In the wake of October 1 and a smattering of "Happy Independence" greetings, I feel the need to say something about the over-zealous patriotism that some of my fellow Nigerians have expressed all over cyberspace. In particular, I'm referring to a guy on Facebook who entreated his fellow countrypeople to celebrate the day Nigeria, via Zik's efforts, acquired her independence from the British after a fierce struggle. In his enthusiasm, this fellow obviously became a bit deluded, so I have taken it upon myself to set the record straight: Nigeria never "fought" for its independence. In the perfect words of Peter Enahoro, we "grumbled" for our independence, and only because the British were in the process of giving global colonial independence anyway did they cave and say, "Whatever. Take it."
And don't think for one second that we were ever truly free. We may never discuss all the stipulations attached to our so-called independence, but we totally mortgaged our liberty. So please, never let it be said again that Nigeria "fought" for independence. You wanna talk about fighters, look to Zimbabwe and South Africa. Nigerians won't fight for steady electricity, people are talking about independence...tschew.
A friend of mine (also clearly deluded, but I've corrected his mistake) said about my opinion: 'Sounds harsh...never thought about the notion that "Nigerians won't fight for steady electricity." Guess I always explained it as victimization of a very patient people. No joke. You know, the whole virtuous-sounding quote "No condition is permanent." ' To which I say: go and listen to Fela's Sorrow, Tears and Blood. Words never rang truer than the lyrics in that song, but in the second verse he says, "my people sef de fear too much...we fear to fight for freedom/we fear to fight for liberty/we fear to fight for justice/we fear to fight for happiness/we always get reason to fear/we no wan die, we no wan wound, we no wan quench, we no wan go/i get one child, mama de for house, papa de for house, i wan build house, i wan enjoy...". Countripeople, na 1979 the guy write this jam o! And yet the story is still the same.
But we are celebrating "independence", throwing parades in NY and sh*t. Ngwa, de celebrate de go. I shall reserve my enthusiasm for a Nigeria that is actually improving its attitudes and policies towards its own people.
I might have been more enthusiastic about October 1 this year if I hadn't seen and read so many embarrassing news stories and articles about 419ers and other disagreeable Nigerians.
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2 comments:
Well said Kulu ... I was arguing with some of my friends that r always saying Obasanjo is doing this,EFCC is doing that etc .. Nigerians always never look past what is at the surface,which am sorry to say.We always look at what the person is doing that is beneficial to us at that point in time without looking at the result or at why the person is doing it.
Whatz the update abt ya muscle aches o,hope it got better?
thx for the lyrics of that Fela song again jere,lemme go Jam the song.
@n'bloke: i was dancing to "skentele skontolo" this morning, so i would have to say that the muscles have more or less healed. still can't touch my toes, but it's a small price to pay for my ability to walk again!
@ONB: nne, this politics 101 go difficult o! naija politics are incredibly complicated, and even more so because you are always having to find hidden meanings and ulterior motives in everything these politicians do. no idea why atiku and OBJ are fighting, but i speculate that it might be diversion tactics gone wrong. they are rumored to have stolen some dooch from the treasury not long before the fighting started....
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