For the Nation or the Gastro?

The concept of nation is highly debated. Scholars argue whether we can designate Nigeria as a nation because of its heterogeneous nature. Yet, I deploy it in the pedestrian way it is engaged in political discourse to refer to Nigeria. Gastro, on the other hand, may refer to the stomach. Still, I extend its meaning beyond that to label anything that gives momentary pleasure rather than the long-term benefit that is diversely advantageous to all, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion, and even sexuality. I prefix my thought with this definition to lay the ground for my questions and concerns about the just concluded election and broadly to ask why you do anything or support any cause.

I have always lived in the consciousness of legacy and structure that outlasts me because I was raised by parents who thought beyond the moment. My father was so conscious of tomorrow that he hardly spent any money on personal comfort or clothing. He bought acres of land in and around Kaduna and owned several market stalls rented out to people because he thought about his old age and posterity. One time we visited one of his lands, 29 acres of land, I was about 12 years old, and I asked him what this bush would do; he said he could build an estate on it and collect rent that he could use to sponsor my education abroad. He saw the possibility of housing in a forest. Sad to announce that he never lived to do any of that for himself or his children because Nigeria ruined him so much that anyone who did not know the story of this valiant man would think he was lazy in his youth. Everything that man worked for over 40 years in KD was burnt to hashes in less than a twinkling of an eye, and he was matched on the chin. He lived less than two years before he passed. On the other hand, my mother would sponsor the education of other people's children because she believed in their future. When my mother talked to other parents, she would say, "e je ka ma ranti ati sun wa" (let's always keep the future in mind); other times, she would say, "let's prepare our children for the future and not the past. Let's give them something to run with when we go where the elders always go"

I share this deeply personal story to say that the nation and its future matter.

Which brings me to my questions; why are you supporting the "charade" that took place over the weekend of the election? Why are you demanding less from leadership but asking much from followership? Why do you support your candidates? Is it because of the tribe, the temporary feeling of he won over long-term consequences, and the decay of the nation? Why do you abhor accountability from government-paid institutions and agents because they serve a myopic interest? Why are you happy that you won, but the nation lost? Will you be satisfied ten years from now with your choice? With the education your children are receiving in Nigeria, can they compete favorably elsewhere? If any of the candidates were to pilot a plane you are boarding, would you fly?

I have more questions, but I will leave it at that?

Years ago, my sponsor gave me the book "For women and the nation: Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti of Nigeria" by Johnson-Odim & Mba, which chronicles the trials and travails of Nigeran feminist icon Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti in pursuit of the nation's advancement. That book, among many others, makes me ask the questions in all my endeavors, for whom am I doing this? For nation or Gastro?

I dont need to "chook" my mouth into what is happening. My basic needs are met. My killish arrive in 2 days. If I keep doing all I know to do, trusting my ancestors, hard work, and God, I will be fine. But is it just about me? I knew pretty early in my new environment that Nigeria would follow you anywhere you go in many ways I can write about someday.

Also, I know that this post doesn't have any capacity in the Pentecostal fashion to make you cry to the altar and say that you change your ways or repent. But I will leave you with this excerpt from one of the prefaces of Condoleeza Rice's memoir "No Higher Honor". In this excerpt, she responded to a friend's query asking her why she kept the portrait of Seward, who purchased Alaska on behalf of the US.

" One day I was talking with the then-defense minister of Russia, Sergei Ivanov. He'd recently visited Alaska. "It's so beautiful," he said. "It reminds me of Russia." "Sergei, it used to be Russia," I quipped. We're all glad that Seward bought Alaska. The portraits were not just decoration; they were a reminder of something that I often told the press and others: Today's headlines and History's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter. In that vein, Dean Acheson and I shared more than having had the honor of serving in turbulent times; we shared a favorite quote from the English historian C. V. Wedgwood: "History is lived forwards, but it is written in retrospect. We know the end before we consider the beginning, and we can never wholly recapture what it was to know the beginning only."

In case you miss the point, "Today's headlines and History's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter."

In the words of Inibehe Effiong, "History will vindicate the just"

Posted on Facebook on February 28, 2023

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