Nigerians and Refusal to Take Responsibility

I am a Nigerian, and I endorse this essay. Are you a Nigerian? Then, I will talk about myself and you: "I have every right to be angry, but you don't have the right to punish evil even though, by your public standing, you are endowed with the office of a sword-bearer, avenger for God, even as you are God's minister," so many compatriots affirm. Nigerians hold forth very plausible reasons why they must destroy society, cause societal mischief, or even kill. The plausible speaker claims a holy calling, alleges oppression of their "people", or pleads some weird or even genuine injustice. The Nigerian hardly takes responsibility. If you are one of the few Nigerians that take responsibility, and refuses to blame everyone but yourself, I am not talking about you; but I must bare my mind to the hypocrites.

I imagine a large polygamous family, where there are fraudsters, hired killers, robbers, petty thieves, prostitutes, and all sorts of employees in the iniquitous trades. Each has a plausible justification for their chosen path. As a solution, they propose a kind of "restructuring", or just any type: "Let children fend for themselves"; "the father must make each mother a treasurer of his earnings"; "mothers must contribute exactly the same amount and energy that father does to sustain the family"; "daughters in the family must get more attention than sons do"; "father must allocate the most resources to the mother or mothers with the most children"; "there must be equality; mothers must each receive the same amount of allowance from the father"; "father must love the mothers according to how much their children bring into the family from their respective industry and crime," etc. And until their preferred "restructuring", however hazy in their minds it may be, is done, the children will not be restrained from setting some houses in their father's large compound ablaze, conniving with strangers and kidnapping some of their siblings for ransom from their father, whom they suspect is so rich and yet too frugal, destroying family property, or disturbing family peace and harmony. Some of the children are threatening that their mothers must divorce the father and take away with them all that they married the father with. When you ask any member of the family why they behave in such injurious manners, they answer with impudence, "I, my mother and her children are being marginalized." Others respond, "My mother's marriage to my father was a mistake." And when the interrogator suggests the children should ask how their mothers manage the huge monthly allowance from their father, they retort, "That is not the issue! Why must my mother not be allowed to control the resources? And even if my mother squanders her share from the father, do you know how much father is keeping for himself and favorite children?" Metaphorically, this is Nigeria.

Who are the Niger Delta Avengers avenging for? I think those folks should turn their anger against their governors, chiefs and political leaders in the South-South, who squander away whatever resources they receive from the national commonwealth (sorry, from their own resources). Do the militants of the Niger Delta really fight for their people? I doubt it. Let me explain why. Quite a number of "ex-militants" (I am not sure they are in retirement yet) are millionaires or billionaires now. How have they invested their "compensation" to improve the quality of life of their villagers, for instance? Buying private jets and building palatial mansions for themselves in the midst of an ever expanding ocean of poverty does not speak well of those "ex-militants". The fresh breed has set forth in the same path in the hope of some "compensation". The majority of the Niger Delta, who do not live by the sword, assume, in their innocent (?) naiveté, that the militants, both ex-and serving, are "freedom fighters" on their behalf. But can't a people use common sense, more so when the drama is being poorly acted, to arrive at the obvious conclusion-a hoax is being sold to the people, whose only benefit is the hallucination from its intoxicant, which they readily relish?  

Most of Nigeria's freedom fighters, Labor leaders and activists are like the oppressing rulers you find at the three tiers of government in Nigeria. The people must be slow to believe them, verifying their past actions or philosophical postulations, consistency and integrity, or not believe them at all. I learned that in Bayelsa State, Labor leaders who led out their colleagues on the recent strike action, later got public appointments by the State governor in the course of the action; they accepted the governor’s offer to pay workers only 50 per cent of their monthly salary (which was the offer that had partly provoked the strike in the first place). The strike has been called off, but with no gain for the workers, who are still being owed months in salaries (even at half the value offered). The people of the Niger Delta need decent jobs commensurate with their skills. They need projects such as the Brass NLNG completed; they want International Oil Companies (IOCs) to establish their company offices in places such as Yenagoa, for the purposes of tax revenue and job creation (But I must appeal to my Niger Delta brethren that the perception of insecurity will make this a long shot). I will talk about Amaechi and Kachikwu in a later post (watch out for it: Amaechi, Kachikwu and Niger Delta Development).

When the people are ready for change, it will come. It is time to refuse to rely on militants (ex-or serving), Labor leaders and activists. The people must determine what they want, and a leader would emerge to serve their purpose. There are too many hungry activists around. WATCH OUT FOR MY NEXT POST ON "A Nigerian Manual for People-led Change Action (NIMAPCA)".