Dipo Olowookere
By Prince Charles Dickson PhD
Chicken cannot at this late date bemoan its lack of teeth, and when it sees the snuff seller, it enfolds its wings. (Everything at its proper time and when one sees potential danger approaching, one should take precautions).
Emilokan, aka na me remain, aka na my turn, aka remaining me…
By the time I was writing this, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) had won the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries by over 60%. The analysts, the hallelujah boys and the noisemakers were making their permutations, Atiku of the PDP is still doing the maths of a running mate…the OBIdent ones, members of the Peter Obi clan are also at it.
All these dramas are at the expense of the real people, the real clan and tribe of EMILOKANS, a set of Nigerians that do not know that it is their turn, they are deceived by the oratory of Peter Obi and his sweet demeanour, debating the health of Tinubu and of Atiku, men who have seen a 100 and we are threatening them with 99. We are still far away from Uhuru!
So, let me tell us a tale, and we will take it from there…It wasn’t too long after creation that the animals got together to form a school. They wanted the best school possible — one that offered their students a well-rounded curriculum of swimming, running, climbing, and flying. In order to graduate, all the animals had to take all the courses.
The duck was excellent at swimming. In fact, he was better than his instructor. But he was only making passing grades at climbing and was getting a very poor grade in running. The duck was so slow in running that he had to stay after school every day to practice. Even with that, there was little improvement. His webbed feet got badly worn from running, and with such worn feet, he was then only able to get an average grade in swimming. The average was quite acceptable to everyone else, so no one worried much about it — except the duck.
The rabbit was at the top of her class in running. But after a while, she developed a twitch in her leg from all the time she spent in the water trying to improve her swimming.
The squirrel was a peak performer in climbing but was constantly frustrated in flying class. His body became so bruised from all the hard landings that he did not do too well in climbing and ended up being pretty poor in running.
The eagle was a continual problem student. She was severely disciplined for being a nonconformist. For example, in climbing class, she would always beat everyone else to the top of the tree but insisted on using her own way to get there.
Each of the animals had a particular area of expertise. When they did what they were designed to do, they excelled. When they tried to operate outside their area of expertise, they were not nearly as effective. Can ducks run? Sure, they can. Is that what they do best? Definitely not.
These men who feel it is their turn, do they know for a fact that South-East Nigeria is underdeveloped and that what we celebrate in Ebonyi is comparative mediocrity. That Onitsha, Owerri and the likes of Aba remain largely commerce, hotels, slums and no development.
That Lagos with all her comparative advantages is a BIG SLUM with flashes of what it could have been. Do I need to tell those that think it is their turn, that for 15 years and counting all that has progressed in the North is conflict, insecurity and everything wrong?
Is it not the turn of the populace to change the narrative?
2023 is again another chance but sadly, the Nigerian state is not listening, at the crossroad we find ourselves, everyone is talking, and no one listening, some say it is Atiku, he is Muslin, another says, we are happy that another Muslim in Tinubu has emerged, others say that he is not Muslim enough. Peter Obi is Ibo, he has no structure, a few of us are debating devolution, others say it is restructuring, others question what is restructuring, do we even have a structure or system to build upon or rearrange. Others shout at youth, others say let us be patient.
Once the premise is wrong, the conclusion will always be wrong. Everything about this coming election is almost all wrong, visibly wrong. It is their turn, whose turn was it when according to an investigation, the last two administrations of GEJ and Buhari have spent N1.164 trillion on darkness or put in another way Nigerian governments, between 1999 and 2010, reportedly spent over N4.7 trillion on power, but the country has remained in darkness
Let me use the words of my friend—Go and ask OBJ, he is dazed till tomorrow that the $16 billion invested in power generation produced more darkness.
Go and ask Jonathan, he is dazed that despite his good intention for Almajiri’s education in the North, out-of-school children in the North remain the highest in the world per square kilometre!
Go and ask Mr Buhari, how his administration failed on many fronts, such that we were regaled with the option that it may not be a bad idea for another GEJ turn?
Mr Buhari had a 30 points agenda in 2015. But he inadvertently pushed Nigeria to become the world’s poverty capital in 2019.
Does anyone think Buhari himself is happy with his scorecard? I don’t think so. The Nigerian elite is greedy. It is greed that is making them purchase N100 million form to run for the presidency when they know deep within them that Nigeria is irredeemable as long as the existing superstructure is retained.
Nigeria is not your Anambra that Peter Obi’s ‘Onitsha formula’ can cure. Nigeria is not BAT’s Lagos either. Atiku we know only too well! Our problem goes beyond just bad leadership, bad citizenry too. Nigeria has to be unbundled, recalibrated, and restructured, this is a Nigeria of fishes swallowing one another and wanting every animal to be equal.
Let me put it in this, not exactly politically correct manner, we have a fear of the unknown: Some think that the North thinks she will die without the South workforce, water and oil. The East out of greed wants to ride the HORSE- by all means when she has the capacity to build a bigger Horse- than the current Nigerian Horse.
The “Nigerian Horse” is tired, weak and not configured to win any great trophy. The Horse that has been trophy-less in the past 60 years should be ‘sold’ and be replaced with 3 or 4 or 6 or 8 new horses with fresh legs, eyes, minds and brains.
I do not subscribe to killing Nigeria, IBB, OBJ, TY Danjuma, and Buhari are all strong leaders in their rights and ways but they all failed fantastically! Nigeria needs beyond a strong leader, Nigeria needs to find out if it is her turn now.
Nigerians are suffering because they don’t know there is people’s power. If only all our young folks got off social media, or effectively used it for mobilization, stopped looking for jobs as PA to SA, and SA to SSA, and simply marched towards the Villa, or National Assembly or to their various governors, the story would have been better.
The aspirants for 2023 don’t understand the pain of a family whose substantially monthly income goes into purchasing cooking oil (kerosene) or gas for food they barely have. The student who has spent a sizable amount of his adult years graduating and looking for jobs, and systems disallowing him the ability to be an entrepreneur. Current Nigeria is a killjoy, it is nobody’s turn, it is the peoples’ turn, but I doubt if they know, like the animals we are not yet ready to harness our abilities, will 2023 be pivotal—Only time will tell.
