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Nigeria And Obasanjo: Waiting For An Arab Spring

By on December 8, 2011

What has been a whisper is taking full prominence in national discuss. The beginning of an Arab spring might just be waiting around the corner. A friend of mine once told me, how could this old men have eaten all the national cake and nothing was put in as a replacement; and even sef when dem know say the youths dey com? They just kept eating and eating and discovered like Obasanjo that a revolution of what they called an Arab spring might be in the wings.

Hear Obasanjo on possible revolution, “There is the possibility of having the Arab Spring in Nigeria if similar conditions, hardship and unemployment, which gave birth to it, are not addressed.”

I wasn’t surprise when CNPP’s National Publicity Secretary connected Obasanjo to the apparent failure of leadership. The Arab Spring which has become the lot of North Africa countries and the Middle Eastern countries is a clear challenge at institutional and leadership insensitivity to their youthful populations who are jobless.

He said, “The former President, Olusegun Obasanjo who presided over the affairs of the country in the midst of unprecedented oil revenue, cannot absolve himself of the disconnect between economic growth and employment generation, the slide of Nigeria into Arab Spring and manifestation of a poor country of few rich people.”

Every day, the streets in urban centers brim with hungry and traumatized youths who are angry about the state of affairs and how they have worsened in recent times.  The other day at a vendor stand a young, fragile looking young man who had found his way to a popular news stand in one of the states of the federation gazed at the newspapers and magazines that littered the rickety table. It would be he had wanted to read something but the vendor had restricted everyone to just stand-and-look, no-touching if you have no money.

Then suddenly out of the bolt came this good-looking man in his early sixties or late fifties. He wasn’t going to come down and so was attended to that way. It was when he drew out a thousand naira note (NGN1000) to buy for a paper that goes for one hundred and fifty naira (NGN150), expecting a change that this fragile man snatched the cash from him. The vendor was alarmed.  To say we were surprise was to say the least. The man was jolted; as the young man, possibly jobless said, ‘you dey buy paper wen I neva chop? ‘No work; and oil and gas wealth dey yakata; and I just dey wait to die’. The newspaper buyer zoomed off while others watched as the young man walked into a nearby local restaurant.

From his weak frame, you can’t deny he has seen some terrible times. He could be the waiting Nigerian Arab spring if we continue to ignore the warning signals daily. The way it seems it looks like he hasn’t any thing to lose but he might set off a chain of ugly reactions that could put our country on the path of destruction.