THE PROVERBIAL THANKSGIVING… a case of dog for goat
A friend jokingly
dropped this proverb, “when a dog refuses to bark, the owner will mistake it for
a goat and take it for thanksgiving”.
Believe me,
this is the case of my beloved country Nigeria. A country filled with people
who have refused to bark, not to mention bite.
A country with proven cases of naivety,
gullible, easy to deceive, emotional and very very sensitive, especially when
touched in the right places; religion, ethnicity, politics and the ‘cake formula’.
A country
that have forgotten conveniently when it last barked, a country of accidental
owners, penchants for mathematical default in finance, budget, allocation and
social welfare. My Nigeria, a country with the proverbial water but whose
citizens are shouting fowl because of the many soaps in their eyes.
My country
of 170 million people and a premium blessings of nature is headed towards an
unknown destination and only very few are willing to cry out.
Followers,
who against all the known principles of followership are really not bothered
about the many lives that are snuffed out for the slightest reasons as long as
it’s not their kinsmen and friends or family. A country, which does not have anything
against corruption as long as they are part of the spoils.
A country
whose religious leaders wine and dine with the most famous racketeers of the
peoples’ mandate and yet get away with all the privileges that comes with the ‘exalted
office’. A country that begs for grant, yet live in even more luxury than her
benefactor. A country lacking in almost all known principles of common sense,
but demands to harvest the dividends of wisdom.
This country
has been trained, groomed and misdirected to become passive, naive and
gullible. This 53-year old giant has been raised to become a coward, sapping
from the giant the will power to do the right thing. So in her favourite race against
reality, she hides under ‘God will help us’, even when our intelligence, hard
work, honesty and tolerance are supposed to be the help, when our dreams and
aspirations are inspired to revitalize the giant.
And because you too have
become passive, we begin to trade blames and point convenient fingers of
accusations, failing to realize that we’re all guilty as charged; guilty of
some or all of the evils or failed to do very little or no good.
It is this inaction
that has made our conversion easy. It is this failure of the so called ‘good
men’ to act in good faith that has made our ‘leaders’ mistake us for goats,
rams and cows.
That is why
Bode George can afford a thanksgiving on
our behalf, Patience Jonathan can afford
a resurrection thanksgiving on top of
us, The mission house and Abuja gate, can provide a thanksgiving platform for
our naivety. In retrospect, that was why Jonathan could organize a massive January
1st 2012, thanksgiving for the good of the nation and with the way we are going
I am sure Maina will organize another pension friendly ‘thanksgiving’ In favour
of our passivity, even the number plate thanks giving, not to mention the very
numerous thanksgivings organized in your states and local governments.
So I wonder when
we are going to remember, when we are going to muster courage to remember our
identity, to relish our humanity and express our right to refusal. Refusal to become
a cankerworm that eats into the future of this great nation. Where are the men and women of valor who talk
less and do more, who will not capitulate at the mere mention of a ‘plate of porridge’?
Knowing the
subtle transformational power of women, I sometimes wish that the women are no
longer ‘intimidated’ with money and position, that they can start selecting men
based the right qualities, the way their grandmothers did in their days, when a
man must be true, courageous, full of integrity, will-powered and a true server
of the community.
I wish they can suppress the urge to follow thieves and
cowards, who mask their cowardice and shallowness with multiple mansions and
fleet of cars.
I know that
in all honesty our pictures look vague and almost hopeless but I’m positive
that a silent transformation is brewing. Like a seed under mother earth, the
cells of the giants are reforming; cells to cells, root to root and very soon
the budding result will burst open the system, their spines will begin to prick
the status quos.
Dogs owners
will become uncomfortable, goats keepers will begin to fidget.
My sincere
hope is that the real ‘thanksgiving’ will not become a blood bath but if need
be, I rest my hope and pray for the bath.
Victor Prince Dickson.
Jos, Nigeria.
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