How do we
define the word “freedom”, envisaging it to be a specially designed term found
only in our national vocabulary? Its English designation is not exclusively
ours but a general euphoric appendage to an inexcusable colonial preponderance
and nepotistic malfeasance. And this is the reason why from 1960 till date, the
Independence Day celebration has remained a mere commemoration of the birth of
an eagle flying with the strength of a glow ant.
The point is
that, both in truth and in practice, freedom as the operative designate of
national growth and development as well as the most reliable anchorage for
self-determination has never been translated into vernacular in Nigeria.
Recent studies
reveal the possibility of the Igbo Language becoming extinct in the next fifty
years. The implication is that a baby boy or girl of Igbo origin
born on October 1, 2012 is cruelly and unconsciously (?) cut off and greatly
distanced from its real roots and only source of nourishment and
self-determination as a prospecting citizen of our dear country. This is to say
that, in the next fifty years, an aggregate of adult Nigerians will be
perpetually dumb, deaf and blind about freedom and the honey-comb associated
with it. No democratic nation or responsible parent/guardian can
afford such a luxury.
If the language
of freedom must be taught and mastered, then the Sovereign National Conference
is not just an issue of political expediency, it is the real Almajiri we need
in the North, the M.K.O. Abiola University of Lagos that needs to be
reciprocated by the Afenifere group, the Rontimi Amaechi revolutionary giant
strands that need to be applauded by the Ohanaeze. It is the freedom charter
Nigeria needs for a proper Independence Day celebration.
Just take a
little time off on the Independence Day Celebration, figure out an elevation or
a tree around any Local Government arena, or any of the arenas from which
top you can take a quick survey of the general
number of the people or crowd that have come for the celebration. You will
discover that children and adolescents mainly constitute about 80% of the
crowd. And let it be noted that there are as many kids as there are those
arenas scattered all over the length and breath of Nigeria.
Yet it cannot be said that the
number of those children and young adults that happen to find their way to
those arenas constitute up to 30% of the general population of children in
Nigeria.
Already there is an army of
frustrated angry Nigerian youths aimlessly roaming the streets here and in
foreign lands. Back home, parents are compelled to overshoot moral and
religious runways to dip their fingers – fingers that were originally
robust prongs of moral probity - into filthy lucre, in a disposition of
rationalized relativism, just to make ends meet.
Given the pregnant status of the
“goddess of chaos”, the rioting episode of corruption and the “Kwashiorkor”
situation of the above 50% of the citizenry, are there not some people who are already
imbeciles, fugitives and wanderers?
The presence of a forty year old
man is a double embarrassment and a blunder in a moon dance peopled mainly by
little naked maidens especially when his mates are at the "Iwakwa” square
undergoing the rites of passage into adulthood.
Should the
members of the National Assembly, the Federal Executive Council and those of
the Diplomatic Corps happen to be present at the Eagle Square, Abuja
during the Independence Day celebration for the year 2012, then I wonder
why Mr. Yerima should not be turbaned for a non-libidinous act he placed
on the part of self – determination as a responsible domestic managerial output
endorsed by a religious conscience.
And until we
fix a date for an adult rite of passage for the administration of President
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the rickety Otuoke boat which is still struggling
to find its bearing in the national waters infested with terrorism and
corruption, every Independence Day Celebration is Nigeria’s macabre dance upon
a decorated mass grave for her citizens that were murdered by arrogance and
insensitivity.
This is exactly
the explanation for the deafening bang, in the vernacular, that went off from
Wole Soyinka’s traditionalist double-barrel gun even as the highly respectable
Noble Laurette was in far away New York attending to some international
concerns. It is regrettable that this resource material for nation
building and true federalism is not spared of the blanket reprimand which this
anniversary present to us all today as a nation.
Personally, and
like Pastor Tunde Bakare, I am an intercessor. But at times like this, it is
good that one allows oneself be necessarily distracted. Of course, even though
we are not of this world, at least, I am not unaware that we are still here on
earth. And for the sake of security, peace, justice and development, I have not
just the duty but the mandate also to help build our nation.
I have rather believed - it is
safer to assume - that there is nobody in the National Assembly, otherwise
the issues of corruption and terrorism would have been properly addressed
by now because in both Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa traditions, for instance, these are
considered serious taboos that the elders do not get to hear about them at all.
It is either that the Nigerian
elders have been bribed and their mouths shut, or that the National Assembly
members do not have a conscience? Or do they?
But if there
are elders in Nigeria - I am included by virtue of being a catholic priest –
then we are a greatly disadvantaged and physically challenged stock from a
pitiable mould cuddling despair, bankruptcy, secularism, relativism and fear.
It’s
unfortunate what our beloved country has been turned into by this
cacophony of voices from a political platform peopled by Lilliputians and
dominated by intellectually jaded anachronists. These politicians know what
they are doing. The whole thing is just a charade characteristically
recreational of their habitual disposition as old bullies.
There is no way
the kind of scandalous wealth and opulence one finds in the Federal Capital
Territory can fit into or allowed to be accommodated anywhere in the general
scheme of national consciousness. And as if to endorse this Alice's Wonderland,
the FCT has been made to share the status of a state in the national budget.
Presently, as it is always the case with greed, such does not have the capacity
for total condescension to altruistic conviviality with regard to Nigeria’s categorical situation.
The Abuja master plan is the real picture drawn by
the greed and foolishness of a man whose dreams in life have always been fueled
and driven by the kind of illusion and fatalism associated with over-arching
pretentious ambition. The Hilltop mansions, where ever they exist in the
country, are the most visible monuments - very disgusting and highly detestable
– of generational curse erected by greed on the sands of history and a manifest
template of what remains when the dreams of people who sleep on a mattress of
debauchery turn into daydreams.
It is
better to rest assured on this assumption than having to discover latter - very
much like Mr. Rotimi Chibuike is making us discover - that what is good for the
goose is also good for the gender. And that this wealth is first of all ours as
Nigerians before it is theirs as a gathering of rich fools and a meeting of nincompoops
– the exact terms that capture the situation of the National Assembly presently.
Except for the
fact that the national economy is in tatters, in which case I am compelled to
economize words –the only wealth an honest Nigerian graduate can earn as
wages and the only property he/she owns – not only the armored vehicles of
satanic propaganda driven by a mischievous political party like PDP but also
the well kept Abuja lawns would have been taught a lesson that, indeed, the pen
is mightier than the sword.
In 1914, Lord Lugard, perhaps by a sheer instinct
of a colonial zeal, gathered some humanity’s lumps and tied them up together
with the strings of nationhood. The historical importance of that period lies
in the fact that the boat of nationhood was compelled to navigate its way
through to the harbor of independence in the evil waters of colonialism. And by
1960, through a refined responsive action placed wittingly at the altar of
liberty on behalf of all of us by Sir Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo
and Sir Ahmadu Bello, the cruel structures of colonialism collapsed under the
weight of patriotism and the right to self-determination. Thus, providence gave
birth to a new baby – and Nigeria is the name given to it.
Constant abuse of freedom signifies, consciously
or unconsciously, an invitation to anarchy and insecurity. Abuse of freedom and
the attitude of crimsoned arrogance that has come to govern this abuse
especially as this pertains to terrorism and corruption in Nigeria has
re-asserted the urgent need for a total overhaul and re-validation of our
commitment to freedom itself.
Both as individuals and as members of one ethnic
group or the other, or generally as Nigerians, we are born free. And we
are compelled to remain free. There is no alternative to freedom.
From 1960 till date, Nigerians have awoken to,
walked and worked in freedom. If Christianity, Islam and Traditional religions
are, indeed, a true religion, then it is equally true that freedom is not
foreign to Nigeria.
But are we aware that the finest moment of
freedom is what is defined by responsibility? While freedom avails us the
opportunity to choose and act, responsibility establishes the legitimacy and
validity of our free actions and choices, otherwise there was no action or
choice but an effervescent altercation placed by fools for non-existent issues.
Freedom and responsibility are therefore not mutually exclusive, they are
mutually inclusive. Definitely, freedom is absolute but within the grounds
established by responsibility.
Law exists to address the anarchy and
insecurity that invade the society as a result of the abuse of freedom. Simply
put, law is only a guide and a guard for all actors on the field of liberty. In
Nigeria, the law takes the form of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. Promulgation and administration of just, effective and functional laws
is one major way to recognize the reign of liberty. But, when in addition
to the abuse of freedom the law is abused and manipulated to serve a purpose
other than that which it was originally designed to serve, then there is a
double invitation to anarchy and insecurity.
It takes the heart with a living conscience and
the courage of a lion to speak, interpret and understand responsively the
language of liberty.
But, wait a minute! Does anybody hope to find a
meeting point or achieve some form of reconciliation between a tender heart and
the cruel instincts of the mother lion? If conscience and courage form the
animating principles of liberty, then a marriage cannot just be said to be
possible only but must be considered to exist indissolubly and legitimately
between the two. Therefore, the mother lion is somehow married to the lamb. And
from every available data, the indissolubility and legitimacy of marriage
hinges mostly on love, otherwise, it is taking for granted that many lambs that
are into different marriages with the lions have died very long ago having been
used by the lions to quench their appetites for food-some good food at that.
Walking skeletons or corpses are actually parading as beautiful brides today.
Or put the other way round, cruel brutes: crocodiles, sharks, cobras, mad dogs,
etc, go into marriage as a means of getting at their prey easily. If this
is not the case especially in reference to our dear country Nigeria, and if we
persist on the debate that an indissoluble and legitimate marriage is possible
between the lamb and the lion, and that love is the meeting point between the
heart with a living conscience and the courage of a lion, then true liberty is
the product of that compromise between conscience and courage which took place
on the grounds of love. And the compromise could not be said to have taking
place at all except on the grounds of love.
In his days as the head of the military
junta, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida had said:
“Not tackle a gargantuan obstacle is cowardice.
To make an attempt and fail is a commendable feat. But to succeed eventually is
to bequeath a glowing legacy to future generations.”
It is beholden on us all to admit that the
artisans themselves - politicians, economists, etc, have failed. And as this
pertains to the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and in
reference to the Peoples Democratic party (PDP) being touted as the biggest and
most influential party in Africa, I am compelled to make reference to a special
edition of the defunct Weekly Concord Magazine when Mr Bayo Onanuga (currently
of the of The News Magazine) held sway as the Editor-in-Chief around 1993. Giving
the picture of the former gap – toothed dictator clinching helplessly to a
white handkerchief pressed to his very tired and frustrated chin in an attempt
to wipe away the tears(?) of shameful defeat that had started to flow freely
and uncontrollably from his once handsome but weather-beating face, Weekly
Concord’s Cover Story read:
“Has IBB Given Up?”
Today’s situation re-echoes that Weekly Concord’s
Cover Story but now in reference to PDP: Has PDP given up every hope about
Nigeria?
A cripple with deaf, dumb and blind
situations requires a miracle to function fully as a human being. And so today,
we can understand the reason for the emergence of industrial miracle workers
parading themselves as pastors, evangelists, leaders, general overseers, Imams,
etc. The same is also true for Islamic fundamentalists who resort to violence
to demonstrate the innocence of Allah about the hopeless and helpless situation
of our dear country. Surely, we need a miracle!
Had Henry Orkar the courage and
patience to appreciate these eternal verities of life at the earliest stage
of the Niger Delta struggle, he would have perhaps, been a student-pastor at
Oxford rather than the terrorist-designate he is in South Africa.
As for that poisoned kiss from a
Judas now resting cool in a London jail whose only means of survival and
sustenance are exactly the very same brambles upon which the whole edifice of
“ecclesiolatory” rests, I say “Let’s just meet there – for your sake only”. It
is not the best experience for one to learn that Nigerians know best how to
settle their scores in one full swoop of essential guerilla crudities.
However, I am beginning to nurse
some confidence that, perhaps, Mukhtar, in collaboration with our German
friend, will work hard to upgrade these satanic chambers that litter the utopic
world of the Ministry of Justice in Nigeria to a reformatory. Just, hopefully!