By Rev Fr Gerald Nwafor
A simple explanation of today’s topic is: when human existence lacks meaning and purpose, and communication breaks down; where logical construction and argument give way to irrational and illogical speech; and the conclusion is confusion. I have watched in amazement what is going on in the country and I cannot wrap my head around it.
The level of insanity at all levels of government starts from the drama between EFCC (Economic and Financial Crime Commission) and the ex-governor of Kogi State Mr. Yahaya Bello, who chooses to call himself the “white lion.” I really wonder what he means by white lion, because I know that lions are not white in nature and human beings are not wild cats; but let us leave this issue for another episode.
In the same wonder, I watched the killing of the 17 soldiers in the riverine area of the Niger Delta and the mayhem created by the military in that area in their quest looking for the perpetrators of the crime. Military has nothing to do with internal crime, since we have the police, which the constitution empowered to take care of the internal order.
The military should go to Sambisa Forest and take care of the external aggression of the Boko Haram, terrorists and bandits that come into the country from the Sahel regions not inside the Niger Delta. I also watch the government boasting about how they have crushed the dollar from 1800 to 1200 without any concrete plan. Just a reminder to my people:
When this government took over on 29th May 2023 the dollar was 750 to 800. And in six months it went from 800 to almost 2000 before everyone started shouting and cursing them, before they started this magic.
I am sure that we will soon know that they lied to us because the way things are moving now the dollar will hit 2000 in June. I am not a prophet but I have God-given common sense so I can guess correctly sometimes where the tree will fall depending on how it is standing.
The EFCC went to Abuja to arrest the ex-governor of Kogi state. They went with cameras and stood outside the gate till the sitting governor of Kogi drove all the way from Lokoja to Abuja and whisked Bello away to Kogi.
Now the EFCC boss said that they do not want confrontation with the governor, that was why they did not fight to arrest Bello. There is nothing we cannot see on the stage during drama.
Was the governor in Bello’s house when they arrived? No. Did Bello resist arrest? No. Did EFCC officials see Bello? No.
Therefore, at what point did the EFCC boss start saying that they did not want confrontation with the sitting governor when he came to rescue Bello from the hands of a Nigerian official agency that came to carry out their official duty and responsibility? Let me just say to the EFCC boss, next time if you want to act in this kind of movie please send it to some Nollywood actors, they will help you present a better script. This one you just did was amateur.
The accusation that the governor stole $720,000 (seven hundred and twenty thousand dollars) two weeks before he handed it over to a fellow thief, sorry to the new governor, is balderdash. Besides, there was an allegation of 81 billion Naira which he stole earlier.
The EFCC should not be making too much noise in public and be saying that if they fail to get the money back from Bello the boss (oga) will resign.
The Oga would soon resign, and Bello may never go to court because in the theater of the absurd only confusion is certain and the end is always like the first because it goes in circles. When it starts with confusion and deceit it will end in more confusion and more deceit.
I heard this morning while writing this piece that rainfall brought down the prison wall in Abuja and more than 100 prisoners escaped. Was the wall made of mud? The drama in Nigerian theater is unending. New day, new drama (chifoo anu ozo).
On the day of swearing-in, May 29th, 2023, the new president said that the petrol subsidy was gone, and the price of petrol jumped from 300 to 640 naira.
We did not know how to face that because the outgoing government was draconic and clueless, wicked, and spiteful, therefore we did not protest so much.
Today the new government is telling us that they spend billions of dollars on subsidies. Someone asked how I was feeling about this government.
I did not know what to answer because I do not have a sense of feeling now. The magnitude of lies from the present government makes me wonder what next would be the calamity.
The government has lied from the first day, to the point that I remember the joke my friend told me about a school pupil who wanted to catch the politicians whenever they lied. The student asked his wise teacher to tell him how he can catch politicians when they lie.
The teacher said in clear terms that you should observe the politicians very carefully to see if their lips are moving and that whenever the lips move, they are lying. I have come to believe and agree with that answer. They said that our refineries would start working in December 2023.
They said that the Dangote refinery would start production in June 2023. They said that food commodities will come down.
Those are simple ones I can remember but I will allow you to add more and put down the answers because the real theater of the absurd ends with silence and confusion but in our case, it ends with woes and weeping.
Finally, we are waiting for the next movie that will usher in more absurdity because the people of Nigeria have decided to watch the movie unfold. Maybe the dam in Cameroon would overflow and the peasants of Nigeria would be homeless for the next three months.