By Jude Atupulazi
The asylum is variously defined as a place of safety or refuge to hide; a place of protection or restraint for one or more classes of the disadvantaged, especially the mentally ill. It can also be defined as the protection (physical and legal) afforded by such a place for political refugees. But at the core of all these definitions is ”Safety” or ”Refuge”. So, whether the person there is mentally ill or not, it is a place one would ordinarily seek some comfort away from certain dangers outside.
In the classic example of a place where the mentally sick are haboured, it is usually run by specialists well versed in psychology. This is because the kind of people there in this particular case, are not those that are easy to deal with. We usually refer to them here as mad people. That is why any time you hear the word, ”asylum” in these parts, the first picture that comes to your mind is a place where mad people are kept.
Such places can be scary for most people as no one can predict the next move of a mad person. They can be smiling at you this minute, only to attack you in the next. This is why working there is usually the exclusive preserve of those with specialized training.
But when by some chance, those mad men seize power there and take over the place, it becomes even scarier. There will simply be chaos there and anything you see there, you take it. Nigeria is like such an asylum where mad people have taken over.
Indeed, what happens every day in this country proves to doubting Thomases that our country (asylum) has been taken over by mad people (bad leaders and politicians). You see that in their words, actions and body language. They spew forth, utter bunkum, most of the time to such an extent that you wonder what kind of madness they suffer from.
The major issue in Nigeria today is hardship. This has turned many citizens from rational human beings to something that we don’t know. When some are not pushed into committing suicide, others are inclined to hurt their fellow humans in several ways and take maniacal delight in doing that. Some say it is depression which can manifest in many ways. They could be right.
In this country at the moment, the major trigger of depression is hardship. While some are wont to commit suicide, others want to channel their depression and anger to those perceived to have caused the hardship: those in government. That is why Nigerians have chosen the first day of August this year to show their anger, frustration and depression against the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is a mass protest which cannot be pinned on any one person. This is so because the hardship has no boundary. It makes no distinction between those from the north or from the south. It doesn’t look at one’s religion. It is clear enough, even to kids.
But bizarrely, one moronic presidential spokesman, Mr Bayo Onanuga, a supposed educated person, has decided to pin it on a particular individual and his supporters. That individual is none other than the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the last general elections, Mr Peter Obi, as well as his supporters known as the Obidients.
Onanuga’s response to the impending protest is typical of those who always look for opportunities to give a particular geographical zone a bad name in order to hang it. It did not start today. A man ridicules their religion in Canada and they go after the Igbos in Nigeria. Something perceived to be bad is said about their prophet in Germany and the Igbos in Nigeria are made to pay for it. A political unrest takes place in Lagos and Igbo shops and businesses are targeted for destruction and looting. In fact, every intractable problem in Nigeria is blamed on the Igbos and this makes you wonder if there is nothing they cannot do to nail the Igbos, who, bizarrely enough, they do not want to leave the contraption called Nigeria.
Onanuga’s action is further proof that mad men have taken over the Nigerian asylum and it has become ever more difficult to determine who are the mad men or their minders in that asylum.
Of course, Onanuga’s gaffe has been receiving wide condemnation by even his kinsmen, but I have chosen to share a piece on his bad verses written by my friend and emeritus chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Anambra State Council, Mr Victor Agusiobo, who is known to have little patience for fools and I’m sure that as at the time he wrote his piece his mind must have been seething with rage. But I do hope that by now he has cooled enough for him to be able to maintain his sanity in this chaotic clime.
Read his little piece and draw your own conclusions.
Understanding Onanuga’s Bereavement
By Victor Agusiobo
In a moment that tried to justify the trivialities of governance, a certain former resident of Aso Rock, once wrote lucidly about the presence of witches in that President’s abode.
At first glance, the ‘witch’ story presents a patently unbelievable tale and alibi to the recurrence of abysmal performance of many successive governments in Nigeria.
But experience and the stubbornness of ineptitude in the polity seem to confer a strange verity to the Aso Rock witches and wizard tale. Otherwise, how can one possibly begin to explain some of the actions and words from the Presidency?
How could an Onanuga, an elevated presidential spokesman, have trivialized the anger and resentment of Nigerians over the excruciating hunger and deprivation in the land by suggesting that such frustrations are instigated by Labour Party and their leader, Peter Obi? Good Lord! Does this make sense to Onanuga?
This piece is obviously not about Peter Obi. If Onanuga had blamed even pupils of a primary school or a community of monkeys, in fact, anyone for that matter, this piece would still be as germane.
It is therefore, an attempt to help Onanuga make sense of his high station in government; to help put a wedge to his rather infantile attempt to play on the intelligence and agony of Nigerians.
It is important to remind the presidential spokesman that he is yet to advertise the policies and programmes of his principal for them to make sense to Nigerians and compel their sacrifice and patience thereby.
As a professional colleague, it has become imperative to let Onanuga put the blame of whatever may happen tomorrow to Nigeria, squarely on where it resides. And one may ask, where?
Definitely, if there’s a protest tomorrow, Onanuga should be able to blame some distasteful cues from government that depict mindless and insensitive opulence against a deprived and tormented people.
He must understand the role hunger plays in the restiveness of humans and then come to terms that there’s real and palpable hunger in the country. The alarming profligacy and depravity in government in the midst of increased homelessness, inability of more Nigerians to procure the basic staples, should bother the government spokesman.
How could Onanuga have missed the import of the present state of Nigeria where he was so busy chasing and wanting to embrace shadows? His latest outing on the protest issue, presents the spokesman as possibly an externalizer, a character, which, in some persons, is a frank symptom of borderline personality disorder. Escapism is surely not the best method in image making.
One would have expected that by now, the presidential spokesman would be suggesting to his principal to address the nation on a number of issues: outline pragmatic policies of government to improve security in order to allow more farmers go back to work; announce the state of government policy on duty free import of grains and what measures government is putting in place to hobble possible hoarding. How government will help the private sector pay the Minimum Wage. What skills acquisition programmes are available for young people and then, call for patience and understanding. But no, he sought for a low hanging fruit. Let’s blame the hunger in the land and the intended protest on Labour Party and let’s get back to sleep. Cheap, low, perfunctory, unimaginative and an insult on our collective intelligence. This offers a glimpse to how much of dullards those in government consider the citizens.
Life has shown that persons who execute wars so well, end up as poor managers of men in peace time. Perhaps, that explains why Onanuga, a veteran of guerilla journalism, would allow his prized ink to easily descend to bathos.
