The Centre cannot hold

There are many similarities that Nigeria and Pakistan share. Unfortunately, many of them are those we would prefer not having. Corruption and maladministration, for instance. Both nations seem to compete with each other for the title of world’s most corrupt country. There are numerous others, but best not to talk about them.

At the same time there are many good things that we seem to forget as well. I remember my days in Kano, Nigeria, my birthplace. In some ways when I recall my days in Nigeria, it’s almost as if my friends are recalling their childhood in Karachi. The wide open spaces, how safe the place was and how happy we were as children. Society comprised people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. And how they got on together.

Our textbooks in school taught us about the rich heritage of Nigeria The excellent writers whose books we were made to read at school – from Wole Soyinka to Chinua Achebe and Cyprian Ekwensi. We didn’t have to read foreign textbooks – the indigenous literature was so rich.

With regards the North, which is Muslim-dominated, we learnt about the successful Emirate system and the system of government in place prior to the arrival of the British.  There are many heroes to recall. Like Usman Dan Fodio, a preacher and a philosopher who went on to help put together in these parts a system of government which was both egalitarian and forward looking.

Post-independence, Nigeria has its fair share of heroes. The country’s first prime minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa for one. One of his most memorable pictures shows him chewing on a sugarcane stick while sitting on a mat outside his ancestral home with his children by his side. He was so honest that when he died there was barely enough money in his account or any property in his name.

Or in later years, General Murtala Muhammad, who promised to hand over power to civilians in 1979 but was brutally killed some years before he could. His successor, General Olusegun Obasanjo fulfilled that promise. Obasanjo went on to be one of the country’s elected president years later.  We have similar examples of such people in Pakistan.

Like Pakistan, it is a shame today that Nigeria is a shadow of its former self. Poor governance has robbed the country of its potential and worse still has left a populace that is angry. The North feels that it has been neglected. In such situations, we see the rise of organisations like Boko Haram, which propagate a different system of government that promises much more.

While we condemn such organisations, what we fail to see is that they are the symptom of a larger problem. In the case of both Pakistan and Nigeria, this would be the inability of an elected civilian government to govern effectively and its leaders to work diligently and honestly. And the feeling of neglect that many parts of the country feel.

Like in Pakistan, the writ of the state has ceased to exist in parts of Nigeria. This includes the north-eastern parts where the Boko Haram has wreaked much of its havoc. The people are angry with the government but at the same time terrified by the militants. They are caught in between.

In some places, the people go into the jungle in the nights as they fear attacks if they stay in their houses. Neighbouring Chad, which has been witnessing civil war on and off, is now seen as a safer option for many. These were areas in the past where the only danger came from stampeding elephants. People of today fear humans more.

The burning issue today is how and when the girls that were kidnapped by the Boko Haram will be brought back. But a larger issue is how to address the anger of the people who live in these parts. They feel that the government has cheated them. Again and again.

Chinua Achebe’s book “Things Fall Apart” takes its title from the poem by Y B Yeats “The Second Coming.” Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold/ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/ The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/The ceremony of innocence is drowned/ The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Is this what is in store for us all?

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2014.

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