We return from Nigeria fuming and furious. Same procedure as every year! This year though, I was mad at the system. Never before have I come to accept the notion that the only way forward for Nigeria is a revolution. A popular uprising! Ask anyone who knows Nigeria - from Nigerians to sympathizers! All you hear is that the country needs a revolution. Ask Nigerians in Nigeria. Hear the anger about the politics of geographical divide and tactical repositioning. Hear the many journalists and intellectuals who are disappointed at the one last hope they see in individual politicians. Many speak out clearly about the impending collapse of the Nigerian project. Many pray for coup d'etat and many hope for a spontaneous uprising. Indeed many worked towards one on the exit of Olusegun Obasanjo.
I returned from Nigeria fuming and furious strongly believing that the time has come to stage a revolution. The long expressway from Lagos to Benin in its dilapidated state with bumpy holes and scores of extorting police checkpoints was not my problem. No. You can scale through it these days, with regular flights connecting the nation. The deadbeat power sector and the incessant power cut that hardly gives you a breathing space was not my problem. No. Kwara state now seems to be signaling a way out with its state financing of the gas powered system initiated by the Obasanjo administration. Kwara state has been able to celebrate one good month of Uninterrupted Power Supply. Water supply is not the problem because the drilling of boreholes has provided us the badly needed respite these days.
I returned from Nigeria straight into witnessing the meeting of the G20 group of Nations and swallowed the pride that once characterized the stature of the Giant of Africa that was christened in the 1970s.
The G20 is the group of the world's Top-20 economically viable nations. An offshoot of the G7 that was hitherto the group of most industrialized economies. The G7 was once elevated to the group of 8 in the admittance of the Russian Republic. Today G20 stretches from Brazil, through China to South Africa. South Africa like Nigeria has been laying claims to a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council whenever an expansion of the apex body is up for grabs. Today we know that Nigeria has no justification of any sort for claiming to have the credentials to represent Africa with a ramshackle economy built on a foundation of sand.
The years were promising after independence. Former military leader General Yakubu Gowon once proclaimed that "Money is not our problem but how to spend it." That was way back in the seventies and the strength of Nigeria then was not systematic development planning alone. Popular mindset was focused on development as well.
The infrastructures seemed to have been set on a progressive footing. It could only get steadily better. That was before Nigeria got plunged into a futile experiment in democracy headed by a Phantom of the Opera named Shehu Shagari who was left colorless and surrounded by hounds and thieves of the greatest order. One prominent name was a Transport Minister in monumental corruption. His name was Dikko. Umaru Dikko.
Today we have another Umaru in a shift of gear and positions. This time in the person of a President as colorless as ever! He is not known for corruption but hardly does his best to bring corruption in the periphery to its utmost minimum.
If the G20 was further expanded today, Ghana would join the fold. Many micro-states that looked up to Nigeria years ago, for their own economic survival have now left us in a position of the artistic mimicry of economic realities.
Our leaders remain blind and insensitive. They advocate the removal of subsidies on fuel knowing the domino impact it will have on public life. They leave refineries in scruffy states pouring wealth on several years of fuel importation leaving us with the promising memories of years in which money was not the problem. Our leaders choose to import power generators to power a whole city rather than take on the task of consolidating a power sector.
Three basic and simple infrastructures - power, water, road network - that we needed for development have now become the single basis of our continued backward drift. Foreign investors pull out of Nigeria heading for neighboring states citing the state of our infrastructures. Umaru man is like non-existent. Men of action that stirred up hope in the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo have been replaced by managers of depletion. No more Iwealas, Ribadus or El-Rufais. The virtue of meritocracy does not seem to exist in any Nigerian dictionary. Not even the office of the governor of the Central Bank is spared the ethnic debate. Two years on, what seems to count under Umaru man seems to be ethnicity and hardly capability. Power shift from South to North and perpetually!
I came from Nigeria fuming and furious truly believing that the time was now ripe for a revolution. I took my keyboard and began typing my message. I called on Nigerians to take up arms. Arise and topple the system. I hate a military coup because the end would be unpredictable and power may end in the wrong hands. There will be no assurance of a Rawlings impact. I thought of the Orange revolution - Ukrainian style - and the tactic of organizing local committees under Union auspices to lay the groundwork for a long-term revolution.
I came from Nigeria fuming and furious but soon realized I needed a deep breath. Crucify me and condemn my stance for all I care. But the truth is one more thing that stands loud and clear.
A revolution we need! But what if we truly had a revolution? When I had a second thought though, the aftermath of a revolution even gave me even more jitters.
I took a closer look at Ukraine. I took a closer look at Georgia. Where are the assurances that Nigeria would be different? The easiest part of the equation may lie in the planning of a revolution and the culminating festive mood of history in the making, no matter the potential loss of lives.
Revolutions usually commence with hopes. High hopes and dreams of a lofty future. The end in almost all cases is disappointment. When lives are lost, they go in vain to serve the dreams of the new ruling class. The dream was hijacked in Ukraine in the post-orange era. The dream was hijacked in Georgia and many more countries like it. Nigeria may be worse.
The volatility of Nigeria lies in its ethnic multiplicity that hardly leaves room for a cohesive bond to foster collectivity. Czechoslovakia split up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the aftermath of a revolution. Ukraine is overtly and potentially locked in the risk of regional splits along "pro and anti-Russian" lines. What would Nigeria look like?
Are we doomed? Are we cursed? What do we do? Where do we head?
I am back from Nigeria fuming and furious. I ask myself if today's President of Nigeria can sincerely claim to have the interest of Nigeria at heart or the interest of the north. What has Umaru Musa Yar A'dua achieved in two years than shifting the balance of geographical distribution in political power?
The dire state of destruction is biting deeper. Corruption continues to thrive while the viable anti-corruption dragon was chased to the vampires. Smaller states are teasing and jeering at Nigeria. If Obasanjo disappointed hopes invested in him Yar A'dua is turning out to be killing hopes in broad daylight.
Incompetence, inconsistencies and outright betrayal of national trust are cladded in unguided and unplanned pronouncements. "Emergency in the Power Sector" - a mirage! "Reform of electoral process" - mockery of Uwais! Many more examples expose the pathetic mindset of the present administration.
In a world, in which a government consistently sets itself the worst of all priorities in absolute insensitivity to the troubles of the masses, it is questionable if governmental actions are not in themselves the real incitement to rebellion and treasonable felony.
Fashola has demonstrated a considerable image of what it takes when a government sets out to act. Is this any example for the chaps in Abuja?
What second term does Yar A'dua seek? Sickness aside! Ethnicity aside! Does the interest of the nation matter at all?
Revolution is a solution. It may also quickly become a problem in itself for the cohesion of a promising nation. If it does happen though and Nigeria is plunged into an existential quagmire, the politicians will be to blame and the government of Umaru Musa Yar A'dua will not share the least
