By Hassan Ahmad
Isn’t it surprising that despite the widespread public outcry, there is no real effort by any arm of government, traditional rulers or influential individuals to resolve lingering strike action by university teachers? This is just one of numerous simple but logical questions we should ask ourselves.
As diverse as Nigeria is culturally, religiously, regionally, and even developmentally, her elites are the most united people you can find. But this unity managed to be sustained with a price: making sure the masses were united in hunger, unemployment, insecurity, lack of good education, access to poor amenities and others too numerous to mention.
For instance, only ignorance would make Christians in Plateau revolt against Ja’iz bank’s reconstruction of the Terminus market based on a PPP agreement with the state government. While a Christian-dominated government sees its benefits, the common Christian masses wouldn’t see it that way.
Isn’t it poverty that makes the northern Muslim send his child to the city to be fed by the public under the façade of pursuing Islamic knowledge? This same man would use all his energy to defend a politician from his region because he doesn’t want another man from another area to be his president.
Then you’ll have another set of educated and informed masses. The elites use this set as defenders. They are the intermediaries between the elites and the ordinary people and serve as their social media warlords. They defend their misdoings and praise their good acts no matter how unsatisfying. These people are stuck on a narrow path. They are not meant to be offered jobs in “juicy” government organizations and parastatals according to the design made by the elites.
President Buhari, in his Sallah message, mentioned, “We don’t have jobs in government anymore. With technology, governments are becoming smaller, nimble and efficient”. He did not lie, but the truth remains that there will always be jobs for the children of the elites.
What is more frightening is that you’ll find even the educated folks among the masses fighting the shackles of poverty not to better themselves and show a pathway to others but to belong to the elite class and continue with the abysmal state of dualism.
In making sure they create a small world for themselves and their progeny, the elites put aside their differences – religion, region or political affiliation. This, in no small measure, makes them comfortable. They know that no matter who is at the helm of affairs, their businesses, investments, properties and status remain intact and unchallenged.
Hence, a business mogul from Kano can go to Lagos to establish a refinery without being uneasy about it. Likewise, another owner of a travelling company from the east can have his vehicles go round the country to fetch him money. Again, a Northern governor can give out his daughter in marriage to the son of a South-Western governor.
But then, when you come down to the masses, the tomato seller from the North is the number one victim of regional tension in the South. So also, the Igbo trader who finds his way to the remotest village in the North becomes the victim of religious tension—forgetting that they are all victims of misrule and deliberate segregation from the elites.
As the situation grows further, it becomes more dangerous from the masses killing their relatives in the northeast in the name of establishing an Islamic caliphate to those killing their brothers in the southeast as separatists and bandits from the northwest terrorizing the poverty-ridden villagers.
In all these, while the masses are the perpetrators, the masses are also the victims. But things have already gone so bad. The elites, too, are not guaranteed safety if the advancing motorcade of the C-in-C can be attacked.
At this stage, the elites are under necessary, if not compulsory, reciprocity to make Nigeria stable again. The country has done so much for them in the past. The chickens are back home to roost. There is no need to point fingers at each other.
To do this, the government must make sure that social justice prevails over any sentimental arrangements that have been in place. The government must understand that there is too much illiteracy and poverty in the land, and since they are the primary tools that lead to criminality, efforts must be made to curb them.
The next administration can be said to be the most important in the history of our country. It mustn’t get it wrong.
To the masses, we should understand that we are at a crossroads. As we can see in our country’s situation, we need not be begged not to sell our votes. You can sell your votes at the expense of your safety. If things go south, the elites have places to go around the globe in their private jets. You and I will be left to face our deaths in the hands of exciting gun-wielding criminals. Some of us were already asked to take arms and defend ourselves in Zamfara and Katsina states. The handwriting is already written on the wall.
So please, don’t sell your votes and vote wisely.
Hassan Ahmad Usman is a student of economics at the Federal University of Lafia. He can be reached on basree177@gmail.com or 77hassan.a.u@gmail.com.
