VOICE OF REASON 28/082014 A CATALOGUE OF MY FRUSTRATIONS By Gbenga Olumekun I am not particularly a fan of the many things we do even though I am not perfect nor do I claim any form of perfection. I am actually miffed by many of the things we do or tolerate in our country. The most appalling is our limited expectation from our rulers who under the excuse of seeking to better our lives have appropriated to themselves the right to exercise exclusive control over our national destiny. A nation’s destiny ought not to be determined by the way we plod at it in Nigeria. However, our limited and often warped expectation from our leaders is cause for alarm when we discover that the way we do things now may be a pointer to how future generations face the art of governance. Many close associates are wont to dub me an extremist especially when it comes to the issue of standards, personal comportment and the rule of law. I often have so much disdain for the acts of the political class and this is most evident in my deliverables. This explains why my last two dogs have got very apt names. One is Democracy while the other is Politician. It really took me a long time to make up my mind to determine the appellations for such lovely creatures. Very often I try to chide myself that I have not done justice to them, rather, I should have found better names to call them. The thought of Bingo, Lion or Jack, the usual harmless names, came to my mind during the naming ceremonies but I felt embittered by several issues and the only way to let off steam was to vent my spleen on these harmless creatures by way of the names I call them. I have tried to do a self induced analysis of my psyche and what I have discovered has not in any way given me cause for jubilation. I am often frustrated and angered by many things on a daily basis. On the steering, it’s hell; in the classroom it’s an agony and worst of all, I get disenchanted by the sort of messages I hear from the supposed last bastion of truth – our church pulpits. Nobody preaches righteousness nowadays; it’s all about how rich you can be, how to reduce your enemies to ashes with “dangerous” prayers and all that dross that sometimes I wonder where the truth of life resides, if one cannot find it in the church. Pardon me; I would have said the church of God until I realise that most of these cannot really be addressed as the church of God but the creation of men. The Bible makes us realise that the church is expected by the Creator of heaven and earth to be the salt and light of the world. Unfortunately the church has abdicated its responsibility because the true message which hammers on brokenness, righteousness and godliness does not sell anymore. We have become the church of the world where divine provision is not sought neither are the Ten Commandments expected to be obeyed anymore. Unfortunately, when the salt loses its saltiness, the Bible says it becomes useless, only fit for trampling by the feet of men. Our society is devoid of truth and the pursuit of righteousness. It is all about who you know and not what qualities you possess. Getting a job is more difficult than winning a lottery. To secure admission into many of our universities now, it is about who your father knows in the land and not what prerequisite qualifications you have got on offer. If for some reasons you do not have a father, you’ll do well then to secure the services of a godfather. I must admit that there are still exceptions particularly in a place like Adekunle Ajasin University where our admission process is still merit-driven but such instances are few and far between. I have often wondered how long the honeymoon will last though, because things are still the way they are because of the peculiar circumstances of the leadership. When a Vice Chancellor who does not have more than an official relationship with the Governor arrives and he’s still able to maintain the tradition, then we’ll be able to shout a loud Eureka! These realities have seriously befuddled me to the extent that I constantly search for explanations to the myriads of problems assailing us. I often wonder why it is never a struggle to pursue righteousness in places like England, America and other countries of Europe even when these people have rejected God and have decidedly adopted every trick to suppress Christianity and the Deity of God. In my search for reasons I found that the pursuit of righteousness has become ingrained in their lives because of the relics which Christianity has left behind in those civilizations. That is why I am often amused when in England the authorities go overboard to relegate Christianity to the background and often seek to present in our faces issues that will deny their Christian history and heritage. That is why the Christian worker will not be allowed to wear a cross to work because it offends the religious sensibilities of others while the Hijab wearing madam is not seen to have done anything wrong. All these are usually done in the pursuit of secularity as if it is the ultimate goal of a nation. That is really their problem. Unfortunately, that isn’t even the kernel of this treatise. The issue is how a people can seek to pursue what is that good and perfect will of God while in another breath they are seeking to deny God Himself. It beats my imagination. There are statistics all over that indicate that the average Nigerian is very religious. You cannot pass a street corner without a church or mosque, yet evil predominates in the land. This is why I am still searching for that character that makes the ungodly to constantly seek equity while the avowedly godly Nigerian does not value the principle of equity that the Holy Books desperately preach. Is it in the way we are or in the way we live? Is it a factor of the environment or the blackness of our skin? Very often we console ourselves with the warped idea that we are the giant of Africa. This exercise in self delusion is so consuming that we oscillate between self belief and self denial, features that would seem diametrically opposed yet are fully complimentary in our own setting. I remember my first stint in England when I wanted to obtain the British driver’s license and was told that if I had come from some of the less endowed countries of Africa like Zimbabwe, Botswana and Kenya, I would not have needed to go through the horror of a driving test, I felt like a second class African until I was made to understand the wisdom behind the decision. It was very simple – these countries undergo a rigorous process for obtaining certification to drive on the roads whereas in Nigeria what qualifies you to drive is the size of your wallet. If a blind man can obtain a Nigerian driving license, why are we complaining? I can go on and on about the litany of frustrations with the Nigerian system but the issue is not a lack of a method of enumerating the evils of our society; it is a dearth of ideas on how to find solutions. I have witnessed many Nigerians struggling to come to terms with the defects in our issues while several have thrown up their hands in the air in submission out of crass frustration. Several have played the role of the ostrich by just pretending the issues are not there or will suddenly blow away while some have played the role of the buck by just running away? I actually succumbed to the latter but in the end I still felt hopelessly disenchanted and had no option than to come back home to confront the demons. It is easy to ask me if I have succeeded. Have I? My penning this piece is one of my outlets. I try to vituperate my anger on my pen and paper (and now my keyboard) in the hope that it’ll make an indelible mark on the hearts of “somebodies”. Would you be one? Would you like to join me in throwing light on some of our intractable national problems? Why don’t you take a leap, at least if you don’t land safely you’ll still be able to relish the fact that you made a trial and did not adopt the “siddon-look” approach. God help us! Readers are requested to send in their reactions and contributions on what’s the way out and who’ll bail us out? LAST CALL Most of the frustrations I feel have been traced to the time it takes me to get from one point to another and the things I see on the roads. I am however particularly disturbed each time I travel via Iwaro-Oka and Isua-Akoko to Abuja. My soul is always disturbed when I see several mangled carcasses of lorries in the gorges along the road. It is unimaginable that several top officials of both the State and Federal Governments pass regularly by these sordid sights that have claimed the precious lives of so many Nigerians. Why are the authorities closing their eyes to this waste of humanity? The solution is simple: re-construct the road as well as the Ipele – Kabba Road and several of the drivers will not have any need to risk their precious lives by negotiating such treacherous passages. I feel a sense of shame each time I pass there. Will someone please remove my shame?
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:11:21 +0000
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