Call us the ‘happiest people’ on earth, the ‘most resilient’ and ‘tolerant’, you’re not wrong. We’ve been described much better, long ago. In one of his hit songs, late Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti described Nigerians as people who are always ‘suffering and smiling’.
Nigerians have been silenced eventually, and their country captured. Even the voices of the voiceless which once attempted to keep governments on their toes have been either muted, or they’ve joined the bandwagon. We no longer ‘suffer and smile’, but suffer in silence.
No matter how shamelessly the political elite publicly display gross levels of corrupt tendencies, it’s okay, so long as our tribesmen are in power. We are helpless and hapless.
Rather than confront our demon, we choose to dare physical hell no matter how hot. Suffering in silence has become easier than holding our leaders accountable. That’s our new survival strategy. These same leaders have erased ‘patriotism’ from their dictionary. They squander our collective wealth, impoverish us, and force us to pay more for our natural endowment. For them, feeding fat, living large and stashing wealth in foreign banks, are reasons they’re in office. We are instead asked to make sacrifices to secure our future.
The incident in Apapa few weeks ago, where a tanker overturned on top of Tincan Liverpool bridge, spilling its content, tells you how much poverty has injured Nigerians. As usual, the people chose to scoop the inflammable product rather than run for dear life. They chose to dare physical hell than solve their problems from the roots. Indeed, what poverty cannot do to poor Nigerians, does not exist.
The masses in this dispensation are afraid to hold their leaders accountable. They are scared to death to demand good governance, but readily rub shoulders with death all in the name of survival.
The level of risks people are willing to take just to stay alive beats imagination. Scooping inflammable product from under the bridge while it spilled from the top of the bridge is the highest risk anyone can take. It’s been described as ‘stupidity not poverty’. But a Netizen, Tosin Tyson says, “Unfortunately, extreme poverty ends up making most people stupid…making them choose between waiting for where the next meal will come from or dying right inside the one, they’ve found.” That is exactly where the masses are right now.
The worst is, from a distance, many foolishly watched as their fellow hungry citizens romanced with death traps. Poverty-turned-stupidity didn’t let them understand that the air around that environment was saturated enough to end both the spectators and collectors. Not even the sad memory of the October 18, 1998 Jesse explosion incident which recorded over 1000 deaths, and many other similar deadly incidents could scare them away from poking history to repeat itself. Excruciating poverty and hardship are gradually reducing Nigerians to beggarly elements.
We are in 2027 general elections mode. Politicians have no other job now apart from plotting ways to tighten their leash on the masses. Mass defections are the order of the day. They are defecting not to make Nigeria great but to insure their tomorrow. Sad that the same impoverished citizens will serve as willing tools to make that happen.
With the opposition silenced and in disarray, it’s like, Nigerians may just keep on suffering in silence. The jobless youth will rather make a living as yahoo boys and gigolos than be deliberate about electing competent leaders. Many others would rather spend time arguing the latest news about foreign football seasons, than join forces for a better country. Just a few Naira notes or lure them with dazzling tribalistic words, they vote away their conscience and tomorrow. The girls will rather be hook-up pros than be concerned about who pilots the nation’s affairs.
We silently complain about how we provide basic amenities such as electricity, water, security, etc, by ourselves in our communities, but when election comes, we get carried away by tribalism and religion.
Our young unemployed men and women will rather perish in the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea, than stay back home and ensure the right people are in government. Many who stay back prefer to engage in thuggery for politicians during elections, instead of ensuring their votes count. They disenfranchise people through threats, write fake results and snatch ballot boxes. We’ve reached a point where our tech savvy Gen Zs who are supposed to call their leaders to order, spend every moment on the internet as vicious cyber bullies for politicians.
Poor Nigerians would rather cut corners, scam their fellow poor men to survive, than be concerned about how to make Nigeria great. People just want to grab whatever they can now, believing God will come down from heaven to change Nigeria. No way!
Religious leaders would rather campaign for their tribesmen no matter how bad the market is, than put the country first. And when hunger begins to ravage their congregation, they brainwash them into believing that only prayer or sowing more seeds can save them and the country.
Nigerians are truly not ready for the birth of an enviable nation. When we are ready, we will choose to confront our demons – politicians, instead of daring physical hell all the time for survival.
