When Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, said that heaven would not fall if Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State was impeached, he was not being boastful. He was merely stating the fact of who we are as a people. As a street-wise Nigerian, he knows that the country is populated by a sleeping assembly of men and women who can easily relapse into inactive stupor over anything and everything, whether imaginable or not.
Wike was talking from experience. He was here when the presidential election of 2023 took place. We were all witnesses to the manipulation and subversion that took place. Nigerians, as usual, went to town with their outcry. They condemned the chicanery. Many of them vowed that the outcome of that election would not be allowed to stand. But the hot air did not go beyond words. It was never backed by any action. The election and its outcome were upheld. The winners, by whatever means they got their mandate, were sworn in. Nobody broke a single bottle. And the country moved on.
And so, when the dark clouds were gathering over the impending removal of Fubara, those behind the plot had no doubt in their minds that his removal will not come with any consequence. Even though we were hearing some boasts and threats that the Niger Delta would be shut down if Fubara was removed, the masterminds of the plot were not deterred. They understand the psychological makeup of the average Nigerian. They knew that those were empty boats. Sheer braggadocio. Fubara has since been removed. So far, there has been no whimper from the Niger Delta. Everybody has moved on. Fubara is left alone to carry his cross. That is the way it works in Nigeria.
This scenario brings us face to face with the cynical realism that contends that might is right. In political theory, the expression presupposes that people who have power can do whatever they want because no one can stop them. Our Nigeria of today is steeped dangerously into this state of affairs. The government at the top has chosen the path of oppression and repression. It breathes down on the people from its high horse. The people squirm with discomfort but end up in the belly of the oppressor.
Where might is right as we have it in Nigeria, the state does not belong to the people. It is the exclusive preserve of the powerful and the mighty. They determine what is wrong and what is right. Everyone else is a mere onlooker. Nobody’s position or opinion matters in anything. This tendency is the precursor to state capture. No country has ever been taken over by a tiny minority without the people being suppressed and made to feel that they are less human than their oppressors.
As a matter of fact, it is in the nature of man to oppress and suppress the other person if he is given the opportunity to do so. This was the case in the Hobbesian state of nature. The strong simply trample upon the weak. The formation of organized societies with systems of government emerged from this set-up. But it is most regrettable that governments in complacent societies are turning into monsters that feed fat on the blood of the people. Nigeria is one such country where government exists for itself rather than in the service of the people. Regrettably, Nigerians are incapable of any action in situations where their rights are being trampled upon.
The way things are at the moment, the Rivers State scenario could be replicated in Kano State. In Kano, President Bola Tinubu is using the emirship tussle in the state as bait. Since the reinstatement of of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as emir by the government of Abba Kabir Yusuf, Kano has been sitting on a keg of gunpowder. The state can erupt at any moment once the war mongers decide to pull the trigger. President Tinubu and his supporters in Kano are plotting. They want to clip the wings of the governor. If the governor is not going to support Tinubu’s second term bid, then something must be done to him and the emir he reinstated. That is the thickening plot. And this is happening because might is right. Nigerians subscribe fully to this axiom. They are not interested in resisting it.
What could be responsible for this inertia? Are Nigerians a peculiar breed? Can their complacency be traced to the presumptions and assumptions of the World Values Survey, which was released to the world in 2003? In that year, a network of international social scientists had claimed that Nigerians are the happiest people on earth. One of their conclusions was that Nigerians have a genetic propensity for happiness. The assumption here is that Nigerians are of one genetic origin. You do not need any research to see the fallacy in such a claim.
But what draws attention to lazy researches such as this is that Nigerians have continued to act in ways and manners that suggest that they are morons. Happiness is an expensive product. It is not common. It is an unthinking or moronic breed that revel in happiness. That is why we are told that ignorance is bliss.
Nigerians are certainly not happy people, as the aforementioned researchers will have us believe. The real issue resides in the values that the people cherish. Nigerians have a warped sense of value. There is hardly anything noble in what they cherish. The people live for the moment. What matters to them is what they are getting at any point in time. They are not interested in enduring legacies. This disposition is rooted in corruption. The propensity for grabbing and stealing is very high among Nigerians. That is why they take no action when those in positions of power pillage and loot the treasury. The Nigerian can only howl. He does not want to rock the boat. Instead, he schemes for an opportunity to occupy a vantage position from where he can also loot and get rich quickly.
The typical Nigerian also has no shame. That is why we see stenches oozing out of Rivers State. Just the other day, a certain fellow said to be a former Head of Service of Rivers State, George Nwaeke, appeared on national television to tell ugly tales about what he knew or did not know while he was in office. The level of shamelessness that the man displayed was simply unimaginable. Even kindergarteners could see that he was not himself. He was just a shameless agent. That is the way many Nigerians are. They live for the moment. They do not care for actions that history will give them credit for.
QUOTE:
“Where might is right, as we have it in Nigeria, the state does not belong to the people. It is the exclusive preserve of the powerful and the mighty. They determine what is wrong and what is right. This tendency is the precursor to state capture.”
