Nigeria: “Rotten from head to toe”

Nigeria is “rotten from head to toe” are not my words but those of the late General Hassan Usman Katsina in the early 70’s. Then we were undergraduates at ABU Zaria.

One should like to recall that former Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, was ousted in a coup d’état headed by the late no-nonsense General Murtala Muhammad. Along with him were Obasanjo, late Yar’adua, Buhari, IBB, late Joe Garba, among others. In August 1975, yours sincerely was posted to Jos.

However, because of the subsisting curfew, we were struggling to report for NYSC in the then capital of defunct Benue-Plateau State between the 6:00 am and 6:00pm. This Jos is now the epic-centre of the minorities and the seat of the combustible over 100 migrant minorities, comprising both Muslims and Christians as well as Christian animists, with the larger majority, paradoxically, an amalgam of incompatible minorities.

Yet life and the cost of living, despite what Hassan said that Nigeria was “rotten”, was okay, if you close your eyes and reflect at prices of goods and services, to what obtains in Nigeria today; one would think we were in a fantasy Island. We should just recall then two key indices to amuse ourselves. The relevant ones and upon which life depended were the petroleum prices and the Naira-US Dollar parity. During Gowon in 1973, petroleum prices stood at 6K-8.5K per litre till even during IBB at 70K per litre in 1991. Despite what appears to be a low price, it used to be a tug of war getting the petrol, in one piece, at some stages. While the US Dollar in 1975 till 1985 was below N1.0, car and food prices were affordable even though Nigeria was, nevertheless, “rotten”.

What word would you call Nigeria today? Perhaps, it is decomposed garbage and a jungle in terms of societal and economic settings. With ethnic nationalities all out for a zero sum game and what Professor M.U. Ndagi in his Philosofaith on Daily Trust/Saturday of August 8, 2020 page 25, titled “Wages of foolhardiness”, he says “foolhardy” is a combination of “fool” and “hardy”. He said he read someone describe Nigerians as stubborn people. In fact, the way people disobey laws and drive crazy on our highways including the pace setters, the “rotten” village boys, ruling class flying tinted glassed in expensive Jeeps, with security guys intimidating the public, are causing unnecessary death on our roads and no one cares! Most Nigerians replicate.

The Chinese see Nigerians sharing the monthly oil proceeds in a Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) as foolishness. Instead of investing the proceeds for infrastructure and future investment, they meet like hungry hyenas with greedy eyes and allocate the money for politicians to squander and most Nigerians believe to steal. Because “monkeys de work” while “baboons de chop”, lawlessness is the order of the day since a Nigerian pauper just wakes up in riches that he cannot explain. No wonder that there are too many corruption cases with EFCC and the Code of Conduct Bureau!

All Nigerians wrangling, killings, and the ethnic war by local war-lords seeking state or federal appointment for themselves and as representatives of the people are all manifestations of Nigerian “baboons”, seeking the FAAC largesse without doing any work. It is difficult to find true Muslims or Christians concerned with the well being of the country; if any, they do not matter at all. When they open their mouth, they accuse Buhari. What of the 36 state governors, and the three arms of government’s top echelons?

Can a country progress with only one person interested in doing things right? After they failed to poison Buhari like Shelltox with mosquitoes, they loose sleep. The right attitude is to stand by what former US President, late John F Kennedy, asked Americans to “not to ask what your country can do for you’ but “what you can do for your country”. Parasites in the system should know that, the 4 Caliphs Hulafaur rashideen along with Imams Jaafar Sadik, Abu Hanifa, Malik, Hanbal, Shafii, Buhari, Muslim, Ibn Taimiyya and the revered Caliphs thereafter Umar bin Abdulazeez did not live a lavish life, like them now.

There is no difference between the so-called “southern Kaduna killings” and the “marginalisation” of Niger Delta in the Trojan Horses schemes designed by vested interests whose real motive is to have a chunk of the oil cake revenues through the back door and waste it. The foolish Nigerian meanwhile wallows in poverty waiting for his turn to steal.

The southern Kaduna people say it is an enclave of the Christians, which is far from the truth, because there are many Muslims. The Muslims and not the native Christians established all the major towns and economic centres in the so-called southern Kaduna, which was under Zaria province and even before 1907 when Lugard came when people were moving naked or with leaves. It is instructive that southern Kaduna lies geographically south of Kaduna city. When we were at Government College Keffi in 1966, it was in Zaria province, among the 13 provinces that made up the northern Nigeria. We had classmates from southern Zaria province as me coming from Katsina province. But geographically, any land south of Kaduna automatically lies south of Zaria.

So, the noise by the over 33 ethnic minorities from southern Kaduna against one or two, the Hausa and Fulani, unjustly and with less than 20% voting power does not help the minorities.

The partisan Lagos and Ibadan or southern media and the NBA, see nothing wrong with Plateau Christians sidelining Muslims, who built all the economically viable centres like Jos, Bukuru, Barikin Ladi, Mangu and Wase before 1900. I believe if the Muslims take up arms as the tiny minorities are doing in Kaduna, Plateau will not be in peace. But it would seem that Lalong understands the dynamics of peace in the state. Unfortunately, elements like Lekwot from southern Kaduna who was condemned to death by Justice Okadigbo for his role in the genocide against the southern Kaduna Muslims, are doing more harm to them, since they do not live in the theatre of conflict. What is the business of a Yoruba so-called CAN President in the Muslim minority conflict in Kaduna State? He should go and settle the Christian Tiv and Jukun Christians and others in the south first. We are in a democracy.

Engr. Abubakar A. Fari [email protected]