Photo Source: TheWill
WHAT STORY SHALL WE TELL?
By: Yusuff Uthman Adekola (Y.U.A.)
By: Yusuff Uthman Adekola (Y.U.A.)
Stories recounting past experiences are to be told and heard. They may on the one hand exhume moments of glee which would whip up glitters in a reader’s or listener’s heart. They may also on the other hand provoke sullenness cum tears welling up in the eyes, if reviving dark, painful memories. Only a man who has lost his wits would ever wish to always tell sad stories, but every thinking man has a single refrain: “to tell success stories.”
As it remains indisputable that there is no present without a past to it, the contemporary Nigeria, our country definitely has a past to her present. Our country has its stories (told and untold). We have heard and, of course, still hear our parents and elders alike narrate to us stories about how serene and blissful their society –which we would term primitive—was. We have heard or read of how they travelled anywhere in the dead of the night, without fidgeting for the fear of being assaulted or ambushed. They would leave their doors unlocked and still feel undaunted by any form of fear. They could buy more with less, compared to what presently holds. There used to be healthy marketing of goods and services across the surfeit of tribes there were and still are. In short, our country, Nigeria once witnessed moments of security of lives and property as well as moments of stone-solid unity. Those were stories to be told and retold. Now, what have we?
One may, to some magnitude of rightness, say that time is guilty of Nigeria’s languishing in the horrible pit of backwardness as over the years, the once sweet stories have drastically but gradually become sour. There insidiously have come the influx of voracious rats of slumbering brains into the nation’s government; thereby leading to the undoing deterioration of all that our dear country could pride in. Our currency wanes bit-by-bit and we now pay more for less. Valuables kept in safes are no longer safe, let alone keeping our doors ajar like they did then. To even walk or travel in the day is not without prior days of earnestly praying and fasting for the uncertainty of whether one would end up being kidnapped or being a victim to the bad roads replete with slew of “death holes” which we probably erroneously call “pot holes” – considering this, can travelling ever be without fear? Also, our unity as a nation is nothing to be spoken well of. The country, on the whole, is dying.
Nigeria has become a land where hunger, wailings, insecurity and all forms of anomalies have become a norm. no one cares about the other, as everyone only doggedly strives to achieve his or her egocentric purposes, at anybody’s expense. Our brethren in the North have suffered and are still suffering unimaginable loss in the hands of the despicable Boko Haram Terrorist Sect whose want is clearly known to no one. Many are victimised and rendered helpless as some armed Fulani Herdsmen occasionally make do with their killings to perhaps assuage their perturbing thirst and hunger to spill the blood of the innocents. Again, we almost on a daily basis hear, see or read about cases of kidnapping for all sorts of eccentric reasons. In most of these terrible occurrences, the so-called religious and political leaders onto whom many look are usually the culprits; but they oftentimes go unscathed and subsequently take to their malevolent acts again. When our brethren and leaders are the ones ready to butcher us like cattle; and the law’s blade has gone blunt, have we any glint of hope of security or justice?
How utterly desponding it is, that Nigeria is now being regarded as a leper whose place of dwelling is only in the woods; far from the midst of healthy men. In the world today, our country is perceived to be a place of great threat to lives and properties, especially as a result of the exigent Boko Haram terrorism as well as the many riots occurring now and then: all defaming us as a nation. From a report, it is held that the Foreign Office of the United States of America has warned Westerners about Nigeria, as it is believed that they are prone to being abducted for a ransom by the dreaded Boko Haram Sect ruthlessly looking out for various unscrupulous means to raise funds for themselves. Now, one does not cease to wonder as to whether insecurity and all other bedevilling problems within which Nigeria wallows is her birth right. Also, looking at the Global Peace Index, one would realise that Nigeria remains one of the most low-ranking countries, as if it were some generational curse laid by some witch or wizard.
Again and ultimately, the talk of unity in Nigeria is none but one only to be remembered of the past or perhaps envisioned for the future as it obviously does not hold in the Nigeria of today. This is generally concerned with the inter-tribal clashes permeating almost all news stories. Another instance corroborating the issue of the country’s lack of unity is the case of the so-called Biafran people seeking secession so that they may found again the long-sought nation of theirs which came about in the 60’s albeit its short life of three years of hunger. These people are nonetheless never to be blamed but the political, economic, religious and tribal tensions rousing from the government’s nonchalance and inept policies take mountains of the blame. More so, our ailing politics is also one of the problems plaguing the country’s unity. None can contravene the conspicuous fact that the federal seats of governance –the presidential, ministerial, senatorial, federal houses, to mention a few seats— are, more often than not, usually held by a larger population of the Northerners. Yes, they constitute the largest population of the country; but, I put, does that give them the ultimate right to these seats, especially the presidential? If there truly would ever be harmony in the country, there should be a fair share in the government. All these issues of godfatherism (better still, dog-fatherism or demon-fatherism) impeding the emergence of other tribes for certain political posts should be brought to a halt and buried; so that our unity may be revamped.
Now, with the exasperatingly exacerbating state of the country, what sweet-to-the-hearing story have we to tell about this dear country of ours to the coming generation? With the depressing stories we write through our undesirable actions, are we then on the track to recounting saddening experiences to our unborn children or growing infants and toddlers? Are we to get their ears and hearts aching as we will be unfolding to them, how we have got this nation decrepit by the cold shoulders we have given her welfare through our lack of unity and our carefreeness against security? As we already heard our parents and elders tell us sweet stories about their days, what good ones are we set to tell to the next generation of this great country, Nigeria? Now, this is a clarion call to all, in a bid to get us plunging into all that is right and necessary, so that we may rewrite the story of this country, such that it would engender nothing but smiles. To all and everyone, let us get the nation marching on to glory; and we shall write the best of stories.
As it remains indisputable that there is no present without a past to it, the contemporary Nigeria, our country definitely has a past to her present. Our country has its stories (told and untold). We have heard and, of course, still hear our parents and elders alike narrate to us stories about how serene and blissful their society –which we would term primitive—was. We have heard or read of how they travelled anywhere in the dead of the night, without fidgeting for the fear of being assaulted or ambushed. They would leave their doors unlocked and still feel undaunted by any form of fear. They could buy more with less, compared to what presently holds. There used to be healthy marketing of goods and services across the surfeit of tribes there were and still are. In short, our country, Nigeria once witnessed moments of security of lives and property as well as moments of stone-solid unity. Those were stories to be told and retold. Now, what have we?
One may, to some magnitude of rightness, say that time is guilty of Nigeria’s languishing in the horrible pit of backwardness as over the years, the once sweet stories have drastically but gradually become sour. There insidiously have come the influx of voracious rats of slumbering brains into the nation’s government; thereby leading to the undoing deterioration of all that our dear country could pride in. Our currency wanes bit-by-bit and we now pay more for less. Valuables kept in safes are no longer safe, let alone keeping our doors ajar like they did then. To even walk or travel in the day is not without prior days of earnestly praying and fasting for the uncertainty of whether one would end up being kidnapped or being a victim to the bad roads replete with slew of “death holes” which we probably erroneously call “pot holes” – considering this, can travelling ever be without fear? Also, our unity as a nation is nothing to be spoken well of. The country, on the whole, is dying.
Nigeria has become a land where hunger, wailings, insecurity and all forms of anomalies have become a norm. no one cares about the other, as everyone only doggedly strives to achieve his or her egocentric purposes, at anybody’s expense. Our brethren in the North have suffered and are still suffering unimaginable loss in the hands of the despicable Boko Haram Terrorist Sect whose want is clearly known to no one. Many are victimised and rendered helpless as some armed Fulani Herdsmen occasionally make do with their killings to perhaps assuage their perturbing thirst and hunger to spill the blood of the innocents. Again, we almost on a daily basis hear, see or read about cases of kidnapping for all sorts of eccentric reasons. In most of these terrible occurrences, the so-called religious and political leaders onto whom many look are usually the culprits; but they oftentimes go unscathed and subsequently take to their malevolent acts again. When our brethren and leaders are the ones ready to butcher us like cattle; and the law’s blade has gone blunt, have we any glint of hope of security or justice?
How utterly desponding it is, that Nigeria is now being regarded as a leper whose place of dwelling is only in the woods; far from the midst of healthy men. In the world today, our country is perceived to be a place of great threat to lives and properties, especially as a result of the exigent Boko Haram terrorism as well as the many riots occurring now and then: all defaming us as a nation. From a report, it is held that the Foreign Office of the United States of America has warned Westerners about Nigeria, as it is believed that they are prone to being abducted for a ransom by the dreaded Boko Haram Sect ruthlessly looking out for various unscrupulous means to raise funds for themselves. Now, one does not cease to wonder as to whether insecurity and all other bedevilling problems within which Nigeria wallows is her birth right. Also, looking at the Global Peace Index, one would realise that Nigeria remains one of the most low-ranking countries, as if it were some generational curse laid by some witch or wizard.
Again and ultimately, the talk of unity in Nigeria is none but one only to be remembered of the past or perhaps envisioned for the future as it obviously does not hold in the Nigeria of today. This is generally concerned with the inter-tribal clashes permeating almost all news stories. Another instance corroborating the issue of the country’s lack of unity is the case of the so-called Biafran people seeking secession so that they may found again the long-sought nation of theirs which came about in the 60’s albeit its short life of three years of hunger. These people are nonetheless never to be blamed but the political, economic, religious and tribal tensions rousing from the government’s nonchalance and inept policies take mountains of the blame. More so, our ailing politics is also one of the problems plaguing the country’s unity. None can contravene the conspicuous fact that the federal seats of governance –the presidential, ministerial, senatorial, federal houses, to mention a few seats— are, more often than not, usually held by a larger population of the Northerners. Yes, they constitute the largest population of the country; but, I put, does that give them the ultimate right to these seats, especially the presidential? If there truly would ever be harmony in the country, there should be a fair share in the government. All these issues of godfatherism (better still, dog-fatherism or demon-fatherism) impeding the emergence of other tribes for certain political posts should be brought to a halt and buried; so that our unity may be revamped.
Now, with the exasperatingly exacerbating state of the country, what sweet-to-the-hearing story have we to tell about this dear country of ours to the coming generation? With the depressing stories we write through our undesirable actions, are we then on the track to recounting saddening experiences to our unborn children or growing infants and toddlers? Are we to get their ears and hearts aching as we will be unfolding to them, how we have got this nation decrepit by the cold shoulders we have given her welfare through our lack of unity and our carefreeness against security? As we already heard our parents and elders tell us sweet stories about their days, what good ones are we set to tell to the next generation of this great country, Nigeria? Now, this is a clarion call to all, in a bid to get us plunging into all that is right and necessary, so that we may rewrite the story of this country, such that it would engender nothing but smiles. To all and everyone, let us get the nation marching on to glory; and we shall write the best of stories.
WRITER'S BIO:
Yusuff Uthman Adekola, presently a student of the University of Ibadan, is a campus journalist, a poet and an essayist who believes in the correctional cum enlightening power that the pen commands. He can be reached via +2348166599760 ; adekolayusuff@gmail.com ; FB: facebook.com/adecaller01
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