It is because on one hand, our intellectuals, our educated class, have refused to lend their hearts to appreciate the greater issues of life. They went to school and acquired degrees, but prejudice has enveloped the best of their intellect. They readily embrace religious bigotry at the expense of godliness. It is also because our religious leaders no longer know the God they purportedly serve and do not care anymore. It is because our journalists have embraced the ‘peppersoup’ genre, whereby they present rumours as breaking news just to score a point. It is because those who should know, dismiss reality as conspiracy theory, and embrace falsehood as the truth. It is because we have refused to read between the lines.
And the black man is becoming an endangered specie. I imagine a day somewhere in the future, when, because of our collective failure as Nigerians, as Congolese, and Cameroonians, it will be said that only 50,000 black men are left on the face of the earth, and one was just sighted somewhere deep in the jungles of Africa, a member of a lost race. All because we failed to see the big picture; to read between the lines. If we did, we would have seen the need to unite, to come together just for the heck of it; that no amount of money stolen from us, no amount of governmental ineptitude is worth the amount of blood that we shed. We would have found the need to develop a patience never before seen, at these times. We would have refrained from acting on a whim, on a whiff of rumour. But today we are spurred to destruction by our collective failure. Blame no Nigerian ‘leader’, blame yourself!
I have decided, instead to join the ranks of great African prophets. Men like Bob Marley, men like Fela Kuti. Never did these people mount the stage to slag off other African tribes and cultures. Fela never abused Hausas or Igbos. Marley never put down Trinidadians or Haitians. They advocated African unity simplicita. For the black man is united by so many centuries of suffering, of self-inflicted mistakes, of oppression, of pillaging, of injustice, of myopia, of rape, of robbery, of deceit, of anomie, of abnormality, of retrogression, of disdain, of racism, of missed opportunities, of discrimination, of war, of civil wars, of genocides, of class wars, of stigmatization, of self-immolation, of self-asphyxiation. These ‘prophets’ never mounted the garb of self-importance and parochialism. And one does not have to smoke Indian hemp to appreciate their uncommon foresight.
If we read between the lines, we would know that most of what we see and despise about the world, happens because people want to maintain some hegemonic advantage. Situations like Jos could ultimately lead to huge arms sales in Nigeria, if different tribes turn against each other in attrition. The reality on ground is that the Western world is on the way down and fast. European countries are serially defaulting on their sovereign debts and it is becoming apparent that countries without resources are in for a hard time. It is becoming more difficult to con other countries out of their resources, so the only strategy left is to cause trouble in countries and move in there under the guise of enforcing peace.
The reality on ground, if we read between the lines, is that corruption is nothing, but cash flow is everything. And that is why after colonialism, every African sent money back to the colonial masters, by way of tourism and trade. But now, that trend seems to be dying out. Indeed, any country that can attract cash flow does not need resources, or even brains, or even people. The example of what can happen is to be found in present-day UAE. The problem with Nigeria is that somehow, stupidly, our leaders and followers too, have constantly channeled the country’s resources outside the country. If that trend is reversed for a year only, if Nigerians spent their monies at home, the difference will be clear. Arab Sheiks are probably more ‘corrupt’ than Nigerian politicians but they spend their money in their country, hence the clear difference.
If we read between the lines, we will also know that our president is not sick by natural causes, for the coincidences are just too many to ignore. It is about his stance, his demeanour. And even he may or may not be aware. But it is clear that by his current stance (not resigning and not dying), he is strategically holding Nigeria in the balance and protecting the acting president. Our traducers, those who have predicted Nigeria’s break-up by 2015, are not quite sure if with his being back and still barely alive, Yaradua has any influence left in Nigeria. His death or resignation is all the confirmation they need. If they were sure that he is gone, they’ll move in solidly. To them, a fractured and splintered Nigeria is perfect for their purposes, for then they’ll apply divide-and-rule more effectively. Or better still, it will be picture-perfect if we could generally finish ourselves off so that Africa, the best and richest continent, becomes fallow and uninhabited, free for them to plunder.
Are our problems about religion? Surely they can’t be. Otherwise our good ‘Christians’ will not be the hugest investors in Dubai real estate, and our big Muslim politicians, will not be the biggest depositors at Swiss Banks and will not own vast properties in the UK and USA. I don’t believe most of our ‘intellectuals’, writers, columnists, academia and intelligentsia don’t know the truth about how the world operates. I believe that most have been compromised, paid to perpetuate the disunity while pointing fingers in different directions. There is no difference between what Muammar Ghadafi said recently and all that we have written in the newspapers recently. No difference between Ghadafi’s call and Soyinka’s claim on international TV that Nigeria is now a failed nation. The only other truth he may have pointed out unwittingly, is that the North of Nigeria may not become the hell-hole that we in the south predict, if their leaders are able to think and move their people forward.
God forbid that one day we’ll be extinct through our own sheer myopia and stupidity and Africa, God’s best continent, will be occupied by foreigners. Africa; the best and richest continent, presently occupied by the most primitive of homo sapiens…
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