OPINION: NIGERIA, IN DESPERATE NEED OF RADICAL “SOCIAL ANALYSIS” AND CHANGE FROM THE NARRATIVE

By Zik Gbemre

We are certain that countless Nigerians are like us, who, every time they sit back and think of the seemingly intractable ‘self-inflicted-tragedies’ of the Nigerian state nowadays, are without a deep-seated anger, frustration and prolonged lamentation. The deplorable situation of Nigeria is simply born out of the fact that many no longer believe, or have confidence in the current structure called Nigeria, which has been skewed to ‘continually’ favour some selected few, to the detriment of many. However, the saddest part in this whole unfortunate state of things, is the fact that despite all of this, majority of the Nigerian people are yet to come to the realization, and tell themselves the bitter truth, that those who have brought us, and the nation to the deplorable state it is in, are our very own people – not those from other tribes or religions different from ours, and not even foreigners. We are our very own problems. And until we start telling ourselves the truth, and seek to change the narrative, whether the persons involved are our kinsmen or from the same ethnic group and religion as ours; we will not develop as expected.

Every Nigerian, regardless of status and locality, should take it as their responsibility to expose and finger those responsible for the current deplorable state of the country across all levels. In a well circulated short video recently, Rev. Father George Ehusani, gave a vivid description of what we are trying to say here. In his words: “The people that have put us in this mess they come from the North, the South, and East and West, and Igbo, and Hausa, and Yoruba, and Tiv, and Jukun, all over. Recently, a list was released of the people who owe the Government Five point something Trillion Naira. AMCON Right? Some of you saw it. Don’t they come from the North and South and East and West? Five point Something Trillion – that is equivalent to the recent budget of Nigeria. And how many of them? About 20 Nigerians. Tomorrow, you will come and tell me that it is one part of the country that is putting us here.

“We really need serious social analysis. Why are we where we are? We are all oppressed in this country. Go to Damaturu, go to Zamfara, go to Yobe and see the POVERTY OF THE POOR. The big men are oppressing them. Go to Onitsha and go to Neobi, and see. I mean, I look at the slum – urban slum that Onistsha is. Urban slum! But Anambra State has some of the richest Nigerians. Just go, go to everywhere. Go to Bubuwa, go to Eleme parts. And Akwa Ibom State is the richest State in Nigeria. Akwa Ibom State is richer than many African Countries put together. But go and see, go and see the destitution of life in many of those places. We need social analysis.

“We need to keep pointing our attention to those people who have put us in this mess. I mean, can you imagine anybody coming from Akwa Ibom State; anybody coming from Delta State, to begin to point across the country at the people who are putting them in this mess… The Governor of Delta State is not Fulani. Can you imagine that Delta State, Akwa Ibom State, that anybody coming from Delta State to begin to point across the country at people who are putting them in this mess, when we know the kind of resources, that these States have generated. We need social analysis. We need to train our people to recognize that we are; 95% of Nigerians are oppressed by less than 5% of the people. We need to let them know that. This is the kind of thing that Amos (in the Bible) is talking about. And in our Churches; Pastors, Priests and Preachers and Evangelists, need to help their people with this social analysis. To recognize that there is something wrong in the way we carry on. And it is not enough to honour people bringing big money to Churches.

“People’s consciences must be challenged. When big men come to Church in a country like Nigeria, they should go home with their heads bowed thinking about, what can I do? It is not all the time that people come to church that they would go home rejoicing. Many times, they should go home weeping with a commitment as to what is going to change in the manner, they conduct their lives. Amos says that many people cannot claim they belong to God, while living on the misery of the poor. We need an Amos in this country. We need an Amos in every part of this country. I mean, we are all shouting now, Book Haram, bandits; and Boko Haram in the North-East, Bandits in North West, and all kinds of things all over the place. But we know; we know what the leaders have done to children in that place. We know how millions of children have lived there for generations without schools. We know how those places have been robbed. I mean, once upon a time, some of the richest human beings in the country were in Bornu State. Once upon a time, we had people in this country, people in that Maiduguri that have built homes with gold, everything inside was gold. We had people! And neglected the poor. We are now harvesting the consequences of what we did. And we need this social analysis. That is what is called social analysis. This is our problem today.

“How did we get here? Don’t buy all that nonsense on social media; that it is because of the other tribe. It is because of the other religion. Don’t buy all that nonsense. And I don’t want anybody in this Lumen Christi to buy that nonsense. Ask yourself, how well has your local government been run? Ask yourself, how well has your State been run? WHEN YOUR GOVERNOR CARRIES ALL YOUR MONEY, AND TAKE THEM OVERSEAS, AND THEN YOU ARE SUFFERING THE CONSEQUENCES OF NO RESOURCES, THEN YOU’RE CALLING ANOTHER TRIBE. WHAT KIND OF IDIOTS ARE YOU? WE NEED SOCIAL ANALYSIS. WE NEED TO THINK, USE OUR HEADS.”

There are no better people, that desperately need this social analysis and reawakening from their slumber and dullard state, than Deltans, whose lives and destinies have been stolen for years by the very same people they have been hailing, praising, protecting and calling their heroes. The saddest part in all of this is the fact that majority of ignorant people in Delta State who keep talking about development, are however unwilling to stand up boldly to condemn some of these anomalies. Rather, they have accepted the wrong things as right. Many of them have sold their birthrights for a plate of rice to eat today, while mortgaging their future and the future of the younger generations to come. When will our people wise up and see the realities facing them, and then wholeheartedly reject this obvious oppression by some selected few? Why are they comfortable with such manipulation? Why are Deltans comfortable with this oppression? Why are they not willing to do something to free themselves from this captivity?

To anyone who cares, just take a careful look in and out, and around the different sectors of Delta State’s economic wellbeing, and see where these people have dragged the State into in the last two decades. Just observe the economic and business atmosphere in Warri and its environs for instance, and see that the once ‘commercial bubbling oil city’ is now a shadow of itself. Our youths are seen daily roaming about the streets without jobs, and they have resorted to all kinds of criminal activities from doing ‘yahoo-yahoo’ (cybercrime), to all kinds of extortion and using ‘Deve’ and what have you to survive. Any sane and well-meaning Deltan should be agitated and pained by all of this? The ‘Praise-singing’ of non-performing Politicians in Delta State will not do the State any iota of good. It will only end up making us remain a mediocre and underdeveloped State and a people living in the midst of plenty but yet poor.

The power elite operatives are organized for themselves against the people. They are the oil thieves who also sustain the pen robbers in the NNPC where they always distract us with stories of missing billions of dollars. They are the ancient, analogue thieves who always call skilled, electronic thieves to come over and steal, and they at the same time alert the owners – the people that stealing has taken place. They are the investigators from anti-graft agencies to the ‘legislooting’ assemblies. Really, we are stranded at the moment in the world’s extreme corner of poverty, no thanks to failure of leadership. And so, if Nigeria should fulfill destiny of leading the black race and indeed Africa, we should listen to the voice of reason here.

After all said and done, the crux of the matter is that if we most move ahead as a people, then we need to be conscious of this social analysis and strive to change the narrative and statuesque, which has not been in the favour of the majority. No matter how hard or daunting this task may seem, we believe there is no problem that has no solution. But we must first acknowledge the fact that we have a problem as a people in this regard, and then we can take the necessary steps in addressing it. Until we begin to tell ourselves the truth as Nigerians, mediocrity would continue to be enthroned as lord over all of us.
Zik Gbemre.

We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes