A PAN-AFRICANIST VIEW

Dr. Tajudeen

There is a Kenyan joke about Nigeria which, for brevity, I will give an executive summary of it. It is about a Kenyan couple who had been blessed with three wonderful daughters.

Both husband and wife loved their children but the man, being a â€˜true sonâ€™ of his ancestors, wanted a boy to guarantee clan succession, inheritance and all associated patriarchal privileges of which perpetuation of the male line is necessary. His loving wife was tired of having more children but the husband kept pressuring, joking about it here and there and using every opportunity to hint about how wonderful it was going to be if only they could get a boy but the wife resisted the bait. But quietly it was worrying her.

It was the time of the World Population Conference in Cairo (remember the one in which both the Pope and the Ayatoollah were on the same side dictating what women could or could not do with their bodies, out of any considerations for ideas about bodily integrity. A lot of statistics were being bandied about then. Then the Kenyan women got the African statistics. You know the one we all know : one in every four Africans is a Nigerian! So the Kenyan woman rearranged the statistics to convince her husband that a fourth child, whether boy or girl was not necessary.

On a romantic family outing she started talking shop and reminiscing about her recent trip to the Cairo meeting. She said to the husband, â€œDarling, I really did not know that Nigerians are that many. They said one in four of all Africans is a Nigerian.â€ The husband did not make any comment so the wife changed tact and massaged the statistics again: â€œDarling they said every fourth African is a Nigerian. That is when the import of the statistics became clearer to the husband. He asked his wife if he had heard right and she repeated it that every fourth African was a Nigerian. The husband then declared, â€œDarling, may God bless our children, forget about a fourth child. I donâ€™t want a Nigerian in my house.â€

The joke may not even have originated in Kenya but such details should not stand in the way of good anecdotes. In many African cultures and other cultures too, people often speak the truth about power through jokes and anecdotes. They do not come out of a vacuum. They are social commentaries, sometimes didactic and at other times expressing dissension, protest or warning. It is not only the Kenyan couple that do not want a Nigerian in their houses. I am not sure how many Nigerians are comfortable with being Nigerian these days. What does it mean? While they take pride in being â€˜the largest country in Africaâ€™, â€˜the most populous Black countryâ€™, â€˜leader of Africaâ€™ and other grand aspirational epithets there is a painful awareness that Africaâ€™s sleeping giant is not living up to the expectations of its peoples! They may proclaim Nigerianness in relation to other Africans and non- Africans but among themselves that identity is being challenged by the reality of existence for many Nigerians . It is a nation that is very defensive because the peoples are very proud but not proud of the waste of the potentials of the country.

In the past, everything from building sizes to dams and bridges used to be â€˜the first in Africaâ€™ but now the things Nigeria is regarded first in are nothing to be proud of.

Nowhere is Nigeria more defensive these days than the endless transition to democracy in the country and the uncertainties that continue to hang over the democratic future of the country. Elections are due, latest April next year, but up to now the National Electoral Commission, despite protestations to the contrary, does not seem to be preparing for elections. There is no updating of votersâ€™ list. For some reasons 150, 000 cameras supposedly ordered since 2003 have not arrived in the country so there may not be technical capacity to produce new voter registration identity cards. Political parties have not held their nomination conventions, including the ruling party, PDP (otherwise known as â€˜people deceiving Peopleâ€™. But the competition even within the same parties is so stiff that contenders for nominations (not the popular election) are killing each other.

Only last week, a leading contender for nomination for the governorship of Lagos state, on the platform of PDP was brutally murdered in his own home. There are so many unresolved murders of prominent political figures since the civilianised administration in 1999 that it is difficult to accept that all of them were just criminal acts. Even if they were, people have a right to be worried that in a country where the minster of Justice, (Bola Ige) could be slaughtered in his own home and up to now no suspects have been convicted.

The biggest uncertainty now is that there are fears that despite losing the campaign to prolong his rule, change the constitution to guarantee a third term, the wounded President, General Olushegun Obasanjo, is down but no out.

Speculations are rife that there may not be any elections next year. instead an emergency rule may be foisted on the country! This will give Obasanjo an extension through the back door. I was one of those who doubted the Third Term push when the kite was initially flown and thought it was a crazy idea. With time, the crazy idea took root.

Only serious mass mobilisation prevented the National Assembly from succumbing to the wishes of the president. With that recent experience, one cannot dismiss the current talk about elections not holding and plans for an interim government.

In the midst of these uncertainties it is not just non-Nigerians who may not want a Nigerian in their family, most Nigerians will not want their politicians and political leaders not only in their family but in the country as a whole!

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