I watched with amusement as some people as usual celebrated the 54th anniversary of Nigeria’s so called independence on the 1st of October. I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly was worth being celebrated in the jungle Nigeria has become. Is it that the dysfunctional, unjust, oppressive and insecure Nigeria we have today is better than she was under the erstwhile colonial government? Is it that the total absence of public services which plagues the nation now is better than the days of the colonial government when public services were functional? Is it the inability of independent Nigeria to maintain and build basic infrastructure such as railway lines, roads, pipe borne water, functional schools and hospital amongst others that the colonial administration left behind that is worthy of celebration? Indeed what independence are we celebrating when Nigeria has since been re-colonised by corruption, tribalism, bad leadership and those who believe they are born to rule and as such are willing to kill and destroy in their quest for power?
Most people I know would gladly go back to the colonial government than continue with the slavery we call independence and the leeches we call leaders. The so called independence exists in name only. It has definitely served no purpose beyond replacing a colonial administration that at least provided good governance with a decrepit band of corrupt, bigoted leadership that has succeeded only in destroying the existing infrastructure built by the colonial administration and widening the embers of ethnic disharmony. The basic premise of any human society is the pursuit of justice, that is what distinguishes us from animals, but the so called independent Nigeria is so awash with injustice as to be considered nothing other than an animal farm where only the fittest survive. The case of the 12 soldiers recently sentenced to death for protesting the connivance of their commanding officer Major General Abubakar Muhammed with Boko Haram is a clear demonstration of the jungle of injustice Nigeria is.
While the commander received no sanction for sabotage, the ordinary soldiers were sentenced to death. A similar scenario played out in 2009 when 27 soldiers who had served in peacekeeping operations in Liberia had their salaries and allowances looted by their commanding officer. On their return to Nigeria they went through various channels to get their salaries and when it failed resorted to protests. The 27 soldiers were swiftly arrested and given life sentences while the commanding officer who looted their salaries was enjoying his loot. Farouk Lawan a member of the House of Reps. who was caught on camera collecting a bribe of $700,000 from Femi Otedola yet remains free and remains a member of the House of Representatives in spite of the overwhelming evidence against him. Not a single governor or other government officials who looted their various jurisdictions are in jail. This is the same Nigeria where those who steal bread out of hunger are lynched to death; the more fortunate ones are forgotten in jail. Nigeria is a human jungle of injustice where those who loot billions of our common-wealth are worshipped while those who steal out of hunger are killed.
If you factor in the wider social injustices such as massive poverty and unemployment, absence of pipe borne water, absence of good roads, dysfunctional schools and hospitals, insecurity of lives and property et all, you get the complete picture of a nation that is at best an animal farm. The standards in Nigeria have all but reduced the decimal of human existence to that of the jungle where the fittest survive while the weak perish. George Orwell must have seen Nigeria in his dream when in his book “animal farm” he declared thus “let us face it, our lives are miserable, laborious and short. No Nigerian knows the meaning of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No Nigerian is free. The life of a Nigerian is misery and slavery: but is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it? No comrades, a thousand times no! The soil is of Nigeria is fertile, its climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of people that now inhabit it.
Why then do we continue in this miserable condition? Summed up in a simple word the answer is Nigeria’s corrupt/bad leadership. All the evils of life in Nigeria spring from the tyranny of bad and corrupt leaders who have re-colonised the nation. Remove bad leaders, corruption and its attendant vices from the scene and the root cause of misery and injustice will be abolished forever.” This adaptation of Orwell’s animal farm says it all. Nigeria has no independence worth celebrating when she has been re-colonised by a breed of criminal leaders who have made out of her a veritable animal farm recognisable only by dysfunction and injustice.
Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu
Email:lawrencenwobu@gmail.com
