Nigerian Greed: National Grid Of Dismemberment
By Taiye Olaniyi
In ancient past and of once a glorious Egypt, dissonance of every form kept rearing its head due to one greed of one personage after another. In Wisdom of the Sage this observation was made.by Hermes Trismengistus:who accosted the then Pharaoh in the following statement:
"O, Egypt, Egypt, shall remain of your religion but various stories which posterity will refuse to believe, and words graven in stone recounting thy piety.
The Egyptian and the Indian and some other barbarous neighbors shall dwell in Egypt. The Divinity shall rescind into heaven. The Egypt shall be a desert widowed of men and of gods."
Egypt was once renowned in the glorious past of being referred to as the "Cradle of Human Civilization." It once hosted initiates and alumni of its Great mystery Schools of Learning such as Abraham, Moses, Joseph, Pythagoras, Alexander the Great including Master Jesus the Christ. Today, Egypt has lost touch in spiritual, religious and geopolitics of global civilization for whatever reasons, it also has diminished but also to pantheon of greed.
As it is now of today's Egypt so my beloved country Nigeria is daily losing steam as the pantheon of its deities of greed are booming and blooming in numbers to the peril of what should be the grid of power for building a true and powerful nation and nationhood.
Selfishness and greed, corruption, corrupting and corruptible attitudes permeate everywhere because what should be the soul and grid of nationhood partly envisaged by heroes of our labours past now denegrates into further dismemberment of differing tongue and tribes and the lost inheritance of the aspired brotherhood.
The once underlying "Faith, Unity and Peace" as a motto enshrined in our
" National Crest" for which we pray, "So help me God" is daily being torn into shreds through greed in the interpretation and misinterpretation of who that many of our so called religious leaders think God is to them and should be to others at all costs. According to the fine dictates enshrined especially in the two foreign religious practices in Nigeria God is one and only God. However, politics and geography of such religious practices and radiant establishment of greed sort of enunciates the grid of dismemberment of Nigeria to North, South, Northeast, Northwest, North Central, Southwest, Southeast, South -South,Niger Delta and other assorted miniature configurations much more of disunity than unity.
The question then is which geographic place or places in Nigeria belong more to God, Allah, Olodumare, Chineke and what have you beyond and above others?
A number of also our religious rulers rather than being leaders of the faithful input politics into their religious persuasions. Such array of selfishness and greed therein account for sectarianism, denominationalism against both the leaders and the led truly seeking and discovering the God of their personal understanding .
In politics the noble idea of federal character has been so bastardized to suit only the powerful politicians, political parties to such an extent that it has now become the Nigerian factor which kernel is a grid of greed in public service by politicians and public servants.
Greed has so permeated politics and the economic lives of Nigerians to such an extent that no one knows who to trust. Governance by government of whatever ilk or fancy is fashioned after personalization of the commonwealth and weaponization of the masses in perpetuation and protection of only the rich, the affluent, their families, wards and supporters of iniquities. The situation now is the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Both the rich traditional, religious and political leaders by their greed for which many are known the Nigeria grid of power inherent in unity in diversity daily collapses because of man's inhumanity to fellowman.
As the North, Arewa breed and boom in least of human capital development so the South plummet into unsolicited begging spree, yahoo yahoo, illicit drug businesses in a nation full of natural resources that could promote development but now a nation once described by Donald Trump as a "Shit Hole" and which to me and for now is more of a Goliath if it prides in being placated as a "Giant of Africa."
If greed in all its ramifications and with us all tends to have constituted the crux and national grid of our dismemberment, could we all try to reason together on how individually, collectively and by geographical configuration rebuild a virile nation?
In the first instance I personally see nothing wrong in the zoning of the country on peaceful and constitutional parameters that would bring about planning for and with the people. None of the three or four previous regions can today stand as they used to. The North and the South, Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo and what have you of previous years can no longer claim any monopoly of being monolithic. We no longer need state creation but regional configurations at zonal levels that could bring development at political, cultural and economic levels with all the indices of social and human capital development without any iota of favoritism and superiority/ inferiority complexes often introduced to family background.
We need scientific mindedness at tackling daily challenges of life against subjecting poor Nigerians as chattels in the hands of those claiming to be religious but carry no signs and attributes of godliness. We need peace and tranquility, we need advancement in thoughts, words and actions and not the greed in grid of fundamentalism, false prophesies including fringes of terrorism.
We need unity in diversity, a virile public service, vibrant private economic sector, a hybrid of our age-long cultural and ethical values with modern day of doing things but very devoid of IT expertise that is somehow spiced and full of illegal business practices typical of the millennial and GenZs of our days.
We need to build a virile Nation through selflessness and patriotism, through personal and intimate relationship with the God of our realization and understanding. The beauty of our one and ever living God should be made to manifest as the Divine power in us all on individual basis as we direct and discharge our energies at making Nigeria a united and better nation to live in.
I wish that we all on individual and collective basis be Northerners or Southerners, Westerners or Easterners realize the authenticity in the age- long adage that states, that, North-South, East or West, " Home is the best."
Referring to such, our best home which is still Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikwe once admonished:
"To no person, no matter how rich should we mortgage our conscience. To no nation, no matter how powerful should we mortgage our independence."
God bless Nigeria.
Taiye Olaniyi, a retired postman lives in Lagos