“If they ever tell my story let them say I walked
with giants. Men rise and fall like the Winter
wheat but these names will never die… let them
say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses…
let them say I lived in the time of Achilles”- the
Iliad, Homer.
The words of Odysseus in Homer’s epic and
ancient poem titled ”The Iliyad” have always
moved me. Those words are deep and profound:
they stir my soul and rekindle my spirit.
They speak of and reflect the essence of Ancient
Greece with it’s rich and exciting history, it’s
extraordinary heroes and heroines and it’s all-
powerful and all-knowing gods, titans and
immortals. How I wish that I could conjure up
such great and powerful words about the history
of my nation Nigeria and her heroes past. How I
wish that the Nigerian people had their own
Odysseus’ , Achilles’, Agamemnons and Hectors.
How I wish they had their own ancient poets and
great thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and
Homer who could remind generations to come
about our past exploits with their inspiring,
compelling and historic prose.
Yet I look at the Nigeria of today and I am not
encouraged or inspired. As a matter of fact I am
deeply saddened. I see no heroes on the horizon
but only questionable pretenders and fallen
caricatures that have sold their heritage and
destiny for a mess of pottage and that couldn’t
give a fig about what history or posterity will say
about them or their country. Many have asked
why I should say such things. Permit me to
answer that pertinent question by posing a few of
my own.
I start by asking: is this the Nigeria of Murtala
Mohammed and Theophilius Danjuma? Is this the
nation that helped to liberate Angola,
Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa?
Is this the nation that restored sanity and stability
to Sierra Leonne, that brought an end to a civil
war in Liberia, that fought so gallantly in Burma
and Somalia and that quelled a military coup in
Sao Tome and Principe?
Is this the nation whose wealth once knew no
bounds and whose middle class once owned the
finest cars and properties in London, Paris and
New York? Is this the nation whose beautiful
people once graced the streets of Belgravia,
Chelsea, Hampstead and Knitsbridge?
Is this the country that once nationalized BP and
that gave Margaret Thatcher sleepless nights over
apartheid South Africa ? Is this the nation that
once stood up to the mighty Boers and whose
ancestors studied at Oxford and Cambridge as far
back as the 1800′s?
Is this the nation whose inhabitants and various
ethnic nationalities once ruled vast empires and
whose progenitors contributed so much to the
traditions, religion and culture of Ancient Egypt?
Is this the country that once fought a bitter and
brutal civil war, yet declared ”no victor, no
vanquished” and, in the spirit of love, came back
as one? Is this the country which has been
through thick and thin and yet whose people
remained ever so resilient and always put a smile
on their faces?
Is this the country where giants once held court
and where the greats of old once presided? Where
did we go wrong? What has happened to our
people and what has afflicted our country? When
did our leaders become spineless cowards and
deceivers? When did the green white green of our
nation’s flag become soiled with human faeces
and when was it torn to shreds?
When did we shy away from fighting our own
battles and prosecuting our own wars? When did
we start bowing our heads in shame as events
unfold in our country? When did we start sitting
down silently as international newscasters speak
about our nation in painful, disdainful, hushed and
condescending tones?
What has happened to the ever courageous, ever
smiling, ever confident and ever dependable
Nigerian who shook the world with his arrogance
and confidence and who spoke of his nation with
pride and joy?
What has happened to our great army that was
once the pride of Africa and that once made us
so proud? What has happened to our great
intellectuals and our men and women of courage
and vision who once, like a collosus, bestrode the
world?
What has happened to the stubborn and proud yet
warm, friendly and profoundly good people that
Nigerians once were? What has happened to the
people that were once regarded as the hope of
Africa and the pride of every black man on the
planet?
Where and when did we go astray? How and
when did it all go wrong? When did we lose our
strength, our wealth, our honour and our power?
When did we lose our excellence, our confidence,
our dignity and our self-respect? When did we
become so weak and so helpless? When did we
turn into killers, savages and barbarians?
When did we become so pitiful that the whole
world mocks us and heaps insults on us so
easily? When did they start saying that we have
”no serious government”, that we have ”lost
control of large portions of our nation” and that
we can’t even protect our own children? When did
we become incapable of defending our borders
and protecting our people?
When did we turn into a laughing stock and a
reference point for incompetence, stupidity,
cowardice, ignorance, evil, cluelessness and all
that is bad to the rest of the world?
When did other nations start giving us lessons on
how to fight insurgency and how to prosecute our
wars? When did our people start clamouring for
foreign armies to enter our land, violate our
sovereignty and march on our sacred soil?
When did we start having to ask others to come
and solve our local problems? O Nigeria, how are
the mighty fallen. Truly ours is a nation afflicted.
She is finished and there is little hope of any form
of redemption or resurrection.
The honeymoon is over and the glory has
departed. One hundred years of a forced and
failed marriage has ended in a bitter yet
undeniable divorce. We have lost it all and there
is no going back. Those that wish to break up our
nation for sport and bring our people to their
knees have had their way.
Those that wish to watch us slaughter one
another in an orgy of mindless violence and that
wish to establish their AFRICOM in our shores will
soon be here and we shall be occupied forever.
O Nigeria, how are the mighty fallen. I loved
Nigeria but now I have stopped believing in her.
She is saddled with many different sub- nations
that were simply incompatible right from the
start.
She is plagued and cursed with one particular
sub-nation whose ruling elite are dangerous and
unyielding, whose guile and deceit is second to
none, who treat their own people with contempt
and derision, who believe that they were born to
rule, who think that power belongs to them, who
suppress the religious and ethnic minorities within
their ranks and who were taught from an early
age that there was none besides them. Those
people have killed Nigeria. They and those who
have consistently bowed and trembled before
them and who have always allowed them to have
their way.
Our nation has become a cruel joke- she is a
maliciously contrived contraption that has
shattered many dreams and frustrated many
ambitions and aspirations. This was a country
that was created for the benefit of just a few at
the cost of the misery and pain of so many.
I will never accept the idea of living in a nation
side by side with religious extreemists who slit
the throats of children, who habitually slaughter
the innocents and who abduct and fornicate with
small girls. Animals have no place in the homes
of men.
It is time for us to stop pretending: let the
terrorists and their friends in high places break
away and establish their own country where they
can marry as many young girls as they please
and chop off as many limbs as they want. Let
them form a nation where they can stone
adulterers and turn women into chattels that are
not even worthy of life.
Let those of us from the west establish Oduduwa
and let us celebrate and enjoy our freedom from
the bondage and ineptitude of a cruel failed state
that has no soul and that lacks humanity and
compassion.
Let us be liberated from the deceit that is known
as Nigeria: a nation that once was but that is no
more. Let us be free of Nigeria: a nation where
injustice, evil, persecution, insensitivity, impunity,
terror, graft and wickedness reign supreme.
Let us be rid of Nigeria: a country where those of
us that had the misfortune of being born on the
”wrong” side of the regional divide or who are
adherents of the ”wrong” religious faith are
butchered for our heritage and can never be
treated as equals. Give us Oduduwa or let us die.
Yet we will eventually take our freedom by force if
it is not freely given to us. We shall take it by
fire: by the shedding of blood and by our own
bleeding if necessary. We will take it by fire and
by sacrificing our lives if that is what we are
forced to do.
What we will never do is continue to live in
perpetual slavery in a nation called Nigeria that is
afflicted with feeble rulers and peopled by
religious bigots, sexual deviants and bloodthirsty
terrorists.
We shall not allow ourselves to be consumed by
the weakness and ineptitude of our present-day
rulers and the sheer incompetence of those that
do not have the courage or the moral authority to
crush the beasts that have abducted and
enslaved our girls.
I have had enough. I say goodbye Nigeria: give us
Oduduwa or let us die
