Unanswered questions at times question my hopes and belief in a future where I would live in the Nigeria of my dreams. In the cause of a knowledge project I was undertaking on the American Capitalist model, I came across a chilling quote by former American president, Woodrow Wilson (1919): “I am an unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my nation. We are no longer a government of free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.” Because I am configured to relate my learning experiences at all times with the Nigerian situation, something in me snapped on reading that quote. It wasn’t like I or anyone else for that matter was unaware that our government is an oligarchy, but the quote which became to me like a confirmation piqued my curiosity as to the tightness of the stranglehold and the faces behind the manipulation of this nation. So I have been asking very simple questions and I need honest answers from anyone. That is responsible for my Socratic-style inquisition in this piece.
Why is it so hard to bring those ex-leaders to book, which for 8 years in the last dispensation looted and pillaged the treasury with impunity? How come some of them are strutting in the corridors of power in this rule of ‘lawish’ government? Is it because they are assumed innocent until proven guilty? Or could it be that in the analysis for 2011 and beyond, they are still seen as relevant, as they have the much needed big bucks and control large voting (or ‘thugging’) blocks? If the latter is the case, is it that it is these same people- and not the average citizen- who pays the piper and hence dictates the tune? How come even the few who have been convicted end up with a slap on the wrist (like former governor Lucky Igbinedion who for all his troubles was fined a paltry N3.5 million by the courts)? I just want to know. Why it that heads have still not rolled after the Tompolo list came to light (or rather almost came to light)? Whose names are really on that list? Should Nigerians- whose wealth, livelihood and security came under serious threat- even know the faces and corporations and probably nations that fuelled the domestic terrorism engine of Camp 5? Why have I stopped seeing some of this news on the media? Why are so few asking these questions?
I would also like to know why it is easier for our government to announce an amnesty deal for militants in the Niger Delta than to implement most of the recommendations of the Ledum Mitee led committee on the Niger Delta situation. Are they really sincere or are they trying to claim the morally higher ground as the ones who offered a favorable deal for peace in the region? Why are independent committees and panels like the Electoral reform committee even set up, when the government has no intention of accepting the crux of their recommendations from the get goes? How come it has proved rather difficult over the years to revive the nation’s power sector even when it is obvious that it is the lifeblood of the nation? Is it true that some are benefitting from the pervading darkness? Who -if any- is benefitting from the death of the textile and other manufacturing industries and from the import economy that we survive on? Are we cursed? If not can someone tell me what the cause is?
Can someone tell me why my government thinks that removing one car out of the myriad a certain politician in Abuja has will make me feel better? Or why a marginal cut in their salaries should inspire confidence in me as though the salary was ever the major conduit pipe. In fact how come politicians earn so much in Nigeria when they aren’t the most educated or the hardest working? Why does the government of our nation at all levels thrive on mortgaging our future and hemorrhaging our economy by placing round pegs in the square holes of government ministries, departments and agencies just for the sake of political patronage and compensation?
I could go on and on, but that would bore you. I have consistently maintained that things are not always the way they seem. In Nigeria more than anywhere else, this is true. And the thing is that the more you look, the less you see; the more you listen, the less you hear. I have looked and am still looking; I could easily come up with answers the way I see it but I might be wrong. So today, I don’t see anything. All I need are answers. Who are the one percent that pulls the strings which controls the rest of the 150 million in this nation? And what can we do about it? Answers anyone?
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