50 YEARS THROUGH THE WILDERNESS
How … how on earth did we get here? From where did we begin this journey, where exactly are we today and where is our possible destination? This is one out of the million rhetorics of our national existence begging for some clarification. Many spend few years wandering in the wilderness while searching to find their feet. I beg your pardon, but the Israelites spent 40 years wandering through the wilderness before they found the region close to Gaza and Jerusalem, I mean the promised land, yet some of us still wonder why they should go through all this plague while searching for milk and honey for sustenance. Did we even search through the wilderness of zeal before we found water to drink?
Did we beg or pray for manna before it fell for us? We woke up in the middle of the night to be greeted with some fortunes. At the inception of our journey, we discovered that we sit on money, yes I mean money. What can be more than oil? Isn't it a conglomerate of resources? Ours is a country with all availability as nature willed for us, yet we wandered through the wilderness for 50 years of fret. Hmm… 50 good years; no be small thing ooh!
Well, believing in the CharlyBoy philosophy of 'never say never', we must always celebrate. Yes, we must celebrate because we have to celebrate; we must celebrate because it is ritualistic. Of course, we must do it like other countries even with tears and gnashing of teeth. We must grin with bitter hope hung in the air with little or no records pointing to our past glories as a nation.
I remember telling myself the hard truth about a man who even at 50 is yet to settle for a partner. Up till today, the country appears most confused with little hope in view for the younger generation. We have had some quacks and wolves piloting our affairs. Is it not better for the plane to fly high up the sky and crash without a pilot? After all, who cares about having a pilot anyway? We have had different pilots for the past 50 years, though in a recycled form, yet, none could claim the messiah-ship; I mean a leader with a laudable footprint; hence our constant yearning for that leader with a mark of honour. I saw you nod to this; I guess a point was just driven home.
At 50, we celebrate the hope of the Nigerian youth, solely depending on the flash of lightning and thunder that could humble some cold-blooded beings being paraded on our political scene.
But a flashback, I mean a trace back to our root cannot even unravel the mystery behind our history. Are you getting the vibe? At every point, we appear confused like some confused pilots that steer our affairs with loosen nuts; hence, the entire country remains weak and shakes without some nuts and screws to hold firm the cardinal points. Each point of our political history is characteristically marked by some dirty rags along the path and we run past them covering our noses. Of course, we cannot inhale such messy smell, highly repulsive and irksome. Abi I lie?
Okay! A moment of reflection… After several years of political crisis, power tussle and regional politics of the First Republic, we were greeted with what could be termed undemocratic political arrangement characterized by bloody and bloodless coup that sent the country into civil war. The war appears to have ended but we are yet to experience order and peace within the polity. It has since become an endless struggle out of the abyss we constructed for ourselves. The long years under military dictators took us far away from our peaceful democratic background and we lost our democratic sense. We lost our sense of sanity and vamoosed like the dew into space. Like the spaceship, we dived further into the space of agony, yet, we must celebrate because we have to celebrate. Even in the midst of major religious mayhem; even when we shed tears for over countless Nigerians who were left in the pool of their own blood at one time or the other, we must celebrate; yes, we must celebrate this moment with tears streaming down our eyes like an ever flowing river.
We must celebrate the only legacy of crisis left for this young generation by some vampires that have encroached into the political terrain. The country has gone completely insane, a fellow countryman has become a prey to other lords; I mean lords of the ring. They act as wrestlers and the umpires while some of us watch from a distance. We are never allowed to come close because we stand for the truth.
Are you still reading? Remember, we have a celebration, yes, go get your groove on, just get cracking. Celebrate with your kits while on the track ready for another race to a better mission and vision as a nation. Think of the way forward. This is a significant 50, with an embellishment of truth and revelation. As for me, I will join in the celebration because I have been so strong even in the plague that had beclouded us. Join me while we all celebrate our strength, I mean your strength through this 50 years in the wilderness of darkness and nightmare. Celebrate because the prophecy says we are finally out of the desert