By Korede Adeshina
“Suffering and Smiling” that’s a refrain from one of Fela
Kuti’s songs.That phrase truly characterizes the mental conditioning of the
average Nigerian in acquiescing to the material condition in which he finds
himself. Fela was legendary in his music but more so in the fierceness of his
criticism of the ills that prevailed in his day. Fela wasn’t a lone voice in
the wilderness calling the nation to repentance,the likes of Gani Fawehinmi,
Ken Saro-Wiwa and the ogoni nine, Beko Ransome-Kuti were his contemporaries and
comrades-in-struggle. They are all late now. It appears they all lived in age
not too distant and the evils they railed against are still with us today.
One may ask, what is wrong with the status quo? And another
may ask, why is there a general discontent with the status quo? Then I will
ask, why are we content with our discontentment? Sounds paradoxical right? But
that is the case with us, Nigerians.
The socio-economic and political status quo in Nigeria today
would be totally unacceptable in civilized climes and most Nigerians resent it
too but they are reluctant to do anything about it. We had rather fix the blame
and keep the problem or merely wish it away, hence our complacency reinforces
the status quo that we loathe so much. While the vital few who benefits from
the status quo perpetuates their self-interest and avarice, the trivial many,
driven by sentiments and irrationality, defer their discontentment to that
utopian day of reckoning. It is in such fashion that the status quo and its
discontents become a self-reinforcing mechanism. Henry ford’s saying that
“thinking is the hardest work there is” perhaps explain why the trivial many
Nigerians act like a tribe of lemmings depending on their ethno-religious
leanings.
But every-once-so-often Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle
appears on the political arena as if to prove the veracity of the random walk
theory in the socio-political sphere. For example, a member of the vital few
prevaricates from class interest to obliterate the status quo and establishes a
new political order that address the discontents of the trivial many, like
George Washington, like Muhammadu Buhari; or an incident trigger an event of
cataclysmic proportions that upends the status quo and establishes a new order
like the arab spring. It is wishful thinking to hope for the later considering
how polarized the Nigerian society is across ethnic and religious fault lines
but the former we have in our hands at this time, in this election.
This is not to call to arms but a call to change in thinking;
that we, the trivial many, are the master of the fate of this nation and the
prevailing status quo is not sacrosanct by divine ordinance but can be upended
by our collective resolve.
Korede Adeshina is the CEO of ubiQuity Company
