#NationalConferenceTinz Last time I checked in with the National conference, they were arguing over food according to Premium Times. The Big-Enders were dissatisfied with the quality and quantity of lunch and wanted money in lieu of extant lunch arrangements. They complained that the lunch contractor was doing things the Nigerian way. The Little-Enders wanted lunch to continue as arranged. Mrs Josephine Anenih (described by Premium Times as an elder stateswoman) argued for the old order because joint lunch in a hall allows for socializing. So serious was this opposition between the Big-Enders and the Little-Enders over lunch that Premium Times even framed the report in the registers of protest and aluta. Even the leadership of the conference tried to determine where to discuss food: during plenary sessions or during Executive matters. Nobody told the Nigerian people, that Opapala, the Yoruba deity of hunger who presides over the domains of food, guts, stomachs, and gourmandise, was a special guest of honour at the conference. Thankfully, they have raised the level of discussions subsequently. A delegate has called for the execution of corrupt Nigerians, from parents who write exams for their kids to civil servants and political office holders who steal. He even pointed accusing fingers at some of the thieves in the hall. Now this a delegate after my heart. I endorse his motion but I warn him that starting from that conference hall and moving on to wider Nigeria, I dont know who will be left if we execute parents who bribe and write exams for their kids, civil servants who steal, politicians who steal. I doubt if the Lord will find ten people on whose account He shall not destroy the city. Things Nigerian will always be things Nigerian. Florence Ita-Giwa complained about corruption and the rise of the one party state in Nigeria. In her curious logic, it is the opposition that is running a one-party state and not her party in power o. And this is the same woman who was one of the pillars of Obasanjos one party statehood, Jonathans one party statehood, and has been hanging around the only party in power since the city of Abuja was founded! May the God of the Old Testament soda Florence Ita-Giwas mouth. Finally, Musikilu Mojeed, how did Premium Times decide that Mrs Josephine Anenih is an elder stateswoman? I know that any Nigerian above the age of sixty begins to self-describe as an elder statesman after stealing a couple of billions in public office and the media readily participates in that national assault on meaning without thinking, without asking questions. Must we also extend that rape of meaning automatically to their wives, estranged wives, ex-wives, concubines, girlfriends, et al? What next? Premium Times will wait for Mrs Roli Bode George and Mrs Alamsco to cross the age of sixty and begin to address them as elder stateswomen? There are genuine and worthy elder stateswomen all over Nigeria. Retired teachers and nurses gracefully queuing in pension lines in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. As a public assignment in the restoration of meaning and as penance for the crime of dubious conferment of elder stateswomanhood on Mrs Anenih, Premium Times must identify an genuine elder stateswoman and interview her for the Nigerian public in the coming weeks. The media must stop participating in the national rape of meaning.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 11:14:30 +0000
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