago, I paid One Hundred Naira to government agents to park my car in a street for one hour. I returned from the court twenty minutes late. My car was impounded and l have to pay Five Thousand Naira before the car was released to me. The fall of Nigeria from the precipice to the abyss was not gradual. Nay, it was not slow. It was a heavy fall like a bang. Any day you go to sleep and wake up alive, you thank your God; any day you go to the church or mosque and you returned home alive, you thank you God; any day you go to the market or work and you returned home alive, you thank your God. Adversities bring man close to God. Nigeria parades the highest men of God in the world. Nigeria is almost becoming Hobbs state of nature where life is ‘brutish nasty, solitary and short’. Nigeria has been battered, robbed disgraced and abandoned to groan in her pains. Let us call a meeting of all the stakeholders, the Niger Delta Militants, the military wing of the Afenifere (OPC), the Boko Haram, the Fulani herdsmen, the kidnappers, the armed robbers, the ritualist and even the many spirits of those that died during the various crises. Don’t tell me that they are not stake-holders. They all have been deprived, robbed and neglected. Sometime ago, I watched a film on how Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of Boko Haram and his followers were killed by the police. If you watch that film, I am sure that you will call for the prosecution of the Nigeria police by the international Criminal court for violating the International Humanitarian Laws. I have worked in the Niger Delta with an oil company. The environmental degradation in that part of Nigeria cannot be quantified. Their population is daily decimated by environmental hazards. The river where the populace fish is polluted, killing the fishes and the aquatic life there. The corruption of government official has pauperised the citizens that they now eat from hands to mouths. This has created so much criminality, making life unpredictable in Nigerian. Let all the stake-holders and the spirit of those that dead in the crises meet in the desert that is large enough to accommodate all of them so as to decide the future of Nigerian. Don’t be afraid, come and click glasses with the spirits of those that you have killed by your action or inaction and enjoy their ghostly smiles. Let’s deliberate once and for all the future of Nigeria ANEGBE ANOTHONY ASEMOKHAI 71B, Maitaima, Abuja 07031386252
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 09:11:28 +0000
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