Nigeria is the country of the Blind

In H.G Wells novel, The Country of the Blind, a mountaineer falls into a hidden valley in South America where all the inhabitants have been blind for generations. The mountaineer has the initial reaction of superiority. After all, he can see. In the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king!

But in this land its not so. The soicety is constructed around the norm of blindness, so his sight provides no advantages, but rather seeing is a disadvantage here. If he wants to be accepted and intergrated, he must either act or become blind. The acitivty is the community is built around blindness. Work is done at night, there are no lights, colours have no meaning, buildings have no windows. The mountaineers underdeveloped alternative senses mean he cannot participate  fully in the culture of the community. To fit in he must either turn blind or denounce his sight.

The politics of Nigeria is really no different from any democracy in the world when we refer to the stance and disposition towards what favors me and my party. To this end politiicans are blinded by conceited conviction of knowing all and making wild assumptions about the society they represent.

Those who join the fray with the lofty ideals to help society often get caught up in a rat race for power and resource control that susbsititute the critical issues that concern the majority for the trivial and insignificant and are bogged down by mind, power and wealth seeking games that serve as distractions from the real reason for the elective position.

For instance in Nigeria, there is a loud hue and cry over the need for resturucting and resource control. Leaders of the lawmaking bidies who are wont to legislate over such demands have turned a deaf ear and have suddenly become dumb about such issues. In fact, they have developed  blindness to the rather lopsideed distribution of resources by the federal governrment. The oil rich parts of the country, mainly South Souh Nigeria has been the main source of revenue generation for the country. And states that do not have a drop of oil are slurpping up dividends that they have in no way earned. Save the rather obnoxious fact that they share a country with those stattes that produce it.

The closest reaction to the agitation has been a rather casual call for the 2014 national conference findings and recommendations. The llegislators asked the executive for a copy of what has become public knoledge already. The genral attitude of Nigeria’s lawmaking bodies to the call for restructuring is is lackadaisical and defiant. The legislative are behaving like the bliind generation in HG Wells The Country of The Blind.

Could such defiance be as a result of the trappings of office? OR could it be because of an overwhelming number of notherners in the national assembly that would shut such a discussion down shouldl it even be brought forward?  The call for a true federalism has characterised the rhetoric of Abubakar Atiku, a former vice president who appears to be preparing to run for the presidency in 2019. Atiku has been clever in his bandying of popular opinion. Many people ask if he is given a chance and eventually wins would his rhetoric not change?

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)has had resource control and restructuring on its front burner before it got into power. Now the APC doesn’t seem to know what the two concepts mean anymore. There is something about political power in Nigetria that dulls the senses. Political offices create tunnel vision. The office holder only sees what he wants to see and in many cases is blinded to the most important things.

Can another election herald in another group of office holders that see and listen better? Its difficult to tell. Who Knows if the new legislators would not develop blindness when they need their sight most?