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Wale Oluwo and the walls of Jericho

By Joseph Edgar…

Can I borrow this from popular Artiste, FALZ, whose acerbic and punchy song and video of the same title rankled a lot of feathers within the establishment in Nigeria when it was released? Falz himself borrowing from an American artiste laid bare the wanton hopelessness that now pervades our country.

His depiction of rudderless leadership, its hypocritical postulations when it comes to good governance and its faux approach to the common good powerfully sent home the message to long suffering Nigerians in a way no artiste has done since the late great maestro, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Nigeria has never faced a crisis of identity like what we are facing today. I really would hate to join the million, shedding their clothes and dabbing themselves in ash and renting their hair in self-pity railing against an elitist class that has all but failed us. Instead I would want to join the pitiably little minority who would seek to search for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Read also: Ambode vs. Tinubu

But even as I write, the urge to lift a finger and fight for Nigeria remains elusive. As I stare at my laptop, fingers itching to type out words of encouragement and hope, all I can think of is the degradation of human dignity orchestrated by wicked leaders from all of the divide as they continue to wreak massive carnage on our souls.

The images of young thugs shooting at each on the streets of Lagos obviously at the behest of their political overlords just takes it all to a new low. A system that decried military dictatorship but replaced it with civilian fascists. A system that is so comfortable with blatant theft and celebrates the corrupt can only be a system that has been consigned to the dustbin of hades.

I really do not see any hope, no matter how hard I try, and better know I have really tried. The fluidity in positions, the inept system of checks and balances controlled and misconstrued by political assassins, the urge to join the bandwagon of pilfers, the reluctance to attempt a transparent revolution all makes us a country of petty thieves.

And mark my words, nobody is excused. We all are in it and we all benefit or suffer from it. Those who rail against it do that because they are at the other end of the table and will shout themselves hoarse until they are given a seat on the table of thievery and then they stop crying like spoilt children being handled a morsel of cake.

From the pulpits, to the hallowed halls of our religious institutions through the political office holders and the shameful hallowed halls of the judiciary not to mention traditional and cultural institutions that should be the bastion of hope have all been bastardised by the avarice of selfish pursuits.

We are faced with an epidemic of malfasceance unique to us and that is why Falz has said, THIS IS NIGERIA.

No hope.

 

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