Africa has everything to make it great is a slogan that has been in existence before my birth, even as I continue to wait for the greatness to manifest. The pre-colonial era saw a life lived in the jungle, people survived on the strength of might… Conquest was the norm.
The great Oyo Empire, that was said to have lasted for about 600 years, did not actually operate on sound ethos and ethics of democracy. Rather, it survived mainly on the strength of its army that were waging wars all over the place. The definition of life to the people of that empire was certainly different from what we now have.
On the other end, the United States of America (USA) has everything any society could wish to have to make a great living. Without any doubt or contradiction, America is a great country. But, alas, its people have found themselves on the wrong side of history as it stands today.
This is because they have chosen a wrong person to lead them at a very critical time in the affairs of the world. Even as the signs are obvious to anyone that the country has not been doing the right thing in the fight against the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump has continued to insist that he is doing the right thing.
Not even an appeal to the president by one of the best hands in the handling of infectious diseases, Dr. Fauci, that his people still love him…that they believe in him and would do whatever he wants them to do, and he should therefore, please, tell them to observe all the necessary precautions to stop further spreading of the virus, will make him see reason and act within the dictates of science.
Trump has refused to heed all pieces of professional advice. He, just a few days ago, repeated what he said early this year when he was told of the need to act fast to stem the virus… He said it will go away. However, the scourge has defeated him flatly and Americans are dying in their thousands.
Yet, the president has been blinded by crass politics, at the expense of the lives of his men and women, young and old, adults and children. He even said the virus cannot kill children, when scientific data have proved to the contrary. All over the world, he remains the only leader who has refused to see things in the same perspective as his people and even experts.
The killing of George Floyd by some white police officers in Minneapolis, last May, might not have gotten to the level of the global trend it assumed, if the American president had not been so soulless in his response to the killing.
The America election will hold in about three months and, should this man return to the White House, God forbid, the people may be in for a serious battle for survival ahead.
Back home, Nigeria is preparing for elections in two states, vis-a-vis Edo and Ondo. The Edo election will be held sometime next month, while that of Ondo State is scheduled for November, also this year. I have tried not to follow the campaigns because I expected nothing tangible from the gladiators. My spirit has, however, refused to shut out the two elections from my mind.
How on earth could a person, with his right senses, open his mouth to tell the people of Edo State that he deceived them to vote a candidate in 2016 and, now, he wants the same people he once deceived to trust him, again, with their votes for another candidate he had previous openly described as unfit to rule?
Because the people were so docile to allow him finish his story of deception without any hammer landing on his head, he thus went further to tell them how his estranged political son had plundered the state for four years.
If I may ask, can Adams Oshiomhole bring back all those that have lost their lives in the last four years because of the poor state of health facilities in the state? Can he bring back those who died in avoidable road crashes caused by the poor state of the roads? Can he restore back many others who had suffered one loss or the other, due to the bad leadership he fostered on the people?
Through the social media, especially YouTube, I have followed the campaign rallies of both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). But, unfortunately, none of the political parties has had any space for the common man in their jamborees. I mean there is no mention anywhere of what they would do to better the lots of the people or address the ravaging unemployment and the general decay in the system.
In Ondo State, the campaign rallies are not different from what obtains in Edo. Mudslinging, name-calling and wanton attacks on persons of the opposite camps are all we are witnessing in the so-called Sunshine State.
Happenings in the two states are the true reflection of the Nigerian State. For now, the government is totally detached from the people…there is no connect. We are here and they are there is the truth.
I listened to a speech, on Thursday, by the coalition of opposition groups in Nigeria and my take home from the eloquent address was the epitaph one of the principal actors said would be written in memory of our present president, Muhammadu Buhari: “Here lies the remains of a man who came to fight corruption but got consumed by corruption.”
Nothing else can better sum up the affairs of our president over the country and its people when history will remember him.
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