[ad_1]
NIGERIA today is òpuriche. Everything about the country right now, our government and its intractable petroleum services to the nation are òpuriche. During our days as pupils of Awomukwu Central School, Ikwuano, Abia State, we had among us a girl who went by that name: Òpuriche. Made into a sentence, the name comes to Ó pùrùíchè (it is distinct). It means: Distinct. But as a name, it is Òpùríchè, pronounced as one is asking a question: Ò pùrùíchè? Those tonal colourations make the Igbo language beautiful. As a boy coming from Ibadan, that name struck me differently with its profundity and as a speaker of the Yoruba language; the tonal marks would bring the name to: do-do-mi-do. Yoruba is another beautiful, tonal language.
Gbátúèyò is one of the numerous derogatory words that came into Nigeria’s political lexicon during the quest to conquer the government of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) pre-2015. We have so many of them, including the one by which Professor Wole Soyinka described the former president’s wife. That successful conquest of 2015 brought the òpuriche All Progressives Congress (APC) to power. The word, gbatueyo was used by the then Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State to describe the government of Dr. GoodluckEbele Jonathan. That Gbátúèyò description was about the highest point of the low at which Governor Fashola could hold the Jonathan administration. It was the worst possible score he could give Jonathan and his conquered administration. That description was applauded by the raging band of Nigerians who wished that the Eldorado of the type APC was building in their minds should come quickly. The well-designed APC imaginary castle was a mind’s delight.
But it was a castle in the air because today, from all indications, Nigeria is in the strong right hand grip of the wrong people. I don’t think it is difficult for Nigerians to determine – in a free environment – that the APC government is Òpùríchè in the realm of the Gbátúèyò. The painful addition to the current brand of gbatueyo ravaging our country is that it has come to Nigeria and Nigerians at a humongous cost. When Fashola used the Yoruba word to describe the foibles that were the hallmark of a tottering PDP government led by Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, never did Nigerians know what was in store for them.
In arriving at the conclusion that the erstwhile government was gbatueyo, he had laid forward some solid verbal principles and postulated some unfounded theories on how to generate and distribute adequate electricity in and for the country. He likened power transmission and distribution to gathering about a number of “I-better-pass-my-neighbour” generators. He added that all that was needed was harnessing the electricity produced by these generating sets, distribute it and just sell to Nigerians. He simplified it that way – saying it was like that.
Meanwhile, at the programme, a town hall meeting of leaders and supporters of the APC held in Lagos, where he spoke about this phenomenon, he was described as “our host, a man with dignified humility, and the action governor who has turned Lagos around for good”. The man who was the MC of that town hall meeting gave this description of Fashola in the presence of the candidate of the APC then, MuhammaduBuhari, his running mate, Professor YemiOsinbajo and his predecessor in office, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Fashola was definite in his submission about Nigeria’s power issues when he said: “We do not have power, not because power is difficult to generate; we are in darkness because the economy is being run by ‘gbatueyos’ – incompetent people.” When we expand the sectors beyond just power and stretch it to the economy, infrastructure, security, petroleum, education and so on, we would realise that Nigeria is in a deep mess as always. The only difference is that today, with the current leadership, we have sunk deeper. Nigerians are not just dealing with mere, floating gbatueyos, the type that Fashola described, we are now dealing with solid gbatueyos that are also wicked, vile, uncaring, liars, aloof and unfeeling. We now have a new insight into what gbatueyo is.
Before the election, after which Fashola was appointed as the minister in charge of power, works and housing, he said “What Buhari and Osinbajo bring to the table is the integrity that they represent that has characterised the entire period of their public life. With them you know that certain lines would be drawn.” There is not a doubt that the world has seen the kind of lines drawn. The lines erased could also be seen. Obviously, the most pronounced of the lines they have drawn is that which has separated the country from economic sanity and competence. Competitive edge among a section of Nigerians has also been erased while confidence among many has been murdered. The lines are profound. They have not been falling in place for the country.
For instance, looking at the ongoing electioneering campaigns, some things appear utterly ridiculous and incredible, yet we condone and just watch them. We explain them away and find convenient excuses for outright criminality. That’s what listening to some political parties’ supporters in their retort to selective issues in the campaigns makes one feel. They sound like they are performing magic. They sound like they have been drowned in a spell, a debilitating spell. Otherwise, it is quite awesome how some Nigerians have remained resolute in their decision to continue to romance and frolic with people who have turned them to near-beggars. When a deity cannot make one’s situation better, it is in one’s interest to leave the deity or make the deity to leave one alone.
Watching Patrick, the main character in Patrick Star Show, in one episode of the programme recently, gave the same thought and vibe as trying to understand political party supporters in Nigeria. Patrick Star was in a conversation with some people while at home. In the conversation, he was fiddling with a toothpick and was picking his teeth with it. While at it, his flossing device pulled out his missing golf club. He looked at what he had brought out and exclaimed in elation: “Oh! My missing golf club!” The people in the conversation congratulated him and invited him to a good evening of golf. There was no expression of confusion by anyone in the room. There was no curiosity. There was no questioning the act. They just clapped, laughed and moved on. It’s just like what we see at campaigns in Nigeria. Patrick Star Show is a cartoon programme and with cartoon, all things are possible.
In like manner, the possibility of the government doing something in favour of the masses in the current petroleum situation in the country is a mirage. Telling us the truth and staying true to the truth in the issues of fuel importation, supply, pricing and subsidy is like seeing SpongeBob Square Pants in Nigerian pidgin. It’s forlon – like expecting aòpurichegbatueyo to do unlike a gbatueyo.
[ad_2]
