22 March, 2014

Collective Amnesia


Nigerians are a rare breed indeed. We tend to have the shortest memories of all humankind. You can always bet that a villain today will be the hero tomorrow. A known criminal will always be feted tomorrow. There was a time Sanusi was accusing the National Assembly of getting virtually all Federal allocation of financial resources. He was shouted down by the N.A. In a dramatic turnaround he is being heavily defended by the same N.A especially the lower arm. Ditto for Obasanjo. When he was in government he was hated by not a few for a myriad of perceived wrongs .He was accused of hounding his enemies with the E.F.C.C, and the third term debacle. They called for his head. He is now being invited to be the pathfinder of a party led by his former traducers. Week is really a long time in politics. El-rufai the former minister of the F.C.T was a pariah among the people for being elitist. his enemies cited his destruction of peoples’ homes and business in his pursuit of the F.C.T master plan, his riddance of okada riding business within the F.C.T metropolis, his allocation of plot to his family members on the very last day of his tenure of office. El-rufai has now somehow wormed his way into the peoples’ consciousness as the champion of the masses. It is a dramatic volte face to say the least. Bola Tinubu too was accused of cornering every juicy contract for himself. They said he has the contract for tax collection in Lagos, that his company collects toll on the Lekki-Ajah axis, that he made his wife a senator, his in-law a House of representative member, his daughter the Iyaloja of Lagos etc,etc. Apparently, however, the hoi polloi conveniently refuse to remember all these alleged sins in their desperate bid to oust one allegedly corrupt regime for the other. Saints are in short supply across the Nigeria political firmament. The ugly cream will always rise to the surface in our tolerant clime. The liver to come clean of the tainted political class is sadly lacking within the nation. Old wine continues to be recycled in new bottles. We continue to see the same tired and worn old faces. Nigeria surely needs a clean break with other soiled and sullied political class. The great impediment however, is our collective short memories.

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