WE DO ABORTION, KILL DREAMS HERE

”In a Nation that is well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a Nation that is badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”— these were the words of that natural-born  moralist, political thinker, philosopher and a societal commentator. Confucius— a mere Chinko philosophical writer whose writings of political correctness depreciates total friendliness with uncultured wealth admist pain and suffering would have had that Giant of Africa in mind when he penned on societal absurdity.

         

        As one day; one dosage of poverty, terrorism, insecurity,  corruption, yahooism and some other cyber rioting on the earth of our beleaguered nation. Who will boot the Nigerians out of this scourge of 2, 546 souls dead, approximately 2.5 million displaced and 3rd most terrorised, corrupt country ever in the history of Homo Sapiens, #EndBadGovernment & #BuhariMustGo advocacy which is constantly but patiently dragging existence with us? Indeed, there is fire on the mountain! And the only way out is for the candid efforts of every country men to quench the flame ranging through our ancestral homeland before it crumbles away. Nigeria is currently sinking fast into the swamps of terrorism characterized by numerous reactionary complexes. I tell you, there is no singular disease today that troubles the mind of every awakening Nigerians than the swamp of broken dreams and unfavorable atmosphere. Like my metaphorical advocacy, the Nurse’s confession was with much sorrow. She goes home every night thinking of the dreams they killed in the line of duty. The tiny forms of arms and limbs beneath the basin of blood converge to cause her nightmares every night. She started each day never to be a part of abortion routines again, but ends it in the procedure room. “It is the sameness of human failure, of inadequacy in the face of each day’s dull demands,” she said helplessly. For days, I kept recalling her narrative, guilt, helplessness, and started seeing her script played out in the social sphere of our country. I soon came to this conclusion: WE DO ABORTIONS, TOO, AND KILL DREAMS HERE. That is what we do; ABORTIONS and THERE WAS NO GREEN THAT WHITENED GREEN!

           

              Before I balance my feet on the ladders of words, let me state very simply that my impression in this piece is to lay bare as honestly as I can the Fate of every Nigerian protesting and the predicament outshining their mysteries.       

        PROTEST— a vocabulary of appropriation for the English literates—in sociopolitical semiotics, are signs, that is, signifiers and acknowledgement, of dissatisfaction. They take place everywhere—at home, schools, at work places, and within larger political units, from the local government to the national level. They could even be, and have been staged against supra-national organizations, such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.  Wherever there are resources to be shared or distributed; when there are thoughts to be expressed publicly instead of being buried in the belly, protestation must be expected from those who feel cheated, shortchanged, sidelined, oppressed or tranquillized upon. This, especially is common in such cases when the resources are kept disproportionately in a few hands. That's  why the political scientist and astute ethnographer—James Scott—speechified protestation as "the weapons of the weak" in his classic study of pleasant resistance against the rich in small Malaysian town. Like a heavy festival rainfall, "protestation" knows no tribes, achievements or ages. And wherever it visit, it struggles very hard that it leaves behind a permanent mark or painful scars. Such protestation could be covert or peaceful, as in the Malaysian case Scott studied, or overt or violent, as in the ongoing Nigerian June 12 unprecedented walk-out. The volatility of the political and economic situation, how soon and well the protestation is resolved. In some numerous cases, protestation could lead to civil or even international wars.

       Abortion is illegal and the nurse recognizes that. “But what do I do, when they keep coming; in need and desperation?’ she said. The nurse has seen all sorts. An 18-year-old fresher that is pregnant for the fourth time. A 48-year-old mother of six that cannot bear another pregnancy. An angry 56-year-old woman in a failed birth control episode. A 16-year-old orphan, uneducated, and victim of rape. A late thirty-something that only detected genotype incompatibility after pregnancy, and so on. “Each abortion is a measure of our failure to protect, to nourish our own. Each basin I empty is a promise – but a promise broken a long time ago.” 

             

            But our fate is not so different from those pregnancies aborted. Nigerians, like citizens of other countries all started life with hopes and aspirations, expecting the system to nurture or support their noble ambitions. With good character and excellent grades in school, the sky will be the starting point. Not anymore. Like many would say today and with conviction: “school na scam!” But would you blame them? Youths in Nigeria are living a broken dream with no hope on the horizon. Think about it, Ph.D. holders, the highest qualification in learning and research, but unable to find teaching appointments are driving Uber taxis all over town. Quite a number of them did apply to drive Dangote trucks the other day! That is our experience. It is one that kills dreams.

Things are so awkward that even as a scholar with the right qualifications, you need to know someone in the presidency, a serving Senator, House of Reps member, someone highly placed to be considered for employment in tertiary institutions. It no longer matters even if you emerged the best or the most qualified. That is not a country of our founding fathers or one we used to know while growing up. It is a mediocre system that prefers who you know and the quality of eye-service than the brains between the ears. It is not one that inspires hope for the young or the unborn. 

What is curious is that the handlers of our procedures, unlike the nurse, cannot feel any sense of guilt. Aborted dreams are no big deal to them. Yet, they are supposed to be the noblest, compassionate, and most experienced among us. Most of the people leading us are older than Nigeria and have seen it work. They are beneficiaries of its prosperity and could tell the difference between what was and what is. But it seems like a curse to be led by geriatrics or the most exposed. Or, how else can one explain our Vice President putting up a bold face to justify compressed hardship on a beleaguered public? Was that the norm when he was growing up? Where has he seen such a model in the world? Was it by inspiration of God or the devil?

             How much of these are hyperbole? For a start, this is not the country or economy bequeathed to the APC government in 2015. Nigerians wanted a sane country better than what the then president had capacity and courage to engineer. But his successor, this government, has made it worse and keeps getting it ruined on all fronts. Numbers don’t lie. PMS per litre is N160. It is at a time electricity tariff doubled from N30.23 kWh to N62.35 kWh. Naira to one dollar is at N460 from N165 in 2015. Value Added Tax (VAT) is now 7.5 per cent. Banks impose N50 stamp duty, while reducing interests on savings from three to one per cent. A bag of local rice is N25, 000, and N31, 000 for its smuggled imported variant. Food inflation is now 17.3 per cent.

It should therefore not surprise anyone that Tradermoni scheme beneficiaries are unable to repay the N10, 000 loans, as reported the other day. They are petty businesses that didn’t foresee that their benefactor would raise the bar midway and drain off the investment with wicked policies. Buhari/Osinbajo’s antidote for hardship is more hardships. More people are out of jobs than the one-million-jobs a year this government promised but never kept since 2015. Yet, beleaguered Nigerians need to be squeezed off their meagre earnings to build infrastructure and empower both the greed and kleptomaniac disposition of the political class? So, how come this government has in five years borrowed more than others?

               No matter what Buhari’s apple-polishers say, this country has taken turns for the worst. No amount of lies from official brownnosers will wish away the pains inflicted on Nigerians. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo likened the country to a basket case (I think it is ajadi-apere), and they have abusively taken on Baba Iyabo, the letter writer, conveniently forgetting the message. The United States think-tank and the Fund for Peace recently ranked Nigeria 15th most failed nation in the world. No official comment. A national daily last week reported that 264 Nigerians have committed suicide in the last four years. Just one in every five suicides gets reported. No comment too, because those are the grim realities of our lives.  

            A country that inspires despair and suicide cannot instigate hope and lofty dreams at the same time. For those that will ideally not contemplate suicide and still have their dreams intact, they have to salvage them from abortion. It is a shame on all our leaders that the best option left for thinking Nigerians is to exit this country. Not everyone is fascinated with second-class citizenry in Europe or America. But where people they entrust with their lives would not even care but get oppressive, then a caricature of hope elsewhere will be most welcome. If there is hope here, all children of our leaders will not be overseas.

It is important to state that the task of nation building is enormous. And it begins with taking responsibility for every action or inaction. Like it is in medical practice, statecraft has its rules too. It demands courage and skills to surgically operate the ills causing the society to be dysfunctional, without killing the patient. Like the nurse, there must be an honest admission of ills, with the zeal to make quick amends than rationalise it in compassionless tones. Only that way could we claim to have faithfully served man, humanity and God. But in the interim, we all have our dreams to salvage from the hands of these abortionists. May the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world, cleanse Nigeria of all hindrances and impunity. Magister meus Christus, Ire o!

©Sanjọ́ Olúwáfẹ́mi. 

Penned and re-edited, 2021.

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