Solititude And Melancholy 2: Just Before We Forget

Just before we forget and suffer collective illusions, the following names or groups should continue to drum sound in our memory and remain landmarks of errors in accounts of our national woes; their character must be taught to our children as how not to behave in Nigeria:

General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, who took Nigeria through 8 years of memorable military rule with massive depletion of the national treasury, and who staged 8 years of transition to civil rule only to slide us 100 years backwards with the annulment of June 12, 1993 general elections. He stole our hearts with smile and filled his purse with spoils from crude oil and wages of our disunity. He currently intends to come back and rule Nigeria again as a civilian president! He had the chance to make the life of an average Nigerian filled with pride and confidence, with joy of owning properties and satisfactions of his/her fruits of labor. He could have made Nigeria more effective with functional infrastructures i.e NEPA, Water, Roads Telecommunications and a Nigeria where there is justice and freedom. He did not use that chance then. For eight years he misled us. How can we be sure he will lead Nigeria aright again?

General Muhamadu Buhari, subverted a democratic government with the barrels of gun, suspended the Nigerian Constitution of 1979 and promulgated many obnoxious decrees one of which was the notorious decree 4. He jailed many people and abused the hell out of our human rights. Again he wants to govern Nigeria, how can we forget so soon, the terror of the Buhari /Idiagbon regime, the nightmare of their reforms. How can we forget so soon that these ones terrorized us. Eventhough recently, he has proved to be a true democrat, pursuing justice on the premises of rule of law, but let us remember his days as head of state and the short-lived joy of those years.;

Evan(s) Enwerem, one of the many Nigerians who shamefully bears the title; Senator but is currently unclear of allegation of forged documents and change of names;

Chuba Okadigbo; who resigned as the senate president because the house was going to subject him to debate over allegations of embezzlement of public funds, stepped down from senate to shamefully contest as the vice president to rule this nation (under God!) Chuba Okadigbo was reported to have driven cars in the convoy of 30 other supporting cars. His presidency at the Senate was also characterized by stealing the maze of the Senate to his village in Oyi, several hundreds of miles away from Abuja the city of government where ordinarily the mace should permanently be;

Tokunbo Afikuyomi, who was accused of visa scams, and who also accepted to have made illegal entries of Governor Tinubu’s educational claims is still in the senate house and remains a senator of the federal republic of Nigeria;

My main man, Arthur Nzeribe, the defender of what is right, the ABN man. He used the Association for Better Nigeria slogan to truncate the June 12, presidential election. During the aftermath of that June 12 political impasse, people wept, people lost lives, lost sense of directions, sacrificed Kudirat Abiola, MKO Abiola, Pa Alfred Rewane, Tunde?, Chukwuemeka?, Hauwa?, Malam Sabo? and many other nameless civil society members who joined the struggle. During the impasse orchestrated by Arthur Nzeribe/Babangida/Abacha and many other faceless enemies of Nigeria, Nigeria witnessed darkness and bleak; a stage in history that was blurred by the blood of patriots. After that period, we said to ourselves; never again shall we allow such cloud of misfortune. But then came Obasanjo and here comes third-term and that unimaginable period when we paid for liberty with blood of our beloveds looms over the air once again;

Mohamed Sani Abacha, that leader who will forever go down in history as Nigerian terrorist against Nigeria. He staged a coup against Nigeria; he won the coup and made Nigeria a living hell;

James Onanefe Ibori, the governor of Delta State who was sued to court for being an ex-convict parading himself without reference to his former conviction. The case went from lower to higher courts. Eventually, the case was thrown out and James Ibori declared public holiday in his state to celebrate (eheeheeh…..ahahahah…..Nigeria)

Police Commissioner Tafa Balogun, who stole 17 billion Naira (about 140million US$) money meant for the Nigerian Police; meant for the rest of Nigerians. He alone stole so much; and

Alophus Wabara, The senate president who collected bribe from the minister of education Fabian Osuji in order to “favorably” consider the budget of the ministry.

The list is long, but I am sure, many other Nigerians who have wept for this country can fill in the rest of the gap.

However, we can, if we want, remember that advanced democracies and civilization such as the US, Canada and Britain, had had their own share of periods of insanity. Insanity was exhibited from the era of trespass against the Aborigines, the period of slavery, the dark ages when blacks were persecuted because of the pigmentation of their skins, when Mafia gangs subverted the existing laws and ruled by their own allegiance, to the present era of “bush”, and The Loss of the Radii or Raid of the Loss Arch (only in this case it is the loss of American/British lead search for nuclear plant in Iraq). The difference between them- the western systems and us- in Nigeria, is that they challenged the judicial systems, they exerted un-ignorable premium on America doing what is right. We must continue to borrow leave from these ones and forge ahead from the colony of insane, the colony of the mentally and socio-politically derailed people into the empire of the sane, the nobles, and a polity of civil righteousness governed by the emperor that is under the rule of law! Then Wole Soyinka at 70 can retire to eating pounded yam and palm wine with Obasanjo in Ota farm, and I can stop writing, leave solitude and melancholy and concentrate on Yoruba folklore!