“They that value not praise,will never do anything worthy of praise”
“Too much of praise is a burden” -Penguin Dictionary of PROVERBS (1983)
I agree with Jackie Mason, the American Author/Comedian who rightly observed that in the final analysis all “Predictions are preposterous” ! Indeed most predictions about 2015 Nigeria, with the benefits of hind sights are at best absurd and ridiculous, and at worse, foolish and laughable. Such false predictions about Nigeria include that of the German author, Karl Maier, `a native of Louisville, Kentucky’ who according to his 2000 book `lives in London’ (not Lagos!). In his provocative controversial notorious tittle;`This House Has Fallen’, Karl Maier concluded long before year 2000 that Nigeria would collapse as a nation state!. In late 1990s, it will be recalled that Nigeria was in the crisis of transition from military dictatorship to democracy with coups and counter coup plots, serial deaths of political notables such as General Shehu Yar Adua, chief Moshood Abiola and General Sanni Abacha. The subsequent “sharia” crisis of 2001, 2002, and the serial bloodletting across some major cities of the North increased the noise level of Maier’s predictions. Thank God and resilence of Nigerians, 15 years after, this house called Nigeria has NOT fallen contrary to the doomsday scenario of Karl Maier.
On the contrary we are on the threshold of another history; the inauguration of the 5th democratic Republic with the election of General Muhammadu Buhari and the historic concession speech of President Goodluck Jonathan of April 1st!
Paradoxically, Karl Maier borrowed his silly tittle from our Chinua Achebe’s scholarly problem-solving work `The Trouble With Nigeria. He even claimed that he genuinely holds that Nigeria must survive drawing inspiration from the concern as to why Nigeria with such abundant blessings is persistently weighed down by its decadent feet of clay. I once reflected in this column that we all know that the road to hell is always decorated with such lovely well-wishes such as that of the German author. Certainly it is not what you wish as much as what you write like `This House has Fallen.’ Even with Boko haram insurgency, Nigeria has shown that like most nation-states, the challenges of development are always there. The issue is the capacity to overcome them. Things may occasionally fall apart, but with determination, things can fall in place.
Another celebrated false hysteria about Nigeria came from a former American Ambassador to Nigeria (2004 -2007), professor John Campbell. In a hysterical preview of his book entitled Nigeria: Dancing on the Brink: he had claimed that “The 2011 elections in Nigeria, scheduled for January 22, pose a threat to the stability of the United States’ most important partner in West Africa.”
Of course in 2005, we recall a so-called CIA Report according to which Nigeria would be a failed state in 2015. It is again to the eternal resilience of Nigeria and Nigerians that Nigeria weathered the political storms of 2011 and indeed the most challenging of all 2015! The challenge today is that of democratic consolidation. Last week, in my reflection, I had tried the impossible to praise both the binary simplistic vote-catching slogans of the two leading political parties, (namely APC and PDP) “change” and ” continuity” respectively. The intention is to show that Nigeria deserves new changes as well as continuity of some polices in deepening our democratic process. It is exciting that this singular best wish of a compatriot ( not prediction of foreign observers!) has been realized with the remarkable outcome of last week’s presidential election. Apparently as the old received wisdom has it;
“They that value not praise,will never do anything worthy of praise”! Once again we must salute Nigerians for attaching value to collective praise making sure that partisanship gave way to statesmanship and despair gave way to patriotism. However the praises are getting too much. The hope is that the praises do not promote complacency. It is not over until we again get it right at the forthcoming governorship and states assembly elections this weekend .
This weekend, INEC and security officials must magnify their globally acknowledged strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Too much of praise is a burden! We must sustain what led to the praise in the first instance!
Issa Aremu mni
