NIGERIA: A  NATION AT WAR WITH ITSELF

 

By Chris Akhabue

It was 10: am in the morning. I had rushed to a nearby bank to pick some cash so I could get some fuel which was now selling for six hundred naira per litre. The queue at the bank ATM  was unusually long and I was at the tail end of the line that had more than a hundred hungry and angry people, mostly women. I reluctantly remained  on the queue  of traumatized citizens who could not access their money due to naira redesign policy of the government of Buhari. Many thoughts ran  through my mind while on the line. Should I go and buy money from the POS? . Should I wait until it gets to my turn? When would it get to my turn?  Buying naira with naira  from the POS which is the latest  addition to our national malaise  would cost me much. Yes, in Nigeria, today you buy your money you saved in your bank account with money. I will have to pay two thousand naira to collect three thousand naira. What it means is that if I have five thousand naira in my account, I will use two thousand to buy three thousand naira and I will go home with only three thousand naira. I remained undecided,  stalled on the line that was not moving,  for hours.

 

While still waiting, we were informed  that the money in the ATM machine was  exhausted.

Soon after,   the queue began to reduce as people began to disperse, with  pain and anguish and frustration vividly and visibly written on their faces. You could see it. You could feel the paint up anger and despair.

 

I reluctantly strolled to a nearby  pos operator.  Coincidentally, a woman that was in that queue at the bank was already standing by  the pos operator. She told  the pos operator that she needed to withdraw the sum of one thousand five hundred naira from her account. ” Ok Ma, but you will have to pay  two hundred naira for the charges” the Pos operator responded.

” I have only one thousand five hundred naira in the account” the woman informed the pos operator.

What this means is that she has to buy her one thousand three hundred naira with her two hundred naira .

 

She had no choice but to  succumb to the latest miserable and undesirable self inflicted trouble of the moment.

 

The PoS operator inserted the woman’s ATM card in the machine and the woman imputed her code and waited. This cycle of pain was repeated many times without result.

 

 

After several futile efforts to squeeze out the money that seemed trapped in the pos machine, the  operator announced that her  transaction had been declined and the poor woman was debited even though she did not get a dim. You could see the frustration and despair all over her face as tears well up in her eyes.

 

 

Admit it or not, Nigeria is in distress and the citizens gravely traumatized like in  war situation.

 

People  are killed daily. Many by hunger, starvation and deprivations. Some others by needless  circumstances and encumbrances created by state machinery. Others by kidnappers and other allied terrorists groups domiciled in our Communities. Kidnapping innocent peasant people in their farmlands and  collecting hundreds of millons as  ransom, rapping innocent children and women. Many more also  die due to gross government criminal negligence and crass incompetence  that have engendered  acute system failures.

 

Today, as it were, in Nigeria, we fight different battles of life to stay alive. Every now and then there are new self inflicted  battles that are introduced into the Nigeria system by the managers of the economy.

 

We fight and struggle for everything. We fight and struggle to earn a living, most often times not decent ones . It is only in Nigeria people  fast and pray for days for the wages and salaries of their toils and labour to be paid.

 

The current  trend  is the scarcity of Prime motor spirit which now sells for six hundred naira per litre  coupled with the scarcity of the Naira due to naira redesign, both happening simultaneously to further strangulate the already over traumatized citizens.   This government  policy has put so much socio-economic pressure on  Nigerians so much so that people go to bed daily without food in their stomach while we watch helplessly as the economy shuts down slowly.

 

Cost of living is rising  and most Nigerians can no longer afford the basic necessities of life as cost of transportation have gone up and subsequently pushing upward the cost of food stuff prices  which have long gone up by about  125% .

 

War, they say, is a biological necessity. People and nation fight for liberty and freedom. After war, most times, come peace.

 

Presently, the nation Nigeria is at war. With itself. The waring parties are the common people, the ordinary man on the street, irrespective of wherever they may be in Nigeria, Ibo, Hausa, Yoruba, Efik, Christians, muslims.

 

The common   enemies are the  powerful cabals, the  leaders  and the administrators of our socio- economic architecture. Those who have plundered our collective patrimony and plenitude, they are our enemies  that we must collectively and resolutely  fight and over throw once and for all.

 

 

The stage is set for the final  and epic battle for  the redemption or otherwise  of the soul of the nation nigeria.

 

As Steve Biko of blessed memory  put it some time ago, he said, ” The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”

 

Our enemies,  our oppressors, have all along brainwashed, enslaved and   divided us along religious, tribal and political divide   to be able to  continually hold us in perpetual socio- economic and political captivity.

 

The chances for socio- economic and political redemption  is here with us. The window of opportunity to be free from the economic and social slavery is once again offering itself with the coming presidential elections.

 

Nigerians all over the world are known to be highly cerebral. Yes, very intelligent and hard working people. But what beats the imagination of many is our inability to make the right choice of leaders who would translate our sprawling  natural endowments for the good of all.

 

Today, as it were, the presidential election is a matter of days away. In this election there are visibly three major contestants. The All Progressives Congress(APC)  with the former Lagos State governor, Bola Alhmed Tinubu as its presidential flag bearer. He says it is his turn to rule Nigeria. ( Emi lo kan)

 

The other is the representative of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP). He is the former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar . He said , if elected, according to him, he  would sell off some of our heritage like the refinaries to finance his manifestoes.

 

The other is the candidate of the Labour Party, (LP) His is Mr Peter Obi, the former governor of Anambra State. He says he would, if elected, turn the nation from being a consuming nation to a producing nation.

 

No nation on earth can survive the rigours associated with  sustainable national growth without patriots.

 

The patriotic contributions of citizens are imperative ingredients in  building enduring  national  legacies without which efforts at national cohesion would amount to efforts in futility.

 

 

In view of the present comatose and bedridden situation of a nation struggling to  recuperate from self inflicted injuries, urgently    needs a surgeon general to lead the final operation aimed at saving the foundering national plenitude.

 

 

Patriotism therefore  includes knowing the right candidate and voting in such candidate.

 

In this instance of our collective search for a national renaissance, the onus is on all patriotic citizens, irrespective of tribe, religion or political lineage,  to shun selfish and other primordial incontinence in our honest quest  for a credible, honest and patriotic leader.

 

Accomplishing the task of rebuilding the ruins of the nation  at this perilous point in time requires Nigerians accepting to apply the rudimentary task of shunning ego,  power play, emotional and other selfish considerations  to elect the right candidate.

 

Leaving the driving wheels of the destiny of the nation at this perilous  and trying times in the hands of a hobo  is to  bid the well-being and the future of the nation an irreversible  final goodbye.