Hon Babatunde Ogala among the people on the podium

Nigeria is in a state of emergency as well as in a state of emergence. Perhaps she has always been in this dual interstitial state since independence as a result of her political elite’s half-hearted, neophitic response to the onerous challenges of self- determination and nation formation. It is trite to reiterate here that Nigeria’s problem or the problem of Nigeria, as the autumnal raconteur, Chinua Achebe, succinctly submits in his minuscule vitriol The problem with Nigeria, is ‘simply and squarely the problem of leadership’. It is, however, important to remind ourselves that Achebe made what appeared at the time to be a blasphemous,treasonable statement during Nigeria’s golden era;her halcyon days when your take-home could take you home(those infinitesimal fractions of Nigerian working classes know what i’m talking about);when you could drive into a filling station and buy fuel without hassles, and at a give away price too;when, with little money in your pocket, you could purchase groceries and treats for your family, and, amenities were functioning,however, poorly.

It is true that, even then, those who ruled over the rest of us lived ostentatiously- no thanks to their larcenous DNA- we had crumbs which fell from our master’s table. Do the masses have food on their tables today? Do they not scavenge and scrounge for the rich’s offal and leftover entrails for survival? Also, the defunct National Electric Power Authority, now rechristened Power Holding Company of Nigeria. Opinion from Punch Newspaper

Other Related Articles

• October 5, 2009 -- SLEEPING BEAUTY (0)