Between Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh: a Voice Crying in the Wilderness

1. Nigerians are in soup, no doubt. Professor Wole Soyinka has described President
Goodluck Jonathan as “King Nebuchadnezzar” and went further to say, “the people must
decide – whether to submit or to resist”; Kongi speaks from a depth not to be easily
dismissed even when the audience cannot immediately grasp the import of his message.

2. Sometimes ago, the same Kongi described General Mohamodu Buhari who is being
taunted as the wielder of magic wand for change in the following words: “the grounds on
which General Buhari is being promoted as the alternative choice are not only shaky, but
pitifully naïve. …public offence, crimes against the polity, must be answered in the
public space, not in the caucuses of bargaining. In Buhari we have been offered no
evidence of the sheerest prospect of change.”

3. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, you would say? Such is the dilemma in which
Nigerians find themselves and which no one is ready to admit, but would rather choose to
queue behind our various godfathers having been directed to do so. It is a vicious circle
which we will continue to be drawn into and pulverized in from generation to generation
until we are ready to face the truth about our situation:

i. That Nigeria is not a nation,

ii. That the has never been a genuine attempt to build a nation out of this contraption,
iii. That what Nigeria needs is not a messiah or a change agent, but rather people who are
ready to redefine their national identity or identities as the case may be,
iv. Such redefinition can only be within the context of a social movement

4. The vote that brought in Jonathan in 2011 was euphoric. So was the vote that brought in
Yar’adua in 2007, just as was the case in 2003 and 1999 for Obasanjo. Obasanjo who did
not even win election in his ward became President because the sentiments of the Yoruba
needed to be assuaged. Yar’adua became President in 2007 because the north was thirsty
for power having been out for eight long years. Jonathan won in 2011 because it was the
turn of the creek boys and, for the first time, the minorities.

5. The truth is having lost our identities to the contraption called Nigeria, we must don false
identities either as southerners and northerners, or as Christians and Muslims, while on
the inside and in the shadows we cling to our various primordial and ethnic identities. We
are not a people in the real sense. We are shoppers in the marketplace, one trying to
outsmart another in the art of bargaining, hoodwinking, if you like. Nigerians vow that
they are not divided along ethnic or religious lines, but then their perception of issues are
underlined by their ethnicity or religious beliefs. Why, for instance, did the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) settle for a Southern Christian/Northern Muslim ticket and the
All Progressive Congress (APC) Northern Muslim/ Southern Christian ticket? Why did
APC settle for Fulani/Yoruba and the PDP Ogbia/Hausa-Fulani ticket? Why this frantic
attempt at balancing whereas there are other factors to consider?

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 6. In this kind of situation, where ethnic and religious bigots masquerade as detribalized
(whatever that means) and secular nation-builders, it is possible, for instance, for an
imbecile to become President of the country if he is the only person available where they
are sharing the post and it is his own turn, or if there is nothing like imbecility in the
dictionary of his ethnic group. It is equally possible for a blood-drinking monster to
emerge President if monstrosity is a virtue among the ethnic group whose turn it is to
produce the President. It does not also matter if the leader is opiated on reversed Koranic
verses or olive oil from Galilee.

7. Thus we find ourselves on the precipice, on the brink in a year accursed and blessed at
the same time. A year that has been declared by many for different reasons and with
different visions as that for loosing of bondage. 2015 is going to be the year of loosing of
bondage, but not just as the so-called political class think. It is a year to find a people’s
identity or to lose it all. Neither King Nebu nor Pharaoh holds the magic wand. The final
decision will be taken in the open arena, where those who today queue behind various
rulers and ruiners will have to find a role and those standing aloof will also have to pitch
their tents, between good and evil. If the ordinary people fail to seize the gauntlet, then
we are in real soup! The people must make a choice, either to build a nation or to do the
opposite.

Femi Obayori