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Author: Okah Ewah Edede
Posted to the web: 2/21/2006 6:45:28 AM

THE IMMINENT DEATH OF A NATION
Don't leave me in pains my dearly beloved. You know how much I love you; you know I would die for you; you know my people died because of you; you know I lost a whole clan because of you; you know I was beaten, kicked in the groins, knocked on the head, machetes used freely on me all because of my love for you. yet, you chose to leave me heart broken. You chose to leave me flying with one wing. You leave me comatose.
     From beneath the sod, beneath the sepulchre do I peep at your disintegration. From ethical crevices, do I stare forlorn at your disembowelment. From the diaspora, where I was forced to seek refuge because of hunger pangs, I gaze dejectedly at the dissection of your values, and the oblivion of the polity. I weep at this desecration, we weep without consolation. We say 'adieu' mournfully.
      With a bottomless sense of solemnity, in 1960, we had asked the British imperialist to handover the reigns of governance to us. when reminded of our diversity, we boastfully and confidently told the Britons that the love of Africa flowed in our veins. That we had the potentials of greatness, and that with a sense of dedication we will propel our country to the desired height. But six to seven years later, we were imbued with hate and with a consummate obsession to annihilate our fellow countrymen,- ourself. Many of us died at this interlude, many of us were maimed at this crossroad, but somehow, we managed to cross the bridge though the experiment left a sour taste in our mouth. Painfully we did bid adieu to those who embraced death. They died, but nobody heard their tearful whimpers because they were war child and soldiers.
       After this silhouette interlude, we continued with broken wings: from one regime to the other we stumbled. From one maladministration to the other many of us took flight to distant lands where we slaved forlorn. Though we had food and shelter, we were denied succour because of the acute privation our people back home were forced to contend with. Desecration was perpetual, privation was eternal, sacrilege was infinite, suffering was the emblem, life was meaningless and creativity was infinitesimal. The diaspora wept for the motherland, and this prompted many geniuses abroad to embark on the fatal aliyah back home. Today, we mourn for them too: Adieu.
      Then in 1985 to 1993, the gap-toothed godfather played us like a game of soccer. This culminated in orchestration of a bogus election that ended in an annulment that heralded the ignominious ouster of the godfather. We heaved a sigh of relief. But unfortunately it was too soon. 1993 to 1998 beckoned and we embraced the bogey. We relinquished without a fight the throne of our country's leadership to Satan's incarnate and Ken Saro Wiwa kissed the hangman's noose, Wale Soyinka was hounded into exile, Abiola was cajoled into eternal captivity, and the people were crushed into the sod. The Devil's incarnate was no respecter of age and gender.
       Democracy was ushered in after so many years of toil, soil, blood and tears. Though along the line we came to realize that what we had was not democracy but civilian rule, still we opted to manage it. The economic reforms are good but not adequate, still we manage it. The fight against corruption is grossly ineffective, still we manage it. The failed coup against Ngige stinks and suck, yet we manage this civil rule. The national assembly is a rubber stamp of hungry ethnocrats, still we manage this half-baked democracy. All forms of travel in this in country is in a Limbo, still we manage what we have. But for how long shall we manage godfatherism? How long shall we endure the raping and the bastardization of the Nigerian constitution? How long shall we kowtow to 'Arewa' hegemony? How long will it take the Northern Mafiaso oligarchy to realize that the South-East and the South-South are equal stakeholders in Nigeria?
     With the way things are going, we need to act fast and change our ways so that we may still be called Nigerians after 2007. Please, let say 'NO!' to all forms of fundamentalism.