Dele Omotunde
It’s a pot pourri of up and down, a little to the right, a little to the left, zig-zag achievements since independence in 1960. Here we are 66 years after!
Yet, we have to celebrate if, for anything, at least we must celebrate for being alive.
Yes o!
In satirical mode we, indeed have a lot to crow about. From Tafawa Balewa to Bola Tinubu Nigeria has witnessed galloping and crawling progress, from inside potholes to the top of speed breakers. The journey is on, not aborted.
Opening glee…
We sang an anthem when the Union Jack was brought down for the last time on that fateful October 1, 1960, day in Lagos. NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE, we sang together.
The soldiers, used to standing upright like NEPA pole on parade ground, soon ordered everybody to stand up! This led to ARISE, O COMPATRIOTS! We all obeyed.
Then came the turn of a stubborn civilian who changed the “status quo anthem” back to the original “status quo ante” of an anthem. NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE again!
Is it not a paradox that those who beat their chest for having the monopoly of lethal force could not flush out religious terrorists and armed robbery gangs while they held sway over our common wealth?!
Progress button pressed on the Console.
There’s no stopping the sunrise. Lagos, the nation’s capital was getting too old. After being the nation’s capital for 77 years it had to be moved to an original , more natural VIRGIN NOMAN’S LAND of Abuja to put paid to constant movement from Lokoja to Zungeru to Calabar to Lagos and finally (?) to Abuja!
The movement to Abuja is a historical projection of where political power originates, oscillates and terminates in the country. It needed a military decree promulgated by General Murtala Mohammed, the actual building was done by Alhaji Shehu Shagari while General Ibrahim Babangida hurried the hitherto gradual movement to the new capital with “immediate effect and automatic alacrity” in 1991 (shortly after the Orkar coup attempt), as the military used to say in those days of KHAKITOCRACY
That has been the nation’s lot from 1966 to 1999, from agbada to khaki. And we have had the best of the worst as well as the worst of the best among them. Killing and butchering people was no big deal to them. They killed both foes and friends for self preservation, not for the nation’s survival. God was so pissed off with the worst beast among them that He did not allow him to wake up one day, to save the already punch-drunk nation from further punishment..
Is it not a paradox that those who beat their chest for having the monopoly of lethal force could not flush out religious terrorists and armed robbery gangs while they held sway over our common wealth?! That’s a legacy they left behind after treating the nation like a captured territory worth being plundered and sucked to the marrow.
Nigeria, We Hail Thee.
Today, strange things are happening. Child kidnapping for ritual in those days are no longer in vogue. It is adult kidnapping by children for ransom! Adults so kidnapped include security officers trained to secure lives and properties. Not in a world out of joint.
Good news though.
Every Nigerian is richer today. Hmm? We all seem so rich we don’t have pockets big and deep enough to contain the amount of cash needed to buy food items in the market. We can all afford renting a wheel barrow or “Keke Marwa” to transport our cash to the bakery to buy a loaf of bread. Thanks, the Naira is still breathing.
Factories may be closing down but churches are growing. Everybody is now a pastor praying for the spiritually desperate and preying on the gullible. Neither to blame. Man must whack!
Every Nigerian is richer today. Hmm? We all seem so rich we don’t have pockets big and deep enough to contain the amount of cash needed to buy food items in the market.
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