By Sola Odunfa, Lagos Nigeria:
ONE of my closest friends and I spent several hours on Tuesday evening in front of his residence at Campos Square in central Lagos watching flows of people – young and old – returning hopelessly to their homes after the day’s chores.
Normally at that time the streets around the Square would be bright, mothers would be dragging unwilling and protesting children home, fuji and rap ‘music’ would be assaulting one’s ear lobes from big electronic boxes at bars and homes in competition with heavy megawatt speakers in both gleaming and expired SUVs, young women in various packages would be prancing up and down showing off their best steps and perfumes and the young men would be crowding in front of neighbourhood clubs to watch football from the English and European leagues on TV.
That was not the situation this Tuesday evening, 48 hours to the end of the six years administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. When the sun sunk below the skyline on the lagoon and the clouds turned from grey to black we could hardly recognise that we were sitting in the centre of the Central Business District of Nigeria’s commercial capital and most flamboyant city. Everything was bleak. The area sank into total darkness. Indeed the entire nation had been plunged into darkness as farewell poster of an administration unrivalled in incompetence and corruption. At Campos Square the crowds hurrying up and down a few feet before us were mere shadows without form. Motor vehicles which would have helped us with their headlamps had been grounded by the unavailability of petrol.
The darkness was not only physical, it affected our souls; we were quiet more of the time with each of us quietly lamenting what had befallen our dear nation – and our lives. When we spoke it was to highlight how our lives had been severely degraded in a nation to which we had displayed unalloyed commitment and loyalty in more than half a century of our adult lives. Time and again we thought of our friends and children who had relocated to Europe and North America in search of both material and spiritual comfort. All of them who were as sensible as we were in Lagos had attained their goals. They might not be living in Lekki mansions and GRA palaces but they were sleeping soundly without the permanent discomfort of power cuts, the noise of power generators throughout the night, lack of potable water, permanent collapse of public transportation, the infuriating arrogance of semi-literate and thieving political leaders and many other conditions that tend to run all Nigerians insane.
Big Daddy – that’s the name of my friend – and I and two others who had joined us in this sombre mood are convinced that there was something in the Nigerian stars which condemned the nation to life under the Jonathan Gang and are still conspiring to make correction as difficult as humanly possible for the new man coming in 72hours.
As I am writing this, banks are still closing at 1pm instead of 4pm for lack of fuel for their generators nationwide, telecoms companies have warned that they may close down their services when they can no longer cope with the situation. Electricity authorities have announced the collapse of all but four of Nigeria’s 25 power plants, meaning no guarantee of power for an indefinite period. Here in Lagos most people buy water in 25-litter ‘jerry cans’ from vendors because public taps have run dry. All of us drink bottled water. Yet Jonathan is still sacking public officers and he is making new appointments.
In our anger on Tuesday night the only course of action we could recommend (as if we mattered) to the in-coming President Muhammadu Buhari was forensic audit of the actions of everybody who brought us to this pass, confiscation of their proven loot and the heaviest punishment available under Nigerian criminal law. All of us agreed we would not like to be in Buhari’s shoes at this time. There is so much to be done if Nigeria is not to collapse as a nation and there are many people who might like to take a shot at him – and not the Boko Haram murderers alone. Personally I don’t think that those who stole Nigeria to the bone in the last 16years will offer themselves meekly to be led in chains to jail. Sai Baba! We can’t wait for Friday.
Sai Buhari!
