By Talemoh Wycliffe Dah
When I sold my car, I sold it “as is”. Over the 12 years I used it, the mileage had moved from the 31,000 miles to 387,000. The fuel gauge and temperature still worked but the oil gauge did not. Experience with the car has told me when the engine oil, which leaked from an unknown source, is short. The dashboard can shine when you over oil it with dashboard oil. The upholstery on my (the driver’s) side had the cloth and the foam dug in towards the door to betray my sinister dominance which, in not even sparing my hindquarters, ensured that I often sat on the left side of my nates. The tyres were all worn and the repeated paintings from several accidents can be noticed by all. Above all, some noise from the left side (again!) always announced my coming to the security at our gate. When they came to price the car, I first of all pointed out everything.
Electioneering campaigns have begun in Nigeria. For the position of the President and Commander-in-Chief, one must commend the patriotism and bravery of candidates from different political ideological groupings called Parties, given the state of things in the country. But one truth they know very well must be sounded again and again into their ears.
Like my car, Nigeria is ‘as is’. Until after a very unlikely restructuring, a new Nigeria is probably a mirage. The land, the people, the infrastructure, the climate and the boundaries are same. The demography does not appear to be getting near a transition soon. The culture is same. And, oh, the hunger, the hate, the conflicts, the corruption, the poverty, the distrust and wedges among the peoples are still here. ASUU just called of an 8-month strike, and we have issues now and then with fuel. There are villains of all nomenclature within and outside the cities and villages. The majority of the populace is unruly, from disregard of traffic mores to tax evasion and even taking laws into their hands. Institutions do not deliver to the public what they were established for. And drug abuse powers much of the lawlessness. Oil theft is systematic. Natural disasters (thanks be to the Almighty that they are the milder types) complete the icing on the cake; and though the piping with gels and melted chocolate is faintly coming out as ‘a failed state’, there are arguments to the contrary.
Like my car, Nigeria is up for grabs, so to say, by a new set of rulers come 2023. Unlike my car’s prospective buyers, these prospective rulers are not totally strange to the country; as a matter of fact, they probably have played more than average roles in bringing the country to its present state of affluence and/or penury or fame and/disrepute. Yet, having the privilege of observing things from outside but nearby, and nursing for decades the desire to serve, they have had the opportunity to pencil down all the good practices and the not so good ones. So they know the country very well and we know they do. They know it through and through, yet they have offered to serve. We want to think this is really commendable. So feigning this knowledge (of what it is, how good or rich we are, the spate of incivility, etc) will be hypocrisy which we must begin to condemn forthwith.
Our economy, like any other country for that matter, is not at its best. You should be thinking, or, better still, have thought of what to do rather than rehearsing to whine about how 16 years of PDP or 8 years of APC government has wrecked the economy. That should not replace managerial dexterity. Plan from now how to rid the country of terrorists; plan to be sincere in the fight, ask for help, pay mercenaries, do whatever is necessary to bring peace, but never tell us that without you it would have been worse. Or, worse still, that the government under President Buhari achieved nothing in eight years security wise. We have been around and have seen his efforts so do not use his name as an excuse or make us believe he did nothing even when you know we know he did something; only that he may be at his wit’s end.
If you bought my car, you bought it ‘as is’. With the papers signed, you won’t come back to whine about anything. You took a ride in it after inspecting it before buying it. Like my car, the major contenders have ‘ridden’ our country in their various ways and are still riding it. When you come on board, prepare to put things right or repair things. Spare us the tragedy of wasting executive time complaining. Agreed, what they know now may not be complete until they have all the executive privileges. But as wise people, none of them will expect that the submerged part of an iceberg is sand or steel. What you see now is just the tip of the iceberg. It is all ice; know it now. Strategise how to deal with it. Do not say you never knew because we are telling you now. You rode the old truck for a short distance; its technical issues will be worse when you drive it over a long distance. Plan now how to fix it for the benefit of all of us rather than waste our national time whining.
We wish you all good luck but may the Almighty cause any of you who may not wish the country well to lose woefully.
▪︎ Dah, a medical practitioner sent this from Abuja, where he lives.