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Nigeria: The Fierce
Urgency of Now
By Chido Onumah
Newsdiaryonline Tue June 28,2011
President Jonathan
On April 4, 1967, at the height of US involvement in the Vietnam
War, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech entitled
“Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” The thrust of the
speech, an excoriation of the US government, was the compelling
need for America to do something, and urgently too, to stop the
atrocities in Vietnam, and bring that inglorious war to an end.
“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are
confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding
conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too
late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often
leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost
opportunity,” Dr. King wrote. For him, the consequences of
silence or inaction were too grave. These words ought to
resonate with us. Events in the last few weeks in Nigeria have
left me wondering about the fierce urgency of now.
The spate of bomb blasts across the country and the general
state of insecurity that came to its height with the bombing of
the Police Headquarters in Abuja is a reflection of how the
Nigerian state has degenerated. But the attack was significant
in other ways. It was not just an attack against the Nigeria
Police which has unduly drawn the ire of the public. By
targeting the bastion of our national security, the bombers,
whoever they were, were sending a clear message. Unfortunately,
the leaders of our neo-colonial state have failed to take
notice.
The response by the government has been, not surprisingly,
tentative at best. Three weeks after, we do not know whether it
was a suicide attack, a time bomb, or a foreign terrorist
attack. Since the incident, the President and Commander-in-Chief
has not shown any resolve to tackle terrorism, or any of the
numerous problems, including corruption, that have placed us at
No14 on the list of
failed nations.
Not too long ago, I wrote about the window of opportunity the
April 2011 election offered us. One can conveniently conclude,
with the benefit of hindsight, that it was an opportunity
willfully wasted. But even for those who voted for President
Goodluck Jonathan there must be some concern about the lack of
urgency to confront the tragedy that is looming. There is very
little that demonstrates that President Goodluck Jonathan
appreciates the fierce urgency of now.
The fact that the president inherited a broken system is not an
excuse for the situation to get worse. Almost a month after he
was sworn in as president, for the second time in about a year,
Mr. President has yet to make up his mind on who to appoint as
ministers and get the “business” of governance going.
Expectedly, all manner of charlatans and political hangers-on
have taken over the public space while hunger and poverty stalk
the land and insecurity envelops the country.
The other day, I came across a news clip on Africa Independent
Television (AIT) that rankled me. An association of unemployed
youth, including ex-militants, held a press conference calling
for the re-appointment of ex-minister of petroleum resources,
Mrs. Diezani Allison-Madueke. The coverage by AIT was extensive.
Unfortunately, there was little or no interrogation from
reporters who these unemployed youth were and why they were
demonstrating on behalf of a three-time minister.
My initial reaction was that of indignation. But the irony of
the demonstration was not lost on me. My mind then went to the
media and why AIT found the story so "newsworthy” to give it
such extensive coverage, after all who knew how much oil Nigeria
produced, how many barrels were exported or siphoned and how
much the
country made from the sale of crude oil during the tenure of the
former petroleum minister? The cynical part of me concluded that
the idea of ex-ministers pitifully lobbying to come back after
“serving" the country for three or four years was not about
service. If the job entailed working 12 hours a day to fix the
economy, unemployment, and other national maladies, very few
people would be interested.
It is so easy to understand why nothing works in this country
blessed with abundant human and material resources. It is simply
that those who are paid or who appropriate public fund for
themselves to make things work, are either lacking sincerity or
grossly inept. I thought I was in pre-1999 Nigeria when I read a
statement by the Senate President, Senator David Mark, who
recently had cause to admonish lobbyists asking him to run for
president in 2015, that it was not necessary for President
Jonathan to attach portfolios to the names of ministers that
will be sent to the Senate for screening. The logical question
would be: What then is the purpose of bringing them to the
Senate?
Just as I was recovering from the shock of the position of the
No 3 citizen, I saw screaming headlines that our elected
governors had insisted that the federal government should remove
fuel subsidy as a condition for States paying the national
minimum wage. Let’s just take a different perspective on the
issue. Nigeria is a
major oil producer. When it is available, kerosene, the choice
fuel for the masses, for cooking and keeping lamps on for the
greater part of the night, costs about N1,000 ($7) a gallon. For
an individual that takes home N18,000 ($115) a month, the
minimum wage translates to N600 ($4) a day, minus rent,
transportation, electricity, hospital, water bill, etc.
I have been looking for a metaphor to describe the Nigerian
situation. The closest I have come is likening the country to a
victim of a ghastly motor accident. Of course, when an accident
victim is taken to the hospital, bleeding all over, what you do
is to quickly stop the bleeding and stabilize the patient.
For a country tragically sick as Nigeria, a victim of multiple
injuries inflicted by marauding bands of unconscionable
wayfarers, there is the fierce urgency of now. No country
survives for too long on life support.
Let’s hope our Goodluck doesn’t turn into gridlock.
conumah@hotmail.com
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