Nigeria/UAE: Growing old versus growing up

IT is the desire of all humans to grow into old age. To grow old is not  strictly by choice; there are other elements involved. It is a disaster when people die young; the prayer of everyone is to live long. Those who go to the church  pray to live long and grow old  and those who are in the mosque also pray to live long and grow old too.  The traditionalists also are trying their best to discover the secret of old age and claim to have many concoctions that will make them live long and grow old. Only God knows the amount of incisions on the heads of some people to protect and prevent them from dying young. To grow old is good but meaningless when the person concerned does not grow up with it. A man who grows old and fails to grow up is no different from a child in an adult’s clothes. The combination of the two is what makes a beautiful country.  Though growing old has dire consequences, it is evertheless desirable for all humans. Growing  old means metabolism becoming weaker; bones tend to shrink in size and density. In fact, even a tall man may become shorter and muscles will lose their strength and then the inevitable will happen but when a person grows old and grows up, he will always have  someone to continue where he stopped.  No wonder that the Western world is building upon the solid foundation that has been laid by their forebears.

Growing up is different from growing old; growing up is to grow internally and externally, to arrive at a full stature or physical or mental maturity. It involves growing up intellectually. The synonyms of growing up are: thriving, blooming,  prospering, developing , maturing etc. Growing up does not necessarily mean the number of years one has spent on earth whereas growing old has to do with the number of years but is not necessarily the synonym of growing up that I have mentioned above. Growing old and growing up should pair together. Nigeria gained independence on 1st October  1960 and so by reason of numbers, we are 62 years old  and therefore it will not be too much to say that Nigeria is growing old.  Looking at the definition of growing old, we would see that our metabolism is getting weaker, the fabrics that held us together for many years are torn in several places; the unity/strength  that should be our backbones are weak and in fact the basis for that unity is no longer there.

We are look older than our days due to the lack of proper and adequate care. The nourishment that makes people look younger than their age has been halted long ago and so at 62 we are full of wrinkles and yet we are still crawling. We have heard how Sheikh Gumi said that the northerners should not vote for anyone that promised  to kill the bandits in the North. He confessed that the bandits are their soldiers. So all the bandits ransacking Southern Kaduna,  Borno and those who sacked Kuje Prison are northern soldiers. I have said this much because no one in the North has disclaimed what Mr Gumi said.  At one time, he called the bandits businessmen that only steal  children and people for business purposes. I gave an interview on  Galaxy TV on that matter around August this year and called for the arrest of Sheikh Gumi. I made it clear that a friend of terrorists is a terrorist and a friend of bandits is a bandit.  The veil is completely removed; Sheikh Gumi is very bold to take a stand against a country growing old and nothing is happening to him.

Sunday Igboho only asked for the freedom of the Yoruba from the growing-old country since the centre can no longer hold but messengers of death were sent to his house and he only escaped by whiskers.  All his properties were destroyed and he now lives in exile. Nigeria is growing  old indeed but not growing up . Is there not a reason why the agitators are clamouring for independence? Is not the wanton destruction by northern bandits affecting the South, with the killing of the people in the South by the bandits of the North? If Nigeria had been peaceful and prosperous, there is no one that would clamour for secession but who in his right senses will like to live in a country where someone like Sheikh Gumi are calling the shots? After Chief Igboho was forcefully ejected from his house and  forced into exile, Sheikh Gumi visited his ancestral land in Igboho and did a video recording . A show of triumph that the jihadists had won in a country that is growing old and not growing up.

Growing up

In 1971, the United Arab Emirates became a federation of Six Emirates.  The country is growing up tremendously. The Emirates is only 51 years old but it remains one of the most beautiful countries in the world. She is thriving, blossoming,  developing, prospering and maturing. Development is taking place everyday; the people are not satisfied with the level they are and they are still working hard everyday. UAE is a perfect example of a growing up country. There is no need for the Emirates to break up as they are developing pari passu. Taking the two countries side by side, Nigeria is endowed with more natural resources than UAE, Nigeria is blessed with better weather than the UAE  and Nigeria has more human resources than the UAE. The UAE is more or less a desert but has learnt the secret of growing old and growing  up at the same time which it is utilising for its own benefit.

What then is the problem with Nigeria? Nigeria is being fragmented by multifarious differences that look irreconcilable and  irrecoverable. There is no unity of purpose, the interest of the North is not the same as the interest of the South.  The interest of the wealthy elite is not synonymous with the interest of the poor. Whilst the wealthy elite are doing everything to protect their wealth and recycle themselves so that their wealth will cover many generations, the poor are thinking of how to send their children to school and to enjoy all the social amenities that are exclusively for the rich. Meanwhile, the upper class are trying to ensure that the poor do not climb the ladder and there are seriously doing their best to keep them at bay Nigeria is only growing old and refused to grow up and  we are not only growing old but growing shorter in stature everyday.  We have lost our influence in Africa, we are no longer seen as the giant of Africa, we look like the pigmies of the Congo basin economically. We cannot deal with religion effectively. Everywhere you go in Nigeria, you see religious people who do not know God nor understand his principle, one of the reasons why we pray and pray, yet nothing is happening. Instead for the witch gettiing delivered and healed , she is producing more female children.The oracle that came out for Nigeria is bad in that  Instead of things getting better, they are getting worse.

.•Aborisade is a lawyer, human rights activist and historian

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