It is fast becoming my firm conviction, that the rulers of Nigeria have become as Muyi, arsonists that would set the house on fire to cover up the fact of their mindless kleptomania.
Muyi worked for my friend. A much older friend. He was his driver, washman, batsman, and general dogsbody. My friend was a chronic bachelor and a man of some considerable means. He traveled a lot, and would leave Muyi in the house and available to run errands as he might instruct by telephone, from wherever he might have traveled. This was in the age of David Mark as the Nigerian Telecommunications Minister, and telephones were rarely mobile, and were definitely not intended for the poor.
My friend returned from one of his usual trips to meet a burnt down home. He had been informed vide a phone call from the trusted Muyi, of a fire outbreak that began in the master’s bedroom. The trip from the airport was replete with tales of a power surge, that must have sparked a fire in one of the power sockets. Muyi had a good yarn to spin.
Problem is, my friend is the same as every chronic bachelor or bachelorette. They are incredibly set in their ways, and are mostly creatures of their inflexible habits. Years of living alone had meant that the old bachelor’s habits are practically set in stone. He would routinely switch off each and every one of the several appliances and sockets in his bedroom, before he would leave home each day, and if he was traveling for even a single day. He wouldn’t ever have traveled abroad without switching off these sockets.
The neighbors and Good Samaritans, emergency firefighters, and sympathizers that had helped put out the fire, had also helped to varying degrees in clearing out the debris. My friend arrived to meet the burnt out shell of his home. The worst affected being his bedroom, with the rest of the house, suffering what were mostly superficial damages, caused by the smoke. Nothing a good deep cleaning wouldn’t cure. The prompt attention and kind interventions of his neighbors had prevented the fire from gaining traction and spreading beyond the location of its origins.
Thing is, my friend’s bedroom was his Fort Knox. He owned a vast collection of luxury high end watches, jewelry made of gold, platinum, and diamond. Bangles, rings, bracelets, and chains, he had cash in different currencies and denominations. The bulk of his liquidity and riches were in the room. His certificates earned from years of studies, clothes, heirlooms, name it if it was of any value to him, it was in that room. The fire took more than money, it took away a substantial part of my friend’s memories.
If you have ever observed a partially burnt property, the easiest of the tasks is to tell the source of the fire, and or, where the fire was most intense. The curious things about the fire in my friend’s house, might have begun with the primary location of the outbreak, but curiosity need give way to suspicion, when it quickly became clear to an already suspicious man, that the fire appeared to have began from the direction of his wardrobe/safe, and the very depository of his now lost riches. This air conditioning system was only superficially damaged, and some accelerant was evident to the observant in the wardrobe areas.
The fire was the end of Muyi.
When the Nigerian political class became worried about the consequences of its stealings in the Second Republic, they would routinely burn down the account department of whatever ministries or parastatals that they might have afflicted, and several public buildings went up in flames during the reign of the National Party Of Nigeria between 1979-1983. Professor Soyinka’s musical collaboration with Tunji Oyelana birthed a ribaldry song that spoke to this phenomenon. In the attempt to burn down the account department, the loss of entire buildings were sometimes the unintended consequences.
The Nigerian ruling class has graduated from being plain thieves and slavers, and have now become as arsonists. The truth is that each and every one of them have second passports and citizenships. They are Nigerians only for the purposes of establishing their rights to trade in the slave markets of Nigeria. The complete loss of introspection by the ruling class, the impunity and contempt with which they are treating the ruled, all suggests to me, that they are not unaware of the clearly unsustainable nature of their rule, and the definite consequences, but that they have decided to set Nigeria on fire, in order to cover up their crimes.
It should be apparent to any student of history, that the Nigerian state is in its endgames. If you can see it, so can our rulers. It is fast becoming my firm conviction, that the rulers of Nigeria have become as Muyi, arsonists that would set the house on fire to cover up the fact of their mindless kleptomania. Problem is that, it is the country itself that they have set on fire, and even worse: most of the occupants would appear oblivious of the perils with which they live.
DF
7 Steps To Liberation…
