THE END OF TIME
BY: ORIMOLOYE, Ifeoluwa
At this point in time, some godly brethren will prefer to say at this period when the federal government has decided to improve upon the hardship of the citizens by ‘unburdening’ the ‘relief’ on petroleum as the signs of the end time. If my opinion is sought, I will rather say, out of my seeming ungodly mind, that my opinion is not far from that of our godly brethren who says that the crisis we are facing in this country is a sign of the end time. It is quite easy to buy into that thought when you think of the manner in which ‘the people’s general’ was elected into office last year. It was the ordinary masses who waged a war of change on the former president, and ousted him with their thumbs, thus the victory of General Buhari was hinged on the decision of the ordinary masses, the ordinary masses whom the present government has decided to inflict with an untold hardship in an unprecedented manner. It is therefore not out of context to say that the present crises is a sign of the end time, considering our perception in the days of the childhood.
Our perception of the end time (religion aside) in those days was that the end of the world would come whenever unimaginable things starts happening, especially those things than can only be experienced in the wildest dream or imagination. Unimaginable things like a day-old baby speaking and walking on the day of his birth. But the unimaginable thing has happened. The ‘people’s general’ has decided to impose a fine on the poor masses of his country. He has decided that what the people of his country deserves at this time is the removal of the relief on petroleum, not considering the fact that in the same country of his, not less than seventy percent lives in abject poverty. To cap it all, the announcement does not come with any resistance, not from our perceived activists or the freedom fighters who are keyed to the NIGERIAN PROJECT ultimately to the extent of threatening the existence of the ordinary masses, by kidnapping the masses and extorting them in form of ransoms, thus, leaving out the oppressors, the ruling class to move about and continue in the bid to oppress and steal from the coffers. Well, with that, I would expect the trumpet sound any moment from now.
One would understand that the world would soon come to an end considering the ‘un-thinkable’ and the ‘un-imaginable’ ranging from the unprecedented fuel scarcity, the Fulani herdsmen attack and other security concerns, the untold hardship through un-insightful and unfriendly economic policies and the removal of the fuel subsidy (which is meant to relieve the citizens in the first place) and the consequent hike in fuel price.
One would in fact align in solidarity with the godly, the spiritual at this point in time, if one could consider the nonpayment of workers’ salaries in some states and the silence that greeted all of these events. If any one of these had happened in some other countries, it would have amounted to a revolution. But here we are, experiencing all these in a concurrent manner and yet everyone seems to be at ease…honestly, the end is in sight!
To say that our youths, those who will flood the internet with the social-media-kind-of activism, and revolutionary write-ups, could not stand up at this time to ‘physically’ say no to tyranny and the perceived oppression is a signal that the end is near. To say that the citizens of the country cannot resist oppression but can endure the untold hardship simply implies that unarguably, the end is near.
This brings me to Marxist theory of alienation which gives credence to the opinion that the masses are subjected to a form of exploitation and extortion by some set of people that I chose to refer to as the RULING CLASS. Marxist theory was compounded by a man named Karl Max. It is a theory which suggests that the idea of government came to being as a result of the coming together of the elites and the privileged in the society, who decided to have an efficient administration and dominance over the society. Marxist’s theory suggests that the privileged came together to form the ruling class, the government that we elect today, therefore, what one would expect from the government, from Marxist’s point of view, are policies that will work only for the privileged. The responsibility lies with the citizens to resist any policy whatsoever that is perceived to be against their interest.