March 23, 2010
Truth be told, it saddens me to write this piece. I mean, I cannot comprehend the reasons why Nigeria as a nation and Nigerians as a people have over the last fifty years failed to get their heads together and think collectively. It is not only the problem of thinking collectively that is crippling us, although I concede that is to my mind the most pressing. There is also the failure to act collectively.
Truth be told, it saddens me to write this piece. I mean, I cannot comprehend the reasons why Nigeria as a nation and Nigerians as a people have over the last fifty years failed to get their heads together and think collectively. It is not only the problem of thinking collectively that is crippling us, although I concede that is to my mind the most pressing. There is also the failure to act collectively.
For instance, why is it that Nigerians had collectively failed to halt Obj's arrogance; or why is it that collectively we have failed to stop the thuggish and brutish behaviour of some gangsters that had audaciously stole our president. Imagine: a country like Nigeria had its president stolen without batting an eyelid when we have in our midst chaps like Soyinka who could outtalk anybody on this planet and professional gangsters like... Well so many in the NASS. It beats me even today to think that there is a gang of kidnappers at large in this country while most of us are busy with shakara.
When IBB cancelled June 12, we choose to see it as a regional cum tribal affair and today look at us. We are here burdened with crooks, swindlers, thieves, and jujuists as caretakers of the commonwealth. No wonder for Nigerians. The only thing common in this commonwealth is the commonality of crime and suffering, injustice and deprivation, looting and extravagance, I doubt if there is any atrocity against humanity that supersede it. These are common traits that have through sheer sophistry of the political elite succeeded in dismantling all forms of religious, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and regional barriers in Nigeria. In Katsina we have couple of millions who are poor, deprived and hungry. I also learnt that some millions are not better off in Lagos, Ogun, Rivers or Abia. There are dozens of corrupt and arrogant politicians in Katsina, Sokoto, Bauchi just as Delta has Ibori. In fact, the only difference between Ibori and hundreds of other politicians like him in all parts of this country was the chance and opportunity which fortune placed in his hand. Did somebody shout Resource Control?
Well, here in Katsina the politicians are not so lucky we don't have oil. But wait. They could steal the allocation from the proceeds of oil. Do you now see my point when I said there is a commonality in the behaviour of most politicians to public trust. I am yet to learn of a tribe, religion or region in Nigeria which has an exclusive preserve on ineptitude, corruption and moral degeneracy. You think Katsina produced Yar'adua? Well Buhari is also from Katsina so was MD Yusuf, the gadfly of Nigerian politics.
If there is any achievement which the Nigerian ruling class has succeeded in achieving in Nigeria it should be the massive underdevelopment of the country and its people on a collective scale. Never heard it that IBB and his likes are distributing part of their allegedly stolen wealth on daily basis to helpless northerners, more so, our so called traditional rulers and higher institutions are busy awarding them worthless degrees and titles. Nor am I told that Obasanjo gives generously to his Owu kinsmen. When one rogue politician from any part of this country go to Abuja he only steal on behalf of himself and his immediate family not for his tribe, religion or community. Last time Yar'adua, in a Multi Billion Naira fiesta gave his daughter to Yuguda, my kinsmen only got to see the cars, MOPOL, sound of jet engines, road blocks and discarded sachets of pure water, less I forget and uninterrupted power supply throughout the week which Katsina town has not seen for ages. Say amen brother. Yet, people would shout ignorantly that Goodluck is our own and he must not be harm or else...
The following story of a little boy and his family which was narrated to me by a senior colleague clearly defines the state of Nigerian people;
A little boy goes to his dad and asks, 'What is Politics?' Dad says, 'Well son, let me try to explain it this way:
I am the head of the family, so call me The President.
Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government.
We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People.
The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class.
And your baby brother, we will call him the Future.
Now think about that and see if it makes sense.'
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.
Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him .
He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper.
So the little boy goes to his parent's room and finds his mother asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room.
Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny.
He gives up and goes back to bed.
The next morning, the little boy says to his father,
'Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now. '
The father says, 'Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.'
The little boy replies, 'The President is screwing the Working Class
while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep sh!t'
Why should we be deceiving ourselves despite our collective failure to think and act collectively, that our destiny as a people is collectively interwoven; or why should we question our unity as a nation when as a society our suffering is united and our politicians are equally united in their atrocities? The only source of disconnection to this is in our failure to unitedly recognise that most of the members of the political class are rascals united in the pursuit of wealth and power to our detriment.
Aliyu Mukhtar Katsina
[email protected]
For instance, why is it that Nigerians had collectively failed to halt Obj's arrogance; or why is it that collectively we have failed to stop the thuggish and brutish behaviour of some gangsters that had audaciously stole our president. Imagine: a country like Nigeria had its president stolen without batting an eyelid when we have in our midst chaps like Soyinka who could outtalk anybody on this planet and professional gangsters like... Well so many in the NASS. It beats me even today to think that there is a gang of kidnappers at large in this country while most of us are busy with shakara.
When IBB cancelled June 12, we choose to see it as a regional cum tribal affair and today look at us. We are here burdened with crooks, swindlers, thieves, and jujuists as caretakers of the commonwealth. No wonder for Nigerians. The only thing common in this commonwealth is the commonality of crime and suffering, injustice and deprivation, looting and extravagance, I doubt if there is any atrocity against humanity that supersede it. These are common traits that have through sheer sophistry of the political elite succeeded in dismantling all forms of religious, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and regional barriers in Nigeria. In Katsina we have couple of millions who are poor, deprived and hungry. I also learnt that some millions are not better off in Lagos, Ogun, Rivers or Abia. There are dozens of corrupt and arrogant politicians in Katsina, Sokoto, Bauchi just as Delta has Ibori. In fact, the only difference between Ibori and hundreds of other politicians like him in all parts of this country was the chance and opportunity which fortune placed in his hand. Did somebody shout Resource Control?
Well, here in Katsina the politicians are not so lucky we don't have oil. But wait. They could steal the allocation from the proceeds of oil. Do you now see my point when I said there is a commonality in the behaviour of most politicians to public trust. I am yet to learn of a tribe, religion or region in Nigeria which has an exclusive preserve on ineptitude, corruption and moral degeneracy. You think Katsina produced Yar'adua? Well Buhari is also from Katsina so was MD Yusuf, the gadfly of Nigerian politics.
If there is any achievement which the Nigerian ruling class has succeeded in achieving in Nigeria it should be the massive underdevelopment of the country and its people on a collective scale. Never heard it that IBB and his likes are distributing part of their allegedly stolen wealth on daily basis to helpless northerners, more so, our so called traditional rulers and higher institutions are busy awarding them worthless degrees and titles. Nor am I told that Obasanjo gives generously to his Owu kinsmen. When one rogue politician from any part of this country go to Abuja he only steal on behalf of himself and his immediate family not for his tribe, religion or community. Last time Yar'adua, in a Multi Billion Naira fiesta gave his daughter to Yuguda, my kinsmen only got to see the cars, MOPOL, sound of jet engines, road blocks and discarded sachets of pure water, less I forget and uninterrupted power supply throughout the week which Katsina town has not seen for ages. Say amen brother. Yet, people would shout ignorantly that Goodluck is our own and he must not be harm or else...
The following story of a little boy and his family which was narrated to me by a senior colleague clearly defines the state of Nigerian people;
A little boy goes to his dad and asks, 'What is Politics?' Dad says, 'Well son, let me try to explain it this way:
I am the head of the family, so call me The President.
Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government.
We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People.
The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class.
And your baby brother, we will call him the Future.
Now think about that and see if it makes sense.'
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.
Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him .
He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper.
So the little boy goes to his parent's room and finds his mother asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room.
Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny.
He gives up and goes back to bed.
The next morning, the little boy says to his father,
'Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now. '
The father says, 'Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about.'
The little boy replies, 'The President is screwing the Working Class
while the Government is sound asleep. The People are being ignored and the Future is in deep sh!t'
Why should we be deceiving ourselves despite our collective failure to think and act collectively, that our destiny as a people is collectively interwoven; or why should we question our unity as a nation when as a society our suffering is united and our politicians are equally united in their atrocities? The only source of disconnection to this is in our failure to unitedly recognise that most of the members of the political class are rascals united in the pursuit of wealth and power to our detriment.
Aliyu Mukhtar Katsina
[email protected]
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });