Suffering and Smiling

By Abu Onyiani

A few days ago, I was in Ikeja to see Mr. Lanre Oyenuga, a Lagos based Businessman and visionary. We conversed for three fruitful hours before he dropped me off at Agege. Amongst the issues we discussed were politics, wastefulness, blindness to opportunity and the unenviable ability of Nigerians to sugarcoat suffering.

Now, as a young vibrant man, I am immediately drawn to those from my mother’s generation who talk about politics not because they are paid to, but because they desperately want the nation to work.

Obviously, Nigeria is where it is today because our fathers chose (at least a vast majority of them) to look away while a microscopic few besieged and plundered the nation’s resources.

Till date, I watch with stupefaction each time young Nigerians are on social media, clowning with “Abacha our sugar daddy has sent us alert from the spirit realms). It is lost to them that, had those billions of dollars of our common wealth not stolen by a common thief and his cohorts, it could have been used to help stop Nigeria from the downward spiral Nigeria has been moving at the speed of light. The strong nations you see today made their foundations centuries and decades ago. All they have done is to merely consolidate on the strong foundation.

We also tend to shout “Up Nepa” when we had power as kids, although our mates across the world would shout and curse the organizations responsible for electricity if they had power outage. Roads are bad, the armed forces is corrupt, inept and animalistic in their dealings with the average Nigerian. In my opinion, we either think this is normal or have not suffered enough from this “anyhowness” in the society.

The great Fela Anikulapo Kuti mocked this meekness in a song where he sang “but my people sem go say I no wan die, I no wan kpeme, I wan enjoy”. No one wants to stand up and talk. Everyone of us, including the privileged are spineless cowards who are either scared to talk or living off government patronage.

Our social media celebrities are too busy hustling for endorsements from betting companies. Activists are looking to be settled by the government, or they try to set a Ponzi schemes. Actors are busy clowning about irrelevant issues about the cost of their fake apparels, or the best places to do BBL. The opposition are too busy fighting themselves to call themselves to order and fight the common enemies, or they are looking to be invited to the table.

For example, many Labour Party members were elected into office at the federal level i.e Senate and House of Representatives because they rode on the wave of the frugality Mr Peter Obi preached. I am shocked that I have not seen news that these LP members of parliament refused the vehicles of over 160 million naira at a time when most Nigerians are dying of hunger. I dare say that unless during the civil war, this is the worse period Nigerians have seen, but a minister, Sunday Karimi claimed the vehicles were needed because they could be maintained during their 4 year tenure, citing that ministers had three each.

Nigerians are suffering and smiling, and the “I better pass my neighbor mentality” seems to be growing stronger everyday. Everyday, many Nigerians lose their sources of livelihood, and their dependents starve. Even as a struggling youth, the amount of request for financial aids I get is alarming high, such that there are days I deliberately do not open my messenger app.

Insecurity is also rife. You find youths in broad day light in Lagos walking aimlessly under bridges, waiting to steal your phone in broad day light. If those boys were gainfully employed, they will not be there, stealing and maiming others. Then there are those who think they are wiser or better because they are into non violent yahoo yahoo crimes, but a crime is a crime all the same.

For those less refine, they become armed robbers or kidnappers. From the comfort of your homes or offices, you can claim you have been marked safe. Heck, I want to mark myself safe too, but my half brother was kidnapped two days ago and I feel like it was I who was kidnapped. Or am I wrong?

The point I am trying to make here is, it is either we all win, or we all fail. Even Dangote himself is feeling the weight of the present Nigerian economy with an inflation level that is well over 20%, and a currency that is as unstable as London’s weather.

For the youths, the time to speak up is now, or we will either perish or survived as damaged people by the time we are older.