“Nigeria is currently far too dangerous.” You’ll see it even in the way we drive on the freeways! The nation is burning hot like those sawdust fires. Do you still recall what transpired with Chidi at Timber? That’s my perspective after considering a number of current events in the nation and their causes. While we are not at peace, we are also not at war. Even after years of living abroad, my friend was unable to conceal his anxieties. However, he recalls the incident when we were walking back from school one day and our friend Chidi almost lost both of his legs.
One terrible accident occurred that dreadful day while we were walking home from our beloved Holy Ghost Secondary Technical School in Umuahia, as we often did. We always went via the old Timber Shed in the town. At the time, Umuahia was not the state capital. Chidi resides in Afara. That of our friend and another was also the same. I was heading to Ohokobe-Ndume with Ebere. Chidi made a turn off that proved to be a risky side trip. Like any other student in secondary school, he wanted to pursue a different route. The path passed via the sawdust heaps at Timber Shed. The hazards lurking beneath the smoke rising softly from the ordinary-looking landfills were lost on him. He didn’t know that there were deep fires beneath the surface of the sawdust until he stepped through some of it. He failed to notice the lethal flame beneath the smoldering sawdust. He still has the scars and the recollection of his severely burned legs.
That episode, one of the numerous mishaps we thankfully avoided as impressionable, daring teenagers, has turned into a direct allegory for the nation. Although the problems plaguing our beloved nation are deeply ingrained, their symptoms appear like the soft haze of sawdust, which Chidi mistakenly believed to be innocuous and regrettably disregarded. He thought the smoulder was trivial and insignificant, thus he did not consider it to be a major concern.
During our latest conversation, my pal mentioned the story from when he visited Nigeria for vacation. During his two weeks of vacation back home, he utilized it to explain his impressions of Nigeria. It seemed like both a caution and a piece of guidance. It wasn’t necessary for him to disclose that he was constantly on edge till he departed Nigeria last week to go to his in-laws’ nation in West Africa.
He didn’t have to, but the constant barrage of stories about crime, corruption, robbery, massive theft, betrayal, and other such acts has seriously damaged his oyibo mentality! We too have been beaten. We are aware of the problems, but I advised him to consider Nigeria as a little version of the troubled globe we live in today. Remembering the heinous elementary school massacre in Texas, I felt compelled to convey to him the harsh reality of our dangerous and unforgiving world. He retorted that prospects for improvements and a remedy are greater in the United States and many other nations than in Nigeria’s unsurmountable gloom. He had the advantage in that particular dispute, thus he prevailed.
Nigeria is not at war, yet the numerous incidents that have occurred there also give the impression that we are not at peace. In Nigeria, there are numerous causes of mental illness, and these causes reveal themselves in all their unsettling ugliness on a daily basis. Most of the country has had almost no electrical supply since the start of 2022, yet the national conversation has shifted to the tumultuous 2023 elections.
News of violent deaths in the nation’s southeast, the ongoing bloodshed in the north, and the widespread fear of kidnappers, ritual killers, and dangerous armed robbers interrupt conversations about the 2023 elections. The unfathomable economic problems that have left the nation in a state of permanent mourning are the cherry on top of the challenges. All of them readily overwhelm our brains, torturing our thoughts and mental states in the process. Though our minds are not at rest, we are not at war.
For this round of our quadrennial politics season, some editors would suggest the following one-word headline or title after taking a cursory glance at the politics of 2023 from one perspective: Crazy! There are lots of reasons to use this way of thinking. Depending on whatever side of the divide you are looking from, the reasons can be both similar and dissimilar. However, there is consensus that there are more justifications than not for grouping politicians into a single category or class. Some individuals merely stated, “May is for Mayhem,” after pictures of the governors following their recent meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari surfaced. The governors in the picture were chosen based on the All Progressives Congress platform (APC). A worried Nigerian described the governors’ weary yet despondent expressions as “mayhem.” They appeared to have been worn completely from their frames to their minds. I believe it was a sign that the states’ helmsmen had an interaction that did not proceed as planned or that the meeting did not go as planned.
Some speculated that the reason they were instructed to go relax was that there wouldn’t be a primary poll to choose the APC nominee for president in the upcoming contest. There are many who claim that during the meeting, the governors were instructed to step down and focus on the party’s success, regardless of their personal goals. Most people agreed that it was a night of long knives, or ale ariwo, as some Yoruba people call it (night of shrill cries). The fact that there is composure is consoling. That’s all for now. There are claims that a great deal of division will occur within the political landscape in the upcoming weeks, starting today with the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) nomination.
All things considered, though, they are all battling for their political lives. “He who fights and runs today lives to fight another day,” these gladiators would do well to keep in mind. To be governed, a nation must be living. For people to be able to behave as accountable and responsive citizens, they must be living. We can all agree that peace depends on justice. Let’s hope that justice is served and that harmony prevails among us. If not, millions of Nigerians would still be delusional about their nation and dream they were citizens of other country.
