As Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria, is beguiled with the uglification of statues of corruption, it is expedient to reflect on the sad story of my people back home in Imo state and Nigeria in general. Owerri is just a microcosm of the sorry state of the State capitals in Nigeria. It is a season of importation and exportation of corruption in Nigeria, and across the continent of Africa. In Africa, while African naiads are perishing on the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach Europe in search of succor, her political nymphs and religious con-artists are raping their minds; siphoning the commonwealth at home into their offshore accounts.
It is sad and nauseating to see Nigeria as the enabler, hub and capital of bad governance in Africa. My people in Nigeria unfortunately live in a country that ridiculously dwells in hypocrisy, religiosity, grandstanding, opportunism, ignorance and epidemic of corruption in all ramifications. When a country is suffering in the midst of plenty, have a cursory look or check the behaviors of its leadership and the followership. No nation can thrive under the atmosphere of deceit and ugly history. History is an overview of the past; a precursor of the present, and a mobilization of the past and present to shape the future. Unfortunately, my country-Nigeria is dredging the massive hoax of history to realize this important nuance of life. The minds and hearts of the people are polluted by wedges of religion, racism and tribalism; the three avoidable diseases of the mind are being weaponized to decimate the minds of the vulnerable people.
In Africa, to perpetually tame a gullible man, inject religion into his subconscious mind; he will not only be subservient to your manipulations; no matter how educated he might be or professorial acumen he may have acquired or possessed; the illiterate clergyman will sell prosperity to him effortlessly. He will harvest a plausible, knitted and tight excuse from him to further colonize his mind. It is midnight in Africa, and who will save continental Africa holdings from self-inflicted woes remains a mirage! Mind construction and its manipulation is the bedrock of existential living. The use of the mind is a determinant of how successful an entity would be in the race of life.
Nauseatingly, Nigerian history is very repetitious. Come 2019, unrepentant Nigerians and fault-finders will be cajoled again to vote for the same rapers of the commonwealth, and the mortgagors of their lives to various occupations of government. It will be an expected circumlocution of men of yesterday to determine their hopeless future. Sadly, we wallow in self-deception and glorify things that are antithetical to progress and critical thinking. The nation is nourished with fertile minds and endowed with inestimable resources but the country lacks men of integrity at the helm of affairs. The judicial system is prostrate. The politicians lack firmness, fairness and consistency in the management of the country’s affairs. There is general hopelessness and chaos in the land, and the innocent people are being made to pay mercilessly for the inefficiency and selfishness of their leaders. Nigeria must be pitied as a hapless entity; her unreluctant and unrepentant citizens must be scolded for deliberate indifference, and for the indulgence of their leaders. A country being castrated by her leaders with mindlessness and recklessness. Where do we go from here as a people?
Recently, corrupt Jacob Zuma of South Africa’s visited Imo State, Nigeria. It was a misnomer of an expedition from a wasteland to a wasteland. Expectedly, Ellen Johnson Serleaf of Liberia again visited Imo state with another fanfare at the expense of the good people of Imo state. It was a misplaced priority for Governor Okorocha, and the entire apparatus of Imo state government to have invited and received these unAugust visitors with fanfare amidst the unattended consequences of poverty in his state. Okorocha added some salt to injury by erecting erectile dysfunctional statues everywhere in Owerri, Imo state, Nigeria. These are expensive projects whose costs would have constructed several kilometers of motorable roads for the people of Imo State. Who cursed Nigeria? Is it our generic sins, or not making atonement for our past misdemeanors? Nigeria is fouled with so many abnormal political idiosyncrasies. Hypocrisy plus deceit in politics is equal to grotesque political grandstanding and opportunism. The visits of Zuma and Serleaf, two scorned leaders from their countries to Imo state left sour creams in the mouths of the people of Imo state and Nigeria. Why is Okorocha part of the fragmented memory of APC as a party is a question that may be left again unanswered. Nigerian questions in general have always and seriously been begging for expensive answers!
Meanwhile, a cursory look at the current scandals that are rocking the outgoing president’s household, president Serleaf of Liberia is disquieting. The parchment of allegations and wrongdoings of Jacob Zuma of South Africa are a pointer to African seemingly unending conundrums. African children must begin to cry for Africa in order to breakaway from curses and neocolonialism. My latest poem just published is a juxtaposition of the old abnormal and the new normal in Imo state- nay Nigeria. The poem is premised on the show of shame in Nigeria and Africa in general. Conceivably, you could see that President Buhari is avoiding these unAugust visitors to Nigeria like plagues! The two recent visitors to Imo state are corruption personified! Governor Okorocha is deitifying corruption, and it is a disservice to the innocent people of Imo State and Nigeria. Truth is truth with unblemished facts. There’s no alternative facts to truth, though, at times, truth could be bitter but “res ipsa loquitor”, Nigerian fact speaks for itself.
In a nutshell, is Imo State now the capital of Federal republic of Nigeria? What is the economic benefits of these circus shows of shame to the ordinary people of Imo State? These are moral questions, with decency the people of Imo state must begin to ask their leaders. Leaders who are squandering their commonwealth to beatify the alien presidents to their impoverished land. The ugly aspect of ephemeral of life is resurfacing in Okorcha’s Imo State! All these dysfunctional beatitudes and attitudes of Governor Okorocha must be put to check by the good people of Imo state. It is a question of time, people will soon wake up and start demanding from their leaders to begin to dismantle the statues of corruption from their minds; and erect statues of decency, probity, accountability and good governance.
Furthermore, impassioned writers like this writer will not be cowed or be bought to literary recluse. We’ll continue to speak to the conscience and consciousness of our leaders on behalf of the voiceless people of Nigeria. We will continually push our pens as weapons of change until Nigeria is liberated from the shackles of oppression, corruption and waywardness in the management of people’s affairs. The Diaspora-Nigerians who reside in societies that are far from perfection, but cater for their citizens, and accountable for the misdemeanors of their leaders will continue to speak for good government in Nigeria. Nigeria shouldn’t be as an exception to the rule of laws. Our problems are not only restructuring, it’s the institutional problems that always make things to fall apart. The roadmap and political prescriptions Nigerian Nationalists like late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe, Tawafa Balewa gave us should be utilized from archives to make Nigeria a beacon of democracy again.
Celebrations of mediocrity have never produced any meritocracy anywhere in the world, and Nigeria shouldn’t be an exception in this 21st century development. Inexpecably, as Nigeria stands now, for Nigerians nay Africans to leverage their future, people must begin to wise up to take back their future from their unhinged and mindless leaders.
