Muyiwa Dixon

 Muyiwa Dixon is this week’s guest blogger on Lolo’s Thoughts. He is a petroleum engineering graduate of the University of Ibadan. He loves to read, play football, and write in his leisure time. Muyiwa is an advocate of a new and progressive Nigeria.

In Nigeria, it’s commonplace to balance or justify the ills and failures of a present administration with that of the previous. For every devastating error perpetrated by the All Progressive Congress, it’s admirers and supporters find solace in making reference to one or more similar errors which had also been committed by Peoples Democratic Party during its long and debilitating tenure.

There are no progressive benchmarks, no encouraging standards, no intelligent comparisons. The standards are always established on negative pedestals. If we critically cross-examine the issues that have besieged us as a country, there’s nothing new, neither are there any extraterrestrial influences as some may suggest.

It’s been the same cycle of unfortunate events confronted with impractical and deficient attempts at what appears to be called solutions. Absolute loyalty to the progressive course of a nation cannot be determined by weak elements such as friendships, “godfatherism,” excuses, religion, ethnicity, nepotism and favoritism.

Let me state categorically that the many excuses adopted by APC are not any different from those tendered by PDP when they abused power in their 16 years of disastrous leadership. They blamed the military! These twisted lot trade blames endlessly, yet they are bedfellows who engage in all kinds of “erotic socio-economic orgies and doggies” at the expense of the people and the future of this nation.

Bola Tinubu’s response to a question fielded by a protester struck the same rhythm. The blame was once again credited to the opposition party. “Nigerians are confronted with challenges established by the 16 years of misrule by PDP, we are just two years into this administration.” He said.

Isn’t it time this excuse expires? Is APC asking for another 16 years as well so they can fix the 16 years of misrule by PDP? Were these problems not in existence when APC pleasantly moaned out its manifesto and promises with orgasmic delight?

When Nigerians went out en mass to vote out the directionless leadership of PDP, she was already involved in a tragic disaster. She had lost to this unfortunate crop of politicians 16 years of her vital organs and by extension her functionality. In this life threatening wreckage, she desperately sought for help.

In the event of any accident, two types of specialized personnel are needed: traffic police officers and ambulance personnel. Here, Nigeria needed ambulance personnel urgently and not a traffic police officer, it was a matter of life or death. The modern day ambulance is equipped with first aid emergency machines to give as much temporary medical assistance to the casualty on the spot before being transported to the hospital.

Buhari’s campaign was full of re-assuring promises. Having contested for the job four times, Nigerians likened him to the proverbial ambulance personnel who would arrive proactively on the scene and administer immediate help to stabilize the “patient country.” Nigerians anticipated a glimmer of hope till it took another six months before the surgical team meant to put the already lifeless country together got nominated.

The country took a downward plunge as this administration gave a deeper meaning to directionless. Prices of commodities increased astronomically while the Naira’s impotence was further aggravated as it lost any hope of a temporary erection. Ethnic and religious agitations became extreme as casualties with dismembered body parts increased in their numbers and were left gasping for life with no sight of an ambulance in place. Once again, when it mattered most, the sirens were silent.

Alas, the president turned out to be a policeman, but not a qualified one in the real sense. He was vibrantly involved in a reckless, false and fruitless investigation of what was responsible for the incidents and accidents while the casualties drifted with distress to the world beyond. The misfortune of the deceased lay in the hopelessness of selective, inconclusive investigations and false promises.

Right now the president of the world’s most populous black nation’s state of health is shrouded in secrecy. The kind of thick darkness that inspires PHCN and other spiritual entities that thrive in environments bereft of light. His health condition is guarded jealously by a failed and recycled ruling class that has consistently disrespected and abused the destiny of Nigerians.

Many ignorant Nigerians have defended his mysterious disappearance without putting into consideration how badly it affects the image of the country and the fact that it betrays the confidence reposed in him by the electorate.

Perhaps the next justification would be, “after all, a serving PDP president was absent without official leave for over 30 days before his demise. Mr President has spent just a couple of days, let’s be patient.”

This serves as a clarion call to all right thinking Nigerian youths – withdraw your cooperation from mediocrity. The faulty foundation of Nigeria’s political structure has always failed and will continue to fail. Wasting your support on a failure because he has a facial resemblance to your father will not move the country forward. Questioning the proper procedures and execution of justice over an obvious crime perpetrated by your town man or church member won’t improve the country. Justifying senseless killings in the name of a god or unconscious evil spirits will not turn Nigeria into heaven overnight.

Every time life avails us the opportunity to right a wrong, it should be fixed aptly. Like Tafa Balogun, a former inspector general of police who refused to instill discipline in the Nigerian Police and was later beaten blue black by junior officers, we may someday be at the mercy of the wrongs we refuse to correct.

I implore that we re-orientate ourselves and make the reasonable and necessary difference at every given opportunity for the benefit of Nigeria. Our recycled leaders, who have been in the corridors of power for as long as my memory can recall, have misruled this country long enough with reckless abandon. They have exhausted their usefulness. We should therefore cease from expecting any good from them.

Be introspective, don’t be a political tool, re-examine your undying loyalty for that politician who stole your state dry. Senseless and destructive affiliations in the name of religion and ethnicity will leave us not only stagnant but retrogressive. Believe in yourself and advocate sincerity of purpose and change.

Fellow Nigerians, excellence has no ethnicity or religion and it is not a title. It simply prospers on an individual and collective resolve to intelligently do that which is right at all times. Let’s relegate our weak and unproductive interests and focus on saving this nation.

Maybe in this simple resolve lies the sound of the siren and the arrival of the ambulance we earnestly desire.