On the weekend that signified a break (refueling period) in the nation-wide strike over the removal of fuel subsidy, I saw this Hausa family feeling around a heap of what seemed like their entire property, in the front of a house in Benin City.
There was a vehicle waiting outside. The Hausa family did not display any manner of anxiety.
At least not an attitude that suggested a people filing in a hurry or in the cover of night; the packing was done in broad daylight - painstaking ensuring that nothing was left behind.
I observed the expressions on the faces of their non-Hausa neighbours. Even if there was an outlook of “We will be missing you greatly” it was suppressed.
What I observed was more like an expression of “Thank God for your lives” which was conducted under the solemn atmosphere in likeness of when family members of a deceased are parking the belongings of the deceased in the full-glare of his former co-tenants.
As I saw the man, whom I presumed to be the head of the Hausa family climb a platform to untie the line (Rope) that may have served the purpose of spreading out their clothes to dry in the sun, I realised that this parking was not going to witness a return to the same abode in the nearest future. Even if I had no inkling of where they were headed, I Knew surely that the waiting bus outside, was one of those going to the northern part of our country.
Significantly, the removal of the line (Rope) meant so much to me. Apart from emphasising a place where one wishes not to return again, it meant severance from a place also. And I started wondering if what we are witnessing in the country today is not the gradual severance of the different parts.
I imagined what those, who have been slain in the northern parts of Nigeria would have done to have the opportunity of symbolically untying the line (Rope) before embarking on their journey back to the south or where ever…outside the north; the price I believe they would have been too willing to pay to stay alive.
When Nigerians trooped to the streets in protest of their disinclination to the removal of fuel subsidy, they were being accused of either misunderstanding a very objective government policy, or being misled by the President’s political enemies.
The fact that the President had to wait for the outcome of his disputed electoral matter in the Supreme Court of Justice before the swift removal of the fuel subsidy may have been just a coincidence. However, it is discomforting that President, Goodluck Jonathan is only just realizing that he has to govern a people, who do not understand the attendant benefits to a simple economic policy as the total removal of the cancerous fuel subsidy.
Seven months may be a very short time. But a lot can happen within seven month, if it is mismanaged. Otherwise, how else can we explain the sudden plunge of Nigerians, who did not find it difficult to understand the benefits of voting for President Goodluck Jonathan, seven months ego, to have suddenly become dunces who are obstinate enough not to understand a simple good intention? Where are those who made it possible for Nigerians to understand the riddle of voting for President Jonathan?
At least they would have been very handy in this matter to further explain to Nigerians the riddle of the removal of fuel subsidy.
As the saying goes “The closer the deeper” The mass of Nigerians feel very pained today that the one President they can truly claim enjoys their mandate could so brazen treat them in a manner most undeserving of somebody one cares about. And just one way President Goodluck Jonathan can truly appreciate that Nigerians love and voted for him is to use the matter at hand to test the popularity of his Ministers, Ambassadors, Heads of Government parastatals, political gladiators and carpet-baggers by asking them to go to their various constituencies to project the policy of the fuel subsidy removal.
Then the President would be made to understand that these are the very people that have been recycled, who Nigerians find very easy to distrust in any matter that means well for the people.
The depth of a mother’s love for a child; no adjective is wholly worthy to qualify. Yet, from the mother’s love comes the reason to cease breast feeding a child. It is in recognition that the child ought to start its preparation for the future; which is not as homey as breast sucking and a mother’s lullaby. And in striking a harmony, the mother uses the best antics in making the child understand that her intentions are most motherly…hard for the child initially, but the mother’s antics of gradual withdraw sustains the child’s love forever.
If President Jonathan had truly gotten the feedback that Nigerians were passing to him during his campaign, he would have known that there was a clarion call for the dismantling of the strongholds of the cabals in Nigeria. And just to let him know that Nigerians understand it better than he thinks…the cabals do not exist only in the oil sector.
These are especially very ubiquitous cabals frolicking all the sectors of Nigeria. It exist in the electoral processes (I hope that the governorship primaries in Bayelsa state is not emphasising it) It exist in the manner of choosing Ministers and Heads of Government parastatals.
It exists in the President’s silence over the delay or refusal of states to conduct elections into Local Government Councils. It exist in the Federal Government not directly importing petroleum products themselves and asking the oil majors, independent markers, civil society groups, youth corps members to engage in the distribution of the products to the earmarked destinations.
Or does it not exist when the Federal Government cannot ask the Nigeria Labour Congress, Civil Society Organisations, Religious Organisations, and other interested bodies to jointly have a Board of Trustees made up of reputable Nigerians, which the Bank of Industry (BOI) can liaise with, in managing a Special Petroleum Subvention Accounts for immediate operations in the downstream sector?
The various organisations mentioned above can right away embark on negotiating with some filling station owners with the aim of branding them for the distribution of petroleum products: Somewhat like a mirror image of the present downstream sector before the government would commence its comprehensive withdrawal in the sector.
As Africans, we are peculiar and communal in nature. Our bane is the sophistication that has acted as a veil for corruption. This is one great opportunity for Nigeria to come off it, and march towards greatness.
In future, historians would note these episodes as failings and fundamental catalysts in the disintegration of a one-time homogenous people. They would echo the travails of our parallel ambition as landmarks on the path of our self-perdition. Now is the time for everyone to be mindful of the role he or she is playing in all of these. Our defining moments are here with us now.
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