Nigeria: A Cauldron Of Contradictions -By Kehinde Oluwatosin B.

Kehinde Oluwatosin

Recently I engaged a friend of mine in a lengthy intellectual discourse,and the crux of the discourse bordered on the hopelessness of the common man and how efforts has almost turned into a numb concept by years of inept and clumsy leadership.My friend responded with one of the most common axioms that has over the years defined and positioned us for tyranny in the arms of an uninterruptedly wicked set of rulers masquerading as leaders – “when there is life there is hope”. After the discourse i categorized hope in the Nigerian context into  two-The pessimistic hopefuls and The religious hopefuls. The semantic recesses of the former hinges on paradox, given that the nation itself  is a manifold of paradox. You might wonder if there is anything like hope in pessimism? The Nigerian context permit all sorts of improbable and inconceivable hence that hope has taken a pessimistic dimension should be no source of worry to your linguistic comprehension. Pessimistic hopefulness is a state of perfunctory hopefulness we found ourselves in which hope is just there as a mannequin ,hope for only cosmetic purposes ,a state where you have to be hopeful not because you see a hope of a brighter day,the elusive light at the end of the tunnel but rather it is an illusive form of hopefulness  fanned by hopeless patriotism,the  choicelessness of having no other country except Nigeria. A lack of alternative of nationhood has broken your heart many times hence you have accepted  the fate of your citizenship in Nigeria. The pessimistic hopefuls also have a festivity dimension to their presumed hope, this is often expressed when Nigeria engages in her never ending ceremonies and merrymaking- the new year,The independence day etc .The pessimistic hopefuls come to the front burner ,some time mount on rostrums to tell the rest of us why we should believe in the Nation Nigeria. Their motivation and believe often has no empirical proof  but rather an omnibus  of reasons to keep hope alive, such reasons  often to me are illusions and a tension-calming ploy to paint a seemingly terrible situation in mild colours.

The second category of hopefuls in the Nigerian context is that which boarders on our religious piety ,hopefulness that is motivated by religious teachings of confessing positively in the midst of storms and whirlwinds of life,this hope hinges on the Christian doctrine and believe that there is power in the tongue and the imports of ensuring our  words are seasoned and measured,although these set of hopefuls hurriedly forgot that faith without work is dead remains an acceptable mantra. while these set of  hopefuls appears logical in their submission ,such submissions defies scrutiny in the larger context. Should we keep confessing positively while our pattern of lives as a nation and ideology defies all that is positive? From the above dissection of hopes it is suffice to say that non of our dimension of hopes hinges on empirical facts hence they  are void of application in   21st century knowledge driven economy.Its inapplicability is obvious in our nation state bedeviled with a harem of paradox.Is it not a paradox that despite Nigeria’s oil wealth 70% of her citizens leave in abject and chronic poverty? Is it not a paradox that despite her endowment with bodies of water ,the citizens don’t have access to water? even the pure water sold in Nigeria’s environment is as poor as the country that produces it,is it not a paradox that in the midst of arable land 70% of food items are imported? is it not a paradox that we have spent so much on electricity only to have darkness as the only tangible result?The cynicism and despair Nigerians absorb every waking day is both legitimate and well-founded given years of failed hopes ,fake starts and non starts.The hope referred to in the axiom above is a celebration of life(not given by the government) rather than that of hope.

As 2019 elections beacons another dynamics of contradictions that has defined our atrophied existence is to be displayed poignantly .You had thought that a people  whose leaders had oppressed, dissed and disdained over the years should express her discontent through the polls like it is obtained in other civilized climes.Your guess was wrong .Nigeria electorates would be the first to roll out drums to show their solidarity for aspiring wannabes or a returning incumbent,but do you blame them? No! In Nigeria where life is so suffused in poverty and politics,such civic expression might be novel ,moreover the oppression of the masses by the political elite is a deliberate one  purposed to ensure incumbency in perpetuity. When you oppress a teeming mass of hapless citizen in a nation state, what they look out for in elections is not democracy or an envision of a state hood but rather  the basic elements that often define a decent life- food,shelter,electricity, basic health care ,education for their children, and ability to make their way through life without having to endure corruption,  violence, or arbitrary power.

The Nigerian elite class are much aware of this contradiction hence the oppression of the masses is deliberate, the under education, mis education ,the never-ending strike are all deliberate attempts to plunge the masses  towards an unrecoverable abyss.Hope as i had been thought from time immemorial is inconsequential without work ,our hope only resides in wonderland until we decide as a people ,a nation to collectively fan the embers of our unity,put collective prejudices aside and work for the collective good of the nation Nigeria that is when we truly escape from the cauldron.

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde is a prolific writer and a finance expert
E-mail: kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com

Twitter: @_tqatqa