This essay is a direct reply to my friend, Mr. Joshua Ocheja, whose article titled: Nigeria at the mercy of Sahara Reporters, which appeared in Pointblanknews.com. I don’t know who Mr. Ocheja is; but he may be a patriotic Nigerian, an ordinary Nigerian, who is a victim of the misrule in Nigeria, a beneficiary of the maladministration in Nigeria or a member of the elite class of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But from the way he was struggling with his computer and his reaction to the superlative service of PHCN, he might be a working class dude, who is prone to the unforeseen vagaries of our country’s economic weather, if what he reported was to be believed. To be fair, I do believe in all that he wrote. Mr. Joshua Ocheja must be an unrepentant patriotic Nigerian and I do respect him for that, and if the truth must be told, we need people like him, who loves our country unconditionally to be in one way or the other given charge of any vital organ of the government; maybe, we may see a functional government in the area he commands.
No government can function properly without patriotic people in charge, and even those outside the government have to be supportive and deeply patriotic, so as to generate unprecedented momentum that can salvo the machinery of the nation to a greater height. I am not a politician and I did not major in any of the humanities or liberal arts, but a rustic engineering major, so I may not do a good job in unraveling the etymology and dialectics of “patriotism”. My port of call landed me on Wikipedia and it defines patriotism as the love of and/or devotion to one’s country. The word according to the rarefied search engine stated that the word patriotism comes from the Greek patris , and patriotism has had different meanings over time, and its meaning is highly dependent upon context, geography and philosophy. It also stated that patriotism among the Greeks consisted of notions concerning language, religious traditions, ethics, law and devotion to the common good, rather than pure identification with a nation-state. Scholar J.Peter Euben writes that for the Greek philosopher Socrates, he believed that patriotism does not require one to agree with everything that his country does and would actually promote analytical questioning in a quest to make the country the best it possible can be concluded Wikipedia.
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I am going this hog because recently, our youngsters may be confused of what is really patriotism. When I was growing up, probably in the elementary school history curriculum, we were taught the Pan-African Nationalistic movement in which we read names like Zik of Africa, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenneth Kaunda, Nkrumah, Obafemi Awolowo and host of others, who sacrificed their lives to fight for the liberation of African states from the jaws of the imperialist countries. Back home again, we still have Zik of Africa, the Sarduana of Sokoto, Okotie Ebo, Michael Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Margaret Ekpo, Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Bello, Akintola and others, who really gave us a nation, sacrifice, education and development. I think patriotism began with them and ended with them. Who knows whether these names have been erased from the history books and replaced them with people like Obasanjo, the devilish father of modern Nigeria, Ibrahim Babangida, the father of corruption and builder of 419, the dark pair of spectacles wearer and the father of wealth looting, Sanni Abacha and the Serpent leader, apology to Sahara Reporters, our own Umaru Yar’Adua.
Barely two months ago, I had written a piece which appeared in Sahara Reporters titled, Nigeria: A nation in Circumlocution and I lamented why our dear country could not make any progress. Do we fold our hands for people like my dear friend, Joshua Ocheja to define patriotism for all of us? What is the meaning of patriotism in Nigeria? Do we redefine patriotism according to the tastes of our unfortunate and pinheaded leaders or do we define patriotism according to the understanding of the general public, who are the brunt bearers of the merciless and soulless attitudes of the few crooks called politicians? Where is the place of Omoyele Sowore, the publisher of Sahara Reporters? I am a diehard Nigerian and I do lose sleep over what is happening in Nigeria, so where do I stand? What are the options available to me, stamping the rubbish our politicians are doing or stamping what Sowore and his team members are doing? I will not in any way subscribe to any move whether overtly or covertly aimed at pulling Nigeria down, but I do believe that Sowore is doing a fantastic job by exposing these heartless politicians, who want to run all of us out from Nigeria through visionless leadership.
Forget about the jackboot brothers, who stole the heart of Nigeria and who were the major actors in what is happening in the Niger Delta areas today. Should we go along with what happened from 1999 to 2007 and what is happening now since Umaru Musa Yar’Adua forced himself on Nigeria through a singular effort of Sheik Obasanjo? Nigerian journalists are some of the best in the world, but they cannot write most of the news they came across for the simple reason that either their newspaper houses will be closed or they will get killed. The pinheads in Abuja with strong support from the presidency have refused to pass freedom of information bill, yet these fools collect money and allowances for doing nothing. What type of patriotism does Joshua Ocheja wants me to believe?
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Nigeria is now a full blown banana republic, it’s scary indeed. We steadily make one step forward and four steps backwards, what a country? I am confused about Ocheja’s understanding of patriotism. I was one of those who gave Umaru Yar’Adua a chance, and his minimal success in Katsina notwithstanding. We thought that he was going to give EFCC more clout to fight corruption, but this fragile fellow came with a mission to destroy the work of that organization. I want to ask Joshua Ocheja a question. Among Nuhu Ribadu and Michael Aondoakaa, who is a patriotic Nigerian? Between El Rufai and James Ibori, who is more patriotic? Umaru Yar’Adua fought his political campaign with Delta State’s money and for that reason; he disgraced Ribadu out of office so as to let Ibori off the hook. Joshua Ocheja, another question for you. Have read George Orwell’s 1984? Michael Aondoakaa is supposed to take care of justice but injustice. That guy from Benue State is shameless, all manners of bribe pass through him and he calls himself the AGF. With him as the Attorney General of the Federation, Nigeria will not be recognized and respected as a nation with honor in the community of civilized nations.
When Sahara Reporters expose the rubbish going on in Aso Rock, how James Ibori sleeps in the presidency to call the shots, the online blogger becomes irresponsible and unpatriotic. Mysteriously, Ibori has been dropped from the list of corrupt governors and very soon his prosecution will be quashed and if Sahara Reporters beam the behind the scene actions, it assumes a sobriquet of worthless publishing outfit. El Rufai is the next casualty of a haunting presidency of Umaru Yar’Adua for a simple reason that he expressed his honest opinion about the sluggish government of yar’Adua. Ok, Ribadu and Rufai are corrupt, but they did not do zero point one of what each of the following rogues did: James Ibori, Igbinedion, Orji Kalu and other corrupt governors. After all, what did El Rufai do? If Aondoakaa and Farida Waziri want something to do, let them jail James Ibori and his cohorts.
Sahara Reporters, Pointblanknews, huhuonline and elendureports are all bearing heavy burden to fight for the survival of Nigerian state. They expose the ills of the society and they do these with a mindset not to pull our country down, but to pull it away from the hands of the thoughtless and mindless actors ravaging the political space of our dear country. We are all frustrated that judging from the natural resources and the human capitals abound in the nation, we still trail behind in the rating scales of human development index. The giant of Africa: no power, no jobs for the teeming youths, no good roads, no clean water supply, no workable hospitals, falling standard of education, no retirement benefits, no social services, low life span, high maternal and child mortality rates, incessant armed robbery, kidnapping, violent rapes, child trafficking, national wealth looting, corruption, decimation of industrial activities, political and election riggings, indiscipline, prostitution and lack of role models. If you are not angry about all these, then you are the most unpatriotic element in the country. If you agree with the government that things are all right in Nigeria, then you are very unpatriotic. Ugochukwu Ejinkoye of Daily Independent wrote one time, what is government to me? Provision of essential services, security, road construction and power generation are now left to the individuals while the fat cats in Abuja lie wastes.
This is a clarion call to Joshua Ocheja and his likes that patriotism is being a good citizen, fighting for the people for their common good, love for the country, devotion to the nation and disagreeing with the government of the day when they are not alive to their responsibilities, and that is what Sahara Reporters are doing. The enemies of the state must be defeated and disgraced out of office.
Chukwuma Iwuanyanwu is the Executive Director of Harcourt Foundation, Inc., Los Angeles, California.
(www.harcourtfoundation.org)
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