Where do we have them? They are everywhere. In every strata of the Nigerian society, they are found – from top to bottom, there is a surfeit of them. They are Nigeria`s saboteurs – those who do everything they can do to undo Nigeria.
There are those among them who have taken long purposeful strides into the corridors of power; there are those who remain just outside and nurse the brew of bitterness because they have been forced to look in from outside.
There are those born to the dysfunction, disrepair and the decrepitude that have become the lot of Nigeria. Wherever one turns, there are saboteurs of Nigerian story, scavengers for the Nigerian silver.
Whether is in Emohua, Rivers State where they steal oil or in a remote village in Ikot Ekpene where they disrupt the national power supply. Whether it is in the Federal Capital Territory where they tear down public primary schools, while their spectral shadows cast a pall over the Nigerian project.
Whether it is in the remote village of Katsina State where they peddle cash for votes; whether it is at the border where they palm bribes to let contrabands slip through or whether it is in courts where they receive cash to give favourable judgments. Everywhere, they are actively engaged in keeping Nigeria stuck in a rut.
As patriotism has slipped away from Nigerians over many years, the poison of apathy has taken its place with cynicism and skepticism being the chief ingredients that have gone into the making of this national listlessness.
On the streets of Nigeria, the belief is unwavering that no one serves Nigeria anymore from a place of patriotism and selflessness. As the country has become reduced in the thinking of many to one giant national cake, the preoccupation of many is with how they can get a chunk of the national cake and get out while they still can.
Thus, when someone gets elected into office or goes in through appointment, people in his close circle quietly thank their stars that their time in the sun has come. Many of those even angling to get into public office in Nigeria feel no shame when they quietly say that all they want is their own share.
For the people left out and locked out, who find their path to the plunder of Nigeria blocked, their monumental frustration is taken out on anything and anyone within reach until Nigeria contrives to settle them, in some way.
Some of them simply refuse to be settled. What they want is that the country becomes their play thing, their playground. This group is mostly made up of the terrorists, those who have taken up arms against Nigeria. They strike at schools, at military formations, markets, churches, mosques, roads, railways, airports. They have been known to attack and annihilate entire communities. During the rare times their blood lust wanes, they exchange their victims for ransom.
Nigeria`s saboteurs are many and varied; they come in different stripes. Working assiduously, they have contrived to turn a once towering country into a shadow of itself. When recently, for the second time in a matter of weeks, the national grid collapsed to plunge vast swathes of the country into darkness, the Ministry of Power blamed the collapse on the activities of vandals.
While it is largely true that governance across many levels in Nigeria plainly leaves a lot to be desired, the actions of many of those led like sheep to slaughter by unscrupulous leaders are as criminal as they come. If there are those who sabotage Nigeria in high places today, it is because there are those on the ground who provide the footwork for their indelicate dance of destruction.
Nigeria is not going to be redeemed through the efforts of one person alone. Because many hands went into the destruction, many hands must also go into its restoration.
To achieve this, it is important that mindsets are reset from doom to boom. Things may not be working well yet but believing that they can is a crucial first step in putting in efforts get things going again. A critical step in this journey is to weed out and phase out all those who by their actions, big and small, continue to complicate the Nigerian story.
Kene Obiezu,
