The ‘Agidigbo’ Dance

The elder statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo once said that ‘behind every countenance of misfortune are veiled two countenances of fortunes’ this quote in other word would literarily mean that for every disappointment there are two appointments waiting if only one could see through the ‘crystal ball’.

I left the shores of Nigeria by divine arrangement about six years ago as a jobless graduate roaming the streets of Lagos for employment. Honestly, if anyone had offered me a job in place of my ‘motherland’ then, I would have obliged without a second thought, after all it’s believed that in the hierarchy of human needs food is topmost, which is why I needed to survive first before thinking of ‘arise oh compatriots’.The disappointment I had from the looters who mismanage our enormous human and natural resources six years ago and who are still hanging to power gave me the appointment of today in Europe. How many jobless graduates have such opportunity? Pat Utomi in his Jos presidential campaign recently said just 13% of Nigerian graduates manage to get employment. What happens to the remaining needy and vulnerable 87%? My people will say ‘eyi ti alai mo nkon fi n se ara re lo poju’ (the mediocre causes himself more harm than good). Ignorantly, the looters are gradually digging their own graves. As the vulnerable and unemployed youths roam the street they become susceptible to criminal activities and may eventually end up as destitute and could eventually go after them with guns for their booty or even snuff life out of them or their relatives because ‘Omo ti a ko ko lo ma gbe ile ti ako ta’ (A child that you did not train will eventually sell off your estate)

The unemployed and helpless youth of Nigeria just like I was some six years ago have no choice now than to dance to the ‘Agidigbo’ tunes that the looters of our treasuries are beating. They treat the masses to endless mad ‘Agidigbo tunes, ‘the helpless masses have danced to the social insecurity, poverty, and hopelessness tunes of the ‘Agidigbo for too long ‘. I want to disagree that the followership have no choice as the leadership beats the ‘Agidigbo’, we can not continue to dance to these mad tunes but should act now like the Indonesians who stopped dancing to the same tunes after several years; they did not just stop dancing to the ‘mad Agidigbo’ but also took to the streets to depose a tyrant regime. If we do not have the kind of effrontery the Indonesians showed, we can not have a better time than now to depose the ‘Agidigbo’ drummers by participating actively in the 2007 election with our hearts instead of our heads so that we can put a permanent stop to these unpleasant tunes by ushering in the elites among the presidential candidate instead of the mediocres whose ambitions are obviously selfish. My heart aches when the great andwell read elites that can turn Nigeria around for better are not allowed near Aso rock not because they are not good enough but because aclique of pot-belly politicians have hijacked the most populous black nation in the worldsince 1964.

For the coming election the ‘Agidigbo’ drummers are gearing up for more tunes and the masses are asking that they ride on their backs for Esau’s porridge, even one of the drummers is threatening fire and brimstone if not allowed to run in the race after drumming the mad tunes to the hearing of the poor masses for eight years as a co-drummer.

Be warned that those who ask for Esau’s porridge will shed Esau’s tears.

* The ‘Agidigbo’ is a weird western-Nigeria ancient drum that you must dance to with all energy like a mad man; the tunes are in proverbs and can only be interpreted by the wise.