By Promise Adiele
As a popular expression, “enough is enough” conveys multiple meanings that converge under the umbrella of expired patience, prolonged anticlimactic delay, and inevitable exasperation. Ordinarily, when people reiterate “enough is enough” it is followed by a determination to challenge a failed situation that has induced ennui, gloom, and despondence. It provokes actions that indicate a willingness to chart a new course from subsisting social dilapidation that threatens individual or collective survival.
In Nigeria, the expression has become banal, lacking in substance or meaning the opposite – “enough is not enough”. Sometimes, people do not need to say “enough is not enough”. Their somnolent attitude communicates their mindset. Perhaps, the failure of the two vagabonds Estragon and Vladimir in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot to declare “enough is enough” even when it was obvious Mr. Godot was not coming, led to their characterization as a study in idiocy, subservience, and complacency. The two tramps earnestly waited for Mr. Godot but he did not come. Beyond Beckett’s revival of absurdist sensibilities, the play is a parable for indolent, servile followership without reward. They failed to say “enough is enough” and became victims of collapsed expectations and unfulfilled dreams.
It is no use rehashing the common knowledge that Nigerians are living in dire, appalling, dreadful, economic, and social conditions that existed for eight years but were made worse under Bola Tinubu’s administration in the last one and a half years. What is worrisome is the extent to which Nigerians are willing to accept these trammelling conditions before declaring “enough is enough”. To be honest, Nigeria needs urgent national salvation which the present power protocol can never guarantee because it is incapable of doing so. Bola Tinubu’s incompetence as a president deserves a discredited place in the global hall of infamy and the world knows it.
Gradually Nigerians have become synonymous with Beckett’s two vagrant characters Estragon and Vladimir who never knew when to say “enough is enough” but continued to wait in premeditated futility. Anyone who is hoping for a turnaround under the present dispensation is living in self-delusion. The signs are ominous. As cataclysmic as that may sound, the truth must be told.
Nigeria has become a bottomless pit with an incredible capacity to accept and accommodate all manner of filthy garbage thrown into it. Under the crushing weight of poverty, despair, frustration and glaring man-made evisceration, Nigerians march on, hoping against hope and sufficiently imbibing that common mantra of conquered, cowardly, diffident morality – “it is well”. It was the same situation when the completely clueless and inefficient Muhammadu Buhari was in the driver’s seat at Aso Rock. From one year to another, Nigerians received an overdose of the soothing balm of excuses, “it will be well, Buhari knows what he is doing”. It was never well until he left power. Tinubu has graduated every strand of Buhari’s incompetence. Yet, Nigerians continue to look and watch, rationalizing all the overflowing debris of the government’s material vulgarity.
I will not bore the public with all the calamitous indices of Nigeria’s ailing economy. But the truth is that there is suffering, hunger, and starvation in the country. If there are indications that these situations are one-off situations and there are identifiable prognoses that the awful conditions will improve, then hope for a better tomorrow can galvanize millions of Nigerians to wait for redemption. However, with certain knowledge that these conditions will not abate but get worse given the body language of Bola Tinubu and his co-travellers, one is minded to question and reject the deceptive, paralysing platitude – “it is well”. How can it be well when the prices of essential commodities are hitting the roof? How can it be well when small businesses are folding up? How can it be well when parents cannot pay school fees and house rents have become nightmares? How can it be well when the price of petrol is so exorbitant that people now resort to trekking long distances? How can it be well when families are stewing in the juice of desolation and anguish? Just how can it be well when many Nigerians are slaughtered every day like cockroaches due to insecurity across the country? My friend and cousin Chike Armani Iroha, the only son of his parents, was shot last week by bandits in Abuja and he died on the spot leaving his wife and four children. Tell me how it can be well with that family.
Every country goes through rough patches and economic challenges. But with the recognizable and responsible posturing of the political class, the citizens are confident and these countries recover from their economic woes. Nigeria’s condition is obviously different. The affluence and profligacy of the ruling class reflect the misery of the underclass and that is a huge problem. During Mr. Bola Tinubu’s recent visit to China, in a familiar display of callous indifference, he declared that he would continue to make hard decisions to move Nigeria forward. That was the height of cold-hearted, insensitive, cruel disposition by a leader of millions of people. One may ask Bola Tinubu the hard decision he has taken to combat banditry and terrorism in the country. Maybe, it was a hard decision to arbitrarily extend the tenure of the Inspector General of Police Mr. Kayode Egbetokun for four years with one eye on the general elections of 2027. Imaginably, Bola Tinubu is not aware that his tough decisions have plunged Nigerians into the depths of penury and affliction. Perhaps the president does not realise that Nigeria has become a flotsam of derelict dreams, aspirations, and inspirations. Our country under Bola Tinubu has become a necropolis for youthful zest, prospects, and potential. It is difficult to see tomorrow or have a plan for the future because no one knows what tomorrow will bring. Surely, Bola Tinubu never had any plan to improve Nigeria in any conceivable positive way beyond his ‘emilokan’ egocentric, conceited effusion.
Some people have made the argument that the governors and other classes of politicians should also share the blame for Nigeria’s socio-economic misdirection. I agree to an extent. But when Bola Tinubu was campaigning and asking Nigerians to vote for him, although he was unconvincing in his speeches before the elections, he encouraged Nigerians to blame him if he failed. On that score, he must carry eighty per cent of the blame for Nigeria’s steady but assured ruination because he has failed. While he has battled with legitimacy because many people believe he did not win the last presidential election, Nigeria’s economic fortune has nosedived unhindered. I have also heard the very jejune and offensive excuse that one and a half years is not enough to judge a new government. But it is enough for the new government to frolic in obscene ostentation by buying a jet, yacht, armoured car, and wasteful renovations. Such insolence should not be heard among enlightened minds because it desecrates the altar of our intellection, that is, where intellect exists. Nobody is expecting the government to perform any magic in one year and a half but at least, Nigerians should see prospects and a sense of responsibility in the government. But when these are lacking, it becomes futile to make excuses for an overreaching, inconsiderate government.
What is the solution to Nigeria’s current economic and social malady? Have Nigerians resigned to fate in total negation of Ola Rotimi’s warning that “to resign oneself to fate is to be crippled fast”. Have we all suddenly become crippled in Nigeria accepting that our problems are spiritual as some men of God have remarked? When will enough be enough for Nigerians? When will Nigerians bestir from their lethargy and let the leaders realize that the country belongs to all of us? When will enough be enough in this country? Should we dust our buttocks, every man to his home clutching an empty plate because the village head refused to share the village patrimony? Industrial action by workers is ineffectual in Nigeria. Some youths who participated in the last *endbadgovernance protests are in detention facing charges of treason while bandits and terrorists are taxing Nigerians heavy sums of money, making caricatures of our security apparatuses. To be sure, I am not canvassing for any violent overthrow of a democratically elected government. That would be preposterous. But there must be a definable way to attract the attention of our political class headed by Bola Tinubu to understand the excruciating levels of privation in the country. Enough must certainly be enough.
There are unconfirmed reports that the president will reshuffle his cabinet very soon. If that is the solution to our current challenges in the country, so be it. I vote for any legitimate action that would lead to a reconfiguration of our current emblematic distresses in the country. Since the government increased the price of fuel in the country, the president has not thought it wise to address Nigerians and identify with their sufferings. His take-it-or-leave-it attitude does not show a man who has the humility to lead Nigerians to the promised land. Nigeria, a land of dogged warriors, must find a way to engage the government and communicate the increasing dimensions of torment across the country. Enough must surely be enough in this country because Nigeria is not Bola Tinubu’s private estate and will never be one. The veil on the collective sight of all Nigerians must be broken and everybody must see clearly that the country is in a degenerate situation which requires urgent reclamation. Enough must surely be enough.
•Promise Adiele PhD, Mountain Top University, Promee01@yahoo.com
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