Baba, we are sorry, please come back!

We Nigerians are actually very fetish and believe almost everything. That is evident in so many ritual killings, babalawos, mallams and other soothsayers who run very lucrative businesses; swindling people and making them believe they can give them heaven here on earth. This can also be supported by the MMM scheme that consumed so many Nigerians despite warnings and clear signals that it was fraudulent. So we Nigerians believe in magic and wonders. At the same time we are very diverse and unfortunately our diversity has not really impacted positively on us but rather, it continues to be divided along cultures and religion.

Being believers of magic and doers of ‘one chance’, we have overnight all become wailers as you have failed to produce the midas touch that we envisaged you held tightly in your fist all the while you campaigned and showed us a symbolic tight fist. Now that you have simply fallen ill as if you are not human; (well I hope you now realise we believed you to be a superman), some Nigerians are wishing you dead or plotting for your removal. We have forgotten how unsafe and scared we used to be, in just stepping out to go to church, or to the mosque, or to school, or to work or even to the market. We have forgotten the carnage of human flesh that filled the streets and the villages in Nigeria. We have forgotten how almost everyone was afraid of being kidnapped once he or she steps out.

Baba, we have forgotten the fuel queues we spent days and nights in trying to buy a few litres of petrol just to be able to go to work. We have forgotten how Nigerians raped our treasury and fed themselves rich, spraying dollars at their weddings and building multi-million dollar mansions for themselves and their children.

We have forgotten that external reserves were depleted from estimates of a whopping 60 billion dollars to about 25 billion and hence the naira’s free fall. We don’t appreciate the fight you have waged against corruption and that for the first time in a long time, government officials that looted are brought to book and their loot is being recovered.

We don’t appreciate the fact that our refineries are being repaired and modular ones are being built and hopefully by 2019, fuel importation will be history. So are our railways being put in order, abandoned roads and bridges are being built, and efforts are intensified in boosting agriculture and local food production to eliminate waste on importation. We don’t appreciate the fact that multinationals and other businesses are being made to pay taxes and other payments due to our internal revenue which were previously just waived or corruptibly left uncollected. We failed to see that foreign investors are over subscribing to our euro bond issuance because of investor confidence as our foreign reserves have grown by an estimated 1 to 3 billion dollars (including excess crude). We have failed to see the decisive steps you have taken to quell the crisis in southern Kaduna and the Boko Haram menace.

Baba ejo! Now that you are sick baba and we are faced with the fear of losing you, we have come to realise that you mean a lot to us and we are sorry for all our bickering and Nigerianness. Now we have seen that if you are not around, our politicians will fight and fight and run Nigeria aground as you are their only unifying factor. Baba, we are afraid that if you don’t come back, Nigerians will rewind Nigeria fa Allah.

All Nigeria’s geo political zones will ‘brexit’ wo! Biafra will fight, Oduduwa will go, and so will Shekau take way Borno, Adamawa, Yobe and Taraba. Please Baba, for Nigeria’s sake, for Awo, Zik, Ikoku and Sardauna’s sake, for Lt. Col. Ali and all the people that lost their lives fighting for Nigeria and saving lives, please come back.

Baba, we are sorry. Come back, Baba, we need you. Come back. Tahir Ibrahim Tahir, Talban Bauchi.