The ferocity with which Suleiman A Suleiman shredded Kingsley Moghalu and his “vision” in the piece “Phantasmgoric federalism” in the Daily Trust of Wednesday 9th February 2021 left me shuddering at such venom in response to something as intangible and inane as a dream or a vision as Moghalu called it.
Moghalu had merely espoused an idea, a vision, a dream, call it utopian if you will but nothing to be deemed vile enough to warrant the venom it elicited from Suleiman. This was a clear manifestation of the typical Nigerian phenomenon of PHD or Pull Him Down.
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Interestingly, he did not offer an alternative vision, dream nor pathway out of the current quagmire we find ourselves in as a nation. Typical of us, he killed the vision, without offering up one as an alternative. This begs the question if the angst was with the vision, or the visioner. The dream or the dreamer? The message or the messenger?
Kingsley’s crime is not immediately obvious. Is it the audacity to have envisioned a Dubai like status for the north or r to have dreamed at all? Or is it to the fleeting reference to religion in the north, obviously intended to portray a shared characteristic with the prosperous Dubai? Upon closer introspection it appeared to me that Kingsley’s transgression was the failure to mention a specific endowment in the north, like he did for other regions, but I wonder if this, call it faux pas if you may, is sufficient to repudiate such a glorious vision for the north; never mind if we agree to disagree on the vehicle to that glory. Was it enough to quash, with such vehemence, all prospects for an interrogation of ideas, of dreams, of visions and of means?
I endured the acid, bile and vitriol of the length of the write up in the hope of finding an alternative narrative, vision, dream, suggestion or proposal advanced, but alas, it was in vain.
In conclusion, I plead that we allow ourselves our visions and dreams. We relate easily with the American dream, but have no agreement on what constitutes the Nigerian dream. What we have today has taken away a lot from us: our humanity, our dignity, our liberty, sundry rights, our sleep even the very breaths from our life. Let it not also take away our dreams too.
Ken Ozoilo writes via: [email protected]
