MOURNING THE THINGS THAT WEREN'T

I wish the British left us as the Northern and Southern protectorates that they met us as when they came in 1846 without amalgamating us to become Nigeria in 1914. We most probably wouldn’t have had ethnicity and religion as foremost problems now.

I wish the January 1966 coup was completely successful. I wish Madiebo didn’t successfully convince Nzeogwu not to take the fight to Ironsi after the latter had taken control of the government in Lagos. With the blueprint the coup-plotters had mapped out for Nigeria, we most likely would have had an economy similar to Russia and China’s by now if that blueprint was executed to the letter.

I wish Ironsi had kept the end of the bargain he made with Nzeogwu before the latter surrendered to him. If Ironsi had kept the deal, Awolowo and the rest of the imprisoned Southern opposition would have been released; the families of the slain victims of the January 1966 coup would have been taken care of by the government and the subsequent May 1966 riots and July 1966 coup may never have occurred.

ANOTHER PROPHET NATHAN STORY

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself. 
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884 -1962)

If you were a bible-story loving kid, then you’ll remember the story Prophet Nathan used to illustrate to King David, his greed in going to sleep with another man’s wife- Beersheba, trying to get the man- Uriah- to cover up his (David’s) act by asking him to leave the field of battle and go home and lie with his wife, finally killing the man when his cover-up attempts failed, and taking the man’s only wife to be one of his wives. There’s also the story of Jezebel’s act of ordering the false accusation and subsequent killing of Nabaoth just so that her husband, King Ahab, could acquire Nabaoth’s garden, after Nabaoth had refused to bequeath his family-inherited garden to the king. These two bible stories are very similar in that the rich tried to exploit the poor of the little they had; and when their attempts failed, they resorted to eliminating the obstacles in their way- the poor. Incidentally, these stories don’t happen only in the bible.