Abstract: This is an article I read late last year. Never mind the currency, just look at the dialectics and situate with with the current Nigerian context. Something has to be done, and done fast!
By Femi Adesina
Nigeria has had many beginnings of the end. The 1966 pogrom. The Biafran Civil War, which lasted for three years. Religious and ethnic riots across the country. The crises that attended the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. OPC/Hausa clashes, in Sagamu, in Lagos. Endless Jos killings. Retaliatory bloodletting. Sharia riots. The Niger Delta uprising. Many more. No country ever lived more dangerously. But somehow, we always manage to pull back from the brink, before the final, fatal crash. We have been like a cat with nine lives.
We tempt fate sorely, and get away with it. But now, we seem to have used up all our luck, and we’re on borrowed time. Daily Sun columnist, Okey Ndibe, says, “Nigeria is a dying idea.” But I say the situation is worse. Nigeria is a dead idea. In a manner of speaking, Nigeria is dead, all that is left is to sing the Nunc Dimittis.
Nigeria had been dying for long,
but last Sunday, it took its last breath. America had predicted the
eventuality for 2015. But it came last Christmas Day, ironically on a
Sunday, the day of resurrection.
Madalla will always have a place when the story of the failed state called Nigeria is told. The Jews never forget Masada. Nigeria will also never forget Madalla, the place where what remained of our gossamer-thin unity was finally laid to rest. Christmas is not for dying. But it is the day Nigeria died.
I had always been an incurable optimist, very sanguine about the future of the country. Those hopes were abandoned last Sunday. How can people wake on Christmas Day, a day you await with great expectation all year round, and then go to church, and get bombed to death? And you say that is still a cohesive country? You say it is a country that has a government? No, it cannot be. That is a failed state, a country that has become history, a white sepulchre, full of dead men’s bones. If you ask me, we are now country-less, because Nigeria has ceased to exist. We may carry on for some time, pretending to be an entity, some people may even call us a nation (the greatest misnomer in the world), but in the true sense of it, Nigeria is dead. What happened in Madalla is the final rites of passage for a country long beleaguered, long pillaged, long raped, and long ravaged.
People often wish one another a blue Christmas. But it was a black one Nigerians got last Sunday. Can it ever be darker, with more than 40 of our compatriots dead while returning from morning mass in a Catholic church? Can it ever be bleaker with bombs going off in Jos, in Yobe, and the entire landscape wrapped in mourning clothes? Christmas is the celebration of life, but in Nigeria, the grim reaper was fully on duty, parading the cities, towns, and villages.
Don’t look for a failed state again. Here’s one. What are the characteristics of a failed state? When government can no longer guarantee the security of the citizenry, the state is said to have failed. Is that not what we have in Nigeria? Our constitution, in Section 14 (2b) says, “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” When anarchy reigns supreme, and even the president appears helpless, then the state has failed. When bombs go off left, right and centre, and the president tells you it’s a burden you have to live with, what then do you have? A failed state. When dissidents give you warning ahead, that they would strike at specific targets on a specific date, and it happens that way, what do you have? A failed state. Hear Okey Ndibe in his column last Tuesday: “Nigeria is a dying idea.
Each bomb that kills and maims innocent citizens propels a 50-year-old country that doesn’t know itself towards doom.” True. But not true enough. Nigeria is not only dying, it is dead. Madalla was the final nail on the coffin. There is no way things will continue to be the same. Something will have to give, either sooner or later. If you see Nigeria walking for now, it is the walk of a corpse. Remember Make the Corpse Walk, that novel by James Hadley Chase? Well, that is the case of Nigeria.
I tell you, we have not realised the full consequences of what happened last Sunday. If we have the luxury of time, the days, weeks, months and years ahead will still unravel the effect, the portent, the repercussion. It will happen, as sure as night succeeds the day. Mass murder, cold-blooded killings on Christmas Day, and in a church? It is sacrilege. Desecration. The worst form of heresy.
But then, don’t think it is only Christians that may have died at Madalla. It’s possible some non-Christians were also involved. For me, it is not about religion, really. It is about humanity. Last Sallah day, in Borno and Yobe states, over 200 people were bombed to death. Two hundred dead in one day, in a country not officially at war? And you say that country is still living? It happened in a predominantly Muslim area, but are we saying all the dead were Muslims? No, it can’t be. Bombs do not discriminate on the basis of religion. If bombs can go off like mere firecrackers on holy days of the two main religions, then such country is already a failed state, and we needn’t look for another. We’ve been bombed on our National Day, at Sallah, and at Christmas. So, what’s left of us? Nothing. We don’t have a country anymore, just a shell, shadow, mere façade.
At Christmas, almost half of the goodwill messages I got were from my Muslim friends, from different parts of the country. It proved one thing: basically, we are not an intolerant people religion-wise. As the lawyer and activist, Dame Carol Ajie, posted on the Internet after the bombing, “the confusionists lie against Islam and Christianity. Nigeria is a religious tolerant nation.” I agree. Madalla was meant to spark off a religious war, but we really don’t need it. With or without it, the country is already finished. I like the text a Muslim friend forwarded to me from Abuja: “A bomb exploded today in Madalla, a village near Abuja. We Muslims are deeply touched by this unfortunate event, and we call on all Christians to reason logically before pointing accusing fingers.
The bomb was not set by Muslims, but rather a hidden force trying to send the Christians and the Muslims to war with each other. We should pray to God to expose the evil people orchestrating all the bomb blasts in this country, with the sole aim of pushing the country to a civil war. There is an external force behind this. This is the bitter truth. Before we start hating each other, we should ask ourselves how far this people can go in order to take over a country. We should not be fooled. Please forward to all Muslims and Christians in your contact list to spread the word and expose the hidden agenda.”
We won’t fight a war of religion, I believe we are too pluralistic for that. See how all religions, particularly adherents of Islam, have condemned the Christmas Day bombing. Those who planted the bombs were not representing Islam. We know it. They represented anarchy. Chaos. Confusion. They are the nemesis of a country that had lived dangerously for decades, spreading injustice, poverty, sorrow and disease all around. Now, the chicken has come home to roost. A country that sowed the wind is now reaping the whirlwind.
I pity President Goodluck Jonathan, as he’s fast going into history as the last president of a united Nigeria. He said shortly before the elections in April that he did not want to preside over a divided country. But the country has never been more fractured at anytime than now. To show how confused, bewildered and flummoxed the government itself is, the Madalla bombing happened in the early hours of the day. No word from our government till late afternoon. Before then, the Vatican and a number of European countries had condemned the carnage, but from Abuja, mum was the word.
Also, as television stations across the world devoted quality time to the development in Nigeria, what did one see on NTA later in the evening? President Jonathan receiving Vice President Sambo, and grinning from ear to ear. On such a day of blood? When Christmas had been postponed in the homes of many Nigerians, the president was receiving Christmas visitors, and government was beaming it on national television? Quite insensitive! Very instructive is this posting on the Internet by one Dr Valentine Ojo: “Let Jonathan continue grinning till that his grin turns to chagrin.” Ominous, don’t you think?
To cap it all, President Jonathan said on the same day that “the issue of bombing is one of the burdens we must live with. It will not last forever. I believe it will surely be over.” You know what those words mean? Let me reconstruct them, so that you can properly understand what our president was saying: “I am helpless before this rain of bombs. They bombed on National Day, bombed on Sallah Day, now they’ve bombed on Christmas Day. So, you can see that there’s no hope for you, no hope for me. We just fold our arms, and we either die, or survive by good luck. If you know Jehovah, call on Him. If you know Allah, pray hard. If it is Ogun, Sango or Egbesu, you better raise your voices in supplication now. Don’t count on me, as I’m also looking for where to hide my head. Good luck for you, good luck for me, good luck for everybody.”
When matters get to such sorry pass as this, the painful truth is simple: we no longer have a country. Boko Haram is our nemesis. It is now the law. And when anarchy becomes the law, it is every man for himself, and God for us all.
Madalla will always have a place when the story of the failed state called Nigeria is told. The Jews never forget Masada. Nigeria will also never forget Madalla, the place where what remained of our gossamer-thin unity was finally laid to rest. Christmas is not for dying. But it is the day Nigeria died.
I had always been an incurable optimist, very sanguine about the future of the country. Those hopes were abandoned last Sunday. How can people wake on Christmas Day, a day you await with great expectation all year round, and then go to church, and get bombed to death? And you say that is still a cohesive country? You say it is a country that has a government? No, it cannot be. That is a failed state, a country that has become history, a white sepulchre, full of dead men’s bones. If you ask me, we are now country-less, because Nigeria has ceased to exist. We may carry on for some time, pretending to be an entity, some people may even call us a nation (the greatest misnomer in the world), but in the true sense of it, Nigeria is dead. What happened in Madalla is the final rites of passage for a country long beleaguered, long pillaged, long raped, and long ravaged.
People often wish one another a blue Christmas. But it was a black one Nigerians got last Sunday. Can it ever be darker, with more than 40 of our compatriots dead while returning from morning mass in a Catholic church? Can it ever be bleaker with bombs going off in Jos, in Yobe, and the entire landscape wrapped in mourning clothes? Christmas is the celebration of life, but in Nigeria, the grim reaper was fully on duty, parading the cities, towns, and villages.
Don’t look for a failed state again. Here’s one. What are the characteristics of a failed state? When government can no longer guarantee the security of the citizenry, the state is said to have failed. Is that not what we have in Nigeria? Our constitution, in Section 14 (2b) says, “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” When anarchy reigns supreme, and even the president appears helpless, then the state has failed. When bombs go off left, right and centre, and the president tells you it’s a burden you have to live with, what then do you have? A failed state. When dissidents give you warning ahead, that they would strike at specific targets on a specific date, and it happens that way, what do you have? A failed state. Hear Okey Ndibe in his column last Tuesday: “Nigeria is a dying idea.
Each bomb that kills and maims innocent citizens propels a 50-year-old country that doesn’t know itself towards doom.” True. But not true enough. Nigeria is not only dying, it is dead. Madalla was the final nail on the coffin. There is no way things will continue to be the same. Something will have to give, either sooner or later. If you see Nigeria walking for now, it is the walk of a corpse. Remember Make the Corpse Walk, that novel by James Hadley Chase? Well, that is the case of Nigeria.
I tell you, we have not realised the full consequences of what happened last Sunday. If we have the luxury of time, the days, weeks, months and years ahead will still unravel the effect, the portent, the repercussion. It will happen, as sure as night succeeds the day. Mass murder, cold-blooded killings on Christmas Day, and in a church? It is sacrilege. Desecration. The worst form of heresy.
But then, don’t think it is only Christians that may have died at Madalla. It’s possible some non-Christians were also involved. For me, it is not about religion, really. It is about humanity. Last Sallah day, in Borno and Yobe states, over 200 people were bombed to death. Two hundred dead in one day, in a country not officially at war? And you say that country is still living? It happened in a predominantly Muslim area, but are we saying all the dead were Muslims? No, it can’t be. Bombs do not discriminate on the basis of religion. If bombs can go off like mere firecrackers on holy days of the two main religions, then such country is already a failed state, and we needn’t look for another. We’ve been bombed on our National Day, at Sallah, and at Christmas. So, what’s left of us? Nothing. We don’t have a country anymore, just a shell, shadow, mere façade.
At Christmas, almost half of the goodwill messages I got were from my Muslim friends, from different parts of the country. It proved one thing: basically, we are not an intolerant people religion-wise. As the lawyer and activist, Dame Carol Ajie, posted on the Internet after the bombing, “the confusionists lie against Islam and Christianity. Nigeria is a religious tolerant nation.” I agree. Madalla was meant to spark off a religious war, but we really don’t need it. With or without it, the country is already finished. I like the text a Muslim friend forwarded to me from Abuja: “A bomb exploded today in Madalla, a village near Abuja. We Muslims are deeply touched by this unfortunate event, and we call on all Christians to reason logically before pointing accusing fingers.
The bomb was not set by Muslims, but rather a hidden force trying to send the Christians and the Muslims to war with each other. We should pray to God to expose the evil people orchestrating all the bomb blasts in this country, with the sole aim of pushing the country to a civil war. There is an external force behind this. This is the bitter truth. Before we start hating each other, we should ask ourselves how far this people can go in order to take over a country. We should not be fooled. Please forward to all Muslims and Christians in your contact list to spread the word and expose the hidden agenda.”
We won’t fight a war of religion, I believe we are too pluralistic for that. See how all religions, particularly adherents of Islam, have condemned the Christmas Day bombing. Those who planted the bombs were not representing Islam. We know it. They represented anarchy. Chaos. Confusion. They are the nemesis of a country that had lived dangerously for decades, spreading injustice, poverty, sorrow and disease all around. Now, the chicken has come home to roost. A country that sowed the wind is now reaping the whirlwind.
I pity President Goodluck Jonathan, as he’s fast going into history as the last president of a united Nigeria. He said shortly before the elections in April that he did not want to preside over a divided country. But the country has never been more fractured at anytime than now. To show how confused, bewildered and flummoxed the government itself is, the Madalla bombing happened in the early hours of the day. No word from our government till late afternoon. Before then, the Vatican and a number of European countries had condemned the carnage, but from Abuja, mum was the word.
Also, as television stations across the world devoted quality time to the development in Nigeria, what did one see on NTA later in the evening? President Jonathan receiving Vice President Sambo, and grinning from ear to ear. On such a day of blood? When Christmas had been postponed in the homes of many Nigerians, the president was receiving Christmas visitors, and government was beaming it on national television? Quite insensitive! Very instructive is this posting on the Internet by one Dr Valentine Ojo: “Let Jonathan continue grinning till that his grin turns to chagrin.” Ominous, don’t you think?
To cap it all, President Jonathan said on the same day that “the issue of bombing is one of the burdens we must live with. It will not last forever. I believe it will surely be over.” You know what those words mean? Let me reconstruct them, so that you can properly understand what our president was saying: “I am helpless before this rain of bombs. They bombed on National Day, bombed on Sallah Day, now they’ve bombed on Christmas Day. So, you can see that there’s no hope for you, no hope for me. We just fold our arms, and we either die, or survive by good luck. If you know Jehovah, call on Him. If you know Allah, pray hard. If it is Ogun, Sango or Egbesu, you better raise your voices in supplication now. Don’t count on me, as I’m also looking for where to hide my head. Good luck for you, good luck for me, good luck for everybody.”
When matters get to such sorry pass as this, the painful truth is simple: we no longer have a country. Boko Haram is our nemesis. It is now the law. And when anarchy becomes the law, it is every man for himself, and God for us all.
Femi Adesina is the Deputy Editor of The Sun News Paper.
2 comments:
Uhmmmnnnn... Thoughtful! My heart is racing faster than a cheetah...
uuhmmm.......I weep for my dear country Nigeria
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