By Fr Pat Amobi Chukwuma
The year 2024 is growing old gradually. It is now three months old. A child that is three months old is no longer regarded as a newborn. He or she is now an old born child. I could remember at the age of three months, I was already planning unconsciously how to embark on my earthly mission.
I was breastfed for one year, after which I started cracking and eating palm kernels. My birth on 1st April, which is fools’ day, made me to open my eyes wide as soon as I left my mother’s comfortable womb into this ugly world. My birthday falls on Easter Monday this year. I have many stories to tell on that special day dedicated to fools. Indeed, I was born a fool. But by God’s grace I ended up becoming a wise fool.
We are now in the month of March. In the Book titled ‘Julius Caesar’ by William Shakespeare, the famous soothsayer warned Caesar to beware of the Ides of March as he (Caesar) was about to troupe into the Capitol to celebrate the famous day. The Ides of March is the 74th day in the Roman calendar which corresponds to 15th March.
It was a day marked by various religious observances and it was the deadline for settling debts in ancient Rome. It was on this remarkable festive day that King Julius Caesar was assassinated by his foes including his bosom friend called Brutus.
When Brutus gave him the fatal sword-blow Caesar shouted, “Et tu Brute?” which means: ‘Also you, Brutus?’ In this month of March we must beware of perceived friends and foes wherever we find ourselves in this country Nigeria. Since we all live around the River Niger Area, we must be careful as we swim in the deep river in order to avoid fatal drowning.
In my primary school days, we normally competed in school march-past on May 27 (Children’s Day) and 1st October (Independence Day). My bosom friend were always chosen as flag-bearers. We held the two poles of the school flag tight with one hand and then swing the other free hand as we march towards the judges’ stand where we did ‘Eyes right!’ I wondered why we never did ‘Eyes left!’
Are the eyes not comfortable with the left? It was always a thug of war for me and my flag colleague as we battled with the wind trying to snatch the flag from us. It was a battle with visible and invisible forces to keep the flag flying in the right position.
From the starting point of the annual competition, the two of us holding the school flag, stood in front. The other selected pupils stood in threes. We began by doing ‘left-right!’ As soon as the conductor shouted, “Forward march!” we moved systematically by swinging the arms uniformly. We were never directed to march backward. However we often did “About turn!” for some minutes as part of the process of reorganizing ourselves. It was also part of the show.
At the end of the schools marching competition, the results were announced by the organizing personnel in the range of first, second and third positions. The school that came first was awarded a magnificent Cup. The second and third winners were given smaller cups or consolation prizes.
The winning schools danced home triumphantly while the unfortunate ones go home mournfully. For a number of years my school carried the trophy because I was involved as a wise fool. We marched to success while others marched to failure. Our success was credited to the awareness of the Ides of May and the Ides of October in those better days.
In my primary and secondary school days, we did forward- march. Almost after half a century we are now doing backward-march as Nigerians. When the former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, came to office, there were uncertainties in the state. As a visionary governor he asked this vital question: “Are we cursed or are we the cause?” In the course of his governance he discovered that ‘we’ were not cursed, rather ‘we’ were the cause.
Drastically he moved Anambra State successfully to an enviable level. If Peter Obi was allowed to become the President of Nigeria as most electorates in the 25 February 2023 Presidential Election had wished, this country would have moved forward. As a nation we were not cursed; rather we are the cause. Election rigging is one of the causes of our backward march.
The fathers of Nigeria’s Independence fought tooth and nail to wrestle power from the British Colonial Masters. The Independence which took place on 1st October 1960 was celebrated in pomp and pageantry. The post-Independence National Anthem which was composed by Frances Berda was titled “Nigeria, We Hail Thee.” It was used till 1978 when it was recomposed to read “Arise, O Compatriots.” Are we still hailing Nigeria?
Are the compatriots still arising? The latter reformed National Anthem ended with “The labours of our leaders past shall never be in vain.” From the look of things today, everything has fallen apart and the center can no longer hold. The founding fathers of this country certainly would be mourning in the ancestral world because the labours of our past few good leaders have been in vain.
Every day we fall from grace to grass because of bad leadership and corruption. The anti-people policies have crippled the nation. Life has become a burden for the masses. Our currency the Naira is almost an ordinary piece of paper in the global market. Insurgency and kidnapping for ransom and for blood have jeopardized our survival.
As things stand presently in this country, we are marching to woeful failure. Above all, hunger is mesmerizing the Nigerian masses to the point of no return. Of course a hungry man is an angry man. Hunger and anger are identical twins. Thus, Nigerians are hungry and angry because of bad leadership and economic hardship.
It is so bad to such an extent that Ukraine, which is at war for two years now with Russia, is passionately donating grains to Nigeria at cross-roads. The Ukrainian President Zelensky is waging an external war and at the same time trying to pacify the internal war raging in the stomachs of hungry Nigerians. He is simultaneously fighting the powerful enemy and feeding the Giant of Africa. This gesture is a great shame to our leaders in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Arms of Government.
Injustice is the bedrock of Nigeria’s march to failure. In other words, we can never march to success without justice. Corruption is another cause of our backward march. Some of the past and present leaders have embezzled billions of money in the national treasury thereby starving the citizenry.
Thus the rich continues to grow richer and the poor poorer. There is urgent need to go back to the drawing board and find solutions to our man-made problems. The effective gospel to preach to a hungry person is to put sufficient food on his or her table. It is unfortunate that we have reached the point whereby hungry Nigerians break into warehouses to loot foodstuffs.
Wherever they see smoke or smell the aroma of food, they rush there to loot the food still on fire. Even, they forcefully stop trailers conveying foodstuffs and bundle everything away. It is a pity. We are marching to oblivion. God, where are you?
