In response to my piece yesterday, a reader sent me this article by Moses Oludele Idowu. (Thank GOD for Oludeles. We say it as it is.)
His write-up really made my day, and comes within the class of the 3 finest articles I have read this year. You’ll read it through if you love the TRUTH and appreciate good articles. And, if you disagree with Idowu’s superlative write-up, then, I assure you that you’ll likely end up in Somalia or Sudan, as a refugee!
I don’t do this often, but, I’m forwarding this truth-FULL piece to you because I agree ABSOLUTELY with everything therein. At this stage of our national life, if we can still call it ‘life’, I’m in support of ANYTHING that would bring bad governance to an end in NIGERIA, including Badenoch’s hard knocks!
Thank GOD for writers like Idowu. If his submissions displease you, you can go and hug T-pain!
Shio!
DA
Kemi Badenoch:The New Headache in Nigeria-Moses Oludele Idowu
There is a new headache in town. A new headache has hit the sons and daughters of my people. Both old and young seem to have caught the bug. Even the top occupants of Aso Rock are not immune to this terrible migraine. The name of this new headache is called _Badenoch_ or better still – Kemi Badenoch.
The press is afflicted by it. Journalists and even television crew are crying because of it. The Social Media is agog with it as everyone complains and cries about the headache. As you can see the name sounds like a combination of both indigenous and foreign which means that this pain will last for a long time. For no indigenous remedies will cure people of the headache. Nigerians will still suffer more because of this headache in the days to come. Only truth and reconciliation with the truth of our conditions will heal this or relieve its pain. Let us now go into the mystery and understand the cause of this new headache and why it won’t go away soon.
Kemi Badenoch is the name of a person, a woman among women who has been thrown up by the forces of this time. Every age pushes forward men and women who are most qualified to lead the people out of the challenges faced by their age. They may have their faults and flaws but they have something, something extra that meets the challenges of the age. Such was Churchill, Lincoln, Peter the Great etc. Kemi Badenoch is following in their footsteps but many can’t see it now because here people do not see – until it is too late when nothing can be done.Kemi is a British citizen of Nigerian parentage and Yoruba extraction and that is one of the reasons why this headache is afflicting many people the more. I shall come to this later. She is a politician and a successful one at that in a culture where truth is still valued and where serious people go into government. In a land where people who have made success in their personal professional careers and wanted to make a name go into politics and government to make a name; not like in another nation where people who have neither name nor success go into government to steal and loot.
Kemi Badenoch became the head of the Conservative Party this year through a transparent process of election seen by all the world. That means she is one step away from even becoming the Head of Government. It is here the trouble began with the people of her father’s country and tribe. The very first attack came in from a woman of Igbo extraction also a British citizen too who threatened: “Is it only Yoruba there is?… You will fall from that position.” That is from a citizen of the same nation that she was supposed to promote with her office.
Then the agents of the party in power in Nigeria against protocol and conventions tried to reach out to her to conscript her into their dubious project and use her enormous goodwill and political capital to shore up their dwindling and wobbling images on the global stage but she shunned them. The more they tried to woo her the more she rebuffed the wasteful and corrupt politicians that have turned Nigeria to a mess. That was the root of the problem. That was where Kemi became their enemy. She would not be used and she would not be associated with corrupt politicians whose wealth cannot be associated with honest labour. “She is not proud to be a Nigerian,”, “she is denying her Nigerianness.. ” as Abike Dabiri was reported to have accused her.
A notable Yoruba, the son of a notable chief and a chief of Ibadan himself said she is not imbibing the culture of Omoluabi… Haba! What is Omoluabi and what does it stand for?
But there was more to come. The Vice President, Kashim Shettima under whose nose as governor, 254 Chibok girls were kidnapped without trace due to security lapses suddenly found his voice: Kemi should remove her Nigerian name if she does not want to be associated with Nigeria. This is the mindset, the quality of thought of the men who rule Nigeria.
Why are many people in Nigeria bearing names more relevant to Saudi Arabia than Nigeria? Why have they not renounced their own names since they are not citizens and don’t identify with Saudi Arabia? But Kemi was unruffled. Unfazed because she is a leader. Leaders don’t mind small stuffs. Confident. Self-assured and focused, she knows where she was coming from and where she is going. She knows where she has escaped from, a land of milk and honey that has been turned to a prison of destinies and visions, an island of woes and miseries. She knows and saw how her own father and mother despite their professional education as medical doctors became poor because of the curse of misgovernance and military absolutism. And she vowed that would not be her fate. And some people are angry because a young woman has decided her own fate and destiny – in a nation where most people have no vision and do not even know why they are here.
That was where Kemi Badenoch’s problem began. She escaped from the prison – the same prison that enslaved her own father. She found her own destiny and purpose and pursuing her own dreams. And many are angry because of this because they have nothing to pursue. The child of woe and nothingness is envious and angry at a child of glory. “Omo olofo to nbinu Omo ologo” – as Yoruba would say. Kemi said she wants to be defined by her Yoruba ancestry and Yoruba ethnic nationality rather than by Nigeria. Is that a crime? Someone said she prefers to be known by her father’s tribe and not by a nation the larger part of which has no cultural affinities with her and with her values. Why should this be a problem to anyone? For a citizen of another nation, for that matter.They say she is not Omoluabi and I say you are ignorant. You don’t even understand Yoruba history and culture. Here is a woman who has traced her history to the 3rd and 4th generation; who knows the values of her heritage as warriors and defenders of the throne and what is right and who has vowed she would do the same even if she dies doing so.
Tell me what else is Omoluabi? Is there anything grander in the Omoluabi ethos than this? Please tell me what is culture? How many of your professors can trace their own ancestry to the fourth generation? How many even know the values that their forefathers fought for? Say what you like, Kemi is a child of culture, of the finest breed of Yoruba humanity and courage. I am proud of her.
She has not denied her ancestry and her tribe and she declared how she wants to be defined – by her Yoruba ancestry rather than by a Nigerian nation. Why should this be the headache of anyone if you are not jobless?
Even Awo said he was first a Yoruba man before he was a Nigerian. Ahmadu Bello the Sardauna of Sokoto saw himself as Fulani man and Muslim first before he was a Nigerian. Zik would not say so but he knew it and acted so. Kemi knew that because she would have read it unlike your politicians who don’t read. So what has she done wrong?
She said some accurate things about Nigeria: that Nigeria is poor, that the police stole her brother’s shoes and watch, that the North is hotbed of Islamic terrorism and fanaticism…And I ask you to point to anything she has said about Nigeria that is false. Just one thing that she has said above that is not true or that is even exaggerated. Not everyone is a slave of Political Correctness. Some say it as it is. That is not been unpatriotic. That is not making mockery of your nation. I won’t tell a lie either for the sake of Nigeria. I won’t do it. If that is not being patriotic in your dictionary, then so be it.
Judges themselves have said in their valedictory speeches that they are corrupt, that the judiciary is corrupt. World Bank said it. Lawyers are saying it and a case is presently in court where the probity of even the Supreme Court is under scrutiny and investigation. Some other women have shown up from within and without to corroborate Kemi’s story about the Nigerian Police. Everyone knows it and people say it. But it hurts us because Kemi has said it.
Why?
It is not because she said so it is because of the standing, the high platform and the global arena and the reverberations it would cause. That is why Kemi’s truth disturbs everyone. That is what is causing headache for everyone. Rather than do something with the image and correct things and straighten the rough edges Nigerians prefer instead to cover up the truth and paper the cracks. That is what brought us here. That is why we are stranded. We love our lies. We hate the truths. They buffet us because there is no place for truth in our hearts, in our system and in our government. That is why the Badenoch headache has no.cure and why the pain will last for long. I have listened to her interviews and I am convinced this lady is going somewhere. It is clear she has some bad memories about Nigeria and she does not want Britain to be another Nigeria. If she cannot change Nigeria she can at least stop Britain from becoming a Nigeria. It is not my purpose to worry about someone’s legitimate ambitions or concern myself with what does not concern me. Nigerians hate glory. They envy those who possess it. Ask any man or woman of achievement. Just don’t raise your head and you will be fine. Nigeria kills her sons, especially the high- achieving one. Professor Ayodele Awojobi discovered that too late.
In his letter of condolence to the family on the death of Professor Ojetunji Aboyade, Professor Wole Soyinka reiterated the same thing: Nigeria kills her sons, slowly but surely.” He too narrowly escaped the hit squad of Abacha. But some will escape the fate and they will realise their destiny and glory – if not here then somewhere else like Joseph. Kemi has escaped. And this disturbs the denizens of the Occult paradise that one of her prisoners has escaped and is shining in a strange land.
This is the nation we have inherited, that we call our own – a plaything of toxic politicians, criminal ruling elites, stooges of colonialist perpetuation and Euro- American cultural and financial imperialism. Many youths will not be defined by a nation like this. Unless Nigeria changes soon there will be more Kemi Badenochs who would distance themselves and refused to be defined by the nation. Nigeria must change or be prepared for revolts, youth rebellion much akin to the youth rebellion America witnessed in the 1960’s. “She said she doesn’t believe in God”. Yes. I heard her. She said she is a cultural Christian and agnostic. She also said she cares more by what people do than what they say. Religion has become an instrument of fraud. Some of the worst criminals today profess religion and mouth the Name of God. Isn’t that enough to drive away honest people from religion. Has anyone defended the claims of Christianity, Apostolic Christianity in this generation more than I do? Yet it would shock you if I tell you that I had stopped going to church for a long time. Yet I am a believer in the Christ of God. I won’t judge anyone or condemn anyone by what he or she professes; I am more concerned now with what people do and how they live. Not empty profession of Confessions Creeds that have no bearing on reality. It is not my purpose to supervise anyone’s belief. If Kemi says she is an agnostic then I can live with that. However as a Yoruba child she cannot be an agnostic. The Yoruba history, custom, culture and even religion provides for a Supreme Being. Thus, no true Yoruba son or daughter can properly or should be an agnostic. We shall straighten this with her. That is the role of elders.
The evil actions of wicked men and even preachers should not drive one away from faith in a Personal God. Nigerians are antagonizing this lady for no just cause due to misguided and misunderstood notion of patriotism. Nigerian government officials are antagonizing her and trolling her for no just cause. Some are even praying she would fall from that position. And sadly some of these are from her own ethnic nationality. It was Chief Obafemi Awolowo who was reported to have said that if a “Yoruba man or woman gets to the top it is the grace of God, it is not the wish of his people for Yoruba never wished their own to rise.” Today that statement is vindicated. However let me warn everyone. This lady is not going to fall. She won’t. Whether you like it or not you may need this lady some day. Nigeria will definitely need this lady someday. You will have to reckon with her and deal with her or suffer terribly in the days ahead.
Antagonizing her and trolling her change nothing. It only makes re-approachment difficult much later. And where would that leave Nigeria? If you wish her to fall and she didn’t fall, where does that leave you? Even if she falls it will not be to your level. That is why Nigerians need to be careful with this lady. She is the leader of Opposition in another nation not Nigeria. So why is government treating her as if she is the Leader of Opposition in Nigeria?
As to many idle Nigerians trolling her on Social Media I can only pity you and your lack of purpose and plans. That you are so jobless that you worry yourself about how another human being chose to define herself. This is what gives you headache of all the things that beset you in Nigeria? Many of you are still praying and fasting for visa to go to the same place and do menial jobs with your certificate in the same land where Kemi could head tomorrow; and this does not worry you? A bag of rice is now more than your entire salary and you are not bothered about this. French garrison may soon come and position their bases right in your country and turn northern Nigeria to a future Gaza…
Yet you are not worried about these, what gives you headache is that a lady is about to become the next Head of Government in her own land of birth. What disturbs you is that another lady who knows her onions and confident in herself is making waves in the land of the ones who colonised her forbears. This is what gives Nigerians sleepless nights not their myriads of intractable problems. Indeed, Nigerians deserve their leaders. Kemi was indeed right if she refused to be defined by a people who are more of busybodies than workers.
Have you heard this lady? She is well read. She has read books that matter – books that statesmen read. She knows how economics work and how to run an economy unlike the politicians of one nation that I know. She is grounded in history and her oratorical and speaking skills would put many of our government officials and politicians to shame. They can’t meet her in a debate. They can’t even sustain an intelligent discussion with her trapped as they are with identity politics. She would tear them in pieces. She would chew them up and spit them out – as the Americans would say.
Learn from her perspectives and stop the hatred. Kemi Badenoch is here with us, and by God’s Grace, here to stay.
We need her more than she needs us. Nigeria needs this lady more than she needs Nigeria. That is the truth.
The earlier we know that the better for all of us.
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