“The worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing it.” – John Stuart Mill.
Adrenaline produces hormones that prepare muscles for exertion. If you don’t have it as a people or as a nation, you can hardly make an effort or react effectively to something. That appears to be the ailment gripping Nigeria’s state and her citizens at the moment.
Turkish Contemporary playwright, author and deep thinker, Mehmet Murat Ildan copiously identified two kinds of people in the world: Submissive and rebellious and he was quick to note that the problem of the world is that the majority is in the first category! The playwright continues by saying that the system always wants the people to choose to be either a bow or an arrow, but he is urging them to refuse both and instead go for the third choice which is an archer! An archer is a bowman who shoots at a target.
The similarity that applies to the situation in Nigeria’s polity is that the majority of the populace is docile and submissive to a fault. They chose to be bows and arrows always talking and threatening to do but can’t act because they depict bows and arrows, not archers.
It’s never upbeat for any nation whose leader enjoys the support of ignorant and unethical masses. In such a country, the only means the docile citizens express themselves is through gossip because they know that no bodyguard can protect a leader from it since the beating is in the leader’s absence.
In the current political situation In Nigeria, several opportunities and provocations have cropped up in the polity for the people to do something great and take their destiny in their hands but they have been unable to seize the moment since they lack the courage to take the bold steps. Nigerians have become contended with being told well said, instead of well done, because they are only the talking and not the ‘doing’ population. Because Nigerians are not ready to risk the usual, they have settled for the ordinary.
As human beings, we are encouraged to dream dreams but to realize the dream we must first wake up. But Nigerians prefer to continue sleeping and dreaming of fantasies without waking up. Nigerians have refused to wake up yet they want their political dreams to come through. America’s animation film producer, Walt Disney, says clearly that “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” and Disability Rights advocate, Helen Keller notes that “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.
What has become indisputable in our political life as Nigerians over time is that we have all found ourselves sowing docility and submissiveness and reaping bad leadership as a reward.
Nigerians like it much when they see others stand up to defend or condemn what they dislike but find it difficult to do the same for themselves. This is the crunch of all Nigeria’s sociopolitical and economic problems. They watched the 28-day Resistance rebellion called Arab Spring in Tunisia and loved it, they saw Kenyans stand up against bad leadership and were excited but remained clearly unable to help in their case. They watched helplessly as somebody grabbed power and ran with it ignoring the will of the people. They watched a President with questionable electoral victory a few minutes after taking the oath of office on May 29, 2023, making a fiat public policy statement, ‘Subsidy is gone’ and as a result turned the entire populace into paupers. And twelve months after that Nigeria workers are still going back and forth for a living wage. Meanwhile, the politicians continued to live in affluence on the commonwealth, going for high-flying projects for their kickbacks while inflation sent more Nigerians into multi-dimensional poverty. Nigerians watch and bemoan as leaders buy SUV cars use billions of naira to construct garages for the cars, prepare to buy new aircraft for themselves, and build coastal super highways and flyovers while internal roads are impassable. They watch Corrupt and criminal gangs hold the country hostage, the people know them but rather than act they are instead hero-worshipping them.
In Nigeria, the rich living on public funds are impoverishing the poor but rather than act, the poor turn around to defend and fight for the rich. This is the characteristic of a conquered society made up of people whose adrenaline no longer reacts to things.
Usually, body chemistry expects that in response to a threatening situation, the brain sends a message to our adrenal gland and urges it to release the adrenaline.
Adrenaline is responsible for the fight-or-flight reaction to a threat, and it triggers specific processes in the body.
For example, it might make the body send extra oxygen to the lungs to aid a person in running away as well as allowing a quick escape from danger. Adrenaline also has other effects on the body.
A normal functional body should have adrenaline that triggers changes in the body system, like when a person is facing a real threat.
In correlating our body to a nation’s political life, all the variables that cause adrenaline rush apply to a country. The question agitating the minds of all political watchers In Nigeria today is, why is our body polity not releasing the adrenaline? Why are Nigerian people not responding to their situation accordingly?
It’s only In Nigeria that a foretold war consumes a cripple. Before the general election, we were informed of grab and run and it came to pass. Now ahead of the Edo November gubernatorial election, we have again been told how undemocratic it may go. Even an unelected Minister has just threatened a serving Senator that he would not return to her seat come 2027 and we will wait to see it pass.
Every day you hear of hunger and suffering alongside the public officer’s lavish lifestyle but we surrender and watch and clap wishing that Kenyans would come and help us or that Donald Trump should win the American Presidency and come with his madness to save us. Meanwhile, on our part, we retire to our cocoons- tribe, religious and party affiliations suffering and smiling. Did anybody hear of the tribe, religion or party affiliations in Kenya’s revolt? We fixated ourselves on elections, yet from one fraudulent election to another nothing changes, no good governance as a result and we do nothing but lament and gossip. Now, all our energies are being channelled for 2027 and hoping for miracles with the same INEC and all the rigging machinery that are still being oiled by the same gang. What type of people and country are we and who did this to us if I may ask? Shame on a nation that can’t help herself. God help us.
