Idiotic Nation And A Fooling Citizenry -By Ajakaiye Olanrewaju

“A cankerworm that can destroy a people is not outside of itself but definitely within it”

It is been a while that I commented on any national issue, this is not a deliberate attempt to be uncivilized in civil engagement but it is because I missed many periods of trying to fathom the unquantifiable blizzards befalling the nation in every sense of nationhood, moreover, I have been somewhere unlearning, learning, and relearning which is a golden principle for a stable and noble mind like mine.

Recently, a former Director of the Kenyan Anti-Corruption Agency, Prof Patrick Lumumba, on Tuesday, 10^th September said that the reason corruption still thrives in Nigeria is that Nigerians are not yet tired of it. He said in a society such as Nigeria’s where people still celebrate those who fraudulently enrich themselves, corruption would continue to thrive. Speaking at the opening session of the 49th annual conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, he said the day Nigerians become tired of corrupt practices, the actions that would follow would put an end to graft. In his words “Corruption is a crime against humanity. Experiences have demonstrated that if a people in a country are sufficiently fed up they will rise up”. (Punch Newspaper, 10^th September 2019).

The exacerbating anger in the land is just noting but a pretence to the fundamental claims that all is not well because I am yet to see a clear message by my fellow compatriots to show if we are indeed tired of the current abysmal within our dancing Darlington hood. The fermented and copious movement of cash in a nation that claims to be cashless is nothing but complicit in the take-all semantic bread from the national cake that is well buttered to death. The affirmativeness that we all use to receive our so-called big men in public places shows how distinctively a fool that we are, even though our betting big brother is an idiot, yet he remains our conqueror whose mercy we must seek at all cost. History has shown that ‘a nation that wants something must do something’ an in our case doing so very fast is an understatement with the current reality of unending misfortunes befalling the nation.

I remember in 2012 not to bore us with too many historical antecedents of how we have demanded in government policies, the nation was locked down to demand the change in price of fuel pump price, the then Mr Gentle President from the minority reversed it. Today the same government that led the protest increased the pump price and all went to sleep saying this is the change we called for and it must play the tune we all paid for, definitely he that pays the piper calls the tune. Recently some under 30 handsome money carrying bags CEOs were apprehended by the FBI for defrauding some Americans of their hard-earned monies and everywhere went agog with polluted surprises as if we did not all fart (in our local parlance we call it mess). The question that first came to my mind was that I believe these guys at least have siblings who could have cautioned them but please did I just say ‘caution’, that must have caused hullaballoo somewhere, please excuse my language I am Oliver Twist and will always be hungry of hope for nation in moral dearth.  Caution! When siblings are the ones enjoying mostly the largesse of their dipteral escapades in a fantasy of unknown abstract.

Fundamentally, party or no party, politics or no politics, we are a people. Until we are cocooned in this reality our lost sense of morality and value with keep snow diving towards the un-mined mountain. I remember growing up, you there not come home with a pencil that is not yours but how many parents have time to check responsibly on their children these days. Less I forget, some abusive fathers see their children as distraction to their undefined lifestyle as if the children begged them to be born. Today if you look everywhere, corruption has become a national emblem competing with our coat of arms and symbols of our identities. The other day I was on a journey and we were approaching a police checkpoint, I told the driver not give the police officer their usual N50 tip and everyone in the vehicle descended on me a mother eagle searching for s missing egg, I became a betrayed bride that day. Their argument was that I the driver does not give the police officer the N50 tip, he would delay us and I said ‘so be it’, let us be delayed a bit for this nation to move forward. We are so much in a hurry over everything, yet we want to hold our leaders accountable. Once you raise your voice against a corrupt practice anywhere you are in this nation, you become a target of ridicule or classified as ‘too know’.

On 18^th April 2019 President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the National Minimum Wage Bill making it a law for organizations whose workforce is more than 25 in number to pay at least N30, 000 to their workers. No sooner than this news broke out, excitement graced the scenery of the nation’s community neighbourhood, as this became the top talk of the day at every turn. It was as if God has come down to recuse a nation’s labour force whose inheritances were stolen through a cocoon of a watch night bands. Even though I faintly celebrate this new development, I am also saddened by the inflation that this new law will bring to fore and loss of jobs that is imminent upon the implementation of this new wage, since many unproductive Governors have claimed that their states are not viable enough to pay N30, 000. The big question is, after the Minimum Wage What Next? The gamut appreciation is a juvenile that is moribund in a saturated ocean of confusion would soon be characterized by infallible contributions on an unplanned system called Nigeria. Increasing the National Minimum Wage without fixing power, economy, infrastructure, education and what have you is like willingly flinging money into the ocean to rescue a dying infant child.

Are we not foolish a nation where our government is still debating on paying N30,000 minimum wage when a Senator takes home not less than N13.5 million monthly? It is important that we note that world-class economies are not built on people’s desperations that we currently have but on systematic calculations towards specific goals, vision and aspirations. But how would this be? In an idiotic nation that is full of accidental public servants and undeserved privileged individuals. Today, we do not have leaders but professional politicians whose fierce desire for wealth at all cost could be regarded as devilish, as they are prepared to get to power at all cost. When will our polluted water be clean and our demoralized nation be cured of corruption cankerworm? It is when individual at all levels collective decide that corruption is over because until is very much with us, it can never be too much with us.

Ajakaiye Olanrewaju is a Media Practitioner and Lecturer in Mass Communication lives in Omu-Aran, Kwara State.