Buhari versus Buhari: Them and Us

SD photo

By

Prince Charles Dickson

A puppy thinks: “Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a warm, dry home, pet me and take good care of me…

… THEY MUST BE GODS!”

Kitten and Pup love Getting Back to Happy

A kitten thinks: “Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a warm, dry home, pet me and take good care of me…

… I MUST BE A GOD!”

Same situation–different thinking.

To a great extent, we make our own life stories by our thoughts. The reality we ultimately create is a process of our daily thinking. And when our daily thinking is right, our daily actions can’t be wrong in the long run.

I have often opined…the easiest and most attractive national past time is buck-passing especially with the bunch of leaders that we have. Not many of us want to take responsibility for anything, from personal, to family or national life. The blame is on the system.

We do not need to create demons out of our leaders because they are specimen of demons, so we hang our sins on them appropriately and inappropriately too. And unfortunately their behavior has made it easy for the critic to descend on them.

We at most, talk, write and discuss the Nigerian myth, one which is leadership, with a sense of fatalism. If everyone thought as much as I did about justice and fairness, life would be better. I am critic, but I am also the critics’ critic, the unrepentant believer that the best way to keep government on its toes is to keep harping on their flaws so they can improve.

Often I say I believe the things I write on, are important for our nation as they are for other nations, but when it appears to me Nigerians especially those in authority do not react to these issues as people in other lands do, I repeat them in new essays to remind old readers and recruit new ones to participate in the continuing dialogue.

As a critic, even my bitterest opponents, those Buharists and apologists, politicians from all sides; North, South, Middle Belts, and all other belts have to read me personally or have someone read me and tell them what I said and did not say, so that their anger can be kept burning hot.

Sadly this is Nigeria where nothing works and no one cares, when it works, it is because someone’s interest is about to be served or being served not the people’s interest.

Government bashing is now a national past time and every drinking joint and free newspaper association has a sitting parliament with an expert on every issue, but we forget that no matter the input if the politicians have questionable lives both on personal and domestic level, nothing will change, the best government policy cannot change the individual.

Like I once said NITEL, NIPOST, NPA, NMA, everything and anything that has an N has been run down. Even Nigeria herself or is it himself. Despite my barrage on the leadership I believe we ourselves can do a lot in improving our lot, we do not need a decree or law that would ban urinating in public place because it is wrong.

We do not need government to teach us to stop treating ourselves like animals. Do we need government to teach us that we demand responsible leadership and representation? Certainly not, we should know that and act in a fashion that depicts that we demand more than what we are getting.

The critic’s anthem would be my end to this short essay, it is one that has always inspired me by H.G. Wells “we are going to write about it all. We are going to write about business and finance and politic and pretences and pretentiousness, and decorum and indecorum, until a thousand pretences and ten thousand impostor shrivel in the cold, …we are going to write about wasted opportunities and latent beauties, until a thousand new ways of life open to men and women. We are going to appeal to the young, and the hopeful, and the curious against —-the established, the dignified and the defensive. Before we are done we will have all life within this scope of the novel.

Our problems have been over-exaggerated, it is not that it cannot be solved, but really do we want it solved. He that is cheated twice by the same man is an accomplice with the cheater…Where do we stand as part of this enterprise of Nigeria, is it ours, or theirs or for all of us or for them. What we are afraid of doing is a clear indicator of what we need to do, our worries in the lack of leadership gradually is becoming a master to us.

We need the character to act, and those who will act with character. We need to a great extent; we make our own Nigerian narrative not just by our thoughts. The reality we ultimately create is a process of our daily thinking. And when our daily thinking is right, our daily actions can’t be wrong in the long run. In Nigeria a word is never enough for the wise, because he is really not wise in character, as the days in the run up to the next elections draw near, it is Buhari versus Buhari and who wins—Only time will tell.

Prince Charles Dickson

Currently Prince Charles, is based out of Jos, Plateau State, and conducts field research and investigations in the Middle Belt Region of Nigeria with an extensive reach out to the entire North and other parts. Prince Charles worked on projects for UN Women, Search for Common Ground, and International Crisis Group, among others. He is an alumnus of the University of Jos and the prestigious Humanitarian Academy at Harvard and Knight Center For Journalism, University of Texas at Austin. A doctoral candidate of Georgetown University

Born in Lagos State (South West Nigeria), Prince Charles is proud of his Nigerian roots. He is a Henry Luce Fellow, Ford Foundation grantee and is proficient in English, French, Yoruba Ibo and Hausa. Married with two boys, and a few dogs and birds.