The wash wash in the title is borrowed. It is the title of elDee the Don’s hit released in 2011 by Trybe Records. A careful observation of Nigeria’s Political Leadership and how they have pretended to serve us just shows that they are wash wash. These guys take us for fools. They manage us, package themselves, recycle themselves, raise their likes and ensure that they keep us busy with the right news to distract us from making them accountable.

From independence, Nigeria’s career politicians have always impressed on us that we should make the sacrifices. All they keep telling us is that these sacrifices will translate to more money; enough money to enable them meet up the promises that they made to us to attract our votes. They are our ‘Leaders ‘and we are the ‘followers’ who are supposed to obey and not question them even when it is obvious that they are leading us astray. I do not want to get into the story of the 60s and 70s. What do I know? But I have read history books and also read “confessions “from our leaders when they snitch on each other. The details are appalling and the results are thick enough to create boils in our collective economy.

“Nigeria is broke” is not a new expression in our national lexicon and neither is it a new phenomenon that our economy is grappling with. Austerity was one of the words I got used to pronouncing as a young primary school pupil in Fabiyi Akpata Primary School in Benin City in the early 80s. I was told that Alhaji Shehu Shagari, who was the then President has introduced austerity measures and so we could not get our usual one kobo to buy sweet. Reason given was that Nigeria is broke. This was in 1982/83. Then the Military came back again. At no time did they tell us that we were now rich. They continued singing that Nigeria was broke. From Buhari to Abdusalam Abubakar; the different workers strikes that we had to grapple with. Petrol cost increases; Doctors strikes and the very celebrated ASUU strikes where the likes of Late Dr. Festus Iyayi and Prof. Attahiru Jega first became popular. The reply our leaders gave us through those years was that Nigeria is broke. So really from 1980 to 1999 Nigeria was broke according to our leaders. Our “brokenness” is thus not new. As we say in the south-south “Na today”.
Surprisingly, the same guys who told us that we were broke and have never been rich still found a way to smuggle themselves into power again from 1999 to rule us. A nation they said was broke. The same people who never saved a kobo for us, who borrowed us fat yet so thin; ♬the same old politicians, wey rule Nigeria before♬ (Fela – Army Arrangement) they succeeded in telling us the same tales. Even when our crude oil was rightly priced; they shared; they stole; they sucked us dry without any infrastructure. I remember some old videos - increased pump price of fuel; Privatization and Commercialization; Amnesty! It is all wash wash. As Gordons the Comedian will put it “they are all chasing the osusu”.
Are we really broke? Yes, we are. Why are we broke? We are broke because our leaders stole us empty and they keep recycling themselves to steal more.

It is no longer news that previous governments did not save for the rainy day. It has been raining in Nigeria for God knows when. It was raining and Fifty Kobo (50k) increment resulted in Ali must go riots in 1978. It was raining when Ogaga Ifowodo as Secretary –General of University of Benin Student Union addressed us at the then UBTH pedestrian bridge in Benin City during the 1989 SAP riots. It’s been raining cats and dogs in Nigeria. We do not know when this rain is going to stop.

They also turned us into a bunch of pretenders. We pretend that all is well; that there will be education for all by the year 2000; housing for all by the year 2000; food for all by the year 2000. When the year 2000 came and we faced reality, they moved it to 2010. When 2010 came and it did not also happen, we were soaked into believing that all will be well by the year 2020. This is when we will be among the best 20 developed countries. They say it like the year 2020 will never come. News flash! This is just wash wash. Do a random check of our career Politicians and see how their individual fortunes have changed. Life has been good to them in this our Nigeria that has been broke for a long time. They have built new houses, trained their children abroad and bought new cars. They have moved from being Local Government Chairmen to becoming House of Assembly members. Some have moved from being Members of the House of Representatives to Governors. Some Governors have become Senators too. Some have become No 1 citizen not once but twice. Have other Nigerians progressed in similar fashion? The answer is a capital NO!

We have become poorer and our politicians have become richer. With the middle class vanishing completely from our economic space; you are either rich or you are poor. With politics and leadership becoming the means to the end, we are creating a platform for anarchy. And anarchy created by poverty is not always easy to stop. That is why we are kidnapping ourselves; bombing our own pipelines and killing ourselves in the name of cult clashes. Boko Haram, Kidnapping, Pipeline vandalization including “Avengers” etc. are all products of poverty and unemployment. A hungry population cannot distinguish between good and bad and “electric fences and tinted glass vehicles” cannot help either. Nigerians are broke and hungry and this is because Politicians have taken everything for themselves for 56 years. Added to this is the systematic destruction of our educational sector that has made us blind to the knowledge on how to repair our country.
Now we are fighting corruption and we are in a recession. The number of Political aides is not dropping; their salaries are not dropping either. Official cars in convoys are not reducing. Official delegations are not reducing. This change must begin with us. But let it start from the top.

Let us make some postulations:

1. Nigerians will react badly if they see that the sacrifices for this recession do not begin from the top.

2. As the poverty quotient increases in Nigeria, the ordinary masses will become less tolerant of the ostentatious living by the political leadership. It may breed chaos.

3. As unemployment rate among the youthful population continues to rise, there comes a time when unemployment will be a factor that will unite the youths.

4. Religion, ethnicity and political inclination will no longer play a role in determining leadership for Nigerians. People will be more concerned with who can put food on their tables.

5. The restructuring ideology which our political leadership is currently agitating will fade away as poverty increases. In its place people will agitate for leadership restructuring along the lines of Politicians who have practical solutions to poverty.

For 56 years the Nigerian masses has been making sacrifices for the Politicians. It is time for the Politicians to make sacrifices for the Nigerian masses.

Credit: Imokhai O
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