I am worried that the Nigerian state and those pretending to rule it, do not appear to worry about the impending collapse of the Nigerian house.
I grew up around the old and aged. My very first friends were in their seventies as I learnt to walk, but you already know the story of my childhood in my grandmother’s home at Inalende. I promise to bore you with the Tales Of Inalende at some point in a happier future. Inalende is however relevant to my title, so you’ll bear my visit to the happier days of my youth.
Ile n’so’ko. The house is throwing stones. The sprawling family compound at Inalende was already quite old in my youth, and parts of the sprawling warren of rooms were constructed with mud bricks that were plastered over, and parts of the decking were made of wood at some point, as was the internal staircase that descended into the belly of the main building from the family quarters. Ile Olukole was already old, even in my youth.
Thing is, you might occasionally find that small pieces of mortar would come loose and dribble down from parts of the walls or the decking, and it is at times like these, that I had heard the term used; the house is throwing stone. The frequency of these stoning episodes, the location of the event, the sizes of the dislodged pieces, would determine the urgency of the remedial work required.
When the dislodged bits were merely pebbles and in uncritical parts of the structure, the homeowner might be tardy in dealing with the problem. If the compromised part is capable of affecting the structural integrity of the house, urgent repairs would be effected, and in some extreme cases, immediate evacuation would be the appropriate action, and eventual demolition, might be the solution.
The Nigerian house is throwing stones. The sizes and frequency of the stones would suggest that the house is about to collapse. The peoples living in the house are seemingly oblivious of the imminent collapse of their home, and the landlords have given up the house as lost. Those that should be working to save the house are busy removing the windows, doors, and roofs.
The Nigerian landlords are busy selling all that might still be salvaged, and they have found buyers for the rubbles. The landlords have never really lived here you see, their homes have always been in the lands of their masters, just as they have rarely found any utility in the schools and hospitals. It is the denizens of the Nigerian house, those for whom it is home, that must of need, find the grace to save their home, or be prepared to live as vagabonds, in the land of their birth.
North, East, West, South. The length and breadth of Nigeria is burning. The primary purpose of the Nigerian state, or of any state, has been defeated. The fragility of peace, and I employ the word peace subjectively, should worry any thinking being, and I am worried that the Nigerian state and those pretending to rule it, do not appear to worry about the impending collapse of the Nigerian house.
When Sunday Igboho is a weightier voice on the subject of security than the titular Chief Security officer of the state, who has no control over the Nigerian policemen that are stationed in his state, in a federal state, and the Nigerian presidency rarely has anything empathetic to say to victims of Fulani herdsmen terrorists, but unfailingly defends the rights of the same herdsmen to roam as free as they care, you should know that the Nigerian house is throwing stones. This house is about to collapse.
Evacuate? Repair? Look not to the Nigerian landlords, they have decided to let it fall if it would. Look into your mirrors for those that would salvage it. We might save it and then decide to partition it into flats, or we might decide to remodel the house and retain it as the family home, or we might elect to have a controlled demolition of the house, and then rebuild from scratch. But whatever we might elect to do, the one thing that we cannot afford to do, is to sit down as victims, waiting for the house to collapse around our ears. This house is throwing stones. Ile yi n’so’ko!
DF
