If I used to give you fish 25 years ago, with the passage of time and application of sense, I should improve to giving you sardines or geisha or grilled fish. That means I have added value to the fish I used to give you 25 years ago. We used to have yellow taxis, but now we have spiced them up with Bolt and Uber. We used to have okada, but now we have spiced that up with Gokada and Co. There is no way you can continue to do the same thing, the same way for 25 years, and call it progress. That’s copy and paste.
But 25 years after the return of democracy, those who lead us in all spheres of life, whether politically, economically, religiously, governmentally, or traditionally have only improved on new strategies to steal from us and remained stagnant on new strategies to deliver to us. And it doesn’t appear any different even with the new entrants. The story is still the same after 25 years. Distribute Okada, Keke, grinding machines, cutlasses, wheelbarrows, and tokunbo vehicles. Move from one health center to another and pay some person’s hospital bills. Rush some shoddy construction work here and there for photo ops.
That’s partly because, regardless of how bad things get, those who are the root cause of the pains we suffer, rarely get affected. Even when it gets close to them, they have the resources to ward off any threat, whether physical or economic. Doctors fall sick too. Motivators get knocked down too. Winners lose too. But those who cause Nigeria’s woes are immune from the scenes they create. No matter how they deny it, the sheer privileges and perquisites of office that political elevation affords in Nigeria clearly separate the income gap between them and us in geometric quantum.
Be it a position holder in government, an elected official, a highly placed and respected religious leader, a hedged security chief, a ruthless industry leader, or their close family members or those connected to them directly, there are different levels of buffers that are usually utilized to shield them from the actual pain of everyday life in Nigeria today. There are gaps they can jump that tens of millions of others cannot.
These things may not necessarily be money. They are everyday things that if you are not one of them, you will be made to pay. It could just be how via a phone call or how they walk very easily and quickly into a Police station or other detention centers and free detainees at will. It could be how they beat vehicle inspection officers VIOs and traffic lights without blinking an eye. It could be how they travel faster than you on the road because different security checkpoints will not stop them from asking for vehicle particulars as they will do to you. It could be how they get a bank facility, interest, and collateral free, or it could be how they get contracts without qualms. But these are some of those few situations that the everyday Nigerian does not escape paying money for.
And this brings me back to my monotonous refrain; which is – When will Nigerians realize that they have to demand and organize to extract good governance from their leaders? When will they realize that prayers, fasting, thanksgiving, and political goat-headism will not scratch this quagmire? When will our people reduce the praise singing and vehemently tell those who lead us to do things differently like the progressive world is doing? When will the poor stop making excuses for those who exploit their ignorance? When exactly will Nigeria make you cringe?
These are just rhetorical queries tormenting the carapace of my mind and I am only posing them to whom it may concern.
Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo is the Publisher of CrossRiverWatch and a rights activist, a Cross Riverian, and writes from Lagos.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Agba Jalingo, and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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