Of Rats, Snakes, & Monkeys —An exploration into how Nigeria became a JOKE.

“The labour of our heroes past shall never be in vain”

Those are the lines in the first stanza of our “beloved” national anthem. Sadly, almost 58 years after our independence, our heroes will be moved to tears with the state of affairs of Nigeria.

The giant of Africa has slipped into an object of mockery. Nigeria has slipped from “One nation bound in freedom Peace and unity” to a nation torn among ethnic, religious and economic lines. Nigeria is indeed now a shadow of its self. Nigeria is best described as a 58-year old folk living on past glory who can’t administer himself because parts of his body keeps antagonizing one another.

Nigeria has witnessed different forms of public ridicule. We have found delight in washing our dirty linen in the public. Few months back, the minister of information, Shehu Garba, claimed that rats have invaded the office of the number 1 man in the federal Republic of Nigeria after a historical absence of the president for 103 days.

Fast forward, we had a situation where a supposed reputable public officer declared to the people of Nigeria that a strange snake had miraculously and consciously found its way to JAMB treasury. The snake said to itself, “I want a share of the national cake too” and it swallowed a whopping sum of N36,000,000 (approximately $100,000).

The mental status of the official is under critical doubt. Nigerians are, from the past, known to attribute their failings to some metaphysical connection or evil orchestration. Nigerians are fond of hiding their ineptitude, their greed and lack of self-control behind sentences like, ”It is the devils handiwork” or “My village people are at work again.”

Tolu Ogunlesi said, Recall that this same JAMB remitted only about N51 million to Govt Accounts between 2010 and 2016. In 2017, under new management appointed in 2016, it remitted N7.8 Billion. Now that new management is carrying out audits at State offices, and stories that touch are emerging.”

Just breaking and more irritably to logic is the news that a monkey supposedly stole a sum of 70 million naira from a farm house. The headline of the article should have read “Senator blames monkeys for financial mismanagement and misadministration”

The prophecy of Nnamdi Kanu, Leader of the Biafra movement, is coming to pass where he declared that Nigeria was a zoo. Little wonder why Wole Soyinka said we should mourn the death of common sense as a nation.

We live in a nation where rats declare their empires in the apex office of the nation. We live in a nation where cattle are more valued than human lives. We live in a country where snakes have the super ability to eat money —in fact worth multi-millions and where monkeys can cart away with millions!

The problem of Nigeria, I thought, was the government but it is clear that the real problem of Nigeria is the people— you and me.

We are at cross-roads and with this trend, it is evident that the future of Nigeria is bleak. We should sit down as a nation and think.

We must safeguard our sanity as a nation and be more proactive about our engage actively in political processes and with political institution and be more critical of who we elect into power because they in turn govern us and are instrumental in deciding our success as a nation. In the concluding lines of the first stanza of the national anthem, it is a sincere wish that the God of creation “Guide thou our leaders right … To build a nation where peace and justice shall reign”

OLAJIDE, A.G.