In 1979 I learnt about the vicious Nigerian political cycle for the first time. To trust in it in 2022 will make me a lifetime moron. I remember names like ShittaBey, Akinjide, Akinloye, Shagari, Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Waziri Ibrahim, OvieWhisky and not a lot more. I mean I was 7 years old in 1979, yet the names stuck!

1979 On My Mind

By Adeola Aderounmu

Sometimes when I start to punch my keyboard, I stare at the blank word document and wonder what new stuffs I need to write about Nigeria, the greatest flop in human history.

Sometimes I want to affirm that Nigeria is a useless country then I remember that was where I got my elementary education and even my tertiary education up to master’s degree number 1. Then I started a phd and never went back to defend the thesis. I also know that a lot of people addressed as Nigerians both in Nigeria and overseas are great men and women. As a matter of fact, people addressed as Nigerians are holding some of the best positions in the corporate, medical, and business- worlds, globally.

But when you look at that fool called “Buhari”, when you look at how politics is operated generally, you start to rethink- are the people called Nigerians normal? Are they for real? I mean, how can any normal human being in the world point to that thing called Buhari and say this is my president? You really have to be mad to make such an acknowledgement. I took it so personal; I have stopped listening to the guy (whoever it is/it was) a long time ago. There is so much I want to learn in my lifetime that listening to that thing called Buhari would affect my positive accumulation of knowledge. But for twitter, I would not have known that someone sat with that thing and held an interview.

How do you interview a brain-dead or stupid person? How does it work?

How will Nigeria work when the collective mentalities of the people are subjected to the mentality of a daft person?

How do you think if you call yourself a Nigerian? What does that even mean nowadays?

Then most of the population is gearing up for a vicious cycle in 2023.

In 1979, I learnt about this vicious cycle for the first time. To trust in it will make me a lifetime moron. I remember ShittaBey, Akinloye, Shagari, Uwais, Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Waziri Ibrahim,  Ovie-Whisky and not a lot more. I mean I was 7 years old in 1979 and these names stuck!

In 2023, you want to repeat the process that has made Nigeria one of the worst places to be born or live.

That Nigeria is still a country is greater that all the wonders of the world put together. How can a people decide to be foolish, naïve, gullible, deceivable, and forgiving of all the crimes that the politicians and the elites including the military have committed against them for 3 generations? How?

How can the people decide to still live together in one country bound by poverty, terrorism, oppression, state-sponsored crimes, arson, and deliberate non-emancipation of the penury-loving population?

I saw a headline about some Ijaw people who planned to stage a demonstration because of an unsolved murder case. This is part of the problem. Selected people agitate briefly when the problem touched them. The unsolved murder of the schoolboy is so huge it would have ended some regimes in a normal country. in Nigeria, the murder of this schoolboy is so tiny compared to all the murders that the government have committed since 1999. If you stretch it back before 1999, the murder of the schoolboy is nothing at all.

Nigeria will forever be a giant crime scene for as long as it exists, and the elites will forever remain above the law for as long as a country called Nigeria exists.

Don’t misinterpret me. The murder of the schoolboy is a sad occurrence. But if we want justice, it is a national, patriotic call to end Nigeria. We cannot keep pretending or believing that Nigeria will work until the problem, until Nigeria happens to us!

Ending Nigeria will not end all the crimes and atrocities in the geographical region in one night. It will only give us the rare opportunity to retrace ourselves back to the 1950s and 1960s when we were on the path of greatness as separate nations. We were as separate nations, among the best places to live in the world in the 1950s.

We are not telling ourselves the truth about the senseless, stupid and useless system of government in Nigeria because we hope that every election year will bring succor. But for me, for all I know and all I have remembered from 1979, Nigeria is a giant scam and the third generation will waste away like the two before it.

Millions will live their lives not knowing happiness. They will know hustle. They will know darkness all their life as electricity remains a luxury. Many will beg for living because of the absence of social security system. Millions will beg for money and materials to live because of the oppressive nature of the society/country.

For as long as Nigeria exists, for as long as idiots like Buhari, APC politicians, PDP politicians and aspiring APC and PDP politicians rule Nigeria, poverty will never end. Injustice will never cease, unemployment will be norm, education will be out of the reach of the common/poor people and achieving something with your life will be a miracle and attributes of some unseen powers.

Life is not rocket science. It is what the people decide to make it. It is what it is.

aderounmu@gmail.com