By Tiko Okoye
Surprise! Surprise!! Surprise!!! I’m yet to read the smallest of lines authored by professional cynics regarding the constitutional rape in Great Britain by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in collusion with Queen Elizabeth II.
Boris Johnson
Queen Elizabeth 11
They are the ones who routinely accuse acolytes of President Muhammadu Buhari of being brainwashed and incapable of seeing wrong in whatever he does.
Can you just imagine the brouhaha and decibel level of the noise that would’ve been ratcheted up if Buhari had used a constitutionally mandated Executive Order to suspend the National Assembly even for a day just so he can have “peace and tranquility of mind and space” to execute controversial and contentious policies like RUGA!
And when you ask the ever-combatant cynics why mum is now the word they will stare you in the eye and unabashedly retort that they are not interested in meddling in another country’s internal affairs as they only concern themselves with the “evils” happening in Nigeria.
Haba! Na sooo? When it comes to writing SOS letters and crying to these foreigners to come and “save” our beleaguered democracy, they will wax lyrical on democratic catechisms and write volubly on subversive treatises!
They hardly see the illogicality and irrationality of begging nations who can never put the interests of Africans and Blacks above – or even at par with – their own national and Caucasian interests, and who cannot even save their centuries-old democracy, to come and ‘save’ ours!
Who exactly has been brainwashed? I believe the answer to this billion naira question will continue to blow in the wind until we are able and ready to look in the mirror and tell ourselves some home truths!
The only way forward is to recognise and respect our multifaceted differences (not forgetting our similarities) and come together in an atmosphere of openness and spirit of sportsmanship (give and take) to negotiate the terms and conditions of a new and improved Nigeria where peace, equity and justice truly reign.
I definitely ain’t being schizophrenic when I say there are too many wolves in sheep clothing out there that would do everything possible to make Africa’s perennially wobbling and fumbling giant remain an atomistic society perpetually at war with itself (apologies to Unical’s founding VC, Prof Ayandele).
Isn’t it about time we woke up and smelt the coffee? Welcome to the sublime world of what the Germans call “realpolitik.
.Okoye is a iconic columnist