When the Fish Head is Rotten

Again and again, the question returns, each time garbed differently as tho' to camouflage it's semblance to those previously asked. In broad strokes, it can be put thus: why blame Jonathan for everything, even stuff that goes wrong in your backyard? Well, he asked for it when he took upon himself the mantle of leadership (or had it thrust upon him, whatever the case may be). How about that?

It's so simple to understand, it's almost embarrassing to have to explain. There's a pyramid of responsibility that traverses all levels all the way to the top. There's something not being done at the top that allows for certain things to happen at the bottom.

Take this instance: The blame for the injury a baby, left in the care of a careless nanny, suffers can be directly placed on the nanny but if you analyse further, you'd see that the blame goes all the way to mother and her indifference to noticeable nonchalance in the housekeeper and to the father for being persistently unavailable, both of whom should be primary caregivers of a family.

So, if it's rotten at the top, don't expect to be salivating at the aroma that permeates from below. That's why Jonathan gets stick for even the abduction of 200 girls to a forest he had never even heard of before and for the black marketing of fuel not too far from his Alma Mater in Rivers State.

Part of the caning should fall on you and I who confront ourselves on petty issues like this, thereby dividing what should have been a united front that demands good governance at all levels and at any cost rather than this existing status quo where for the price of chewing gum, we sell our generation and the next. It's a pyramidal structure with faults that render it unstable and that can be traced to the rotten apex.

What GEJ Hasn't Done That I Will Do

If you haven't been asked how you would've handled the Boko Haram insurgency Nigeria is experiencing because of your constant haranguing of this present crop of leaders, probably you've not been doing enough or it's still going to be asked of you. Sooner. The finer details of my "plan of action " may not be as simplistic as outlined below (no way I'm divulging sensitive confidential information in public) and several terms are CODED (and in quotes) on purpose, but here is the broad outline.

You cut off a leaking faucet from the source rather than spend time bailing the pool that gathers in the room. All indicators (from the make of their vehicles, the number of them on the move at the same time, to the premium quality of their ammunition) point to heavy financial sources of this malaise. It's foolhardy to believe government is absolutely ignorant of financiers of the violence. (Rumours suggest GEJ might be bidding his time so as not to ruffle the fabric of the Northern oligarch whose support is sine qua non for 2015)

If only to put these rumours to bed, these financiers must be "removed" from their capacity to provide funding for the dastardly acts the group has visited on their hapless victims. Removed PERMANENTLY. Having "fixed" the source, we can now begin to mop up what little spilling survives with the heft of militaristic finality.

To answer those who are Persistent-International-Aid-seekers, I don't see how we'd need any foreign aid in this strategy. We can more than fend for ourselves here. Our military isn't highly regarded across the board because we always shout "May Day!!! May Day!!!!" for assistance. It's the incessant political interference that has cheapened their abilities. We're so quick to ask for international assistance today, and tomorrow when they've infiltrated all nooks of our domestic engagements and begin to apply their acquired inside knowledge influentially for their nationalistic agendas we would be the same "patriots" to scream exploitation!

The Status Quo That Must Not Be Disturbed

What we as a horde of followers are proving beyond reasonable doubt is that no matter how vacuous the craniums of the (s)elected "leaders" (*spits* leaders ko, bleeders ni) are, they know one thing, and they know it so well. They have understood how inured the average Nigerian has become, that he or she will rather stay "managing" adversity as well as remain averse to bleeding and death, even for a cause, just or otherwise.

The politician, often not the brightest bulb in the box, knows all too well that irrespective of educational class and academic achievement, these lily-livered citizens are cowards in the depths of their beings. Not just your average-Joe coward either, far from it. These are a special breed, or a hybrid, if you like. They mix it all up, crossbreeding talking without facts to fighting those who even attempt to put in a word for them or induce action for their own sakes.

And having perfected the art of enshrining poverty in perpetuity in the land, the politician tells his soul to relax, eat and be merry because, for a pittance, he can always call on an army of hungry mouths to do his bidding, therefore cementing, in sempiternity the status quo.

Of Prayers, Dislike and Good Governance

I was told to use my time more wisely to pray for this administration rather than run my mouth castigating it at every turn. Those who know me well knew one thing well. I had something to say about that. See?

And to think that I don't even write everything that comes to my mind? If I was to really go ballistics you'd be at want for adjectives with which to convey your candid though acerbic observation.

Let us assume that I don't pray for the country and our leaders, (do not even add the general Prayer For Nigeria In Distress, no), say I don't, of what percentage does that represent? 1 out of millions, nay hundreds of millions? I'm not sure you're trying to tell me that until I add my own set of prayers, God will stay action on intervening. I'd try not to believe that.

But let's take it further. Even if millions on both sides of the major religious divide in Nigeria do not consider it their civic and religious obligations to pray for him, the press has been kind enough to show us religious ceremonies the president faithfully attends, ceremonies where the ministers of the Almighty and prophets of the Most High take it upon themselves to commit him to the Power above every other. If my sinner-prayer will not turn to a curse on him, as those of our other country men, all of whom have sinned and are less glorious than they should be, what of the prayers of those the Lord has ordained for His ministry? Imagine the efficacies of their supplications on his behalf? And I'm here referring only to the ones we see oo! God alone knows how many more of such prayers and intercessions are held on his behalf, especially by those who know that his continued stay in power is their only "sure banker" way of maintaining their access to the common till.

What has become of the man-hours expended in these prayers? That you even subtly suggest that his wisdom direly requires increment to reach depths necessary to move the country forward carries with it the implicit concession that those prayers seen to not have struck the mark. I'd be rehashing a hackneyed wisecrack by saying that the evil that is sucking away at what is left of the fibres of life here is emboldened by the cowardly silence, that pretends to be at prayer, of those who may be referred to as good, or better still, as victims who unfortunately haven't realised their varied states of victimisation.

What will it cost me to take everything to God in prayer? Even children and babies do that much, do they not? But it takes no small amount of effort and courage to be so informed that you can speak out, that you can, as you prefer to term it, "castigate" (I know I'm more acidic than cajoling, tho) those who have been picked to serve but who do everything else but serve. That takes everything you've got, and more. Does it not occur to you that having attained a level of spiritual maturity, you realise that you must of needs raise your voice, as all truly ordained prophets have done through history even until the events of GOOD FRIDAY, against the evils of their day because they know that it will be evil of them not to?

Prayer should move you to act and oftentimes this action calls that you don't keep silent in the face of injustice, in an atmosphere of insensitivity irrespective of how many times you're accused of being a person-hater or a paid hand. You know where your motives lie and you sympathise with the naysayers who do not even understand their own gods enough to naively conceive that prayers alone suffice.

I may not have told you about my prayers but I'd be the last, in fact I'd not stop to CASTIGATE such errant bestial and insensitive government that is daily proving that, in saner climes, it wouldn't need an opposition (which we neither have) to lose elections.

And you know I don't like GEJ? Really? Didn't know twas that obvious. Wow!

Who are we? What do we deserve?

I've thought long and hard about it and I'm still thinking. We've become less than normal human beings, almost like animals. That's why we can allow things like these to continue in this nation, things that other humans will not allow, things that others will rather die than permit. I believe somewhere along the line, we lost our sense of humanity, our humanness and became lesser than normal human beings.

I stand to be corrected. This remains my frank and unpretentious perspective.

There's also the prevailing view that we have even condescended lower than animals, who have been known to mourn their deceased, sometimes for months (thanks Comfort Udoh).

Implicitly, we are, at this crucial juncture of national cohesion, lesser than lesser animals. In this state of extreme irrationality, we proceed to (s)elect some of our lesser-than-lesser comrade-at-arms to rule over us with utter idiocy. So, why do we complain? What were we expecting? Wizardry from cretins?

Oh. Thou. Nigeria (KJV-style)

Oh Nigeria, thou wast created to be much more than this. Why hast thou allowed thyself to be the butt of jokes and an object of unrelenting ridicule? Oh, Nigeria when wouldst thou attain those glorious heights envisaged by true patriots who, when they speaketh against thy inglorious descent to 4th-World-country status, act to forestall that incredulous retrogressive slide? Oh Nigeria, shouldst thou rouse thyself from such inanities and rise to thy divinely apportioned status as leader of the black race? Thou whom the rest of Africa wouldst rely to ascend to glorious pinnacles, now lies prostrate, unable to raise a finger in thy own aid, bringing to naught even the aspirations of thy own.

Would thy citizens cast aside inerrant divisions to resolve, even unto death, to see you great, oh Nigeria? And thy leaders? Where be the charisma, nay the leadership selflessness, requisite for raising such blessed State to greatness? Instead thou hast been the compendium of mediocrity, selfishness, and a litany of other petty differences that have thou, oh Nigeria, in a chokehold such that even should seeming charismatic individuals rise to offer service to the fatherland (if such were still today possible) there among them will the evil machinations rise to smoulder those aspirations, and grind the remains to dust.

Oh but Nigeria, no country competes with thou should words of mouth be the competition. The citizens that thou didst spew on this terrestrial firmament have taken the act of talking to an art form. They can be seen talking before they be fully awake and do not stop until fully asleep. And no subject is sacrosanct to these loose-lipped citizens. From issues to which their claim to knowledge is negligible to those for which their ignorance is insurmountable. Yet, an unbelievable amount of time is devoted to covering every minute of the day with mindless chatter. Match words with action? Babu!!!! For where?

Oh. Thou. Nigeria.