From the displayed patriotism and accompanied enthusiasm by voters beginning from the February 25, 2023 presidential and national assembly elections to the gubernatorial and state assembly elections, one was convinced that Nigerians love democracy no matter its teething problems.
They trooped to the poll early enough to exercise their franchise by voting their next leaders to pilot their affairs for the next four years beginning from Saturday, February 25th, I reached the conclusion that there may be light at the end of the tunnel if the right people were to be elected.
Nigerians were really determined and eager to have new and reliable leaders, most especially in the presidency and the 10th National Assembly.
Prior to that, I was cynical about the ordinary Nigerians’ incurable docility even when they are pushed to the wall by glaring failures of their respective governments from the crippled local governments managed by imposed stooges and laggards to the federal, and the inherent dysfunctional of the system.
Unlike in those advanced countries that we admire and try to emulate and even the not so advanced the likes of Sudan, Libya and Tunisia closer to Nigeria in Africa. Nigerians do not seem to possess the drive and courage to spill out into the streets to stage peaceful protests to demand for genuine change when things are faulty with their governing system unless in few circumstances such as the #EndSars protests by few frustrated but determined and exposed youths staged in few places and scattered by sponsored criminals.
For decades, in this country, we have witnessed citizens subjected to the most dehumanizing and horrendous living, conditions and artificially denied even a basic commodity at affordable price such as petrol which should ordinarily be in abundance in a leading crude oil producing country although with mal-functional refineries and dispensing depots. Shamelessly, refined petroleum products are imported for use in a country that has at least three hitherto functional refineries that are yearly turned around at unbelievable cost to refine nothing.
That is aside the widespread insecurity, arrant disregard for citizen’s rights and privileges by compromised security agencies and the corruption that lurks in high places under the watch of elected and selected leaders, which has now become almost an accepted norm and a working document in public and private sectors.
Yet, all that Nigerians do is to grumble in silence while calling upon God in urgent supplication to intervene and then, they retrieve back to sleep, most times on empty stomach waiting for the intervention of their God in a situation, that the God we know and worship has blessed us with the brain, energy and courage to explore and handle the situation.
As a result, our elected and selected leaders have become impervious to being accountable to the electorates, one of the supposed cornerstones of our democracy. Governments have come and gone, each with its own contrived disasters which task our extraordinary patience and inflict untold pain and misery on us.
Despite that, all you hear are the usual lamentations and blame games and, once again, our consolations to ourselves that the Almighty God would get us out of the woods. Then we get back home, frustrated and stressed without a sleep and our mental system in disarray. It is only in Nigeria that national prayers are sponsored by governments against national problems artificially created by those in same government.
It is only in Nigeria parasitic clerics, clergies, pimps, prostitutes and other lapdogs and thugs are sponsored with public fund to Holy Lands to pray to the Gods against artificially created problems while development and social services suffer.
Despite that, the next day, as shortchanged people, we trudge on hoping against hope waiting for result from God despite blessing us with the technical capacity to handle our problems. We continue with our daily grind of either sleeping at filing stations to buy a gallon of petrol or waking up at 12 midnight to go to queue up for palliatives sourced from what we labored to save, or sleeping with our two eyes opened for fear of night crawling criminals or confused on how to survive the next day while those we were deceived to have elected are there living in opulence and squandering our resources on luxuries.
We are incredibly good people, so to say that so much love our tormentors than our dear selves suffering naturedly, with complicit equanimity.
The Afro bit maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s cynicism was at its best when he captured this self-destructive ‘virtue’ so fittingly; suffering and smiling. That has also been the lot of Nigerians in recent months as insecurity escalates in virtually all parts of the country.
To drive home a point, the crisis threatening the corporate existence of Plateau State, is a serious national disaster if left unchecked, it may eventually develop branches. The remote cause(s) of the crisis are known to all. But majority of Nigerians are fed with lies and concoctions from those blood thirsty ethno-religious jingoists who first ignited the crisis few years back.
How did it start? Who started it and the remote cause and intention? Why were peace loving people attacked, and their legitimately acquired properties forcefully confiscated? Why and why?
For instance, in the true sense of it, the crisis rocking Plateau State has ethnic and religious undertones. It is not an issue of claimed land grabbing. It is an issue of ethno-religious cleansing carefully planned over the years against industrious people tagged as settlers by the envious idling natives.
It is only in Plateau State we have a concocted imagination from crass ignorance called Indigenous Muslims. Funny enough, there are no indigenous Christians or Pagans because the Pagans and their off-springs, the ‘Christians’ believe the state belongs to them only. What that means continue to baffle the mind.
It happens that, this time around, Nigerians are happily enduring the current frustrations and disappointments, because they know that they are on the cusps of a new dawn that will be of their own making. They refused to be lured into resorting to street protests or such other public displays of anger, pain and discontent and maintaining tall hope in the presidency and national assembly.
A democratic revolution without bloodshed will be wrought through the ballot box not the barrel of the gun but can be achieved through mass protests. Despite the extreme vexations caused by federal, state and local government policies and provocations by some unruly bastards tagged as politicians with vested interests, the people have relatively remained calm, even though with isolated cases of violence here and there.
On the whole, Nigerians have maintained a resolute stoicism and deliberate forbearance, even in their greatest moments of suffering. Under the circumstances, docility has turned into a willful determination to radically change things for the better.
This revolution will also be unlike the sometimes violent protests that marked the Arab Spring which erupted in Tunisia and Libya in 2010. It will be different from the prolonged and riotous Sudan street demonstrations which led to the ouster of long time ruthless dictator, Ahmad Al-Bsshir in a military coup in 2019.
Honestly, Nigerians don’t need any radical unionist to tell them that the current dispensation in Nigeria urgently needs to undergo a fundamental shake up through mass movements. The biting hunger churning in the belly of the majority and the lingering but subdued insecurity are enough to inspire and encourage.
We honestly do not need any opposition party to tell us that the President Bola Tinubu led federal government has within its one year in office failed the trust and confidence of Nigerians in all fronts.
The pervasive ghosts of disillusionment, social dislocation, penury, misery, insecurity and apprehension stalking at every turn are enough catalysts for one to take a bold step towards personal redemption and salvaging the country from the precipice.
God Bless Nigeria!
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
