Nigeria is indeed a funny country. In this landscape described as “geographical expression” or “imagined political community,” which was coupled together by British imperialists in 1914 after they drank hot coffee at the famous Berlin conference of 1884-85, where they were given political and economic control of that part of West Africa, we tend to laugh over our successes and failures in equal measure.
We poke fun out of every situation from the sublime to the ridiculous and even the tragic. That is why Nigerian comedians are daily smiling to the banks. Nigerian creative writers, especially fiction writers, are equally smiling to the banks by portraying our lives in their fictive realist works. The practitioners of our growing film industry, Nollywood, are equally not left out. I had a good laugh when I read of the missing national budget presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari the other day.
Before I could spell the name of the recently demolished Oshodi electronic market, Owonifari, whose traders are mainly Igbos from Ihiala Local Government Area, according to my brother of the pen, C. Don Adinuba, some of my creative Facebook friends posted that they have found the missing budget. I hope the EFCC and ICPC would not go after them soon for being in possession of the missing or stolen budget.
Trust Nigerians for creating laughter out of every bad situation including HIV/AIDS, Ebola and Lassa fever. Some Facebook posts warned us to check the paper “akara” sellers’ would use in wrapping the fried delicacies enjoyed by all Nigerians irrespective of tribe. I do not know which Nigerian language the word, “akara,” comes from just like the word, “ashawo,” used in Nigeria to describe women of easy virtue.
In a period where the exchange rate is over N300 to $1 in black market and some civil servants are yet to receive their last month salary and overseas travelers cannot use their bank ATMs and parents cannot remit school fees to their wards abroad, the arrest of some prominent Nigerians over the shared $2.1 billion Dasuki arms deal, and selective anti-corruption war, how best do we laugh over these matters than to create the drama of a missing budget to, at least, rattle the presidency.
The missing budget is trending humorously on the social media. My initial reaction to the saga was that no budget is missing. The legislators are just playing game with the executive arm of government to demonstrate truly that there are three arms of government and none is superior to the other, even though in Nigeria, we tend to bow to the executive as if it is the god of power.
The legislators are just telling Buhari that he cannot have his way in all things including the running of the government and the war on graft. I hope that Buhari got the message clearly.
However, the President had written the National Assembly through the Senate and clarified the issues before the lawmakers resumed debate on the budget. By writing to the lawmakers, Buhari has put a stop to the raging moonlight tales over the budget.
The lawmakers should go through the budget expeditiously as we have no time to waste. Nigerians expect so much from the change government. Early passage of the budget by the National Assembly will enable the government execute some of their programmes to Nigerians.
While Nigerians wait anxiously for what the lawmakers will do with the budget in the next couple of weeks, let me move quickly to the demolished Oshodi market that has generated bad blood between the traders and the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode administration. Before I proceed on my brief intervention on the vexatious matter, I want to acknowledge the earlier interventions of my Oga in office, Steve Nwosu, and my brother, Adinuba.
I agree with their views and urge the traders to do a soul searching and locate where the rain started beating them. If they do not know where the rain started beating them (apologies to revered novelist, Chinua Achebe), they won’t know where it stopped. Igbos including, Igbo traders, should be part of the effort to transform Lagos into a mega city. They should not constitute a stumbling block.
The location of the demolished market is dangerous. If a petrol tanker falls on the market, it will amount to a harvest of monumental deaths. Therefore, its demolition and relocation is in order.
I believe that the traders were given enough time and opportunity to remove their goods and relocate before the December demolition. The Lagos State governor should not be castigated or branded an enemy by any Igbo.
The angry reactions by some of my Igbo brothers over the Oshodi market demolition has brought to the fore the use of hate speeches and abusive language by a group I would, for lack of adequate description, call “Igbo/Yoruba Internet Warriors.” While most of these Internet Warriors are based abroad, they have some of their supporters’ club devotees in Nigeria.
Like the erudite writer, Femi Aribisala, recently advocated in his vintage Vanguard column, there is the urgent need for Igbo and Yoruba elders to wade into this unnecessary verbal warfare and abuse by some misguided members of the two progressive and hard working Nigerian tribes.
There is no war, real or imagined, between Igbo and Yoruba that I know of. We have lived together for many years, intermarried and done business together. We have build ties that even started before the coming of the white people. As Aribisala suggested, the Ohanaeze and Afenifere should work on this issue quickly. Neither the Igbo nor the Yoruba will gain anything from these avoidable abuses that started like party jokes. All tribes in Nigeria that have the tendency to abuse one another should stop it. It will not take the country to greatness.
Let our differences be a source of strength and not one of weakness. There is indeed more to gain from our mutual co-existence than the resort to needless abuses over trivial matters. Instead of seeing ourselves as brothers and sisters in love, we have unfortunately resorted to unwarranted abuse that has put that wonderful information tool, the Internet, to disrepute.
Let the Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ibibio, Igala, and indeed other tribes work together to build a nation based on equity, justice and fairness. We should not allow a few disgruntled politicians to always divide us for their own self-serving motives. Ordinary Nigerians in Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Sokoto, Onitsha, Enugu, Gboko, and Port Harcourt have no problems interacting with one another. It is only the politicians and the religious experts that always create the problem for them.
Let the Igbo/Yoruba Internet Warriors stop the war of words and abuse of each other’s tribe forthwith. I say this because their unsolicited act so far is dangerous to inter-ethnic relations, national cohesion and unity.