NIGERIA AND THE FREEDOM CHARTER

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!