Are Nigerians good people?

Newsflash

Opinion

Are Nigerians good people?

Written by Simon Adisa Wednesday, 17 March 2010

THE adopted slogan for rebranding Nigeria, as spearheaded by the Information and Communications, Minister, Prof Dora Akunyili, is, Nigeria; good people, great nation’. However, as if to confront the rebranding project and the minister with the inadequacy of this slogan, a number of events have continued to occur, negating the assertion of the slogan about Nigerians being good people.

Beyond the issue of drug trafficking, 419, violent crime, cyber crime, etc, which the rebranding project appear to downplay as not being peculiar to Nigeria, events like the Boko Haram, the serial religious/sectarian crises in Bauchi and Jos, the Abdulmutallab case, and now the Yar’ Adua saga popped out their heads — contending the veracity of the claim of the slogan-’good people’.

Make no mistake about it. Nigeria is a great nation, I have no doubt about this. But the greatness is all about the grace of God — not much yet as a result of the inputs of the people of Nigeria. See the vast land mass of Nigeria, the largely clement climate, the vast quantity and variety of numeral/natural resources, the range of vegetation - from the fringes of the Sahara desert to the rainforest of the south, and a long stretch of coastline, with the adjoining continental shelf and sea resources. What with the highly talented human beings in the arts and sciences - the Achebes, the Soyinkas, the Obis, the Awojobis, the Solarins, Asiodus etc., dubbed by Soyinka as, ‘the wasted generation” - Indeed, they have either had their talents stifled or have found expression of the talents more outside the country than within. With all the human and natural resources God has graciously endowed Nigeria with, He has also protected the people and the resources from natural disasters like storms, hurricanes, wild fires, tornadoes, tsunami, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. Imagine the number of lives lost to earthquakes in Haiti, Asian region, Chile, etc in recent times! Nigeria, what a blessed country!!

Indeed, with the level of blessing and protection from natural hazards, one could say that God was partial in creation. Even if we strive to convince the world that we are good people by shouting ourselves hoarse, what do our actions/attitudes portray? Power and energy that are supposed to be the driving force of industrial development have been grounded, in spite of the fact that God has granted us all the resources to produce the energy without having to buy or import. This includes extensive oil and gas reserves, coal, water/rivers, outstanding, topography for hydro-electricity. But, we have continued to bungle the opportunities, such that we cannot even produce electricity to light our houses, or gas to cook, talk less of energy for industrial development. While Brazil is already producing about 108.000 megawatts of electricity, our government officials are still unabashed, defending their failure to meet their own target of providing only 6000 megawatts of electricity as at December, 2009.

Meanwhile, PHCN, a few years ago, was adjudged to be the most corrupt organization in the country, only hotly chased in that position by the supposed people’s watch dog-- the police. Good people?

In a country where whole trailer loads of fertilizer, petroleum products (subsidised by public money) “disappear” without eyebrows being raised or culprits apprehended, where road contracts are only executed on paper , while lives are daily lost in accidents all over the country and the government feels cool and comfortable about it, where generator merchants hold government power policies and projects to ransom, with the government crying out to the masses as if it is the governed that are supposed to fight the saboteurs, good people?

In a country where people establish banks with a premeditated plan to exploit depositors of their funds for building personal empires and the banks falter or fail not because of business vicissitudes, but because of human greed; and then efforts to bring these “bankers” to book are greeted, not by shame, but by threats of assassination/elimination of the regulators. What do you say? The question is, good people?

In a country where the National Assembly will spend years, subduing a freedom of Information Bill and removing the critical elements that will make for electoral reforms--what do you call such people? Good people?

What do you say of a people whose government looked the other way when innocent citizens were being butchered and murdered in cold blood on account of ethnic or religious differences, or just because someone in far away Denmark expressed his own opinion in his own country in a cartoon? And if the killers don’t know what they are doing, the government dances around the issue until another round of murders come. Good government, good people?

I was listening to a radio programme on “Splash FM”, Ibadan, when a Senior Advocate of Nigeria was speaking some days ago. That was before President Yar’ Adua was smuggled into the country. The SAN had been asked about what was fundamentally wrong with the constitutional provision that now caused the ‘power vacuum’ that had hamstrung the country’s governance. He responded that nothing was wrong with the Nigerian constitution, and that the relevant sections were virtually a verbatim copy of the American constitution. He further said that a particular American ex-president formally handed over to his vice-president as a matter of duty, when he was billed to go in for a two-hour medical operation. That is the spirit of the constitution, he said. Then, he said apologetically that Africans sometimes behave like animals; that constitutions like we have are written for civilized people, not animals.

I had thought that the SAN was rather uncharitable in his choice of words then, but soon, President Yar’ Adua was smuggled into the country, just as the acting president was trying to settle down to business - and the acting president was completely put in the dark, even while security personnel were drafted to the airport and beyond, to provide cover for this heinous crime. WHO DUN NIT? Good people or a bestial cabal?

So what now? Don’t we have good people in Nigeria? Sure we do; like all those who initiated mass action, perhaps the elder statesmen, who prompted the National Assembly to pass the resolution making Jonathan the Acting President. When will the Federal Executive Council join and become good people?

Barnard Russell (1872-1970) said, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” Therefore, let all good people wake up and repent and chase out the wicked, beastly fools, so that Nigeria may be truly great and its people, truly good. But for now, the only variant of the slogan that best describes our situation is, NIGERIA: Blessed nation, prodigal people.

Adisa can be reached on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it