Silence and serenity flowed around him, broken only by the distant call of a golden eagle wheeling and soaring overhead; and by the rustle of the wind in the aspens. The cries of startled birds have faded, and an eerie silence enveloped the atmosphere once more. In his usual manner, Nnanna took off like a bat out of hell, racing across the thick grasses as if the devil himself was after him. Gallantly in a manner that gives him joy, he stops: look up, look down, beats his chest and mumbled some few words, just like the fabled lizard which fell from an Iroko tree alive and nobody was around to shower encomiums for that outstanding achievement; the lizard was said to have praised itself. These Nnanna do every day in the full glare of the whole neighbourhood that labelled him a lunatic.
He is completely lost in time. He has no place to call his home and nobody to call family; he was just on his own with myriads of ‘devils’ taking their toll on him. Though not a lunatic in the real sense of it, but without food, clothing and a decent roof over his head, he wouldn’t have been anything better. He stood embarrassed by everything, even his own name; and whatever nature brought notwithstanding, whether the cloud cries out rain or smiles out heat, Nnanna hopelessly and shamelessly swallowed them all.
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One certain night, a night of violent but erratic storm, the wind was varying in intensity and even in the direction. It was little more than a sobbing obbligato among the elms. The trees under which Nnanna laid down his skeletal bones grew close to the bush path and knitted themselves above it, ribbing the dark bushes with their strong black boughs. From time to time, a gust of wind brought down a spatter of raindrops and leaves, all on the bald head of Nnanna. It was so dark that his cold pig-like eyes brightened by first-degree hunger, shone like the sun.
Nnanna held himself very still. His instincts had failed him. The only thing he had ever enjoyed in his life was pains and never a joy to burn them out. He was just tired, tired of choices, consequences and life. He wandered through the range of a senseless mind and ruminated on how all his labours in life yielded a fruitless gain with nobody willing to even observe his plight. Suddenly, a ‘thankless’ idea was borne to drop a pass. There and then, he decided to garner temerity and look for a way of arranging a meeting with the king.
Against all odds, the day finally came, and he was ushered into the presence of the king. The following conversation ensued: “My king, may you live forever!” Nnanna greeted. “You are welcome my son. How may I help you?” The king replied. “I am Nnanna, the village lunatic. I came to tell my king that I am sincerely not a lunatic”. The king laughed and enthused, “my son, in my life, I have only seen a few lunatics that agreed they were lunatics. Anyway, sincerity is not enough; you can be sincerely wrong. If you are not a lunatic, you must find other ways to prove it to the villagers’. “Then give me food, clothing and shelter, and the whole village will be convinced that I am not a lunatic in a very short while”, Nnanna brusquely answered. To give it a trial, the king granted his request.
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The story had it that in the next market day, instead of his usual running and jumping around, Nnanna was seen holding discussions with men, women and children alike, convincing them to love the king and obey the laws of the land. Before now, he derives joy in running and jumping in futility because he felt he owes nobody, and nobody owes him. Now that the land has given him the necessities of life, he now owe everything to the land; he now loves the king and the land even more than he loves himself – Patriotism.
Just like Nnanna, millions of Nigerians can’t boast of the basic necessities of life – they squirm in abject penury in turbulent oceans of plenty. Little wonders, therefore, that patriotism has been thrown to the dogs.
As Nigeria cascade dangerously towards an uncertain destiny and all its implications for the health of the polity, the critical question here is: who is supposed to be more patriotic than the other? The child who dropped out of school because of the inability of the parents to pay his school fees, with no access to any governmental scholarship scheme; the little kid who hawks to get money to pay school fees and is still daily harassed by government officials; school teacher who treks to school daily, and stays under the sun and in the rain to impart knowledge to students because of decrepit infrastructure, and still not paid his meagre sum at the end of the month; individuals who provides everything for themselves ranging from water, power, road, security, school etc without government assistance; a widow that sold everything she had to train her children in school and is still suffering in old age because her children have been unemployed for years; about 75 million unemployed bereft of social security and have been turned to money making pawns by the same government that is supposed to cater for them; sick people that have opted to patronize spiritual homes because death, poor infrastructure and high bills are the only guarantees in Nigerian hospitals; the man that has lost lives and properties in Damaturu as a result of the inability of the government to provide security; the fisherman in Bonny whose river is polluted by oil; the oppressed farmer who hears about billions expended through government interventions in agriculture on the radio but has not felt it once; etc. These and many more has become part and parcel of Nigerian’s everyday experience.
These consequences are caused by the cumulative actions of few in positions of authority who over the years, have engaged in acts that are antithetical to the Nigerian project. Yes! They have not demonstrated any will that can convince anyone to contemplate laying down his life for this country. So next time, when people perceive singing the National Anthem as a punishment and has no regard for the national symbols; when able bodied men prefer watching home movie to listening to national news; when people sit at home to play ludo instead of cleaning up their environment or going to vote during sanitation and election days; when many Nigerians prefer to die than parting a dime to any government official or parastatal in form of tax or levy; When you raised a debate about the choice of Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari as the next president of Nigeria and somebody somewhere shouts: “It’s not my business who wins or lose”; Don’t be angry nor think they aren’t enlightened. They might be trying to tell you: “They don’t care! Why will I?”
According to the creed of US Declaration of Independence, governments are instituted among men to enhance better life, enforce liberty and enable the pursuit of happiness. On this premise, any government that has not ensured happiness and better life for the greatest number of people can never elicit their civic values on which patriotism is fore-grounded, no matter how much is spent on public relations.
But it is not late yet. The elections are very much around the corner. For the sake of posterity, we can still make a difference by voting wisely.
.Orji Iheanyi is a political analyst and a consultant agronomist and can be reached at [email protected]
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