By Elsie Dennis
PART 1
I recall the first day NTA transmitted beyond its usual 12midight; it was in 1996 during the summer Olympics in Atlanta. Nigeria had just won the gold in football against the much dreaded Argentina and the nation was agog. It was a period of difficulty back home in Nigeria; we were a pariah nation at the time, groaning under Abacha’s rule and were looking for any wins though national morale was at an all-time low. That night NTA stayed on so Nigerians could rejoice on national television. The memory of that victory remains with me till date; I was up watching television until NTA finally closed transmission in the early hours of the morning. I was in Abuja watching the jubilation that was happening in Victoria Island Lagos where the NTA headquarters was situated then. Is this article about football then? No, it is not.
This piece is about the monumental disgrace we have been subjected to in the past few weeks in Nigeria. Last night I was up for hours wondering how low we would allow ourselves to sink before we rise up as a people and say, “let us fight” to win a match against corruption. First it was a young upstart who called himself a dog but who refused to hush and was caught with an obscene amount of cash in one of the most bizarre cyber-crime operations of all time. We screamed on social media and while our collective mouths were still open we heard rumours that the CEO of the anti-graft agency had been arrested.
As the journalist in my home, I am usually the first to get the news because of subscription to several credible news channels; when I mentioned to my husband that Magu had been arrested, his first reaction was unbelief, “how can Magu be arrested? Wetin e do?” We are still finding out.
Next was an unfolding drama between Gbene Joy Nunieh and Godswill Akpabio. I took a personal interest as Joy Nunieh was someone I had known from Secondary where she was two years ahead of me. I set about raising my voice on several platforms and insisting this matter must not be allowed to die like all the others. Little did I know the matter was just unfolding. Since last week it has been one ridiculous episode after another in an unending show of shame. In our usual manner, memes and jokes are flying around and being forwarded from phone to phone.
I was in a meeting yesterday when I heard about the fainting and collapsing saga. Shame washed over me. Is this what we have become? I asked myself over and over again without answers, and I am still asking. I am a Nigerian from the core of the Niger Delta; my first two decades on Earth were spent almost exclusively in the Niger Delta and I know firsthand the devastation in the region.
I know of gas flaring so bad, communities in the region could see clearly at night from the flares though they had no electricity. In the year 2000 I was part of a team sent to Okpe clan in Delta state to bring relief to victims of a major pipeline explosion. Jesse clan where people were roasted alive in explosions years back is a few kilometres from my hometown. This is my region, my home my story. And it cannot be Ok.
As bad as the fainting episode was, as shameful and unbelievable it was, there is a slim chance it can be excused; very tiny chance that maybe he is hypertensive and suffered a brief loss of consciousness. But there are two things that cannot be excused.
First, is the announcement that he would not be returning to testify publicly because they have his written testimony. It is inexcusable because the man did not die; he only “fainted” for less than a minute and was maybe dazed for a few more minutes. All he needs is a few minutes of fresh air and walk around and he should be well enough to continue his testimony. On the other hand, if he really was ill, a certified Doctor should check him and so long as he is conscious and in no immediate danger of death, he should be made to continue his testimony. Anything outside of this is far from Ok.
The second and more horrifying incident is the presiding Chairman shutting up Godswill Akpabio when he made the very damning allegation that the House of Reps members were the major beneficiaries of contract awards in the NDDC. He was not saying anything we did not already know, albeit without proof. The hasty shouts of “it’s okay, it’s okay, Honourable Minister, is okay” were galling and teeth gnashing to say the least. How can it be ok? If this investigation is to be taken seriously should all allegations not be looked into?
Earlier in the day, the chairman of the committee had recused himself because he was alleged to be involved in the matter under investigation; right or wrong, should the committee not be called to explain their individual and collective roles in the rot they are investigating?
Much as I do not care a hoot for the Minister, I strongly advocate that his allegations should be looked into and all members of the house found culpable be named and prosecuted. I believe the allegations against the Minister should also be investigated and he should equally be persecuted. The fainting MD should be brought back to testify publicly to avoid further issues of cover-ups and under table dealings. Anything short of this would be a continued mockery and a further slide down the ladder, not only for the Niger Delta but for the whole country.
PART 2
I have a close friend who farms pigs and he tells me that pigs are not dirty animals as we think but that pigs like water and usually get in the mud to cool off. The result we see is dirty pigs, and nobody cares to know the intention of the pigs. For a pig to be different you would need to put it in a clean pen and hose him down regularly with clean water; then you would see how nice and clean pigs can be.
Right now we are all pigs wallowing in the mud; the entire World sees us as dirty pigs wallowing in mud after mud, and it looks like we move from mud to mud, the dirtier the better. The world is driving by and looking at all these dirty pigs wallowing in a mud of their making. And everywhere we look, there is more mud to be seen; there are places that look clean and dry but with a little rain the mud comes out and we jump in.
What we need right now is to be cleansed from our collective mud; we need some people committed enough to our “salvation” and willing to put us in clean pens and hose us down regularly with clean water until we begin to look like my friend’s clean pigs. You cannot go to my friend’s farm and ask to bath his pigs, he would refuse because it is not your place or responsibility; similarly no one from outside of ourselves can or should come from anywhere and ask to clean up our mess.
If a cleansing must be carried out we have to hold the hose and direct it at ourselves. We are the ones who must get under the shower and bathe with clean water even if it means doing it under the full glare of a world that laughs.
We must do it because it is not OK for the Niger Delta to still be hopeless and helpless after so many years of continuous allocation of billions of Naira. It is not OK for so many children to be out of school because they have no school fees. It is not OK for the governors of the region to still be flying abroad to treat headache or cancer. It is not OK that Dubai is still our favored destination, not just because we like it, but because we have no equivalent place back home.
It is not OK that bamboo grows wild in the Niger Delta but we have no cane industries. It is not OK that the contraption called “Keke” is the means of mass transportation in the Niger Delta region. It is not OK that kidnapping and ritualism hold sway and perpetrators are celebrated. It is not OK that young men without verifiable sources of income are glorified and hardworking and intelligent young people are ignored and shamed. It is not OK, it cannot be OK, and it will never be OK.
As a Nigerian woman and as an indigene of the Niger Delta it will never be OK by me. I have had two children pass through universities and they could not collect bursary even once because some corrupt “Okay” person was sitting somewhere wallowing in mud. I have a brother who my family scrimped and almost bankrupted ourselves to send to flying school almost twenty years ago after being told by a Niger Delta administration that his flying school fees was too much for government sponsorship and he never received a kobo in support of his ambition. Yet an acting MD of the NDDC attempts to justify spending billions on “Covid palliatives” in a few months.
I feel like ending this article by saying God will punish all the “Ok” people but the God I serve cannot be invoked to punish; justice must be served though and it must be seen to have been served.
If you are not from the Niger Delta I would counsel that you enjoy this show of shame with some caution; it could be your own mud is still covered, or the grass is covering where you wallow but don’t worry, it will get to you soon. It would be best for you to get a hose and start a cleanup act before another committee chairman gets the opportunity to tell the whole world that “is okay.”
PART 3.
I was not planning on writing anymore on this topic. I felt I could move on to other things and allow them do their work. But you see this Nigeria, na strong thing we dey find. We no dey hear word.
Otherwise, how do you explain that the National Assembly has gone on recess? On break?! Really? In the midst of this rot, this mess, NASS thinks it should go on break? Break from what if I may ask?
Break from the damning revelations? Break from the people’s anger? Or is it break from all the hard work they have been doing?
If you people are tired and you think you need a break, how do you think we feel?
How is it Ok that you go on break in the middle of this mess? What are you recessing for? Or is it me who doesn’t understand the meaning of recess?
This feels like Emperor Nero playing the fiddle while Rome was engulfed in flames.
I remember watching the movie as a child and the Emperor asked one of his aides why the people were running; the aide responded:
“Because they want to survive!”
Then the Emperor dropped the bombshell:
“Who asked them to survive?”
Mr. Chairman, you and your colleagues do not want the rest of us to survive; you feel it is obviously Ok for you to play the fiddle while the people burn, but it is not Ok.
It will not be Ok until you all sit-down and clean up this mess.
You cannot go for a party when your house is on fire.
No Sir, it is not Ok.
▪︎ Mrs. Dennis, an author and social commentator, first published this on her Facebook wall, and sent this via WhatsApp