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I woke up on
Tuesday morning and told myself I wasn’t going to wish anybody Barka da
Sallah. If you like, call it a mini-rebellion against oneself. I just
needed some quiet moment in my stuffy room to reminisce about our
leaders and those of us that are being led or misled, if you want to
look at it that way.

Give me a second
please, let me quickly digress here – on Monday evening while returning
from the office, I saw a man dragging an unwilling ram towards the boot
of his parked car. The ram was giving him a rough and tough time but
the man was winning – and suddenly it occurred to me that there will be
millions of rams sold during the Sallah period and none would have a
say in the fate that would befall them.

Suddenly I found myself praying violently in tongues, not for the ram of course:

Jehovah jaire,
Jehovah shekenu, the Lord that made heaven and earth, the alpha and
omega, the beginning and the end. God of Abraham that provided the
sacrificial ram when Isaac was about to be deleted by his obedient
father; the God that perished the Egyptians that wouldn’t give up on
enslaving the Israelites –let the fate of Nigerians in the 2011
elections not be like the Sallah ram that has no say in matters that
have to do with its life and death. The God that never sleeps please
give us voice to speak and speak clearly even when some people’s mouths
would be stuffed with dollars and pounds so they can fraudulently stuff
ballot boxes for a leader that would lock the future of our country in
the boot of his Prado…Amen.

As I was saying, I
wanted to sit at home and stare at the stagnant fan blades and probably
have a one on one conversation with them on how they feel about not
being able to function due to lack of power. Talking to immobile fan
blades is what you do when your laptop is dead and you cannot write a
column about senators and legislators whose salaries keep skyrocketing
as if on helium, whereas those of ordinary citizens keep going down as
if strapped to a lead weight.

One of the other
questions I wanted to ask my moribund fan blades was if they knew
exactly what happened to the capital project that the finance minister
promised would be executed with some of our 50th anniversary budget
allocation. Remember the billions set aside to turn the nation around
come Independence Day? We were categorically told that Murtala Mohammed
International Airport would receive a facelift, but my brethren the
place still look worse than Uselu Motor Park in Benin city. Anyway
these things take time, let’s wait and pray.

This was my state
of mind when my friend called from Abuja to brief me on our president’s
Sallah message. He said the president has asked Nigerians, especially
the hoi polloi to tighten our wrappers, rope our trousers properly and
sacrifice more to rebuild this falling nation. In his own, that is
Presido, words “If all of us will make little, little sacrifices, this
country will be great. We should make sacrifices for the development of
this country and for us to leave a legacy for our unborn
generation…Every Nigerian must have that commitment and willingness to
transform this country. May God change our minds to do things that will
positively change our country.” Dr. Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan’s
words brought tears to my very two eyes; I get emotional like that when
my president hits the nail on the head like that to reveal to us the
unusual. Also, finally we have a leader whose rallying cry to nation
building trumped John F Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for
you…” speech.

I went straight to
the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror and said – shame on you
Victor, what sacrifice have you ever made for this country other than
to complain until your eyes are red like a bulb suffering from half
current? Do you even know what sacrifice means? Does the president have
to remind you every time?

The next thing that
will come out from your mouth now will be that you buy petrol for your
generator everyday and also pay exorbitant PHCN bills even though you
have no power. Or do you think paying N5, 000 security fees in your
estate and coughing out money each time a policeman stops you is
sacrificing?

So you really think
the borehole you sank behind your house just to get water or the taxes
that get deducted from your meagre salary is enough to build this
nation? Oh so you think the recharge cards you spend thousands of naira
on because of non-availability of subsidised landlines is commendable?
Do you know how much the presidency spends on these things you just
mentioned, or don’t you think that is sacrifice?

Victor don’t be an
unpatriotic Gargantuan. Go out there and sacrifice for your country
like our leaders in Abuja are doing day and night, which is the same
thing our president is demanding from you.