NIGERIA: A FANTASTICALLY DIVIDED COUNTRY

Iwas one of the fans of the All Progressives Congress choir that gladly sang the “sai Buhari” anthem that promoted the candidature of the former dictator as a born-again democrat during the last presidential election. We sold Buhari to Nigerians as a political messiah that had come to turn things around. Ikon Allah, as the episcopal anthem of the Catholic Bishop of Lafia reads, Buhari won the fiercely contested election, ending one of the worst kleptomaniac regimes since the return of democracy in 1999.

However, it seemed Buhari won the war but is fast losing the battle because some sections of the country have vowed to toe the line of the proverbial mischievous fellow who sold his goat but refused to let go the rope. And, once again, the old line of the late sage Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo ‘Nigeria is a mere geographical expression’ have become as clear as the tropical sunshine.

Thanks to David Cameron, Nigerians are “fantastically corrupt”. It’s no news because we knew this right from our mothers’ wombs. Our own late Chinua Achebe, passed the same verdict decades ago: to keep an average Nigerian from corruption is like keeping a goat from eating yam. Be it yam as Achebe saw it, kola as Oluogoke captured it in his celebral play “The Incorruptible Judge”, or 10 per cent according to the gospel of Major Kaduna Nzeogwu, corruption is part and parcel of the Nigerian society. The pillar of every fundamental column of our nation is submerged in corruption and not even the bashing of Monseiur Cameron will redeem the situation. My case with the man is that he forgot to reveal a notorious fact about Nigeria. It is also a fantastically divided country. If one is opportune to step out of the shore of this nation, it is only then that he or she will realise that patriotism tastes better than burukutu and fura de nunu. ‘Je suis Gabonais’they will gladly tell whoever that cares to listen, but the moment you step into our geopoliticalspace the story changes. You need not take two steps before the rotten signs of primitive division hit you mindlessly on the face. And, I think I have enough reasons to doubt ‘if there was country’ judging from the degree of hatred, intolerance and bad blood that is flying around in the political arena and the social media like a midnight ‘amunzu’.

It is a pity that instead of forging a common front to build a peaceful and prosperous nation, we have allowed tribalism, nepotism and religious bigotry to constitute a cog in the wheel of building our God-given nation to an enviable height as we read every actions and inactions of government with myopic and primitive lenses. Since the sheriff of ‘changi’ won the presidential election, the cracks on the wall seemed to have widened to frightening dimensions. The toxic of election and electioneering campaigns championed by the rudderless political class have poisoned the minds of Nigerians and the narrative is now: PDP Vs APC, Christian Vs Muslim, North Vs South and nobody seems to be thinking or reacting as a Nigerian.

I am a Catholic from Nsukka and supported a presidential candidate from Daura in Katsina State not because he is a Fulani, Muslim or the standard bearer of the APC. No, I saw him as a better candidate than GEJ who was a Christian and from the south. You may not like my choice but that is life. We all must not be in the same boat.

The fact that I was pro-Buhari during the election have not closed my eyes to some weak points of the APC- led government because in the first place, my driving force for choosing Buhari was not based on primitive sentiments like tribe, ethnicity, religion or region. I have had my reservations about the leadership style of Buhari whom I see as a very sectional leader and as an active citizen, I have openly expressed my opinion in various forum of public discourse with decorum.

Truth be told, it is a pity that most of us lack humanity in us and out of unfounded and generational hatred, tribalism and religious bigotry we will never see anything good in Buhari even if he hands over the vault of central bank to us. We must learn to accept the norms and tenets of democracy no matter how bitter it may be as a major ingredient for building a nation. We went into an election, the minority spoke and the majority carried the day. The spirit of democracy and sportsmanship demands that after election partisan politics and all the dirty things that came with it be allowed to die because nation building is a collective responsibility.