Talking Restructuring… 3

Unconscionable powers, have become absolutely corrupted by the collective silence of those who should be demanding an account…

The Dialogues Of Ventriloquists…

Seeing as we have become a nation of educated illiterates, and the word, ventriloquist, is central to an unambiguous understanding of my thematic preoccupation in this piece, I shall bring it home for all of us. Ventriloquism, is the science by which an artiste, projects his voice vide an inanimate doll.

Whilst the knowing and conscious adults are fully aware of the ventriloquist’s shenanigans, the children laughing at the often outlandish actions and words of the ventriloquist’s dolls, are by the simplicity of their thoughts mostly blissfully unbothered by the questions of what is real, and what is fantasy. As far as they are concerned, the doll is the one talking, the ventriloquist uninvolved.

The Nigerian ventriloquists are a breed apart, they are male and female, they are the very humanization of the biblical “principalities and powers”. They speak all of our nation’s languages, and come from all of her tribes. They utilize living dolls, fellow citizens that they have weaponized with poverty, which is itself layered upon ignorance. Poverty of the sort incurable by money, and ignorance of the specie, certified by diplomas, and degrees.

A rather dangerous game is being played by the ventriloquists in our midst, and whilst I have avoided speaking before the completion of my tomes, I am compelled by the urgency of the moment, to help the generality of our people, who appear as toddlers at the ventriloquist’s show, hypnotized and unable to differentiate between the ventriloquist and his dolls. Some of the contributions that i have read online, tell me that otherwise intelligent men and women, are also becoming stupefied by the ventriloquists.

Some ventriloquists were at work at The Arewa House in Kaduna recently. They purported to issue a Quit Notice to the Igbos living and eking out livelihoods in the northern part of Nigeria, the dolls speaking for the ventriloquists are humans, they are visible, they are Nigerians, they are not “unknown Fulani herdsmen” and the crimes they have committed are not unknown to the state and its law enforcement agencies.

Immediately after the dolls had their says in the hallowed chambers of Arewa House, the golden boy who would be president in 2019, made his first move, he became more Catholic than The pope. He was issuing orders for the arrest of the ventriloquist’s dolls, and the hapless victims of the ventriloquist’s shenanigans, began to hail the Daniel that came to judgment in Kaduna. Abi, una think say na only Fayose recognize the political capital of supporting Ndigbo? It doesn’t hurt El Rufai, who cannot protect Southern Kaduna indigenes, to make righteous noises condemning messengers and in the process, cloak himself in borrowed garbs. All hail the defender of Igbo interests and rights!

Professor. Ango Abdullai, eminently qualified to be referred to as an elder statesman, Nigerian stylee , has labored to take credit as the masterful ventriloquist for whom the credits for the Kaduna show is due. But I ask that we look beyond the old degenerate in search of the real ventriloquists, and in this search, I ask that the following be factored into the equation.

Some months ago, when the disappearing saint’s illness began to take its toll, and in the absence of credible information as to what ails the sick old man, a dangerous rumor began to gain currency in the northern part of our nation, it was to the effect that the saintly one had been poisoned by a variety of persons and interests. It is just as well, that God spared him to return to the country alive, for only God knows what might have become of southerners in the northern parts of Nigeria, and the extent of the retaliatory attacks that would have followed.

A few weeks ago, there were talks of politicians trying to get soldiers to stage a coup, and arrests of soldiers, followed by denials and exhortations to perish any thoughts of coups, delivered by no less than the Jagaban himself, his imperial majesty, the alaafin of Bourdillon.

When you take the fact that in none of the several situations highlighted above, have anyone been held accountable for their words and actions. When you add the fact that the same state, that contrived Kanu’s definitely draconian bail conditions, have stood aside and watched as he has flagrantly flouted these same conditions, called for a successful shutdown of economic activities in the east, and is now being responded to by the ventriloquists up north, you must wonder what exactly the ventriloquists have planned for we, the hapless audience, and if, they coordinate their acts?

I am of the firm opinion, that the Nigerian state is worth saving, that I would rather be a Nigerian, than a citizen of the Republic of Oodua, that the Nigerian state, as currently structured, can deliver nothing good to those trapped within its borders, that the nepotistic foundations of the current structure, assures its eventual collapse, and finally, that it is easier and more profitable, to work for a redefinition of the Nigerian state, than to acquiesce to the inanities of the ventriloquist’s games.

The Nigerian middle class may be likened to the adults at the ventriloquist’s show, the assumption is that this class represents the most conscious strata of society, better educated, more informed by reasons of travels and exposure, and consequently better empowered to reason. Unfortunately, whilst poverty and ignorance have been weaponized to silence the lower classes, the pursuit of existential living, has decimated the intellectual capabilities of the middle class. Nobody is telling the children the truth.

“The North” is a myth. The greatest lie in Nigerian political lexicon is the phrase, “Northern Interest”. Southern Nigerians have bought into this lie, and with the lazy acceptance of this facile thesis of a homogeneous North, we have held millions of our fellow citizens captive in the hands of the common enemies of our motherland. Pray, are the Katafs of Southern Kaduna, the same ones being slaughtered like dogs, under the watchful eyes of the able governor, and likely Caliph of the Nigerian state, part of this motley crew, that speaks in the name of “Northern Nigeria”? What about the Beroms of the Plateaus? The Angas, the Tivs, the Ebiras, JUkuns, the Tafawa Balewas of Bauchi? Are they part of that north?

To bring this home, I’ll share a factual anecdote with you all. Some young politicians of Northern Nigerian extraction, were with a friend of mine not too long ago, and they were teasing each other. The northern gentlemen ribbed my friend, they reminded him that if the day comes when a discussion would be had, concerning Nigeria, it would be the likes of Gani Adams, that would speak for the Yoruba nation, and not my friend, with his dogo turenci. As Gani Adams presumes to speak for me, and the Jagaban leads my people, Nnamdi Kanu speaks for the Igbos, and Rochas is their leader.

The abdication of the duty of leadership, is the greatest of the flaws that has come to define the Nigerian middle class. Caught up in the web of existential living demanded by the rat race into which we’ve all become locked, no one bothers to think beyond the moment, and unconscionable powers, have become absolutely corrupted by the collective silence of those who should be demanding an account.

I am sure that there are men and women of goodwill in the northern part of our blessed nation. It is time that they found their voices. As for those of us here in the South, the time has come to free ourselves of the handicap imposed by our collective ignorance; there is no Northern Nigeria, except as defined by geography. The vast majority of what we know as the north, would rather stay Nigerian. And they would prefer a true Federation in which all the citizens are equals. There is nothing that the silent supporters of the Biafran ideals desires, that is not beneficial to the Gwaris of Central Nigeria.

Southerners do not know what it means to be 2nd class citizens, the Northern minorities are acquainted with being dehumanized, and when they hear the Gani Adams of this world, and the Nnamdi Kanus, speak asininely about the Balkanization of Nigeria along the indolent and simplistic lines that they are won’t to do, they must wonder how long the fetters would abide, even as they are forced to cling to the superiority they hold over their southern kins, who are in truth, the 3rd layer of citizenship, in a nation not unlike a sinking ship. It is time to silence the ventriloquists by wising up to their crafts. For how long will Jacob speak in the voice of Esau?

A little over two years ago, I implored you not to die in their wars, now, I’m asking you to awaken from your slumber. Silence the ventriloquists speaking for us all, and let us commence the dialogue that should redefine our blighted land. Nigeria is worth saving.

DF

First published 11th June, 2017.