The fire next time…

[Mirror]

I feel helpless not to mock or inveigh the parade of buffoonery that has become daily libations in the feverish anticipation of Nigeria's most dreaded Political Year 2015.

The political landscape is littered with dubious merchandizing efforts by terrifyingly corrupt and unrepentant politicians whose objective is to deceive the ever gullible Nigerians.

The National Assembly, the Executive, and the Judiciary have demonstrated time and time again beyond belief that the three branches of government are partners in crime of a tyrannical government.

The unjustified criminal jumbo salaries, the dirty bogus perks, the lewd life styles, the lurid spending recklessness, the amass of huge fortunes through uninterrupted flow of treasury money and multiple conduits of malfeasance that form the signature national priorities of the ruling class are mounting evidence of a political system that has metamorphosed into a reign of terror. The atmosphere in the country for the legion of poor Nigerians is like a funeral.

Disparities in wealth increased with the richer prospering and the poor starving. The long running poverty slaughtered and uprooted as it were, the present generation and generations to come.

The persistence and prevalence of untamed corruption and infectious poverty are yet another reminder of the fire next time... The cause and consequence of all these are inflamed ethnic rivalries and religious intolerance which grow daily with intensity among the poor. It has fostered distrust and festered old ethnic prejudices.

The excesses, evils, injustices, and wickedness of the ruling class have further chiseled the great divide between haves and have nots and have collapsed our civilization and culture. It has turned our society into Hobbesian horror that a normal person must escape.

An extended mediation of Nigerian maladies is capable of turning one into a surviving appendage that begs for life support. The on and off, and off and on strike of Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) for adequate funding of universities and better condition of service is taking toll on the students, staff, parents, and the country.

The "I don't give a damn" attitude of Aso Rock on the demands of the striking professors and the students' academic programs, portrays the president as anti-education, anti-intellectual, and anti-civilization. Our universities have become glorified secondary schools graduating intellectual zombies.

Nigerians must be ready to die to live. I'll like to remind them that the only language oppressors understand is fire for fire and force with force. Don't you remember the lynching and butchery of the oppressed in other parts of the world in order for them to gain their freedom? Don't you remember the raging, ripping hounds, the tear-gas and guns on people fighting their oppressors?

Don't you remember history of oppressed people who for years fought under epic patience and death-defying grace to free themselves from wickedness in high places?

Did you forget the story of crusading students, the vigilant souls who risked their lives, the marchers who stood steadily and strong, the vocal leaders who called on God, justice, and commonsense in order to prevail over their oppressors? Do I need to remind you that it is better to be a live dog than a dead lion?

For your information, the history of oppressed people all over the world was written in the streets whereby their blood fertilized the fields of liberty and freedom before triumph glisters in the eyes of the parents and resounds in the laughter of their children. There is nothing to be proud of in Nigeria. For 53 years it has remained a country of misery characterized by rainbow of misadventures.

The citizens of a country blessed with the world's most abundant resources live in one of the worst places on earth.

The political model of the presidential system is not working or better yet, the operators make it impossible to work. It's a failure. It's a tombstone. It's a fragile foundation built on a corrupt and deceitful political model that doesn't make sense.

There comes a time when oppressed people take to the streets when they were convinced that existing institutions and their functions only reinforced the status quo. Many rights have been won in democratic societies by means of courageous activism the eight hour-day, votes for women, the right to sit at any lunch counter, the desegregation of schools, workers right to unionize, etc., not at the polls but in the streets.

The recent barbaric election fraud concocted, conducted, concealed, and carried out by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWSIEC) in Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State tells me that the fire next time ... history will be written in the streets not at the polls.

The PDP councilor Afolabi Jimoh confessed that the APC candidate won his ward. Jimoh who contested the Shawo Southwest Offa seat said KWSIEC was in error to have declared him the winner. He said as a Muslim and a faithful Offa indigene, he would not claim victory he did not win.

"I remain the authentic candidate of the PDP for Shawo Southwest Ward," Jimoh tells stunned Nigerians. "I make bold to say that in all the eight polling units in my ward, the PDP lost that day."

"As a son of this great town, I believe that in all that we do, we should know that we are going to account for them," sounding more like a preacher than a politician, Jimoh scolds the election riggers. "I'm this wise. I'm not going to be a part to getting what is not mine from anybody," Jimoh assures Nigerians.

•An abridged version of an article by Oluwasanmi, a US-based Nigerian social commentator.

Source: The fire next time...