“FROM MAN WAS MADE ‘TO MOURN'”: THE UNTHINKING BRUTALITY OF NIGERIA DEMOCRACY

Opinion

By Nkem Ossai

“You don’t have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.”

The above quote was originally from a poem titled “From Man was Made to Mourn” by Robert Burns. The poem was written in the year 1785. The author believes that, humans were created in order to be sad. In the poem, Robert Burns speaks of oppression and cruelty that mankind causes and mankind suffers.

In 1785, in these six letter quote, Robert Burns saw Nigeria, a country that by choice is racing towards total destruction – a country so blessed but turned itself to the pests that defied all insecticides – a country blooming with milk and honey but now her citizens eat sands to survive. What do you call that?

And I ask, ‘what is responsible for this noticed level of unfeeling of the current generation of created beings in this place?” Was our ‘DNA’ corrupted during the early vaccinations by the white man? Why are our generation growing an incredible capacity to put their fellow beings into harms way without remorse? Why is this trend more among politicians and rulers in Nigeria?

The moment they win election and are sworn in to office, their relationship with the common man is severed. As they move in convoys of custom designed Toyota jeeps, they see the rest of us as ants that should be crushed. No wonder they kill, maim, or even destroy properties of fellow human beings with such recklessness that utterly defies explanation. Some even go as far as calling such destruction development. For me, democracy is becoming a curse and it’s dividends, poison that are driven into our internals.

It is no longer news that Nigerians are dying in their thousands and possibly in millions. It is also not anything to talk about that majority go to bed with empty stomach. What is news is that JAGABAN doesn’t even understand the meaning of hunger and death. He believes that Nigeria is not the only country suffering hunger. He is more concerned with the latest Toyota jeeps in the market for his family and his National Assembly neighborhood.

And I ask again, “what is wrong with the black man.? Why is he so insensitive to the suffering of the other person? Why is he so unfeeling about the situation around him?

The presidential candidate of Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi has been hammering on the food situation in Nigeria. He has been calling on the government to focus on tackling the hunger ravaging the nation (assuming we have a nation). They called it politics.

A nation is defined as a large group of people who share a common identity, culture, language, history, and territory. A nation is often associated with a sovereign state, where the government represents the interests of the nation and its people. The concept of a nation can be complex and may overlap with other identity groups, such as ethnicity, religion, or citizenship (Source: AI). Are we truly a nation in the context of the above definition?

Every weekend ambulances speed and blare alarm around several towns and villages as if it were conveying accident victims to hospitals. Alas, this is all dead human beings killed by hunger. Do these leaders want to govern dead bodies?

In some states, governments are busy demolishing the petty businesses of the common man with reckless abandon in the holy name of development. I hear that some traders whose shops were demolished are dying. What do you call that?

A day before he was sworn in, Jagaban has brought this suffering on us with the quick increase in petroleum pump price as announced by him. And then come the skyrocketing of prices of all foodstuffs, essential commodities and services. This brought a new kind of poverty which is not known by man around this environment, at least since the end of Nigeria/Biafra Civil War in 1970. Consequently, the standard of living was brought to the lowest ebb and with this, come an uncontrollably high medical bills that has now reserved good medical services to the privileged economic strata. This is the reason for the noticed increase in sickness and death.

History shows that only black man misuses the funds budgeted for living and social services and of course get a clapping of hands. If you do that in a decent civilization, you become a prison candidate. Unfortunately, in our clime, if you steal a loaf of bread you go to prison but if you steal billions, both the poor and the rich clap for you. What an irony of a fated nation?

It is now clearer to me why Wole Soyinka called his, “a waisted generation.” It is indeed a waisted generation: a generation of vipers and scorpions.