Yeah! It has been quite sometime since I last posted something quite as exciting as this on Steemit. Guys guess what! My birthday was yesterday, the 29th of May in the year 2018. I should have made this open to you guys to read quite soon, but I got quite busy. You know the normal celebrations on a low key, visiting with friends. It was quite an exciting day for me, you should have seen the fun I had.
The 29th stands out as a memorable day not just for me alone, but for my country of birth and citizenship - Nigeria. Yesterday stands out as my birthday as well as the day in which the present democratic dispensation that exists in Nigeria started. Nigeria's second democratic dispensation started out in the year 1999 when the Nigerian military under General Abubakar Abdulsalam handed over power to a democratic government which started out with General Olusegun Obasonjo as the president. Yesterday was a celebration of Nigeria's democracy and I would like to lampoon, lambaste, mock and satirize the situation of our democracy. We would not move forward if we do not take various warnings into consideration.
So many may ask why I write this piece today with such mood in which I am right now. I find it quite funny that some might think that on such a day being my birthday I should spare the rod and go on being happy with a situation which I am practically exasperated and dumbfounded beyond measures. I am by no means happy with the situation in which Nigeria is in right now. I feel like just growing the power to stop us from reaching the brink of extinction from the surface of the earth. Why do we allow the prediction of the whites to slowly slip in? Why do we lack the courage and wherewithal to confront our problems head-on? We need a new sense of direction, a rebirth of our foundational ideas.
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Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of United States of America in his political sagacity defined democracy as the government of the people, by the people, for the people. I have looked at so many democracies in the world and I am yet to see any form of democracy in our great country. Yeah! I call it great and I will do more to elaborate on this in due course of this written piece. It is quite funny that since I have come of age and well knowledgeable to at least know my left from right I am yet to see anything somewhat of a democracy existing in Nigeria. What I see is what I call Demon-Cracy. This is the government that is of the demons, by the demons and for the demons. You might as well want to agree with me that this is the system of government where the masses are being ruled by demons. What despotic rulers we have, thoughts of them makes the masses hot and bitter with anger. What do you think?
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I will do more to elaborate on Nigeria's Demon-Cracy with a consideration of Nigeria's greatness. Nigeria stands out not just as a Black African nation, but also as the most populous black nation in the world. It is often said that when you see just about every black man living outside of Africa, he is always taken to be a Nigerian. This is one of the greatest resource a country can ever ask for. There are many plus in Nigeria's resources apart from mineral resources. I can argue that Nigeria is the country with the largest concentration of mineral resources in the world, I am not bothered with what you think. She has assorted mineral resources that if put to good use she would stand out not just as the pride and toast of Africa, but also for the world as a whole. Nigeria is also a country that stands out with one of the best lands for agricultural products to be grown. Try it out and throw the seed of tomatoes behind your backyard and you would be surprised to see it grow without your help. It is saddening that we are also ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world, albeit in abject and extreme poverty. We wallow in poverty caused by our very own hands. We are always happy with whatever situation that we are in. It is this point of view which I stand to correct today with every sense of purpose. We need to lift our spirits from being on a low to a high.
I am of the notion that those who put the blame of our countries woes on white men are just kidding themselves. They do not take into cognisance or even recognise if they have cognized at all that we all cannot buy their theories. You can fool some of the people all the time, you can also fool all of the people some of the time, but do not expect to fool all of the people all of the time. Some African thinkers create hogwash theories just to protect African values without proper consideration of the situation of things. Their attempts are lame and further devalues African prestige and values. They say we were underdeveloped by the whites, while they developed their countries. They argue that we should not talk about developed countries and developing countries because it indicates a time in which we all started at the same time the race toward human fulfillment and development. While they are now developed we are still on the race towards developing. These scholars are of the opinion that we we never started out the race at the same time. Rather, they say that we were underdeveloped and impoverished by the whites. This is barbaric in 21st century thoughts.
Much as I also object to the reasons and arguments of the whites that we all started out at the same time the race towards development, I object to the underdevelopment theory. Africans should own up to their own flaws and mistakes if we truly want to move forward. Yeah! We might have been underdeveloped, but does this still count now. We have become independent of the whites for quite a long time and we are even shifting towards more abject poverty than when they were here.
Let us suppose for the sake of argument that we were underdeveloped by the white men. I would argue out here that if this is true, it makes us live in the past and not in the present, with no consideration of its effects on the future and its unborn generations. We may have been underdeveloped, but where does that leave us in this present time. Our leaders are the ones in power, they are the ones who castrate and throw us away into the dustbin of history politically, educationally, religiously, socially and even economically. They incapacitate and sell us out to the whites, this is what is called neocolonialism. They steal public funds and stash away cash in foreign countries and here we scream that we have been robbed by the whites. They grow foreign economies at the expense of our society. It is time we grow up and face the reality of things as Africans with a particular concentration on Nigeria. Do we need to continue to blame our father's for mistakes of the past without any attempt to ameliorate or put an end to effects of their mistakes. We need to grow up and end blame games. We are to blame for our present woes in a time when countries with lesser population and resources have gone far ahead of us politically, economically, technologically and what have you. I would like to go on to the present state of the Nigerian democracy.
Nigeria runs Demon-Cracy as its system of government which I must say is one of the reasons it never moves forward. We are still stuck with our past where we keep on practicing what has not helped us in the past in present times and we hope for a better future. Let us get down to the business of the day. Nigeria is ruled by power drunk rulers, despotic and nepotistic, corruption crazy freaky fellows. The roots and backgrounds of the country is greatly founded on all these evils. Nigerian politicians craze after political offices for their own gains, not for that of those who put them there. Sometimes it is not even the case that they were put in there by their own people, they actually forced their way in through rigging. It is true that rigging, snatching of ballot boxes and so on is an aspect of democracy which you cannot take away. This is a disadvantage of democracy anywhere in the world. Some use this as an excuse to carryout their evil political machinations to cause havoc and produce political victory for themselves. They make sure that they force themselves on the people they swore to protect their interest. They come into power and become sit tight leaders without proffering any solution to the plight and pains of the masses. They take pleasure in seeing that the poor are further impoverished, while they amass wealth to entice them during elections. Through this they further put the poor into abject and extreme poverty.
We are mightily blessed as a country and I do not see why we cannot go on to progress as a country. A friend once made a joke about Nigeria by appealing to some christian basis of God as the creator of the world. He said that when God was creating other countries of the world with less and meagre resources, he made sure he created Nigeria with lots of resources that no other country in the world would ever boast of. There was hardly any resources he did not give Nigeria, whereas he gave little in comparison to other countries. While God was doing this, those with him said that he was being partial and in favour of Nigeria in comparison to other countries. God told those who were with him that they were being too forward because he was planning to put monkeys who cannot think in Nigeria. Another occurrence which quite makes me moved to tears is that of the event my dad told me about while he worked in a bank. There was a point when the white men were about to leave Nigeria and one of the white men cried while he was with my dad. My dad asked why he was crying and he said he was leaving a beautiful and blessed country. He said Nigeria is a country where plants grow on the windows, walls of houses and roofs without any actual planting. You really do not have to plant, just throw a few seeds behind your house and you would be surprised to see them grow and bloom.
What a wasted country! What a pity! what a shame! What ruins! What shambles! Our intellectuals are the graves best assets! Intellectual brains lie in the silent graveyard silently, what wasted ruins! Our leaders brainwash us with lies whenever they want to curry favour from us. We then heed to their calls and promise to us to make a change in our lives which we well know they are actual lies . They buy us over with money and gift items to entice us. Imagine the distribution of wheelbarrows to youths. Imagine the distribution of bread, tea, eggs, milk to youths to help them surmount the challenges the future portends. You do not expect to be given a blunt sword to confront life which holds and swings a sharp edged sword. Our leaders have the upper hand here because they have hogtied us, impoverished us and made us to be put into the dustbin of history.
What a forgotten piece of treasure that we are! Treasures cast away into the waters to be forgotten by our leaders because of their greed for money, power, fame and whatever they are in for. Obioma is not wrong in his poem "Ambassadors of poverty" where he lampoons, satirizes and lambastes the Nigerian government for what they give to Nigerians as dividends of democracy. He says in a part his poem,
"...with death traps for roads
mud for water, candle for light
underneath trees for schools
Rats for protein
fasting as food
and alibi as governance..."
I can say these lines of Obioma's poem are metaphorical in the sense that they portray what Nigerians are being given by the government as dividends of democracy. They even promise them what they are supposed to provide as a gornment. They fail to provide a blue print that goes beyond the necessities in which they are supposed to provide. To this we must all as Nigerians strive to put an end to in our own way. We must do this the right way in our local communities, environment and states. There is a need for rebirth of ideas and intellectualism in Nigeria. Let us proffer solutions to Nigeria's problems instead of gallivanting up and down like our president telling the countries of the world that the Nigerian youths are lazy. We need to ask the president what were his contributions to the country as a youth. As a youth what were his achievements?
President Buhari rode to the helm of affairs on the chants of change, the promise to end the security menace of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists, putting an end to corruption in political corridors of power and a groundbreaking economic rebound. We are surely experiencing change now, albeit in a negative way. Our government is directionless, but heading towards a dead end. Nepotism in government appointments without consideration of those who constitute the country, skewed corruption fight against those who do not belong to the the present political party in power, APC is now the order of the day. What then is the way forward from here? How do we surmount all challenges presented to us?
What I put forward as a solution to our problems is what I call Demo-Crazy. I have lived all my life in the southwestern part of Nigeria, osun state to be precise. I have stayed with its people, albeit I cannot speak the Yoruba language fluently and properly. Yet, I still catch on to a few words. Demo in Yoruba language means to pretend and it is from this I intend to put forward a challenge to all Nigerians at home and abroad. Yeah! Nigerians are hardworking and industrious, but this is not really known to the outside world and even our president who led the world astray. What sort of president would utter before the whole world that the youths of his country are lazy. Has he taken it into consideration that there is no country that is an exception to this issue of laziness. Why then is he the only one who mentioned this? This I do not know. You wonder why the U. S. A, Britain, France, Germany and several countries of the world still have those whose work is to prance upon the streets looking for who to scam. Let them also get something doing.
Our president has neither taken into cognisance, nor has he even come to the stage where he can cognize that we are a resilient force to match with. Have you considered the Nigerian youth who carries vehicle batteries on his head, generator sets on his head, hard work and labour to get the next day to be in sight. Do our president consider what pains, agony the average Nigerian youth goes through to put a morsel of food on his table? Does he know of the resilience of our people in the face of suffering and the turbulence that they face as a country? Does he feel the plight of the man down the street who works hard a day without no returns.
I am moved to tears here as I write this. I am bitter and aggravated at the thoughts of our presidents evil and demonlike statements about Nigeria as a whole. I hear some say no pain no gain, we need to go through lots of pains and suffering to get there. Yet all we see as fruits of our labour and suffering is no pay no gain. Thoughts of evil machinations course throughout the entire body of the Nigerian youths when they see that they really do not have things going on for them. I am quite unhappy with the way in which things has turned out for our beautiful, hardworking, loving, resourceful nation.
Today I write with the intention of putting forward the way out in which I know best, this is my way forward - DEMO-CRAZY. We as Nigerians have this endearing value which is resilience and hard work which is a virtue. There are so many who have given up and there are many who are about to give up on their pursuit of the right paths to success. I call them back today to be crazy about what they do, let us be passionate, resilient. You might wonder why the "DEMO", we need to pretend to be crazy even if we are not. Let us work within ourselves to make this country a better place than it is, there is a need to stop the menace and rampage of our leaders on our possessions as a country. Our wealth is not meant for just one man or a set of persons withing the universal set -Nigeria. We need to create a change withing our immediate society so that leadership would be an honourable thing to do and not just to be at the corridors of power. We all must strive to put an end to the state of the countries brink of extinction by working on ourselves and various societies. The leaders of tomorrow are within the present society and it is the morals that are into them that they portray as leaders.
I am not done on this lampooning, satirizing and lambasting of the Nigerian government. More are still to come in the sequel to this write up. I am not happy as I have earlier stated with the turn of event in this blessed nation. I am exasperated, frustrated and on the brink of loosing myself in all the mess in which my countrymen find themselves in. Yet, I must persevere and be resilient if I want the beat for my country. Even when I lose courage in whatever endeavour I find myself in I must be Demo-Crazy. Let this be your daily slogan not just as a mere music for the ears to hear, but as the much needed encouragement for the betterment of this great country Nigeria. This and many more are my musings for this great country of ours. Let it be known that I am not done on this this cause in which I pursue. One day I see us getting there as a country if we can work together from our immediate environment.
Let it be known today that we may be homeless and thrown away to the dustbin of history, but we are not hopeless. I for one would persist, persevere, steadfast and continue to be Demo-Crazy in the face of turbulent storms. I refuse to kowtow to any and every situation which I can change.
Await my sequel to this.
Happy birthday to me and the Nigerian state.
We need to develop our mindsets 1st
Yeah! That is the idea about it all.