Trapped in the Kafkaesque world of Nigerian politics, the elite have been caught between reflexive militarism on the one hand and the gentle art of political compromise on the other. Since 1999 when the country returned to democracy, Nigerian politicians have been ever more ready to align with our grim praetorian past than embrace the genteel and civil art of politicking. No day passes without news of rancour among them, all in the bid to aggrandize power. In doing so, no effort is spared in trying to inflict maximum damage on the opponents, and by extension the polity. Such bewildering twist of political irony cannot be exculpated from our long romance with military dictatorships that lasted for a cumulative 26 years.
Brought up in a culture of impunity, the Nigerian politician has become a good student of a deranged past foisted on the country by erstwhile military rulers who adroitly elevated brutality to an art form. While the military overlords maimed, killed and sacked entire communities through the instrumentality of guns and bayonets, their civilian counterparts are re-enacting such sordid shows by employing innocuous tactics such as assassinations and executive bullying. The nation's curse is compounded by the fact that former military leaders and their acolytes are still part of the political bandwagon, either as chief executives, legislators or advisers, thereby infesting their wanton ways on the country's style of governance.
Their jackboot mentality has crept into all facet of our political life that even the language of legislation and execution tries in every way to mimic their military diktat. All one needs to feel this jungle mentality is to stand by the roadside on any highway and watch the traffic go by. Before long, your eyes and ears would be assaulted by the deafening staccato of noises from the serpentine convoys of state governors, their wives, ministers, commissioners, special aides, mistresses, police commissioners, party officials and all manner of self styled overlords trundling in the most menacing of fashion. Then enter into any of the government offices and you wonder if you are in a cantonment, as desk clerks all through to the most senior officers' bark out orders as if on military parade.
Even the media has caught this shameful bug, whereby newspapers and electronic stations assault their readers with magisterial headlines laced with military lingos. It therefore, has not come as any surprise that the language being employed by Aso Rock and those governors opposed to President Jonathan in the ongoing ferment are couched in the most banal of barracks jargon. Any foreign visitor to the country would be forgiven if he or she is under the impression that Nigeria is at war. Egged on by their rabid supporters, both sides in what is now verging to hateful propaganda look like bulls in China shop trying to smash everything in their path. Sadly, the picture does not look bright now or in the future for political civility, as the approach of 2015 seems to add more fodder to an already combustible situation.
Presently, Nigeria looks like Egypt in turmoil. But whereas, citizens of the latter are more willing and ready to take on the shenanigans militating against their country's wellbeing, their Nigerian counterparts would only sit by the sides and continually bemoan their fate. Reasons for such complacency are not farfetched. For example, Egyptians know they have a country worth fighting for and that in spite of the present chaos, they are hopeful of a new dawn. They are enamoured of the fact that despite the venal ways of their politicians, those elected to serve could be removed from power any time they walk on the wrong side of history. In two years they have been able to bring down two presidents turned potentates. Today, Hosni Mubarak and Mohammed Morsi will be wondering how they got into the eye of the storm.
Even when their military are trigger happy and power hungry, they are not oblivious of the fact that the masses are ready to take to the streets to depose them should they stay a day longer than required. Egyptians have paid the price for political freedom and would be naïve to let any pretender take away the initiative of ordering their country and politics from them no matter the cost. Most importantly, they are united in a cause and not even religion or any other schism is strong enough to break their ranks. Incidentally, their Nigerian counterparts are a miserable contrast. For 52 years, they have been on the receiving end, even as the pains being inflicted by their political masters continue to increase by the day.
The rape and pillage of the country and economy know no bounds, yet they are dumb struck and impotent to do much than wail, curse and point accusing fingers at each other. Curiously, Nigerians still look on their politicians to fix all that has gone wrong with the system, even when they see them as nothing more than kleptomaniacs and dunderheads. This is so because all those now crying over the dysfunctional nature of the system are not united by a common cause. Rather, they feel a sense of individual and sectarian loss and would readily change their stance whenever they are allowed a space in the thieving milieu.
