By Fred Chukwuelobe
In civilised climes theirs twist positively and in the right direction. Their leaders have visions and get into offices to implement them. If at any point they realise their vision is not working or that the people are not happy with them, they either resign or are voted out.
In our clime, like the iconic musician, Elton John, sang, our “twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn” negatively.
Many of us are either blind to see it or are eternally unwilling to sit down and think. Their preoccupation is tribe and how the movement will benefit them. Some call it selfishness. I call it ‘the black man’s curse.’
I have been engaged in three platforms since yesterday discussing the local government election holding today in Lagos and the implications of the partial shutdown of the economy for an election whose results are already known. An election in which the opponents of the ruling party were not allowed to campaign and will be impeded from voting.
What bemuses me is that people left the issues and started discussing the tribe. One person asked me if “your leaders have never shut down the economy in your State to hold elections. Why is that of Lagos bothering you?”
Another asked me to “go and sort out your self-inflicted Monday sit-at-home before coming here to lecture us.”
This person has a point, and it hit me hard that the Southeast has been facing this forceful shutdown of the economy for some years now and people are surviving it. So, this partial shutdown of Lagos Cosmopolitan State for the election is less harmful. I get it.
I have been privileged to travel to developed ends of the world, “showered with their charms and their graces,” as Jimmy Cliff sang.
In the UK, for instance, each time I go there and use their public transport service, I bow at the vision of their past and present leaders who saw the need hundreds of years ago to build such solid and functioning public transport systems.
They saw the future many decades ago. They planned for it. They are still improving, maintaining the old ones, and the system runs smoothly and efficiently with minimal disruptions. You can plan your movement right from the comfort of your home/hotel, and it runs smoothly. Can we say the same of our country? Do we even have public transport system? Are we planning for one that will move the people in turns and lessen man hour spent on our famished roads daily?
Each time I travel and remember that I will be coming back to our country, I develop a fever. The traffic on Lagos roads, the filthy and deplorable expressways, and the chaos scare me stiff.
What do we do? We are busy bickering about things that do not matter. We are refusing to accept that things are not working and that solutions should be found. We are more interested in holding on to power even if the country slips off the precipice so long as ‘our people’ are in charge.
In my more than 50 years of adulthood, I have never seen a steady power supply in this country. I cannot remember ever drinking pipe-borne water except briefly in Enugu in the 80s.
I am yet to see signs that things will get better. But some of us are not bothered about the “twisting kaleidoscope.” We want to dig our tribal trenches and defend them ferociously like the Israelis do with their nuclear bunkers.
Those who do this and play the ethnic or tribal cards on every issue cut across people of all walks of life: educated. Uneducated. White collar workers. Artisans. Professors. Social miscreants. Pastors/priests. Imams/Alhajis. It is about tribe first and foremost for many people.
“There’s a time for everyone if they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn” negatively.
Thanks to Elton John whose song, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” led me to this piece.
“There’s a time for everyone
If they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope
Moves us all in turn
There’s a rhyme and reason
To the wild outdoors
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager
Beats in time with yours.”
Maybe only when this happens can we “feel the love” of nationhood.
God have mercy!
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