Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko
72 The deliberate pretense that all is well with Naija and the unitary structure of the country, has more than anything else, blinded both the authorities and the public for decades. The evasive culture of denying the fact and covering up the reality has done a lot of harm to healing. Continuously lying to ourselves, that the current unitary structure is not responsible for our miseries, is deceptive. Prevarication brought us here.
Evading the truth and applying needless and unhelpful strategies, while hoping by and by for miracles, has slowly reset and reprogrammed our mindset, expectations and accepted ways of doing things. Ethnic rivalries, indolence and the huge corruption in high places, all helped establish the high level of tolerance of misgovernance and unhealthy policies, that has retarded the growth of the country and weakened cohesion over time. Nobody seems to care, as the elite conveniently built coalitions and cabals, for the sole purpose of access to power and protecting their loot. Everybody watched helplessly and it became standard culture over time.
73 The marginalisation, impunity and nepotism that gradually grew discontent and frustrations, were continuously tolerated and “managed”, because many people looked the other way, feeling, they weren’t the worse off. Bad behavior, massive sleaze and profligacy, were endured and accepted as our new way of life. Playing the religious card and region against each other helped establish and forced us to accept humongous corruption and leadership failure, as part of the milieu. Regime after regime, military or civilian, the tiny clique of the influential and powerful political class, the elite club and their friends and associates, carried on as if there would be no consequences for bad governance and frightening corruption that gradually gave us the unenviable unflattering identity, we hold like a trophy today. Those who should know better, and provide good leadership, were only content with stuffing their pockets and stacking their loot all over the world. We shamelessly failed, in spite of our famed oil wealth, to develop any sector in our land. Not basic infrastructure, not agriculture and agro-based industries, not healthcare delivery, not education, not science and technology, nothing, except perhaps Sports, football.
74 But ironically, we successfully developed a taste for the finest stuff in the world, marble homes, state of the art automobiles, with a special love for SUVs, private jets, overseas medicare, oxbrigde and ivy league education for our kids, designer fashion and the very latest iPhones. We shut down Dubai regularly, for earth-shaking weddings for our pampered kids, drive around in tinted glass SUVs, can’t visit our village without armed escorts, live in prison-like homes protected by ten-feet walls, even with multi-camera CCTV, we still jump out of the bed in the middle of the night and peep out of the window, when the dogs bark. We know the country is drifting, but we are scared to offer an opinion. It isn’t politically correct to offend the powers that be. Moreover, it is safer to adopt the “siddon look” philosophy. With very weak institutions, politics of the stomach, ethnic and religious differences, the country slowly accepted, adapted and got used to the prevailing hurtful culture of avoiding the truth, hiding our heads and distancing ourselves from trouble, even as the country slides down the slope. Acquiring very expensive tastes for the best in life, and unable to manufacture even pencils, dependent on oil, and living the good life to the hilt, the elite unwittingly set a dangerous standard of opulence and grand luxury for their kids to copy. The unreasonable lifestyle of several luxury homes in Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Lekki, Asokoro and Maitama, with many owning private homes in London, Dubai, the US and other exotic cities of the world, the Nigerian political elite with his penchant for littering his compound with dozens of luxury cars, is truly a case study, in profligacy and indolence. Rent-seeking, influence peddling and raw politicking reign as the only industry of the elite.
75 These unedifying lifestyles, values and later-day culture and mindset, defined the new Naija, the post-civil war Naija and the oil boom-stricken countrymen who lead us. A consumer society, where the tough guys and the big boys only struggle and hustle for access to power, so they could walk with a swagger, live their dream lives and continue in the same old way that got us here. Managing the same old constitution, padding the annual budgets, giving nice speeches and the beat goes on.
Meanwhile, inflation, insecurity, poverty, restiveness, agitations and impunity, continue to grow in leaps and bounds, the positive development of the country hamstrung by an unhelpful unitary constitution, the masses frustrated and helpless, whilst the elite club, are preoccupied with how to protect their asses and safeguard their assets. As the class difference widens, the lack of any strong platform, to check the excesses of government, became obvious. No group really, can take on or call out, corrupt and inept leadership. That, affords the Government the luxury to do as it pleases. The government becomes too powerful. The elite survives through government patronage. Everybody has a price. Who will check or challenge the government? The land is entangled in a quagmire. No way out. Almost like a Catch 22 situation.
That is why the government dribbles everyone, pretending they don’t know the unitary structure can’t take the country much farther. Everybody fearfully keeps quiet. That’s how we got stuck and the frustrations and fear of the future, grew agitation, which was mishandled and the agitators simply got embittered by the mishandling.
76 The adoption of PREVARICATION, as state policy, was enabled and unconsciously accepted as a way of life because the citizens seem helpless and uncoordinated. The craving to hold unto power at all costs to dominate others reinforces the world view of those opposed to saving the country by consensually reconstructing the polity, as early as possible. It is well known to all, that the polity must be restructured. More power must be devolved to the federating units. True fiscal federalism must replace this suffocating unitary structure, imposed by the 1999 military-inspired constitution. It is self-evident that the many issues driving anger and bitterness in the land, are enabled by the absolute control of the country by the centre, leaving the federating units, dissatisfied and disgruntled. The dependence on the centre and the helplessness of the federating units remains the real issue in the land today. The winner-takes-it-all syndrome creates a situation of hopelessness amongst regions without representation at the centre. This helplessness creates discontent and frustration. This in turn leads to fear of the future, and then agitation. Everybody knows this truth. We have been going round and round, avoiding the truth and hoping that delaying the inevitable reconstruction of the polity, which will rejuvenate our depressed citizens and heal the land, can help us wriggle out of the unpleasant situation, or could somehow be avoided or carried out through certain amendments of the constitution. This deliberate delay, only fuels the agitation. Had past resolutions of past National conferences been implemented and the country restructured before now, there certainly wouldn’t have been agitations today. The country is simply paying the price for rejecting the truth.
77 The continuous unhelpful pretence that a way could be found somehow, to restore sanity in the land, without doing the needful, actually, deepened the loss of faith that greatly grew the agitation. The evasive attitude of the government, the preference for amendments of the unkind 1999 document and the reluctance to truthfully accept the fact, that the defects and inadequacies of that unitary constitution, overheat the polity. Delay in discarding and replacing the unwieldy document with a new people’s constitution, is responsible for the crisis in the land today. Going round in circles, avoiding the needful and hoping for a miracle, won’t help us. Only sincerely facing the truth and restoring confidence in the land, by convening a constitutional conference that would draft a new ground norm, built on justice, equity and a level playing field for all, will heal the land. PREVARICATION offends the people, deepens, their frustrations and fuels the agitation. The land is sick. Lying to ourselves won’t heal the land. Unhelpful habits, bad behaviour, misgovernance and a heightened level of prebendalism, wreaked havoc on our senses, introduced strange values, we unconsciously adopted and that ruined our cohesion, creating distrust and disunity. If we do not quit prevaricating, and still continue to experiment with threats and intimidation, we will never heal the land. Only doing the needful early enough will unite and heal the land. The crises in the land, are simply a direct consequence of dilly-dallying round and round, avoiding the truth, for so long. Let the truth be told.
To be CONTINUED.
