By Oluwamayowa Idowu
I
believe in dreams in that I see them as a way of motivating myself to
go the extra mile in order to bring them to fruition. They help steer
one away from stagnancy. I have had many dreams, some of which have come
true and others which I’m still working to bring to life. One of my
dreams was to be the President of Nigeria. I am generally a passionate
person on so many things (Nigeria, Kanye West, the Media and Arsenal
being the most prominent).
This ambition was borne out of a desire
and passion to oversee change that would take Nigeria closer to the
standard our forefathers advocated. I didn’t want to get into government
and rob the treasury as one of the dreams I have been empowered with by
Mr. Idowu is that a good name is the greatest thing a man can have. I
wanted my likeness to be on a Naira bill long after I have died, with my
grandchildren beaming with joy and
pride as they discussed me and the
positive policies I had brought about in their Social Studies and
History classes.
In 2011 during the last Presidential elections, I wrote a long essay
with the mindset that I was running for that election and detailing how
I would go about addressing what I saw as the main issues. I used to
talk about this a lot. I like to think of myself as a political nerd who
would have channeled attributes from people I look up to like Bill
Clinton, John F Kennedy Jr, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama in taking
Nigeria forward.
I don’t want to be President again. I’m
not even sure if I want to live in Nigeria anytime soon. This has been
the subject of a number of conversations I have had with people over the
last 12 months. Nigeria keeps letting me down. It’s like the girlfriend
who cheats on you and belittles you in public, comes to her senses
promising to change and professing her love for you, whom you then take
back only to find yourself back at square one in no time. Nigeria
constantly disappoints me.
Like many others, I observed ashamedly
the happenings at the Rivers State House of Assembly. It’s nothing new,
it’s not like we haven’t seen this already and that is disheartening.
It’s just another episode to add to the YouTube catalogue of ‘Nigerian
Politicians Fighting’. That episode encapsulates why I have fallen out
of love with the Nigerian state. The government has constantly failed us
and I don’t see that ending anytime soon. We have problems conducting
credible elections so we are constantly governed by lawmakers who seem
to see being lawbreakers as some part of the job description. As a
result of the long years of poor governance and accountability, we find
ourselves in a situation where we tend to reward mediocrity for the one
eyed man is king in the land of the blind. We hail forward thinking
governors like Babatunde Fashola for doing what is nothing that would be
particularly special in a sensible society. He’s fulfilling the basic
expectation of one is bound to expect from any self-respecting
politician fully cognizant of his position as a representative of the
people.
My country has a terrible fertility rate
for breeding ideologues and visionaries. And even the few it does, it
constantly finds ways of discrediting. Dora Akunyili starred as Director
General of the National Agency for Food and Drug and Control waging
wars against counterfeit drugs and unsafe food. When President Yar’Adua
found his way to Aso Rock, he appointed her as his Minister of
Information and Communications as opposed to the Health portfolio that
would have surely been better suited to her qualifications. Talk about
square pegs in round holes.
Over the years, I have started to
question the plausibility of my ambitions and my mindset has changed. I
don’t want to be part of an institution that rewards criminals like
Asari Dokubo (According to the Wall Street Journal, he is paid $9million a year by the government). I don’t want to be part of an institution that rewards criminals like Asari Dokubo (According to the Wall Street Journal, he is paid $9million a year by the government). I want no part of a state that sees the presidential pardon mechanism as a way of appeasing political godfathers. This nation who deprived my beloved cousins of their grandparents has not proven itself worthy.
The shame is that by discouraging those with the right mindset, the
spiral of under development does not look like ending anytime soon.
My name is Oluwamayowa Idowu and I
hereby register my displeasure with the profile the Nigerian government
is creating for the Nigerian. No state should have the right to kill
its citizens’ dreams to make the country better. Indeed it is
unforgivable.