I WILL LIVE FOREVER
V anity, it all appears. The entire universe is an empty substance that can be discarded without any form of regret by the creator. I mean the spiritual being who devised a method of putting all of us in this political enclave. Today, I stand in a distance, maybe somewhere far from the earth and in the realm of my imagination to yarn about the emptiness of this place and why I have resolved to live forever in my own world. I have been confronted with some appalling crisis and storms due to the inexplicable world that I have decided to carve out for myself; a world that many dread to dwell in. It is my world, not your world. The several glitches that confront me, even from the world that I crave to live in, result from the constant fire that some antagonists of my philosophy have ignited on the roof of my supposed cool hut. So they say, 'Charly Boy is weird.' He lacks direction. He possesses some occult powers. He sleeps in the coffin, worships gold and iron. He is simply crazy and stubborn. The crux of the matter is that I have carved a niche for myself with the emphasis on how I can live forever.
When I say that I will live forever, you had thought about the prophecies and the beliefs of most ancient philosophers who thought that they will never die from this terrestrial plain. I equally see you imagining that there are supernatural forces behind my assertion. But I must reiterate my statement. I will, no doubt, live forever either in your imagination or in the physical. I will live forever, maybe by those things you have termed weirdness or by keeping in mind those ugly things you can not mention without remembering Charly Boy. I will live forever with the streets dwellers, even if those at the ivory tower will deny my ever existence. I will live forever in the mind of beggars along the path, even if the commercial motorcyclists in the streets will deny my ever existence. Even if the politicians will object to my immortal nature, the youth of this great country will recognise my existence. And even if the youth cannot confirm my existence, the pensioners will, and if the pensioners failed, I will rely on the widows and if the Nigerian widows cannot agree with my declaration, then the Nigerian children will. But if none could agree with my declaration, the dust of the earth will give that great testimony.
You… I mean you…what do you think? Will you live forever? What are the things you are leaving behind for the society that will keep you in sight even after your departure from this plane? How will people remember you, even after your exit? These are practical questions that you must answer in this column today.
How many of us will dare to say, 'I will live forever.' I know that quite a number of us love this nation. Obviously, we cherish this nation to the point that we have decided to offer ourselves to the service of the country; yet I understand that many have been soaked in this passion so much that we have deluded the entire country, pretending to have forgotten the basic and primary duty of a leader, who blew the trumpet of stewardship during campaign. Maybe, deceit, treachery and machination should be kept in your archives for the next generation to review. I strongly guess that no society in the world would wish to keep a leader with the aforementioned core-values in the anal of political history. Hence your death will generate jubilation, as the people will finally heave a great sigh of relief. Such celebration signals the end of your existence, as there will be nothing else to talk about. You will seize to exist even in their minds.
Sometimes, when the corridor of power and authority becomes so hot due to some gladiatorial contest, some of us at the base begin to wonder why an individual could put everything away to ensure his or her victory at the poll. The question that readily comes to mind is; why such zeal, zest, passion and enthusiasm? Are those struggles born out of the natural panache to revitalise the dying Nigeria or for some basic selfish reason? At times, one begins to see the ulterior motive behind the state agenda of such an individual. I see such struggle to annihilate our fraught nation as a coup against democracy. It can be classified as a coup set to subvert the polity. This is why some individual will set up certain committees with the intention of buying the whole nation to their side. Such is the bane of our national discourse today. Do you agree with me that those who set up committees to sell the nation are not true democrats? When a man sets up a committee seeking to cajole others to buy into his inordinate ambition, it practically implies that democracy is at the verge of obliteration. Think about this. The question that needs an answer is: will such ambitious and selfish politician live forever with the people? It is capital 'NO.' His death marks the end of his egotistical existence.
Our leaders appear to discuss basic national issues with emphasis placed on their families and friends. Before one dreams of vying for a political seat, he must have done the arithmetic of the mind, toying with our emotion through campaign that is buried in treachery and deceit. You never can tell how many people he will pick from his family, as special advisers. You cannot fathom his plan to make his cousin the special adviser to the special adviser, and his niece special adviser to the special adviser cum special adviser and the list IS SIMPLY ENDLESS… And you expect that such leader will exist or live forever after his tenure?
We have decided to kill the egalitarian character that the nation inherited from the ancient traditional system of administration due to our grotesque and extravagant ideas of governance. We have forgotten that governance is about the people, the youth, and the ordinary man in the streets and we have decided to live forever in power and not to live forever with those physical marks of achievements. I will not fold my hands in silence. I will break the wall and the barrier built to suppress national growth and development. I will continue to make the usual noise, like the wild birds in the desert until the wild goose vacate the desert.
Yes, I will do my job because I want to live forever in my world. I will continue in the fight because heroes are often remembered due to their heroic achievement. I want to be a hero because I want to be part of history. I will live forever because I want to see that generational transformation set in during my time.
How will a man live forever in your memory when all he cares about is to convert the tax payer's money to his private funds? How can he live forever when he dances to the banks everyday with the money that would take us out of the continuous darkness that results from power shortage? How can he be kept in the archives of history when he buys houses in almost every part of the world while some of us sleep in the streets?
The only way we can live forever is by embracing change. If we continue in our old ways, the world will leave us behind and the younger generation will make jest of us. They will scornfully stare at us, ridicule and make caricature of our obsolete philosophy.