By THIS NOTE, THIS NATION, THIS APPRECIATION
Sulaimon Mojeed-Sanni
Note: this piece was written 4 years ago to appreciate comments on my person. Has anything changed?
Yesterday, April 7, some 20years ago, 1994, after years of conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups in Rwanda, a full scale genocide was unleashed on the country. That civil unrest led to the death of over 500,000 mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus within 100 days. It was what our own Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, would easily have referred to as sorrow, tears and blood. But as the nation marks 20years of the gruelling times, the landlocked eastern African state is making efforts to regain economic leverage and recover from the ethnic strife that has bedevilled it.
At the home front, for well over 5 years now, we have been hold to ransom by the activities of a faceless, fearful and shameless group called Boko Haram; a people with no clear motive of engagement other than wanting to Islamized an heterogeneous Nigeria. Their campaign is not only insane in every human thought process, it negates every principle of Islam and knocks common reasoning off its feet. This group, you would all agree, has brought untold hardship on the north-east area of the country and indeed every part of the nation.
Today, we are at war, with a group that clearly stood against everything our founding fathers stood for. They are against our freedom of choice, religion, and development, they are bringing tears where there should be joy and have succeeded in grounding a once serene, hospitable and agriculturally viable economy. As our government continues to show traces of not giving a damn, we must rise as a community to salvage the remains, before we all perish. It is sad we place less premium on lives, we are just one wasteful nation. I hope one day, very soon, we would be bold enough to stand for ourselves regardless of religion, ethnic background or economic disparity.
As I write, our representatives are at the National Conference trying to ‘re-base’ the country, even though their supposedly patriotic effort would be costing us billions, but do we need to give a damn since our economy has been rebased and we are now the largest economy in Africa? Please do not complain to me about every other ills in the society; unemployment, bastardised education, insecurity, economic nose-diving, infrastructural decay, corruption and moral deficit. Let us continue to quote, eat and serve the available figures and get everything done on our new trophy of rebasement. This rebasement would bring food to every home, the children can as usual even put some in their flasks to school. The teachers and civil servants need not ask for salaries again, mere quoting of our rebased figure should do them lots of good, no pun intended. Now I am trying to grasp the intent and depth of Femi Kuti’s “Sorry Sorry” song. It explains it all, ‘politicians and soldiers doing meeting to repair the country’, it is just wholesomely laughable.
With this rebasement, security has now been well covered and the insurgent group can start to lay down their arms and pursue amnesty, though unfortunately, theirs would not be monetized but figurized. I damn love this country!
So, you can imagine what I woke up thinking yesterday. The only thing I could thought of was a fasting and prayer for our beloved country, even though prayers seems to be failing us faster than we imagined. All I wanted yesterday was to soberly celebrate myself while reflecting on the possibilities of a new nation. By 11:58pm, which you would all agree wasn’t my birthday, the calls started coming in, then the facebook messages, twitter mentions, Whatsapp inboxes till this morning. Before I could say ‘JackHoldItDown’, the DPs started changing to my small egg-head, then the PMs. Then the whole sober thing was botched by some greatly amazing guys who hosted me at Ikeja Shoprite, you guys were just to marvellous, I am grateful for that treat.
Initially, I try keeping up with greeting pace, liking and commenting on the different facebook posts and retweeting but I could not balance it, at a point it became nearly overwhelming, so I gave up chasing and trailed from behind. But eventually, I crossed out almost all the comments. That taught me a lesson, that even as a nation we might not keep up with the pace of other developed or other developing nations, but if we are persistent about our believes, have direction, a decisive leader, continue to give value and show selflessness while expunging greed, we would cross out our challenges as a nation and gained rightful place amongst commit of nations. Then, we shall be rebasing on obvious realities not cloudy virtual figures.
Yesterday, I saw many descriptions, appellations and glorification, I cannot in any word, cliché, phrase or sentence say I appreciate every mention, I am indebted to you all and humbled to the limit of my abilities. Sincerely speaking, I feel I fall short of all the praises, because so far, I have done nothing but being myself.
To define me, some said I am humane, an orator, writer, fighter, leader, human right activist, essayist, environmentalist, youthful and useful youth amongst others (am sure many would change their opinion when they see my bad side once), when I know within me, I am an apprentice, learner and maybe an avid reader.
I know I cannot appreciate you enough because the affections shown cannot be quantified, so I would only say THANK YOU. I am humbled by all the individual and collective appraisals. I am more indebted to all the various groups and teams(pardon me if I do not roll out names), I have been privileged to work with, I see life as a learning process and I have been greatly enriched by meeting you at one point or the other. I PRAY and WISH, I do not someday FALL SHORT of your EXPECTATIONS. Thank you for the prayers, GOD BLESS ALL.
Be Safe. SM-S
