Nigeria and allegory of change

CHANGE sometimes exudes an aura of fear among people because in many cases, it is incongruous with the objective reality of the milieu in which people live. People love to stay in the past, and they like the status quo to continue. Naturally, we all love to remain in our comfort zone, and indeed, it’s a good place to stay, but the problem is that nothing grows there. We all must obey the law of nature. Willy-nilly, the change will happen one way or the other because it’s the only permanent thing in nature. The only role we can play is to mitigate the disruptive nature of change.  Nigerians have suffered a great deal in the past and, to say the least, the suffering has continued despite their outcry. The past governments did neglect the people and treated them with disdain. Nigerians lack the protest culture; we accept anything thrown at us by the government. If there is no electricity, we buy generator; no pipe-borne water, we drill a well or if you are rich, you drill a borehole. If there is no roads, we manage whatever we have. If there is not enough food, we resort to rationing. No employment? No worries, and no complaints! The same trend continues under the present regime despite its so-called “change” agenda. Violence, joblessness, hyper- inflation, nepotism, and recently kidnapping, and wanton banditry are all regular parts of life, the order of the day in present-day Nigeria.

Self-aggrandisement among public office-holders takes the central stage: the change and transformation that all Nigerians hoped for ha turned into social anarchy and disorder. Nigeria is officially in a state of anomie! When I look at what is going on in the country now, life in the state of nature could have been better. When people think that the current Tzar is bad, the next one is even worse! In the 21st century when other countries around the world are taking advantage of the ubiquity of modern technology to improve the lives of their citizens, my people are still left far behind, struggling, and saddled with the trivial mundane concerns of day-to-day life!  Nigerians just craved change in whatever form in the twilight of the Goodluck Jonathan-led administration. Nigerians enthusiastically and blindly bought into the APC’s slogan of change. The emergence and perception of Buhari as the mystic man who would lead the people out of their squalor and misery could not be said to have been misplaced based on his pedigree and antecedents as a no-nonsense General who abhorred indiscipline and corruption. Just think and look back at the fearsome reputation of the Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon-led regime! You may disagree with many of their policies, but one thing was clear then: they had a vision, they pursued it with vigour and made the people fall in line, whatever you think about the outcome depending on what side you were on and what you believed in.

Then came the APC with its mantra of Change! APC was an amalgam of several political parties with different people and personalities, but with a central theme of change, which was what the people wanted; and being led by General Buhari, people believed them! Nigerians equated APC with the popular analgesic tablets that people took whenever they had pains, malaria, and headache, hoping that APC would figuratively cure the country of all its symptomatic and even asymptomatic ailments that had been part of our psyche for ages. Ironically, people have been left completely dazed by the result of the change brought by APC.  No one in their wildest imagination would think that the change would turn into decimation and de-plumation of Nigerians right on their own soil by fellow Nigerians, or maybe foragers imported into the country by some unscrupulous politicians for their selfish interests.  Could it be that people misunderstood the type of change that Buhari-led APC was talking about? Or could it be that our General was AWOL? Or could it be desertion? We may never know, but the change we see now was not what the people bargained for.

The change so far has not been the panacea for our collective prolonged perennial ailments, but another level of unsurpassed squalor and deprivation. People have simply lost hope in Nigeria. Everybody, except the ruling class, wants separation! After all, if a marriage does not work, its dissolution becomes the only remedy. The Nigerian union has been kept on one leg for a long time: now, the leg is wobbling under the weight of the load and the nation is gasping for breath. Dissection and separation seem to be the only medicine that we should try. Yes, Nigerians have seen dramatic changes but all in the wrong direction! Nigerians have seen intense changes in their life expectancy, quality of life, and untold level of suffering. Graduate employment, insecurity of life and property, nose-dived inter-ethnic relationships, rising national foreign and domestic debts, battered foreign image— the list is inexhaustible. I agree that all these vices did not start with Buhari, but the exacerbation has been accentuated under this regime.

The only change that Nigerians should try now is dissection. No doubt, it will be very hard, actually very painful. But as Louise Armstrong once said, “Change is Hard at the beginning, messy in the middle but glorious in the end.” At the end of this painful change, we will all be better off, and we can remain good neighbours and live happily ever after!

• Adegbite is Co-founder, Coalition of Nigerians in Canada

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