Issuu

THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • APRIL 16, 2016

INSIGHT

The Heart of Darkness Jon West

oseph Conrad, the white racist writer and colonial voyager wrote his seminal work, Heart of Darkness, about the experiences of a Mr Kurtz, colonial civil servant in the Belgian Congo( first Zaire and now DR Congo) in the 19th century. The horrors and savagery Kurtz was supposed to have witnessed on his journey down the Congo River, and while living with the native Congolese were encapsulated in the infamous phrase “The horror, the horror!!” In his reviews of Conrad’s seminal novella , the revered Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe was scathing in his condemnation of Conrad’s obvious racism and the stereotypical description of life in 19th century Central Africa. It is quite interesting that in his twilight years , Achebe was less judgmental of people like Conrad , perhaps because of the descent of Africa into a Hobbesian state, where life is short, nasty and brutish, a seemingly scathing and shameful realization of the self-fulfilling prophesy of Joseph Conrad and his racist ilk. No nation presents the sad state of Africa, in spite of positive growth, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and size of the economy(after rebasing) statistics like Nigeria under the Government of the All Progressive Congress(APC). In the last few months, life in Nigeria has deteriorated so much that a modern Conrad would be quite comfortable with a remake of his seminal work, with Nigeria substituting for the Congo. At no time since the dark days of the 1966/67 pogrom and the resultant civil war has life been so hard for the average Nigerian as is currently being witnessed. In Africa’s largest crude oil and natural gas exporter, petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas, products taken for granted in even non oil producing countries, have become so scarce that citizens erupt in celebration whenever these products are available at retail stations even at exorbitant prices, far above the recommended retail prices for these items that are essential for life in a modern industrial economy. Compounding this improbable scenario, is that for the past many months, a double jeopardy situation has been imposed on the Nigerian people by the breakdown of the power generation, transmission and distribution system, in a way that has never been experienced in Nigerian history. The Government’s version version of the power debacle is that most gas power plants are

shutdown due to lack of gas, the gas pipelines having been sabotaged by Niger delta militants, unhappy with the APC Government. The debilitating power situation has therefore combined with the petroleum scarcity situation to sentence Nigerian citizens to life in the heart of darkness, an improbable situation in the second decade of the second millennium, the age of the Internet of things, social media and other miracles of technological developments that have enabled other developing countries leapfrog the economic and technological divide with advanced societies. The seeming absence of both a petroleum products and power policy by the APC Government has further driven Nigerian citizens to the depths of despondency. How can a country that has three refineries with a total installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day and that also flares enough natural gas to meet the power needs of the European nation of France, be without both petroleum products and electrical power, two critical drivers of a modern industrial society? Why has the APC Government of Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, seemingly abdicated its responsibility to Vehicles queuing for fuel in Abuja provide Nigerian citizens, who they promised a change for the better in 2015, with the tools through the towns and villages of modern and possibilities of an even very ordinary 21st Nigeria will witness the same horrors of a century life? Citizens , who one year ago were celebrating the ousting of the PDP Government brutish life, with people pulling faces at petrol stations with kilometers long queues, where of President Goodluck Jonthan , are today motor vehicles and electricity generators secretly yearning for a return to the years of the” clueless one”, when they at least had a less compete for places in the process of getting the seemingly impossible petrol, diesel and kerosene stressful life. It is quite instructive that a recent poll by the that make life a little less foreboding in Africa’s largest economy, whatever that economic Bloomberg Organisation, of the most stressful statistic means. countries to live in, rated Nigeria first, ahead Granted the APC Government inherited a of such other obviously stressful countries damaged goods economy and business environsuch as war-ravaged Pakistan , Jamaica, drug ment, however there has been no policy thrust ravaged Colombia and El Salvador and crime to get the nation out of the hole that a combinainfested South Africa. The seven variables used tion of bad government , self-immolating and in this poll are Annual Homicide Rate, GDP contrived Islamic insurgency, designed to assure per Capita, Income Inequality, Corruption, regime change, put in into. As the economy Unemployment rate, Urban air pollution atrophies and society balances on the brink of and Life Expectancy. This poll result will not anarchy, Government is continuously missing in surprise any Nigerian citizen currently caught action. Even the loquacious Lai Mohammed,the in this maelstrom of negative variables. Surely, Minister of Information (and propaganda) has urban air pollution from the millions of generakept very quiet as the nation groans under the tor users will be an immediate and obvious greatest hardships to be endured by an already presentation of the decay in the provision of famished population. basic services for the Nigerian citizenry by its The President, like Nero of Old Rome, Government. Also, waiting in a fuel queue for fiddles while the nation burns. Just this week, a whole day, and getting no petrol , will not do he has jetted out to China on the back of a anything positive for your life expectancy. visit to Washington DC to attend a nuclear A 21st century Joseph Conrad, on a journey

non-proliferation conference, a joke for a nation that cannot even provide water, petroleum products and electricity for its over 100 million citizens. Having caught the China Syndrome, the latest affliction of the African political elite, where China has replaced the West as the validator of policies and provider of funds and technology for the running of the state, President Buhari is off to China for talks on the flow of Chinese investments to help Nigeria out of the economic woods. However, the Chinese know better after their experiences in the past with Nigeria and will probably proffer the usual platitudes about economic cooperation and political solidarity. On his return, the President is billed to attend David Cameron’s Anti-Corruption conference in London. Perhaps if President Buhari could just stay home for a few months and dedicate his time and his party’s focus on ameliorating the angst and genuine deprivations of his hapless citizens, caught in a web of political deceit and economic strangulation, he may yet prove Joseph Conrad wrong and show that Africa’s largest economy will provide a counter tale to the Heart of Darkness, even if after a hundred and twenty years. ––Jon West, Otuoke, Bayelsa State.

Nigeria: History, Appeasement and Failure

Jon West

now appears to be a virtual reality civil war. This scenario is compounded by several low intensity civil conflicts in all parts of Nigeria; n recent Nigerian banking parlance, de-marketing is a process used to destroy from the constant spectre of marauding Fulani and Moslem alien mercenaries and herdsmen the perception of the viability of a bank by its competitors in the banking market in the Middle Belt and Southern States, the cattle rustling gangs and female abductors of place. It is a tool that has had to be the Northwest and Northeast, the militants of deployed in the shark-infested waters the Niger Delta and the now ubiquitous ethnic that is the Nigerian finance industry. De-marketing is also a veritable tool used clashes , the foremost of which was that of Mile 12 axis of Ikorodu road, Lagos state in March by competitors in the international economic this year. and business market place to undermine the What all these negative security situations perception of potential competitors in the eyes portend, is a de-marketing of Nigeria as an of the business, social or political community. investment destination and, worse still, as a It is quite interesting that Nigeria spends humongous amounts of resources on improv- place of any modicum of tourism, which is itself the easiest source of FDI for any country. ing the international perception of the country It appears that those entrusted with selling the as a place to do business. Our Presidents and country’s potential in the global market place politicians are always airborne to all the four do not understand the requirements of the corners of the compass, on a permanent mission to sell the business viability of the Nigerian job. That is why whenever the global spotlight shines on Nigeria, the opportunity to get across economy and attract the permanently elusive a positive message is wasted or worse still used foreign investors. to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. President Buhari is on the basis of time in Nothing illustrates this tendency to convert office, the most travelled Nigerian President an opportunity for positivity to a disaster as the and perhaps the most travelled, per time, in global history. However, while the travels may events of last week, on Good Friday, in Kaduna or may not have resulted in an inflow of Foreign State. A high profile football match between the Direct Investment, events inside the country Egyptian and Nigerian national teams was have always conspired to rubbish whatever dividends may accrue to the country from this scheduled in, of all places, Kaduna, in a Northern Nigerian state that has serious internal investment in international travel. security challenges , having been a hot bed In the area of security, there is the Boko Haof the Boko Haram insurgency and constant ram insurgency, for which “technical” victory has been declared by the Government, in what ethnic and religious conflicts. This choice was

made, basically on the Nigerian propensity for pleasing certain interest groups to the detriment of the general good. Reading and watching the international news of the uncontrolled surge of over 40,000 people into a stadium designed for 25,000 made my skin crawl. Pictures of people hanging from all sorts of platforms in the stadium, from floodlight fixtures and telecommunications towers to stadium walls, exposed to the global news audience the lawless nature of the Nigerian society. That the situation did not deteriorate to a calamity of global sporting proportions is something to be grateful for. What would have happened to Nigeria’s global reputation, if Boko Haram attacked the stadium and killed or abducted our footballers and their Egyptian counterparts? Did anyone really think about this possibility? When the Kaduna State Government opened the gates of the Ahmadu Bello stadium to all-comers free of charge, did they consider the possibility of a stampede that could have cost thousands of lives, knowing the tendency of the citizenry to be disorderly without compulsion? And why were the Nigerian police, whose responsibility it is to maintain public order and ensure compliance with global crowd control procedures, unable to play its role. Why did they relinquish their responsibilities to the Kaduna State Government? However, the question is whether it was even necessary to hold this football match in Kaduna when there are better and safer venues in Abuja, Lagos, Uyo, Calabar, Enugu etc. This constant tendency to appease the North to the detriment

of the rest of the country has cost Nigeria dearly. In 2006, Nigeria lost the opportunity of a place in the World Cup held in Germany, when in deference to the then Chairman of the Nigerian Football Association and Kano businessman, Alhaji Galadima, a critical qualifying match between Nigeria and Angola was held in Kano and we lost the opportunity to go to Germany at that match. A Nigerian team, composed of wholly foreign based players was compelled to come from the wintery conditions of Europe to play in 40 degrees centigrade heat and extreme humidity of Kano, against an Africa-based and climate-conditioned Angolan team. The exhaustion on JJ Okocha’s face as he laboured to recreate his magic dribbles and passes was obvious to all spectators. You would think that having made that mistake in 2006, our football and security officials would be wiser ten years after. But like an American president once said “History never repeats itself; men repeat history and then blame history for repeating itself”. We never seem to learn from even recent history in this country and keep making the same mistakes in the hope of achieving a different outcome; the social definition of insanity. If we finally lose a place in this Gabon 2016 AFCON competition, the role of the Kaduna stupidity should haunt our football and security people forever, but knowing them it won’t, as shown by the refusal to learn from the Kano debacle ten years ago. ––Jon West, Otuoke, Bayelsa State.