FEATURE ARTICLE

Monday, September 30, 2019
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NIGERIA @ 59: IS CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY A MOCKERY IN NIGERIA?

October 1st is another day the Lord has made and we shall rejoice and be glad in it - Hallelujah

t has arrived and just like the years before, the government of Nigeria would rejoice in their usual loud and confused and empty talk. The so-called leaders would use the borrowed language effectively to please, persuade, promise by luring the citizens into yet, another trap of deceit.

Oh, they would use another man's language to perfect a decoy. There's reason for celebration - We must celebrate our diversity - Our population is our strength - Rome was not built in a day - Do not ask what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country's artful mantra - Be patriotic; when in fact their own actions and deeds betray the actual sense of the word. For example, one of them once spent 100 days or so in another Sovereign country where he had gone to receive medical treatment lacking in the country he rules! Shior.

In their insincerity and deceit marked by aggressive ambition, and pretending to have qualities and beliefs they do not have, these lunatics (pardon my expression) obliterated and assassinated WAZOBIA, a language of unity, progress, truthfulness, purpose, peace, reconciliation, growth and so on. Yet, these unprincipled set of fellows called leaders continue shouting GOWON

(GO ON WITH ONE NIGERIA!) And yet, they have the audacity to chew patriotism like kola-nut. Where is the correlation?

Of course many Nigerians all over the world would listen to the rhythm-code of their oppressors. This is because they too secretly aspire to be like their oppressors. We would use the occasion to remember our country. We would dance and sing. We would display our hypocritical patriotism once again. We would party irrespective of sufferings in our land. Most especially it would be another opportunity to award phony contracts; another moment to spend money like a drunken sailor. Some are eagerly waiting to collect travel allowances under the pretext of celebrating Independence Day. Both the oppressor and the oppressed will have forgotten that 'Alaru t'onje buredi, awo ori e l'onje ti komo' (a professional load carrier voraciously eating bread does not know he's actually eating the skin on his head)

Someone somewhere should as a matter of pity, kindly reminds him that he is spending unwisely as he unashamedly embarks on purposeless journey of no return; therefore there is an urgent need for him to reflect before he eventually eats himself to sudden and untimely death. Oro p'esije, oro di hun. There's no other word for it -

The situation in Nigeria has always been something like this: The government that is obligatory responsible for the growth of its citizens ironically is the same institution standing in the way of such expansion. The highest form of criminality is when a government deliberately uses the instrument of state to crush its citizens-from realising their potentials. Alias Brain Drain or Drain Brain!

Many of our egg-heads; our hope - especially those on scholarship abroad have been compelled to stay behind after completing their studies because there is nothing for them to write about home. Of course they too will join the uproarious party; the extravaganza.

In fact, there are so many ways the Nigerian government-either past or present -annihilate its citizens' thought. Nigerians are being killed every now and then by the policy of directionless (lack of purpose). For example, when a citizen becomes a criminal simply because he or she expresses opinions or protests or challenges the government's inefficiency or bad policies! Even at times like this when citizens are constrained to call for revolution.

When you deprive a people from choosing a good and benevolent leader, then you murder them without spilling their blood. We are not talking about physical killings like unresolved political assassinations. We are not even talking about road accidents that have sent thousands to their early grave due to bad roads which of course should be the duty of a serious government. We are not talking about lack of adequate hospitals or drinkable water or constant electricity. We are actually talking about mental killing that follows the victims to their grave. But then you must be manipulated to celebrate the DAY that hunts as each day passes.

Subsequent Nigerian governments have been crushing its citizens' thought by refusing to adopt free and qualitative education to a certain level. When a citizen is deprived of such education, she is unfairly treated as a citizen. She is dispossessed of knowledge - of liberation. She is made to suffer throughout her life. She is forced to be a slave and treated like a servant in her own house. She is condemned to the street to become area boy or girl available to be used to rig elections. She is permanently restricted to a class of nonentity although she doesn't know. And that is why she would be happy to celebrate October 1st sentiment with the government that has systematically destroyed her future. See, they have managed to conquer her thought.

Yeah, Nigerians have been systematically deprived of progress. Imagine there's enough fund to celebrate but there's no fund to establish benevolent institutions! When are we going to come back to our senses and be serious about nation building? Nation building ke! Well�. Well� Well� Isn't the future started from yesterday? Why is it the same song every year? "E go better...E go better". Thousands of Nigerians have carried such hopeless hope to their grave without tasting the "E go better" slogan.

On this day, most Nigerians would forget the pollution killing our brothers and sisters in the Niger Delta area where most of our resources and huge income comes from. We would put aside the social menace like kidnapping, Boko-Haram and Herdsmen, ethnicity, religious intolerance, corruption, and poverty. But as usual, Nigerians would put on their best clothes on October 1st and celebrate the 59th anniversary of self-rule.

Those in the Diaspora would use the occasion to organize cultural activities to showcase our heritage, which is not bad in its form. But instead of doing it with reflection, we would do it with lack of elegance puffed up with vanity. We would do it with such fanfare that suggests things are well in the land of our birth. On this day we would forget what had driven us away from our land of birth. Perhaps the thing we enjoy in our new land which is virtually missing at home has undernourished our perspective. After all, we have escaped to the "God's Own Country".

Here in Budapest, our friends at the embassy courtesy of H.E. Dr. (Mrs) Eniola Olaitan AJAYI have fixed October 6th for the jubilee. Nigerians in Hungary have been invited to the open festival where a cultural dance troupe from Ekiti is expected to transport Yoruba culture to the Danube. Nothing personal against the embassy but I will not attend as this will be my own protest. For me, the jubilation has been tempered by the bloody disingenuous of our political and intelligentsia class, who always give a false appearance of frankness.

So as I wrote somewhere else, let Nigerians in the street of Amsterdam or Berlin or Stockholm or Vienna or Sydney or Budapest or London or New York blow their trumpet and rejoice for escaping poverty in their own land. Let them climb the Statue of Liberty or swim from River Thames to the Danube River. Let them celebrate by poking fun at those who could not escape the hardships at home. Let them celebrate the glee of freedom they enjoy in the white woman's land but lacking in their own. Let them fly Sunny Ade or any other Amuluduns (entertainers) to thrill the occasion in their adopted countries.

What exactly are we celebrating self? That the queen gave us her language? That we are better off since the so-called independence? That the factors which led to the civil war that killed millions have been rectified? That the civil servants are still civil servants? That the wars on corruption have been won? That the living standard is standard? That the Nigeria Police Force has stopped killing or maiming or harassing the citizens indiscriminately! What is it that has forced us to the street in celebration instead of reflection? What is it? Of course I want to celebrate a nation; a nation greater than any other nation on earth. But not with the clueless and, or insincere government. Definitely not with any government that kills hope; or the ones that do not know how to inspire its citizens.

And of course the school children would not be left out of such burlesque show in the country. They would trick them as they had tricked us. They would ask them to wash and starch and iron their uniforms for October 1st patriotic carnival. Most of these children would march and sing the national anthem, and pledge to Nigeria their country without or with little food in their stomachs. They would play on their innocence as they had played on ours. They would tell them they are the future; leaders of tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes. Does it? If only we had known.

Surely 59 years is a landmark in the history of a nation, even individual. We need to put behind us whatever might have brutalized our minds during the year and celebrate. There's cause for jubilation; when there's life there's hope. That's usually the fallacy of reasoning always given by these bald-head leaders. They change, they deny and contradict the change - and they call it growth of celebration. Mark my words: In an attempt to be eternal, these people will continue to die with every day that passes.

Therefore let the owners of Nigeria and their cronies celebrate the Day they have murdered in their quest to amass wealth and additional power to steal. May God save Nigerians! Notice that I do not say Nigeria! And that's my solution if only you are ready to GETTING STARTED.

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