Donald
But the members of the house are not just a disgrace unto themselves; they are a disgrace unto Nigeria and Nigerians and that is one more reason why we should chase them out of that discredited monument. The time for collective and coordinated action to cleanse the Augean stable has come since members of the ruling class will never reform a system of which they are the criminal beneficiaries. It is time to confront those who endanger our future We have lamented enough and it is time to go a step beyond lamentations.
Even the kidnappers and other agents of violence are expressing their anger, albeit in a criminal and misdirected manner. The members of the political class are so sure that Nigerians can only talk and go no further; that we are timid, indolent and can only bark but not bite. As Solana Olumense lamented while declaring ‘A Time To Fight’, we preach when we should punch and flee when we should fight[Guardian, 4/10/09]. Marijata had once accused us all of the ‘crime of indifference'[The Nation, 10/1/09] while the chairman of ICPC had lamented that this country is peopled by a timid, indifferent citizenry who are contended to be victims of corruption. But the hour has really come.
Adebolu Arowolo has argued that ‘Revolution is difficult to stop when the conditions for it are ripe and the people are sufficiently angry to identify their enemies and deal with them.. but the most important ingredient for revolution-the peoples anger- is not yet there… [The Lingering Fear of State Failure; Punch, 12/7/10, bp]. But Nigerians of all ages, gender and persuasions [apart from the parasites] are really seething in anger and rage.
Professor Ben Nwabueze, stated two weeks that ‘only a bloody revolution will remedy the situation I cannot see the country being saved other than through a bloody revolution.. and those who survive will pick up the pieces’, He had made a similar call on 10/12/09 as a guest lecturer at the. Goddy Jidenma Memorial Lecture at NIIA. On both occasions two elders. Chief Arthur Mbanefo and TY Danjuma agreed that there was/is an urgent need for change, but that it need not be bloody. Similarly, another Octogenerian, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi has called on the masses to ‘rise up and defend their wealth which is being plundered by a collection of thieves in the name of legislators.[ BusinessDay, 22/6/10,p53]
Prof Tomori [VC, Redeemers University] hit the nail in the head when he stated that ‘unless we vociferously oppose evil and unite in the war against injustice, the cursed leaders of our society will keep us permanently in the prison of pain, the sanctuary of suffering and penury.. we must trample upon ticks and mosquitoes; the vectors of disease and underdevelopment. We must no longer allow the parasites and the bloodsuckers to drain and suck us lifeless. [Guardian, 28/5/10,p22].
An anonymous Nigerian commented in the business day of 29/6/10 that ‘One day we shall bear it no more and our anger shall be visited on these bastard thieves’. But I think that that one day is today; we have waited enough and our patience has not yielded any good luck. The hour has come. Let those who think that Nigerians cannot go beyond talking, continue to delude themselves. They will soon be proved wrong and for them and other political brigands, it will be too late. A customer of this column, Otunba Fayemi had commented that The Red-Shirt option won’t work because while the redshirts do not fear spilling blood[including their own], Nigerians hate to see blood being spilt and this encourages our bloodless leaders to drain our blood freely. But the level of insensitive lootocracy is enough to make us see red and spill real blood-even when we are adorning green shirts!! After all those who make peaceful change impossible make bloody revolution inevitable. We may even go beyond Thailand to Kyrgyzstan where organised and determined ochlocrats sacked the entire government and a woman-led interim government is in place as at today.
The time to act is now. Kenyans are raising hell because their parliamentarians just increased their monthly salaries to1.09m shillings [a mere $13330/N2m]. Here, the quarterly allowance of a representative is N27m [$180000] and they are scheming to raise it to N40m/qtr[$267000]. The per capita income in Kenya[$940] is only marginally lower than that of Nigeria [$1100].We cannot continue to watch, wail and throw up our arms in exasperation and collective surrender at the excruciatingly iniquitous, insensitive and sadistic disposition of our so-called representatives and indeed, other politicians.
Something must happen and the nature and shape of that ‘something’ will be a function of a complex interplay of factors and forces. On 21/7/09, the women of Abuja held the then Minister of FCT hostage until he addressed their concerns over power shortages. On 12/1/10 and 9/3/10 the Save Nigerian Group stormed Abuja and only submitted a letter to the Secretary to The Government of the Federation. On 16/3/10, the Enough is Enough group invaded the NASS but were prevented from gaining entrance. But the group that came calling on 4/3/10 partially overran the NASS security apparatus and crossed the main gate. The next group that will visit will surely storm the chambers and then, they can run but not hide. The hour has definitely come!
