The Nigerian Orwellian Choice.

Nigeria is at a dangerous inflection point in its trajectories, and we cannot afford to sleepwalk in these days….

It is my essay, and in case you are one of the linguistic police squad, leave my title as you have found it, ours is a unique never before seen, and most definitely irreproducible conundrum, and I have merely appropriated the better defined Orwellian adjective, in order to offer you context for the scale and magnitude of our national question.

The Nigerian national question has been repeatedly asked for decades, particularly more so, since the beginnings of the current lies of a constitution, and the pretense at being a democracy. HOW DO YOU GOVERN A VIBRANT POPULATION WITH IMPUNITY UNDERGIRDING THE ENTIRE STATE AND ITS GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS? This is the question with which Nigeria has grappled since 1999.

Each and every one of the problems of insecurity destroying the peace and security of Nigerians, and the integrity of the state itself, are directly traceable to the impunity that has governed Nigeria for the past two decades. Boko Haram was found in the cauldron of Bunu Sherriff Musa’s exercise of the impunities available to him as governor. You might have to look to Ibori and Odili if you are to ever come to an understanding of the root of the militancy in the Niger Delta. Rotimi Amechi should be a good resource, as should be every politician of note, in the Niger Delta.

Igbo Kwenu! Kedu! The Nigerian state has been undoubtedly stolen by the Fulani Islamist hegemony, but how many Fulanis have ruled in Ala Igbo since 1999? Igbo politicians have fanned the well justified hatred of the Nigerian state by the Igbo peoples. They have sang endlessly about the obvious marginalizations of the Igbo nation, and used the grievances to negotiate personal largesses for themselves, whilst deliberately and wickedly weaponizing poverty amongst their own, against whom they then unleash weaponized ignorance. The secessionist violence rocking the East, are the fruits of the impunities of the Nigerian state, and its ruining crass.

I look to my peoples, the Yoruba, and I weep without the relief of tears being shed. Knowledge was the primary weapon that Awolowo deployed against the evil that has today overtaken our nation. But today in Yorubaland, ignorance has become a toga to be adorned without shame, and shamelessness has become a commodity to be prized. Thieves sit upon high thrones in the land, young men are bereft of trainings of any sort; parental, formal, or informal. Agberos and known murderers are the new role models in a place where knowledge was once revered. Cults proliferates wherever you look, and the readiness to unleash mindless violence in the knowledge that they are entitled to the impunities of their godfathers, renders them as violent as Boko Haram minus the bombs and Quran.

If I have left out any part of our dystopian country, it is in order to make this as short as I can, after all, your attention spans are pathetically short. Suffice to say that, the rulers of Nigeria, in their bid to maintain the state unmoored to the rule of law, are the ones, that have created the situation where today, we are confronted, with the Nigerian Orwellian choice.

Is Nigeria a democracy, or a feudal-fascist dictatorship, constructed on the foundations of Fulani Islamist hegemony, or shall it become a modern democracy, that is governed by the rule of law. These are the two clear choices before the Nigerian peoples in the coming days and months, and these are the lines of clarity that we must draw as we contemplate the 2023 elections, and as we envision the future of Nigeria. Nigeria is at a dangerous inflection point in its trajectories, and we cannot afford to sleepwalk in these days.

I have seen all of the usual suspects making all of the usual noises, and promising heaven on earth to people whose capacities for discernment have been impaired by weaponized poverty and weaponized ignorance. I have seen the man whose very life encapsulates the Nigerian conundrum, everything about him, built on lies, making incoherent noises about wanting to be president. I refuse to accept that he is a serious candidate. I have seen The Consigliere making deliberate moves, and I have seen the worst that Ndigbo have, offering himself for the blighted office. These ones have combined to present to us, the Orwellian choice awaiting us.

Are we going to continue these pyrrhic efforts to construct a country on the lies encapsulated in Decree 24 of 1999, or are we going to find the capacity to connect the dot, and come to the knowledge of the fact, that you cannot build ANYTHING of value on inequities and injustice?