WE MUST TRY.

WE MUST TRY.

I have been a bit off cyberspace for a few days now due to the stress of travelling and transiting. I had a good and memorable few weeks outside of the hustle and bustle of Nigeria but not without being regularly weighed down by the many depressing tales that emanated during the same period.

I had the good pleasure of being part of a truly Nigerian gathering on Saturday where old “friends and foes” met again, some after 16years to reignite pleasant memories and establish new bonds of friendship, business and other passions. It was all in honour of my man "Waziri" who joined the club of married brethren; I wish the new family great grace and favor now and always.

I observed the screen in front of me as the Airbus plane I was in approached to land at the Dubai international airport. It was already dark and I couldn't help but admire the well-lit buildings and roads that were characteristic of Dubai. I looked out for the landing strip but found it difficult to locate as every linearly oriented light source appeared like a landing area. I finally realized that the landing strip had lights which blinked on and off to guide the pilots. Despite the guide, our plane approached the landing slightly out of line with the runway and appeared to swerve sharply to have the imbalance corrected once the landing gears touched the tarmac much to the relief of many of us on board. The thought that came to mind during the approach was the relative ease it would be for pilots to land in a Nigerian airport at night due to the absence of widespread electricity; spotting a landing strip with lights should not be difficult in a sea of darkness. I quickly remembered the aborted landing of a small overland aircraft at Ilorin due to runway light failure I experienced on the weekend of Jonathan’s adopted daughter’s wedding. We had to endure a missed flight to Lagos and worse still a disgraceful attempt by the airline officials to dodge refunding the cash paid by a few of us just about one hour earlier.

My waiting period in Dubai was supposed to be more than 7hours so I felt in no hurry to pass through the necessary security checks unlike those with minimal time left to catch their connecting flights. I glanced up and down the large display screens in English and Arabic without finding any notice of the Lagos bound flight. A few meters away from where I stood was the medium frame of the Osun state governor clad in dark brown and slightly patterned “buba and soro” with a characteristic light brown, native cap tilted to the right. He was either on the phone or talking with a few associates standing in small group with their bags and suitcases. A swarm of Nigerians suddenly appeared through the arrival gate on my left and one middle-aged woman broke away from the group and quickly exchanged pleasantries with the governor who she was obviously familiar with. Typical of Nigerians, a few whispered to themselves in hushed tones barely glancing to their left; “Ogbeni Rauf niyen now”, “Is that not the Osun state governor?”

I debated within me whether to intrude on the governor’s small circle but I did not want to appear too forward so I kept my cool and stood where I was. Then suddenly, Mr Rauf with his phone pressed to his right ear moved forward in my direction in response to an associate’s beckoning. That was my chance to meet a Nigerian governor in person for the first time; the closest I have ever been to a sitting governor was watching Jonah Jang from about 20 yards away addressing over 2000 youth corp members and saying nothing too significant apart from the provision of four cows to augment the dietary chart of young and dynamic men and women for 3 weeks. The cows indeed arrived but were very similar to the 7 lean cows recorded in the book of Genesis. As Ogbeni Rauf inched closer to where I stood with my backpack hanging from my shoulders, I put a foot forward and stretched out my right hand calling to him. “Governor Aregbesola” I said to him and he immediately put his phone down and grabbed my hand. Then I went on, “Sir, we must win 2015 o, you have to ensure that we win and save Nigeria!” He laughed and assured me that they were leaving no stone unturned to ensure that. He must have been glad that a random fellow would approach him on foreign soil with only one topic which was the soul of Nigeria. He was now in a hurry but still found it necessary to gesture to one of his associates to come over and listen to what I had just told him. Their airport transport arrived and the governor had to turn back in the other direction but not without reassuring me again. I decided to speak with the man because that is exactly what my late father would have done. He did not subscribe to timidity; timid is what the Nigerian system has turned Nigerians to.

We have become scared of change and right like some people are scared of arachnids or the dark. We are held captive by mediocrity and ineptitude; ignorance has become preferable to genius. Competence and courage has become reduced to kindergarten talk about religion, tribe and age. One man says our system needs restructuring and upholding of the fundamental principles that would rid us of corrupt practices but the other man’s wife goes around calling herself the mother of grown men and sharing “keke NAPEP”, grinders, mattresses, groundnut oil and tomatoes in exchange for votes. Like Rauf assured me that they were doing their best; the change that some of us really envision cannot be left as the responsibility of the opposition politicians. We must not be scared of the noise the transformers are making; empty barrels they are. We must register to vote and weather the storm to indeed vote whether it is on valentine’s day or not. We must join in campaigning for genuine and right candidates at all levels; we must invest time and resources to educate aright as many young and old alike who are either ignorant of the truth or have their senses blighted by primitive sentiments propagated by those who have held on to our aorta since 1999 and are hell-bent on doing so till when the dam breaks.

We must try at least.

Joa
18/11/14