A masquerade (Egungun) should take heed to the warnings of his information if he’s to make it again to base safely. He might take liberties within the alleyways and rural roads, however when the procession is heading in the direction of the expressway the place autos zip alongside at breakneck pace, the masquerade have to be attentive to the directions of his information, lest an auto accident cut back him to simply one other orthopaedic casualty, a humiliating climbdown from the olympian heights of ancestor-hood.
Thus, when Fuji musician Abass Obesere, in his distinctive sassy fashion, sang, “Egungun watch out, na specific you dey go”, the tune rapidly caught on, serving as a warning, not simply to masquerades who’re revered as representatives of the ancestors, but additionally to the final society. When the choreographed pandemonium of the procession seems to have developed a racy sort of velocity even with out self exertion, maybe the cavalcade is heading downhill!
Mirage
Residing in Nigeria and having to expertise the identical foibles that catapult us backwards to the beginning blocks whereas our co-runners are breasting the tape, is an excessive sport of types. One republic comes, one republic goes, what was as soon as thought of a prospect turns into a mirage with successive generations of leaders outdeviling their predecessors.
Flagellated by the harmattan of lean instances, we’re suffocated by the choking déja vu’s of realizing that we’ve handed by this valley of the shadow of need earlier than — and shall achieve this until Kingdom come. In contrast to the nice American civil rights activist, Fannie Lou Hamer, it seems we will by no means be sick and uninterested in being sick and drained.
Egungun watch out! The social media is awash with contending covens of hate casting spells on gullible youth to affix forces for the Final Rebellion, the one that can finish all uprisings. The final time I checked, there have been nonetheless many individuals languishing within the gulag on account of the final EndSARS protest. However for continued efforts by conscientious activists like Shehu Sani, Femi Falana and several other civil society teams, these in jail would have been fully forgotten by now.
Final July, within the warmth of claims and counter-claims by many events, Amnesty Worldwide challenged the Lagos State authorities to reveal the identities of 103 #ENDSARS victims allegedly billed for mass burial after three years within the morgue. The protest which had began as a rage in opposition to police brutality ultimately grew to become politicised and weaponised by these combating for the political soul of the nation.
Whereas that unfinished enterprise was inherited by the Tinubu administration and efforts are ongoing to safe the discharge of these nonetheless in jail, those that thrive in circumstances of assured confusion have been cloning posters and protest supplies pinched from Kenya, urging Nigerian youths to emulate their Kenyan counterparts.
Unusual
I discover that marketing campaign unusual as a result of, whereas any group can affect one other regardless of dimension, Nigerian youths have at all times demonstrated the capability to do their very own factor their very own approach at their very own chosen time. They didn’t want any exterior stimulus to reject the Anglo-Nigerian Defence Pact that was negotiated between the Nigerian authorities and the UK in 1958, signed in 1960 and abrogated in 1962 attributable to public protests led by Nigerian college students.
Egungun watch out. The wanton looting, arson, maiming and savagery that attended the Kenyan protests weren’t a part of the agenda of the organisers. The day after, when Nairobi’s central enterprise district was now not recognisable, it grew to become clear that another darkish forces had additionally come to the social gathering.
The irony is that no society could make progress and not using a tradition of protests, disputations and vigorous mental intercourse. Final month, we celebrated the outstanding occasions of June 12, 1993, as a result of it was the day a brand new Nigeria was born after which strangled at delivery. Such savagery! We had not solely protested; we had made the nation ungovernable! Each season has its personal costume. We should always not confuse harmattan with winter.
By way of how we will make our nation higher, I’m fully open to any sort of developmental concepts that we will use to assist our folks conquer present challenges and reside a greater life. In Nigeria, as in lots of different locations, political events are mere alphabets. Watch what they do; not what they are saying. Any fool can write a manifesto. What issues is how the ability of consultant democracy is deployed. Our folks have the capability to recognise good governance after they see it.
Egungun watch out! The headlong rush of Nigeria’s First Republic in the direction of perdition was not unpredictable. It was simply that the principle actors had been too steeped of their happy-go-lucky methods and couldn’t spare the time to note what the streets had been saying.
Titanic
Doyin Okupe could not precisely suit your description of a principled politician. The extra uncharitable of his critics say he’s a political harlot dedicated solely to the ideology of the oesophagus. Nonetheless— honest is honest, in distinction with a few of his friends, Okupe is a certified medical physician and will have a day job if he so chooses. I’ve learnt not to have a look at the messenger within the Nigerian public area. It’s the message that counts.
The opposite day, Okupe was at his most lucid when he in contrast the Nigerian scenario with the final revelry on the Titanic earlier than the ‘unsinkable’ ship sank. The Titanic was a giant ship with many flooring. The highest deck was the very definition of luxurious. The decrease decks had been full of decrease class those who weren’t even counted when planning for lifeboats.
When the Titanic began sinking, water began filling up from below the ship, the decrease decks the place the decrease class passengers had been. Whereas these within the decrease flooring had been struggling and dying, these within the top notch cabins on the upper flooring had no concept that their finish was close to. They had been making merry within the grand ballroom with champagne and advantageous eating, nonetheless residing the lie that their ship was unsinkable. They appeared round them in any respect the luxurious fittings and regardless of all of the indicators that they had been in hassle, they only didn’t get it. The band continued to play till the very finish.
Okupe’s punchline was that Nigeria was in hassle; these on the backside realize it, whereas these on the prime assume it’s enterprise as traditional.
In these circumstances, you’d anticipate that the federal government would intentionally domesticate a broad base of associates and collaborators to assist bridge the notion hole between what the federal government claims to be doing and what the folks assume it’s doing. Sadly, what we’ve right here is that the person appointed by the president to manage the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, doesn’t have the temperament to be a staff participant. If he continues like this, he will certainly win extra enemies for President Tinubu.
Pola-Pola
Telling Senator Ireti Kingibe who disagreed together with his cement and mortar mentality to “go and hug a transformer” is the sort of lingo that space boys in Mushin or Onitsha essential market would use. It’s an infra dig for a minister of the federal republic. And to assume that Senate President Akpabio then went forward on the event of the flag-off of the development of a bus terminal (see how low we’ve sunk) to orally throw the involved senator below the bus! Gladly, I hear that the identical Akpabio is now cobbling collectively some sort of truce mechanism.
Egungun watch out! When the bata drum turns into too stridently loud, polá-polá, it might be about to burst. Hear Ola Rotimi: ”When the tortoise is occurring a mindless journey and also you say to the tortoise, ‘brother tortoise, brother tortoise, when will you be sensible and are available again house; eehn! The tortoise will say: Not till I’ve been disgraced.”
