Professor: We lost a colleague yesterday!
Amina: My condolences! Was he ill?
Bankole: Is there anyone who is not ill in Nigeria?
Professor: He dropped dead at home after teaching for two hours earlier in the day. Gone!! Just like that. No warning. No preparation. No serious illness. Alive this minute, dead the next! He went behind his flat to pump water and collapsed. Died before help could reach him!
Amina: Definitely his death was caused by stress, stress caused by the prolonged strike and the government’s harsh response! Eight months without a salary after most of them had taken loans from friends and banks in the hope that they would repay the loans when salaries were paid. All that was shattered by a harsh no from the President!
Obukohwo: May his soul rest in peace!!
Professor: His soul will not rest in peace until Nigerian rulers are punished!
Egbule: Who will punish Nigerian rulers? Who? Even God seems to have given up on them!
Amina: God has not given up on them. He is preparing them for something drastic that could change the political landscape forever. What exactly it is I do not know! But this cannot go on forever.
Professor: The young man was a very passionate and committed teacher. There is a video in circulation in which he strapped the baby of a female student who was writing an examination to his back. What else do you need to demonstrate compassion? Now, he’s gone unfulfilled to the great beyond.
Bankole: There are too many sudden illnesses, deaths, and suicides these days. People can hardly feed. There is tension. School fees of children. Skyrocketing inflation and rents! As the bible says, ‘men’s hearts failing them for fear!
Professor: The public university system is in its last stages of credibility. Very soon, serious academics will take their exit because of the humiliation they suffered under Buhari, Adamu Adamu, and Ngige! I’m also thinking of an early exit, after all, I will continue to enjoy my pension. This is the time to look for something else to do.
Amina: If you quit because of three persons what will become of the system? We have to fight them.
Professor: Fight them you say? Fight who? Fight Nigeria? Fight the federal civil servants, or the cabal in government, the judiciary that was used to attack ASUU? I’m not in a fighting mood anymore. This morning, I chatted with a senior colleague who said that if as committed as he was to education was ready to retire at 65 rather than wait till 70. There are quite a number of academics who are thinking like this now. I mean, here is a guy who has spent his entire life in the system, sworn to making an impact and suddenly he feels that he has wasted his time in a system that never appreciated him. Not a good feeling.
Bankole: Who feels good about Nigeria right now? Is it the farmer or the banker or the student? May be politicians are happy with the mess we have found ourselves in because they thrive on confusion.
Egbule: We have a chance to create the Nigeria which we want in 2023. God has arranged it. Massive votes for the acceptable candidate and rejecting the others. That’s the way to go. Whether Nigerians will accept the offer is another matter entirely.
Amina: I’m not so optimistic. The old forces are ready for war!
Obukohwo: The situation is fluid. We are not sure about the plans of Bubu. Does he support any of the candidates? Does he want his party to continue at national level even though his performance has been abysmal? Does he want power to remain in the north?
Professor: It will be wishful thinking to believe that he does want his ruling APC to continue to rule. The only point to counter that is if he remains clannish and directs state machinery into retaining power in the north. This second point will simply strengthen our fault lines- two countries living in one geographical space. And now that oil has been found in commercial quantities in the north, the two countries may now emerge.
Bankole: Not so neat and proper. There are other variables to consider.
Professor: Such as…?
Bankole: Religion. The international community! Economic interests!!
Professor: The major determinant to current mutual existence is the oil. Once everyone is sure of their share, the tension will be reduced.
Amina: There are minorities in the north. In fact, once we break up, there will be no end to it. We could end up as six or more different nations.
Professor: What is wrong with that? I’d stay in a small country and have my peace and security guaranteed than stay in a big nation that cannot guarantee my life and prosperity because the state has failed in its duties.
Obukohwo: I agree with you. We in the Niger Delta can now control our resources. We have lived too long in poverty.
Egbule: We have also created problems for ourselves. What have leaders off the Niger Delta done with the resources allocated to them? See what Wike has done with infrastructure. Can we say the same for the other governors?
Professor: Let us not regionalize corruption and inefficiency. Corruption is well seated in all the states in the country. Resources are not being properly channeled into development. As it is in Kaduna, so it is in Rivers or Delta or Lagos. It is a class thing. It cuts across party or ethnic lines.
Amina: Who will save Nigeria?
Bankole: It is only God that can save us.
Professor: God will not come down to save us. We must save ourselves. We must put aside petty grievances and squabbles to bury the hatchet in the head of a common enemy!
Amina: And who is that common enemy?
Bankole: the devil!
Professor: The devil in our political class!
