SUMUS OMNES IN MANU DEI

Here we go again, celebrating another meaningless landmark in our long history of failures. June 12 was meant to celebrate just what? Truncated democracy? Well, isn't our democracy still truncated? Wouldn't justice have been done to the memory of MKO if what he died for had materialised? Are we better off now as a nation than in those darkest of days? We celebrated 'Democracy Day' on May 29, with Independence Day celebrations to follow on October 1. What all of these have in common is the absolute nonsense we have made of their significance; they are dispiriting hokums and evidences of their meaninglessness abound. Why we continue to expend so much on failures is beyond anyone with a modicum of common sense.

Successes and victories are robustly celebrated the world over; not in Nigeria, where our avidness at celebrating failures is world-renowned. Our warped sense of achievement is legendary; our natatorium of idiocies Olympic-sized. The level of corruption has never been higher in our country, and people's sense of abandonment has never been more stark. Our fecund years are behind us and we continue to gasp for breath in the well of confusion we have dug by ourselves. Hope is in intensive care while desperation reigns supreme. The urgency for the need to transit from a failing nation to a recovering one could not be more evident. The possibility of the transition from a failing nation to a failed one could not be more distinct. Anyone calling this scaremongering could not be more befuddled. Why bury our heads in sand?

Events of recent days have proved to be a distillation of our innumerable afflictions: allegations of investigators obtaining truckloads of dollars from the investigated (cue the SEC debacle and the fuel subsidy regime) What have become of previous lengthy and expensively constituted investigations into hideous malpractices in high places? What about those that have been indicted and still have their ill-gotten wealth intact, and in fact, multiplying? Have we forgotten Halliburton? What are we doing about the distastefully high cost of governance, while the general populace go hungry? Is the state of our education better than two decades ago? What about health provision? Are our hospitals up and down the land better equipped and administrated than twenty years ago? Oh, what about power supply? Are we nearer to any solution than five decades ago? Aren't our so-called airports an absolute disgrace to the nation? Lest I forget, is the rule of law any more potent than even a decade ago? Is the general level of safety higher than before? What then, just what then, are we celebrating?

Not until we go back to basics, not until we jettison our proclivity for profligacy shall we begin to enjoy the fruits of true democracy. Not until we begin to have conscientious individuals walking the corridors of power shall we see any appreciable improvement in the lives of the common people. For now, though, we are all in the hands of God. Sumus omnes in manu Dei.