The High Court of Patriotism

[5min read]

Whenever 4^th of July rolls around, Americans move Lee Greenwood’s “God bless the U.S.A” to the very top of their playlist, swaddle themselves with the old glory and watch with the flame of patriotism consuming their hearts, fireworks take flight to the night skies.

It’s the October 1^st season and amongst the annual plethora of events that form the convoy around the D-Day of the Nigerian Independence memorial is the interdenominational church service.

During the seamless mixture of the solemn religious and the political jamboree for a service, the most Senior Christian in the government, the Vice President, Professor Oluyemi Osinbajo declared;

“God has promised us a new Nigeria, a peaceful Nigeria, a prosperous Nigeria; a Nigeria where Justice and equity shall prevail, a united Nigeria, where the different tribes and tongues are not wedges of separation but the joyful textures of our togetherness, God is ready to fulfil His promise”   

The clergyman and Professor of law's submission was a page out of the textbook of grand optimism. A book Nigerians have no interest in reading these days.

The message was clearly that of a glass half-full texture. The Professor of law who doubles as a clergyman sounded the trumpet of optimism, a sound the majority of the populace are understandably and decidedly deaf to. Nigerians barely share the Vice President’s grand optimism.

The nation in recent times has taken the shape of a 923,768 sq.km Supermax penitentiary with her citizens like inmates on death row.

Everything in Nigeria seems to look, sound, feel and smell like death or on more benign occasions, mental torture. Everything and Everyone has a go. It’s a turkey shoot in West Africa’s most powerful nation.

Explains why the average Nigeria (who lives under a dollar per day) finds it difficult to give half a crocodile’s nose about October 1 except for the public holiday it so cheerfully gives.

The full blown onslaught on Nigerian lives has employed every facet of the Nigerian life as dependable executioners.

In the good old days, the fashion was that bandits, Insurgents and other Captains of evil were by nature the perpetual life-snatching outfits but the new trend these days is frightening. In the Olympic games of taking the lives of Nigerians, the very law enforcement agents charged to keep them safe have made a surprise appearance on the medals’ table and they’re climbing real fast.

These days, in a profoundly ridiculous turn of events the fear of being beaten, tortured or shot dead by law enforcement agents (F-SARS being the “primus inter pares” in that business) is as rational as the fear of the same in the hands of the men of the underworld.

An AK-47-wielding F-SARS official. Any young Nigerian male's worst nightmare. 

As a victim of police harassment myself, the trust and confidence I have in those whose primary assignment is to keep me safe is up there with the confidence the gazelle has finding itself in a Lion's cross-hairs.

The lives of sick Nigerians have become the responsibility of largely unmotivated, disillusioned, terribly overworked and sometimes depressed Healthcare workers in poorly equipped and grossly understaffed facilities. It’s a miracle anyone actually survives a hospital experience (I say this from experience as I’m a medical practitioner).

Dilapidated structures like this are common sights in the Health sector. Throw in unmotivated and sometimes depressed healthcare workers plus a poor populace and you understand how big a miracle it is that people survive hospital experiences in the first place

That is the quagmire in the health sector.

The educational sector does it with some style and finesse. You hardly stop breathing because of school. However, the system is set up and sets out to keep the pressure on a student’s carotids (The 3 Idiots; a classic Indian movie explains the Nigerian tertiary education situation perfectly).

Nigerians are some of the most stressed students in the world. The system plants difficulty as a seed into the rich soil that is the heart of the young Nigerian student.

There have been reports of suicide amongst this precious group of Nigerians and depression on a large scale.

The transportation sector is a veteran in the business of taking Nigerian lives. Potholes are makeshift graves for lives who could have made a difference. Then there are actual bandits and salary-earning bandits (law enforcement agents) who wield Mikhail Kalashnikov’s military grade invention (AK-47s) with reckless abandon on the roads.

Potholes looking like genius improvisation for graves have become part of the Nigerian life for years. A veteran executioner of the Nigerian life.

Sometimes, you simply are a tough cookie and won’t succumb to Nigeria’s attempt on your life so you pack your bags and relocate to a place where the grass is greener, you know, a place like, say, South Africa for instance.

That’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.

You don’t have your prison break just yet pal. Just another place with a target on your Nigerian back.

This is why Nigerians have adopted the glass half-empty philosophy. For the most part unconcerned about the nation and events occurring in it. Hardly interested in hearing the Father of the nation address them on Tuesday, the 1^st of October.  

No flags waved. No anthems chanted. Just a day of rest or one when they can face something else. The Nigerian delves into everything but National celebration on such a day.

Here’s the thing though.

You and I may hate the situation of things (rightfully so), you may disagree with the President and his team, heck, you may even out rightly dislike him but my gut says you love the essence of this nation.

It is alright to be disillusioned with the President and his team but we must learn to separate our frustrations towards them from the love of the nation.

Our tenacity, our rugged nature, our difficult-to-kill spirit, our penchant for excellence, our ridiculous well-known drive to aim for and reach the top (a feature that fetches us hatred from outsiders sometimes) and refusal to give in despite hardship should make you proud. The Nigerian in you is a source of strength enough for a lifetime and boy do I think you should be mighty proud of that.

We must like Americans learn to separate love of the Nigerian essence from disgust and disappointment towards the government. 

You'd never stop being Nigerian wherever you find yourself. It's probably a smart idea to embrace that reality and love the essence of it.

On a cultural day while you school overseas, you sure would love to appear in your majestic Nigerian traditional attire while waving the Nigerian flag.

It appears that as justifiable as grand pessimism about this country is in the Court of logic, when you appeal to the higher and the more passionate Court of Patriotism, it becomes clear there’s still a flame of love for this nation in all our hearts.

Therefore, fellow Nigerian, if there’s even a tiny thread of love you have for this country, if you’re one of those who simply can’t have other nationals insult Nigeria on Social Media without tearing them apart limb by limb, if you’re one of those who were outraged when the news about Xenophobia filled the airways and were subsequently disappointed that the President, in his address to the 74^th United Nations General Assembly, didn’t call out the South African Government like an unannounced rectal exam then yes, you probably love this nation more than you think you do.

If other countrymen like Dr Oluyinka Olutoye, Dr Olurotimi John Badero, Dr Bennet Omalu, Chimamanda Adichie, Arunma Oteh, Mohammed Barkindo, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amina Mohammed, Emmanuel Ohuabunwa, David Oyelowo, Asa, Assisat Oshoala, Samuel Chukwueze et cetera (feel free to add you own name to this honor roll call) make you proud to be Nigerian, then yes buddy, you do love Nigeria!

Recently appointed Professor and Surgeon-In-Chief of the National Children's hospital in the US, fellow country man Dr Oluyinka Olutoye shocked the world in 2016 by operating an unborn fetus with a sacrococcygeal tumour at 23 weeks. A Nigerian in whom we are well pleased. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: A Proud Igbo lady and one of the world's leading voices against misogyny.  

The flame of patriotism endures a lot longer and burns fiercely. The Green and White has been sewn into the very fabric of your being.

You can say that again!

You can’t lose ALL hope now.

Happy 59^th to you and I.

God bless you.

And may the good Lord bless this Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Let's raise our glasses.

Salud!  



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