The Pandemic Of Idiocy: Why I Keep Breaking My Oath Of Silence On Nigeria

The pandemic of idiocy: Why I keep breaking my oath of silence on Nigeria – I wish I could disengage. I wish I could disconnect completely. But I can’t… Silence becomes a betrayal when the absurd becomes normalized. Because the more we retreat, the more space we give to those who have sworn to erase truth, de-value us both literally and figuratively while replacing our societal values with spectacle, mediocrity, mockery, greed, debauchery, vulgarity, and abject crassness… Sometimes, I feel lethargic and weak. And maybe that’s not a weakness. It’s a sign that I am human and still Nigerian no matter where I reside. Maybe it’s a sign that something in me still believes — not in the system, but, in myself, and in the people who deserve so much more – Nigerians. So, for Nigeria and well-meaning Nigerians, I will keep breaking my oath in order to speak up.  As I speak up, what I know for sure is, Nigeria requires a reboot.

By Elsie-Bernadette Onubogu

As a diasporan Nigerian, I have sworn — more times than I can count — not to let the news from home touch me. It’s not apathy. It is not a defeatist’ attitude.  It is preservation. I know many diasporans who have taken the same attitude and perhaps oaths.  I am not alone in this state of oath taking.

Each oath is a quiet attempt to protect what’s left of my peace from the chaos that Nigeria now seems to export daily: corruption, impunity, violence, waste, mediocrity and utter disappointment. Each oath is a coping mechanism to retain my sanity from the insanity that has become the soundtrack for my place of birth.  Each oath is a calculated attempt to save some face for Chinua Achebe’s homeland from the troubles with Nigeria. Each oath is deeply rooted in my Catholic faith ‘Confiteor,’- a confession for the many sins of Nigeria, and indeed, a prayer for God’s unfathomable mercy, which is new every morning.    

But despite my best intentions, I find myself repeatedly breaking that oath. Even though I do not set out to break these oaths when making them, Gott sei dank!, they are not monastic oaths. I try so hard to keep the oaths, but the will to preserve the oaths are soon shattered with tragedy upon tragedy recorded daily in Nigeria.

Consequently, I find myself breaking these oaths and drawing back. Initial draw-back is not due to hope.  What draws me back is anger, it’s disappointment, it’s disillusionment, it’s utter disgust, it’s unbearable outrage at what has rightly been described as the ‘pandemic of idiocy’ ravaging my homeland.

What draws me back is what the English Philosopher John Dunne said over a century ago, to wit: “every (person’s) death diminishes us, because we are involved in mankind.”

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In 2018, my childhood friend’s 19-year old son, Brian, gave him what I believe is the only viable solution to Nigeria’s woes. He said simply: “Reboot – Reset,” as one would a factory-default computer. In his youthful clarity, Brian captured a truth that too many of us, elite and ordinary Nigerians tiptoe around, refusing to speak truth to power or simply be realistic about the state of things, i.e., Nigeria is beyond reform.  Rather, in typical Nigerian foolery, we invoke a spiritual rescue – even in the face of persistent human failure and systemic decline.

Now, whatever your affiliation, whether spiritual, traditional or otherwise, one thing I know for sure is, for Nigeria to transform for good, it needs a reboot.

The system is broken in its foundations. As the average Nigerian (even the non-Igbo speaking would surmise the situation: Ana apachi, ọ nọ leak) — you patch one hole, another opens. From a biblical perspective, it seems the Psalmist was referring to Nigeria’s situation when he asked, ‘If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do’? {Psalm 11:3}.  

The metaphoric reference to broken foundation captures the sense of a people in despair – steeped in the absence of strength, stability and peace.  After all, strength is what a foundation gives to a house.  This absence typifies the situation in Nigeria today.  A nation where the socio-political, economic, moral and institutional underpinnings have totally collapsed – where hunger and poverty is so entrenched that many people have become despondent.  

Let me say it again, Nigeria’s foundation is broken.  The rot is structural, it is systemic, it is mind numbing, it has almost become generational with the corrupt passing on the baton to their progenies.  It seems to defy all odds.  As the average Brit would say, Nigeria has become incorrigible.  Indeed, Brian was right, Nigeria needs a factory reboot.  This state of incorrigibility is the raison d’etre for my oath breaking but, I am a child of hope with unbridled optimism!  

Yes, I found myself unable to keep the oath. This failure resurfaced recently when the Benue State governor — an ordained Catholic priest, Reverend Father Alia – charismatic, no less — rolled out the red carpet to welcome the president while over 200 citizens lie in shallow graves, brutally murdered in that same state. How does a man who once stood at the altar now stand in silence while his flock is slaughtered?  The joke is that, the president did not even visit the families of the dead. But, for photo-ops, Bola Tinubu – the president – chose instead to appear in one makeshift hospital. A Catholic priest who prefers to toady to a man who cares little, rather than shepherd his flock — I question, does his priestly oath still mean anything to him?

Months ago, I told a friend that this so-called priest-governor had been compromised. I said he ought to be defrocked, not celebrated. She was livid. “You have no proof,” she snapped. “You’re judging.” She even reminded me of the Latin maxim: “Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur”—what is asserted without proof can be denied without proof.

I wasn’t going to argue with my dear friend anymore.  After all, in Nigeria, what is “proof”? When people are dying daily, when communities are displaced, women are raped and sexually assaulted, when people can no longer afford a meal a day, when insecurity, insurgence and terrorism from Fulani herdsmen, bandits and others have run citizens out of their homes, farms and communities, when poverty climbs and human dignity sinks.  Frankly, what is proof when the face of poverty is now Nigerian? Already, I feel diminished.   

Do we really need the United Nations Development Programme’s indices of 46% per cent unemployment, or the World Banks’s indicator of nearly 56% per cent of Nigerians living below the poverty line to validate what is evident before our eyes?  I seriously doubt this.  Any objective Nigerian is a validation of these unfortunate indices.

To my friend, I had no proof to justify the assertion that this priest had been compromised not to stand for truth or what is right and humane, but, to stand on “his mandate” – a reference to Bola Tinubu’s mantra.  This mantra is translated as “keep silent in the face of evil, pretend nothing is wrong, refuse to investigate any and every accusation against the government, and beat down any and every voice of dissent.”  

Indeed, in today’s Nigeria, all is honky dorey.  Better still, trump up charges against dissenters unless and until they receive an All-Purpose-Centric baptism of submission. And, you can be sure the collective representatives who stand on ‘that mandate’ will, have your back.  There lies the pandemic of idiocy!

By the way, it is not just silence in the face of bloodshed, injustice, hunger, poverty, dehumanization, displacement, etc. It’s the vulgarity of governance and what my classmate termed, ‘the pandemic of idiocy.’ It is the ‘toadying’ witnessed across all levels and all sectors of Nigeria. It is the absurdity that has become the norm from Sokoto to Calabar, from Lagos to Taraba and beyond.  

It’s the ₦39 billion spent to renovate and rename a conference center in Abuja — while millions go hungry, while security collapses, while students learn under trees, write examinations with torchlight or moonlight, and medical personnel continue to flee the country.

It’s a State Governor renovating a government house with approximately N63 billion to mark its 50th anniversary when unemployment rate according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics is at 27% in that State.

It’s over N70 billion given to the 10th National Assembly members (post Covid-19 when Nations were cutting down on cost of governance) to purchase SUVs for themselves – each costing N160 million.

It’s N21 billion allocated and spent to renovate the Vice President’s (VP) residence. A residence the VP has since refused to move into.  

It’s an alleged N225 billion spent on the purchase of a new presidential jet while Nigerians are urged to sacrifice and bear the brunt of poverty amidst mal-administration by the government.

It’s increased salary for NASS members who now earn a whopping N21 million monthly with some NASS members publicly complaining salary insufficiency despite the fact that these individuals buy food items from the same markets like the average civil servant whose negotiated minimum wage of N70,000 is still not being paid in some States.

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It’s the atrocious N15 trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road Contract awarded to a certain company (while destroying lives and livelihoods on the pathway) without much consultation – as if a coastal road should be Nigeria’s priority in the face of growing hunger and poverty.

It’s over N90 billion allocated for 2024 Hajj pilgrimage whilst University lecturers cannot afford to buy petrol for their vehicles and majority of students cannot afford square meals.

It’s a president who announces free scholarship education programme for Caribbean students in exchange for a national honour while over 18.3 million children in Nigeria (as per UNICEF 2024 report) are out-of-school mostly because of inability to afford school fees.

It’s nearly N2 billion allocated for vehicles for the First Lady, despite the fact that there is no constitutional recognition of such an office.

It’s over $24 million found in the personal account of the then Humanitarian Minister, yet, there was no prosecution.

It is the brazen appointment of a person who misappropriated Covid-19 government palliatives to direct the Nation’s Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) despite the public outcry – a total disregard for integrity and accountability.  

It’s the despicable allegation by a sitting female Senator of sexual harassment by Senate president, which the administration has refused to investigate.  

It’s an administration that, despite the people’s will, imposed a military administrator under the guise of insecurity — yet it refuses to do the same in other states where terrorism and insurgency have not only displaced communities and massacred countless lives, but continue unabated.

It is much more than the listings above. Yet, the administration says, silence – hush, or be silenced.  The silence is beyond toadying.  Indeed, it is a pandemic of idiocy reigning supreme.    

As has been noted elsewhere, ‘Tinubu just keeps appointing fellow thieves from Lagos (and elsewhere) into every position, and we expect hunger to go away’, or good governance? The list is endless!  

This isn’t mismanagement. It is state-sanctioned, in most cases, state-sponsored roguery, mockery and laissez-faire attitude by those in government – as if to say, what can the people do?  It is beyond bad leadership.  It is taking undue advantage and pushing people’s psyche into resignation, helplessness to the point that the average Nigerian virtue falls within the realm of what is described as the “Stockholm syndrome.” It is tone-deaf impunity.  

It is a nouveau riche elite class telling the rest of us that their comfort, their legacy, their ill-gotten generational infested corruption and their monuments matter more than our lives.  Even for some of their progenies, there is a mythical assumption that governance is their divine right, and the rest of us – Nigerians are mere spectators who deserve nothing but handouts. What other proof do we need?  

It is wrong! I find myself unable to keep silent in the face of this impunity! And, that is why I break my oath.  I can no longer keep quiet. To keep quiet in the face of the abject hunger, poverty, insecurity, loss of lives and livelihoods – total massacre of innocent children, women and men will be absurd.  For as Winston Churchill noted, “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do (say) nothing.”

Because even silence becomes a betrayal when the absurd becomes normalized. Because the more we retreat, the more space we give to those who have sworn to erase truth, de-value us both literally and figuratively while replacing our societal values with spectacle, mediocrity, mockery, greed, debauchery, vulgarity, and abject crassness.     

As my brother reminds me, whether we like it or not — Nigeria remains the country that shaped us.  Even with the imperfections of old, it is the country of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, Oyibo Odinammadu, Funmilayo Kuti, Margaret Ekpo, Michael Okpara, Akanu Ibiam, Flora Nwapa, Cyprian Ekwensi, Tai Solarin, Gani Fawehinmi, Taslim Elias, Chukwudifu Oputa, Fela Ransome-Kuti, Joe Garba, Aminu Kano, Chuba Okadigbo, Eddie Iroh, Sam Amuka, Stanley Macebuh, Dele Giwa, Sienne Allwell-Brown, Julie Coker, and a host of others.  After all, this is my homeland – the one that won’t let me go.

I wish I could disengage. I wish I could disconnect completely. But I can’t. However, as John Dunne cautioned, “every (persons) death diminishes us, because we are involved in mankind.”  Sometimes, I feel lethargic and weak.  And maybe that’s not a weakness. It’s a sign that I am human and still Nigerian no matter where I reside. Maybe it’s a sign that something in me still believes—not in the system, but, in myself, and in the people who deserve so much more – Nigerians.  

So, for Nigeria and well-meaning Nigerians, I will keep breaking my oath in order to speak up.  As I speak up, what I know for sure is, Nigeria requires a reboot.

• Elsie-Bernadette Onubogu is an independent consultant, international lawyer, public policy & mainstreaming expert. An erstwhile Senior Policy Advisor with the United Nations, she investigated war crimes, rape and sexual assault as part of her work with the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She served as a Senior Gender, Peace and Governance Expert with the Commonwealth, and was appointed in 2015 by the UK Government to serve as a deployable civilian expert. A trailblazer in global diplomacy, she holds the distinction of being the first Nigerian woman invited to address the United Nations Security Council on issues of International Peace and Security.