A Prayer For Nigerian Youths

10 Sep 2011

Pendulum By Dele Momodu. Email, dele.momodu@thisdaylive.com

Fellow Nigerians, I don’t know how many of you watched President Barack Obama Thursday night as he made his most passionate appeal to the Joint-Session of the American Congress on the need to urgently pass the bill on his economic reforms which has been a subject of intense debate at home and abroad. It wasn’t that I expected Barack Obama, one of the most eloquent orators alive in our world today, to perform any less than he did but I was totally astounded by the quality and panache of American politicians.

We saw a Speaker who could not be intimidated by the power and glory of the presidential office. And a confident Speaker who told the President what to do and not one to be ordered around by the Whitehouse like an errand boy. We saw a Vice President who walked in alone without the usual overzealous aides who in some other countries would have made every effort to get noticed. The American Vice President, Joe Biden, had walked in briskly, and confidently, backslapping some of his former colleagues and even pecking a few of the influential ladies on their cheeks.

Naturally, we saw the President’s cabinet as they filed in with all eyes on the authentic superstar, Hillary Clinton, who carried herself with pride and dignity. We saw a First Lady who walked in almost incognito, and with graceful humility, without some rented women in uniform to intermittently remind Her Excellency of her status as mother of the nation. In fact, Michelle and her husband were seen leaving the White House under a heavy downpour, as they made their way to Capitol Hill, but yet on time.

There was no reason or flood of excuses to keep the Congress waiting under a deluge of lies. The couple even refused the umbrellas that were offered them by members of the Secret Service, and chose to walk straight into their official car, The Beast, effortlessly. There was no gargantuan protocol as the President of the United States bounced into the most powerful building outside the Whitehouse and took the carnival-like atmosphere to its crescendo. With his rare charms and charisma, he hugged, touched and blew kisses at his fellow politicians. The aroma of power was strong and sweet but the colour was simple. It was showmanship at its best, understated yet elegant. The display of camaraderie was infectious. And the atmosphere was just too electrifying. Obama’s performance was straight out of Hollywood . It was mesmerizing and inspirational.

As I watched in utter wonderment and admiration, I felt this was what politics was supposed to be, a game for patriots and not for rabid looters. It is for politicians who can stimulate and rouse a people to victory and not for somnambulists who needed waking up themselves. I was proud to see democracy at play. No one plays that democratic game better than the Americans. Everything in America is a stuff of thrillers. Watching that show, you could have been teleported to the surreal ambience of Caesar’s Palace or Planet Hollywood. Seated in that hallowed chamber were some of Obama’s bitterest critics. But they still gave honour to who deserved it because the issue was not about one man, it was about America .

And Obama did not disappoint his captive audience. The evening was not for rigmaroles or some jejune pontificating, and it was certainly not about playing to the gallery or offering fake promises. It was a night to present a product of rigorous research and demonstrate a serious determination to succeed where others have failed. President Obama came to play his last card and he needed that ultimate joker, like a hole in the head. It was a risky adventure. He had to pick his words ably and carefully. He even had to choose the mode of delivery. It was like an Inaugural lecture which in those days was the height of intellectual achievement.

Obama’s mission was to convince the unbelieving Thomases on the workability of his master-plan. He did not come in with some ageless godfathers in tow needed to issue threats of firestorm and brimstone against any party member who fails to tow party line. He did not assemble some governors and traditional rulers to come and negotiate with members of their constituencies on how not to disgrace the anointed leader. Obama had to help himself and leave the rest to God.

Even if I did not see Obama sweat that night, it is more than likely he did as he waltzed his way through the process of convincing a stressed nation and a depressed populace. He was not reading from a badly-written theoretical script, he was reeling out his facts and figures from a well-crafted speech only he could have delivered with such incredible elocution. In other climes, the President would have been reading a thesis he himself did not understand or believed was feasible. Obama had to convince his fellow citizens that he was competent, and that he had the kidney, heart and liver for the job he was elected to do. And do he must. The tell-tale signs were there that he’s been operating on the super highway with all his black hair going grey.

I was particularly fascinated by this spectacular event because it happened on a day I was feeling very insulted about a statement credited to a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, our own ruling party in Nigeria. According to the PDP Chairman, his party will rule Nigeria forever and no force on earth can remove them from power. It was sad that the man did not elucidate on why Nigerians should continue to vote for a party that has failed to make life better for the generality of our citizens. That is the sort of arrogance that we’ve been forced to consume regularly as an elixir of life in Nigeria . Everywhere else, politicians would have been mandated to serve the people but in our own country the people are expected to serve their omnipotent rulers. And like a people sentenced to perpetual slavery we are expected to vote all the time for our slave-masters. This is why it has become impossible to enjoy free and fair elections because the bad leaders have all it takes to force themselves on us. The Masters have studied what it takes to keep their dogs on the leash.

I would have expected our leaders to engage Nigerians the way President Obama engaged the Americans two nights ago but we have not been that lucky here. In America , no politician would have dared to talk so glibly about winning elections in perpetuity because there are polls galore to gauge the political barometer and wake up the politicians from their day-dreams. Obama was obviously not under any illusion that if elections were held today he would face a grand failure. The reason is very simple. America is a country where leaders are held accountable. And it is a country where a one-party state can never be regarded as a Democracy.

Nigeria is clearly an Autocracy where we pretend to run an American style of government. What we run in reality is a convoluted mockery of democracy.

We are too timid to see the viability of removing an incumbent President in Nigeria . One is often regarded as the biggest fool to even attempt it, as I was told when I contested the Presidential election last April. They studiously ignored the fact that if we can’t defeat our oppressors now it is very possible to do so in the future.

Even if President Jonathan had good intentions, he does not have the muscles to checkmate the demi-gods that litter his political party. He also lacks the radical pedigree that would have prepared him for such an epic battle. No matter how well-intentioned he is, our President is bound to run into troubled waters because he does not control the levers of power in a Mafia country like Nigeria . That is the obvious reasons he has not been able to touch the sponsors of terror he claims to know.

Where then do we go from here? As usual, I like to end by proffering solutions. I’m convinced that only the youths of Nigeria can liberate us from those too rigid to change their bad ways. But where are these youths? The times have changed. The Gani Fawehinmis, Femi Falanas, Olisa Agbakobas, Shehu Sanis, Colonel Abubakar Dangiwa Umars, Uche Onyeagochas, and others, have since been replaced by the new internet warriors. These are young men and women who have never fought in the trenches. They’ve never been baptised in the dungeons of Alagbon or Gashua prisons. They were never bayonetted like the Beekololari Ransome-Kutis. They were never forced into exile like the Wole Soyinkas. You can always pardon them if they think the new social media can replace or replicate the adventures of the Christopher Okigbos. But it cannot. Our youths have a lot to learn from the past that tried its best but did not achieve its aim.

Our change agents of the new era must go beyond the internet and fashion ingenious ways of tackling the many problems of nationhood in Nigeria . There are minimum standards they must demand from our leaders. The first condition is that our students must insist that our educational system must be brought up to the highest standards as it is in responsible countries. The biggest weapon that has been used to keep Nigerians in this squalid condition is the proliferation of ignorance. An ignorant people can never demand their rights. The politicians have deliberately collapsed our institutions of learning in order to keep most of our youths as political thugs. In our days, students demanded their rights at every opportunity. But these days, poverty has whipped most of young people into line. Our youths should work assiduously for a better future and resist the temptations that can only lead to eventual annihilation.

Since they constitute the majority of our population, they must get more active in the electoral process. Most of those who collected money from politicians last April are already back where they were before the election. Nothing is likely to improve because our leaders treat politics as business and since they purchased our votes they are going to demand and collect more than enough dividends from us.

I pray that someone somewhere would read this and act.