Rescuing Nigeria from the Maggot Syndrome - Sola Adeyeye August 5, 2008 | posted by Nigerian Muse (Archives)

August 5, 2008

Rescuing Nigeria from the Maggot Syndrome

by Sola Adeyeye

The celebration of the 10^th anniversary of Nigerian independence in 1970 took place in an atmosphere of a euphoria induced by the cessation of the civil war and the beginning oil boom. The Sunday Times, by far the most popular Nigerian newspaper at the time, had asked its readers to summarize Nigeria’s post-independence history in three sentences.

The inimitable Sam Amuka, writing under the pseudonym Sad Sam, provided an insightful summary that reflected his satirical genius and journalistic wit. He wrote:

“The white man went home but came back on a platter of gold. The man of the people fed fat until the redeemer of the people came. We exchanged monkeys for baboons!”

Over the years, I have often wondered how Sad Sam, if he had not retired his peerless pen, would have been summarizing Nigeria’s convoluted and sickening history. Taking a cue from him, one could summarize our years of putative independence in these three sentences:

British alligators were replaced by Nigerian crocodiles. Soldiers and politicians turned Nigeria into a Plunder Unlimited Company. Because of the ensuing decay, we have become a colony of maggots!

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines a maggot as the young stage of a fly that lives in a decaying environment. Any professional entomologist will pick bones with such restrictive definition of a maggot. We shall permit the entomologists and others inclined towards esoteric zoology to pick whatever bones they wish with Longman’s definition.

Likewise, we need not spend extensive time to catalog the symptoms of Nigeria’s syndrome- the unarguable stagnation and decay that tail our dog like prehensile tags. Once we purge ourselves of the chloroform of Government propaganda and our masturbatory, much hackneyed self-adulation as the giant of Africa, we can face the somber reality that, almost 48 years after our so-called independence, Nigeria has tragically remained what Professor Wole Soyinka described as “The Open Sore of a Continent.” More than Forty-seven years after the British ostensibly departed, our major towns and cities have abandoned the concept of town planning. Filth and squalor mark our municipal centers as showcases of urban decay. The collapse of our physical infrastructure is evident in our comatose railway system. Most of our schools are decrepit; their physical disrepair depicts a society that has been too busy to think, too confused to plan, too lazy to work, and too insane to take care of its young.

Consequently, St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School, Ora-Igbomina, is worse today than when I was there. The primary school where I once served as the pupil librarian now has no library! Ilesa Grammar School, Ilesa, is worse today than when I went there. The U.C.H. and the University of Ibadan are worse today than when I studied there. In stark contrast, the University of Minnesota, in the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul is much better today than when I was there. The University of Florida, Gainesville, is far better today than when I was there. The University of Georgia, Athens, is infinitely better today than when I was there.

Nigerians who grew up in the cities or with middle class families must have missed out on some early lessons in biology and field ecology. But those of us who grew up in rural settings can easily recall, even if not with nostalgia, having to go to dump sites to empty one’s bowel. It was there, around the age of 5, that I first noticed the bizarre ways of maggots! Just when you were getting nauseated by the ugly site and foul odors of human excreta, you suddenly noticed that flies and their maggots were having a cabaret festival. To flies and maggots, an environment of filth and decay represents a five-star hotel! Humans can sniff their noses; for maggots, filth and squalor are veritable habitats for extravaganza. And so like maggots, the Nigerian elite keep having jubilatory rendezvous in the midst of a wanton decay that ought to be repugnant to decent men and women.

The maggot syndrome of Nigeria was best showcased by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who owned the dubious distinction of being the only serving President and Vice President in the world to establish private universities while still in office! The two men who had the constitutional responsibility for the wellbeing of Nigeria’s public education were the very ones who used the clout of their public offices to advance their private universities. The Commander-in-Chief, who in his maiden broadcast promised to resuscitate our higher institutions, became the Commander-in-Thief; he elevated presidential extortion to both an art and a science! By the time his eight years of incompetence were over, he had dug our country into a mess that certified his presidency as a maggotocracy- i.e., the rule of maggots.

The tragedy of contemporary Nigeria is that our elite often delude themselves that their interests are divergent from those of their less privileged compatriots. Cocooned behind the maximum security walls they have erected for themselves in Lekki, Victoria Island, Asokoro, Maitama, Bodija, Mabushi Ministerial Quarters, Apo Legislative quarters and other housing estates, the bourgeoisies keep deluding themselves about being secured amidst the nagging insecurities of present-day Nigeria. Their households have been turned into certified prisons where noise-belching and soot-spewing generators provide the illusion of sovereignty over the epilepsy of power supply from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc.

On May 29, 1999, Nigeria’s governance was, after a long military interregnum, again placed in the hands of politicians. We had hoped that under the leadership of President Obasanjo, Nigeria would promptly begin to lay a new bed- one that will be free of blood-sucking bedbugs and pestiferous locusts masquerading as leaders and statesmen. Unfortunately, before we could say Kenule Saro-wiwa, Nigeria had begun to march backwards when the president recycled into the corridors of influence many of the very despicable cast of characters- expert kleptocrats, professional sycophants, reprobate autocrats, pestiferous parasites, internal colonialists and predatory marauders who steadfastly aided previous dictatorships in the ruination of our country.

Maggots are scavengers par excellence; they hardly thrive in the absence of rot. Like the proverbial potter who craves that every soil be turned to clay, the maggots in power wasted no time in foisting further decay of the Nigerian enterprise. Quite predictably, having recycled so many with dubious antecedents into the corridors of power, Nigerians were often forced to swallow economic ruination as economic reforms.

In broad daylight, the maggots invited Pentascope, a company with very thin experience in telecommunication, to plunder NITEL- one of the few profitable Nigerian parastatals! Because the private sector can do a better job in providing certain services, I have never argued against the sale of NITEL. But in the name of God, why was NITEL not sold for what it was worth? Besides, only in Nigeria would a company worth 23,000 Euros (i.e. 5 million naira at the time) be given the responsibility to manage an outfit worth more than N50 billion. In the name of liberalisation and deregulation, the maggots rammed peripheral monopoly capitalism down our throats.

When they vaunted about due process, they meant one of two things- Baba Caudillo’s process or no process! Where else in the world has the head of a nation’s stock exchange been publicly commandeered to steer the business of a company listed on the stock exchange such that a sitting President could acquire the tiger’s share (let’s not talk of lion’s share!) of the company? For months, Caudillo’s henchmen had demonised Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the personification of corruption.

As the Transcorps saga revealed, Atiku’s boss at the time, Baba Caudillo himself, was the arch-demon! The grand apostles of OFN (Operation Fool the Nation) have never been known to repent even when caught red-handed; they quickly told us that there is a big difference between Olusegun Obasanjo and Obasanjo Holdings! It is the type of difference that the EFCC, the ICPC, the Nigeria Police and the Ethics Committee of the Nigerian Senate saw between Miss Damilola Akinlawon and Senator Iyabo Obasanjo! By their hocus-pocus and abracadabra, there must be a huge difference between half a dozen coconuts and six coconuts.

We laugh to cry! In any case, the maggot’s brand of free market comprises a cartel and mafia that export Nigeria’s oil to countries near and far, refine it overseas, and import the value added products which are then sold to Nigerians at suffocating prices. After eight years of their brand of economic liberalisation, Nigeria remains the eighth largest producer of oil in the world but the only OPEC member that imports petrol!

Their dominion has denigrated governance into a dim-witted cornucopia of prodigality. Without respite, the scarce resources of a poor nation are imprudently wasted on abandoned projects and on the seemingly endless greed of the political class. A president who spoke of his God not abandoning projects went ahead to litter the country with myriad of abandoned projects in road construction, rehabilitation of educational institutions, refinery repair and upgrade and a sleuth of others. All the while, the recycled bevy of parasitic courtiers, expert bootlickers and professional yes-men and women exhibit their teeth in semi-drunken guffaws of privilege run amok.

It is easy to point out the blunders of the current regime and those of its immediate predecessor. As a member of an opposition party, I have never been slack in doing so. Even so, we must be fair to concede that our extant predicament emanates from decades of flawed leadership during successive regimes that made thievery synonymous with statecraft. Moreover, it is easier to damage than to repair. It requires more than eight years to repair all the damage inflicted on Nigeria during more than 30 years of the rule by military locusts and aphids. The nagging sorrow of every Nigerian patriot is that given the wasted opportunities of the Obasanjo presidency, and the I-am-not-in-a-hurry proclivity of Chief Obasanjo’s successor, it is now obvious that we still have a long way to travel! Consider the so-called war on corruption. Nigerians know very well that the crusade against corruption has been fraught with unpardonable selectivity. In any case, in a democracy, nothing is more corrupt than using the instrumentality of government to hijack the electoral mandate of the people.

A government that perverts the electoral process has already advertised its subscription to the debauchery that might is right. It has also shown its embrace of the fallacy that the end justifies the means. Any regime that uses an unethical means, such as rigging, to gain political power and advantages has irreparably incapacitated itself from crusading against the use of unethical means to gain economic power and advantages! Thus, because the current war against corruption is steeped in the estuary of murky ethics, shifty political morality, and outright casuistry, its failure is a foregone conclusion. Quite sad! Quite tragic!

Nigerians must not merely recognise our maggot condition and its multi-faceted syndrome. Rather, like the Apostle Paul, we need to ask "Who shall deliver us from this body of death?" (Romans 7 verse 24). In other words, how shall Nigeria get rescued from its maggot syndrome? Specifically, how do we curb the pathogenesis of the decay which provides a substrate and ecological niche for florid parasites and parasitoids? And here, I have bad news for Nigerians. Unlike the spiritual condition of which Paul wrote, God will NOT deliver us. Nations, just like individuals, sleep on whatever bed they have laid. The pervasive dysfunction and decay in our national institutions are the creations of Nigerians, not God. We can pray for as long as we wish in our churches and mosques. We can tarry in our endless camps and so-called vigils. None of these alters the immutable truth that whatever a nation sows, the same it shall reap.

The Lagos-Ibadan Expressway probably hosts the highest concentration of sectarian zealots in the world. It also has the distinction of being the only federal expressway in the world where trucks are parked anywhere that suits the insanity of their drivers. God sees it all. He probably smiles at it all!

Meanwhile, we keep praying even as we suffer and smile as Fela Anikulapo-Kuti once sang. We forget that the righteousness which exalts a nation (Proverbs 14: 34) has little to do with the endless religious jamborees and superstitious abracadabra on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Most Japanese neither worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God nor accept Mohammed as His Prophet. Because of its endless Buddhist temples, Japan could be classified by Nigerians as a nation of infidels! Furthermore, the natural resources of Nigeria by far exceed those of Japan. Yet, see what the Japanese have made of their nation.

Throughout scriptures and history, God has often used human agency to carry out His purpose. Nigerians who claim to be religious need to act their faith. They must remember that many of the prophets of old risked their lives to stand against the social injustices and political corruption of their day.

If we so desire, Nigeria can become a great nation in the lifetime of the majority of those alive today. Even so, history conclusively teaches that the greatness of a nation rarely occurs as a matter of accident and chance. Rather, greatness is the product of painstaking planning, diligent execution of the plan, and a continuous evaluation and modification of strategy and tactics. Such a strategy must include a bold plan of rescue from the latrine condition foisted on us by the maggots who currently rule much of Nigeria.

The preamble of the American Declaration of Independence remains among the most inspiring words ever scripted by humans. It provides a timeless rationale for the revolt of any people against dehumanizing rule such as that foisting maggoty condition in Nigeria. The preamble says in part:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Nigeria is overripe for a revolution that will sweep away the parasitic interlopers whose misrule has turned Nigeria into a breeding ground for maggots. I must quickly point out that while Nigeria urgently needs a revolution, it does NOT need a military coup-de-tat. Despite the reprobate decadence of the Obasanjo presidency, the all-too-apparent incompetence of President Yaradua, and the wanton looting that pervades many states and local governments, Nigerians must remain implacably opposed to a return to military rule and the possibility of our being "rescued" by any so-called benevolent dictator. For one thing, the notion of a benevolent dictator is an oxymoron; it is an explicit contradiction of terms. To the very extent that their rule is without the expressed consent of the ruled, all dictators are malevolent. Period!

Despite the monumental incompetence of the civilian governments, our tortuous experiences of the past have shown that administrative incompetence and misrule cannot be terminated merely by the messianic rhetoric of gun-touting adventurers in power. On the contrary, Nigerian military regimes have invariably always escalated the curtailment of civil liberty, abridgment of human rights, economic wastage, administrative incompetence and national indiscipline. Sam Amuka was right; with every coup that ousted a civilian regime, we have invariably merely exchanged monkeys for baboons! As such, never again must Nigeria be subjected to military rule, however “benevolent”.

With civilian regimes ever being so hapless, how can we bring about a revolutionary change in Nigeria without a military intervention? I must be honest that our national situation often throws me into deep sadness. It is the same sinking feeling I have when I am aching over the illness of a loved one without being sure of how best to source a cure. Most of our people have been intimidated and cowed into self-doubt and obscurantist passivity. With such psychological malaise, street protests are very difficult to organize. Most of our people are poor and in every sense disadvantaged, dispossessed and discomfited. Furthermore, the Nigerian masses know that the political elite make too much money. Hence, few are ready to defend the political elite of whatever party. The political class is largely a rotten lot and one can understand the apathy of our people in the midst of this much disenchantment and frustration.

To make matters worse, Nigeria does not, at this time, have an inspiring national hero with the stature and moral credentials to lead a nation-wide revolt against the iniquitous system currently touted as democracy. America had George Washington. More recently, Poland, Czech Republic and South Africa had Lech Walesa, Havel Vaclav and Nelson Mandela, respectively. By contrast, in Nigeria, those who are equal opportunity victims of putrid regimes are busy hurling brickbats at one another instead of mobilizing against their oppressors. Christians and Moslems point accusing fingers at one another. Southerners and northerners trade insults and lampoons even as all of Nigeria is being sucked dry by an amalgamated band of northern aphids and southern fleas that were rigged into the corridors of power at the behest of Caudillo Obasanjo.

Herculean as the aforementioned difficulties are, they remain quite surmountable. A people ultimately get the government they deserve. There is a price for freedom. Nigerians must prepare themselves for paying whatever price is necessary to liberate our country. We may not know our Mandela now, but Nigeria has many heroes- potential Mandelas- who can lead us in the march towards freedom.

Why is it that a politician can accumulate in four years what ten better educated, harder working public officials cannot earn in their life-time? Why are the public servants of Gombe State quiet about the severance package their ex-governor received? Why are Nigerian students quiet about the refusal of the National Assembly to give Nigeria a Freedom of Information law? Why are Nigerian lawyers reticent about judges fraternizing with attorneys having cases in their tribunal? I know that South African parliamentarians get only a fraction of the travel allowance (or other allowances) of their Nigerian counterparts. I made this an issue while I was still a member of the National Assembly. It not only earned me the excoriation of many of my colleagues; I very quickly became the target of a smooth campaign of calumny. But I must leave that issue for another day. But why are the civil societies snoring when senators are turned into “stealators” and representatives become “representaTHIEVES”?

If political office holders are entitled to over 250% of their annual salary as furniture allowance, so should all Nigerians working in the public sector including the teachers. Whatever is good for the baboon must be good for the monkey! Why have Nigerian workers been so slow in demanding similar prorated fringe benefits? The worst tragedy of the on-going plunder of the Nigerian treasury is not that professional looters are still parading the corridors of power in our nation. Our worst tragedy is the zombie-like indifference of the Nigerian citizenry in the midst of massive corruption and wanton abuses of office.

Where are the Imams, Bishops, General Overseers, Primates during the on-going open season of looting the Nigerian treasury? Do these “men of God” not know that the moral rot in Nigeria is a barometer of the failure of their own ministries? Do they not appreciate that the heart of God is broken when humans created in God’s own image are visited with the violent degradations that have become all too common for a Nigerian? An undisputable paradox of contemporary Nigeria is the fact that corruption has become Nigeria’s most transparent enterprise! Is God not being mocked by a society that endlessly sings the mantra of religious revival in the absence of moral rectitude? Have our religious leaders forgotten that judgment will begin from the household of faith (I Peter 4:17)?

Regardless of which religion we profess, the task of rescuing Nigeria from the maggot syndrome will remain deferred for as long as we succumb to the superstition that all will be well once we pray and fast. Such superstition underpins the fatalistic resignation that creates our collective docility in the midst of the reckless abuses we are perennially made to suffer by the scoundrels in power. The Bible teaches that faith without works is dead religion (James 2: 20). In other words, it is arrant nonsense and metaphysical hogwash for any congregation to recognize the rot in Nigeria, pray and fast against it while the congregants remain passive towards the miscreants foisting decay on our country.

---