In a graphic demonstration of the fickleness of the human mind, Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), former leader of the defunct USSR, plucked off the feathers of a chicken and dropped bits of wheat towards it as he walked around his compound. The profusely haemorrhaging chicken followed Stalin everywhere, pecking on the wheat. Likening this coldhearted scenario to political engagement, Stalin said thus: “This is how easy it is to govern stupid people; they will follow you no matter how much pain you cause them as long as you throw them a little worthless treat once in a while”. This illustration speaks volubly to political leadership in Nigeria.
Chickens are easily frightened hence, in American parlance, lily-livered persons are referred to as “chickens”, and the act of withdrawing from a competition or likely brawl is referred to as “chickening out”. A defeathered chicken loses its bird essence; when bleeding, running becomes traumatic; with open pores, its susceptibility to disease is very high, thus accentuating its vulnerability. A defeathered chicken is therefore in a precarious state of being. For all intents and purposes, Nigerians have been defeathered since the abrogation of the Independence Constitution of 1960 and promulgation of Unification Decree of 1966. The Waterways Bill that is being surreptitiously pushed in the National Assembly will nail the coffin of Nigerians if it is passed into law.
Nigerians were “fully feathered flying fowls” under the Independence Constitution, which vested natural resources on the subnational governments; it was such that Nigeria recorded many “firsts” at the continental and global arenas. However, Nigerians were defeathered by the Unification Decree of 1966 and finally nailed by the Petroleum Decree of 1969, which divested the federating units and citizens of the right to their natural resources in favor of the Federal Government. These ill-informed acts of dictatorial lawgiving commenced Nigeria’s slip and slide down a slippery economic slope that slithered the nation into the current state of disarticulated private sector, consumer—nation status, dreadfully devalued currency, runaway inflation, ever-elongating unemployment line and the mocking moniker of poverty capital of the world—a scornful sobriquet that has erased the letters “g” and “i” from the erstwhile appellation “Giant” of Africa thereby turning Nigeria into “Ant” of Africa.
Recently, a sitting governor was quoted as saying that “Nigerians don’t have the capacity to unite because they are burdened by poverty. We have taken away from them their dignity, their self-esteem, their pride and self-worth so that they cannot even organise…We [the elite] unite; (the citizens are) already in hell”. This is a candid admission of elite class culpability regarding the deplorable economic state of affairs in Nigeria. In other words, this statement declares that it is the elite that have brought so much hardship in Nigerians. The truth remains that acrimonies amongst the elite are orchestrated to mislead the public. In reality, they are united in looting the nation’s wealth. They have weaponised poverty and kept the citizens weak, confused and, therefore, malleable.
Nigerians are profusely bleeding and perceptibly pained chickens; borrowing the words of Stalin, they have, arguably, become stupid people who have consistently followed their political leaders irrespective of how much pain is inflicted on them through public policies that serve only the purpose of the elites. A micro-minority lives in obscene opulence while the overwhelming majority languish in penury. The stupidity of Nigerians derives from their allowing themselves to be deceived into believing that ethnicity and religion are the dividing lines in the Nigerian socioeconomic space. Another strategy for defeathering Nigerians is the indigenisation/privatisation of government stake-holding in the economy, which was carefully crafted crookedly to benefit elites in the final analysis.
Given the above, Nigerians sadly continue to follow their Stalin-hearted leaders as they shamelessly shilly-shally across political party lines completely devoid of any philosophy or ideology other than the “I, me, mine” ethos that characterise political participation in Nigeria. Late Patrice Lumumba (1925-1961), once lamented that the problem with Africans is that they complain about bad leadership but when the opportunity comes for election, they still elect the same group of people. Also, Madibo Keita (1915-1977) averred that “when the citizens of a nation deem their most accomplished thieves as the most electable…theft becomes their national creed”. The full weight of these statements is still with us in Nigeria.
The first quarter of 2023 is around the corner. Sadly, at every level of government, pardoned convicts, “idiots” and “tribesmen” (in the Greek tradition) are jostling for public office without patriotic vision or record of service to the community. Rather, they are drumming up primordial sentiments and the tragedy is that hungry and unemployed people blindly support a dumb, numb and reckless elite class that is responsible for the pillage and wastage of Nigeria’s wealth; an elite fixated with maintaining the status quo to sustain their flamboyance, profligacy and obscene opulence.
In a rather surprising twist, President Buhari advised Nigerians to be introspective in the choice they make in the forthcoming elections; he emphasised that Nigerians should choose wisely. This implies being conscious of the fact that to elect a dishonest person is to put the treasures, future and posterity of the nation in jeopardy.
Finally, a Tik Tok video clip credited to Jolaosho Olaitan Ake presents a rather interesting scenario that is relevant to our chicken metaphor. The clip shows a little boy holding a sack that contains grains being chased around an enclosed compound by about fifty chickens. Crying and holding fast to the sack, the boy tried very hard to outrun the chickens but the chickens persisted until the boy dropped the sack and they settled down to a feast. It is my fervent prayer that before February 25, 2023, the millions of defeathered but enfranchised Nigerians have regrown their feathers and that they are resolute enough to teach the Joseph Stalins of Nigeria a political lesson that will positively change the narrative of Nigerian history.

By: Jason Osai
Osai is a university lecturer.