Neglected in life, honoured in death

Nigeria my country is indeed a land of many ironies; some good ones and some bad. Some of the ironies are laughable, others regrettable and most of them both laughable and regrettable.

The good and bad ones involve the state of the fifty or so year union that has never been wholly understood and accepted by all the federating components.

The very fact that Nigeria continues to exist as a sovereign and united entity today, is due largely to the patience, wisdom, gentility, perseverance and deep patriotism of a certain federating block Otherwise, what is known and cherished so much today as Nigeria would have long ceased to exist.

On the other hand, on the slightest of pretexts, even the most inconsequential bordering on the ridiculous, the other major components precipitately call for the breakup of the union.

These components have formed the habit of denouncing the very existence of Nigeria as a nation every time differences of views emerge over the simplest of issues.

Yet the people from both divides continue to coexist in an ironically indescribable union. They suffer together and smile together in the intervals between intermittent skirmishes in which pent-up tribal and religious jealousies are violently vented.

This piece is particularly concerned with the set of ironies that are both laughable and regrettable.

One of them is the deep-rooted hypocritical culture of honoring people in death. The irony here is that the people so honored are in almost all cases, the same people who were neglected and almost forgotten while they lived.

It is both laughable and regrettable that Nigerians, even those recognized as important personalities often find themselves at the receiving end of official and societal neglect, and are only remembered when their deaths are announced.

People in power troop to the towns and villages of the deceased to pay glowing tributes to the dead in the guise of condoling the bereaved families.

Leaders and shakers and movers of society scramble to be noticed at such fake gatherings for the glorification of the dead.

There are others who are no less influential in their own rights though considered lesser citizens by the Lingua Franca of the selfish Nigerian elite who also fall victim of this deplorable culture of neglect of the living.

Eminent among this class are such cultural influencers as Kasimu Yero, Mamman Shata, Adamu Danmaraya Jos, Abubakar Ladan Zaria, Hajiya Barmani Coge, Gambu Mai wakar Barayi all of blessed memory etc who were abandoned at their hours of need by the society and by the elite especially.

Characteristically, upon their death, their homes were turned into a Mecca of sorts where the cream of society flocked and paid glowing tributes.

State governors, top politicians, all sections of cultural and religious leaders, members of the business class all trooped out to be noticed at the gathering in honor of the dead.

Most past leaders and departed political leaders have also tested such neglect only to be remembered after death.

Here one remembers how the eminently respectable Danmasanin Kano, Alhaji Maitama Sule, Abubakar Barde, Saleh Michika, Shugaba Abdurrahman Darman (Dan Nijeriya), all of blessed memory etc were practically pushed to the background even when they needed support the most.

Upon their death, everybody who is anybody in Nigeria paid the usual hypocritical visit to their families to register with fellow glorifiers of the dead. Whatever purpose that served is not yet clear.

The latest show of affection after death was displayed when a high powered federal government delegations, the like of which has never visited Bauchi on any occasion for the living, was dispatched to the state to participate in the glorification of the death of our respected Senator and brother Late Senator Ali Wakili.

Much earlier, a one-time governor of Kano state, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi was eminently remembered and honored by the elite after he was abandoned till death.

This culture of hypocrisy must be condemned as is both counterproductive and deplorably inconsistent with all known social, economic, moral and religious rules of life.

Leaders should learn to respect and respond to the needs of the living without waiting to honor them at death.

It is the peak of irresponsibility for a living man or woman to be forgotten and abandoned when he/her is most in need of support only to be glorified and honored at death.

It is the height of waste for resources and energy to be expended for the glorification of the dead while the mass of the people are made to live in virtual hell.

It is the ultimate hypocrisy to honor a dead person whom you did not bother to visit or assist while in hospital.

It is ridiculous, deplorable, condemnable, and as observed in the beginning, laughable and regrettable; an alien culture indeed!

Jirgi, a PhD Candidate, wrote from Kampala International University (KIU) Kampala Uganda.