Those of you who have read or watched the late Professor Ola
Rotimi’s great play; “The Gods are to blame,” may or may not be aware that the
great man’s play is actually an adaptation of the ancient Greek playwright
Sophocles’ work; “Oedipus Rex.”
In the original piece of work, Oedipus, the King of Thebes suffers
an unbelievable reversal of fortunes when he discovers his whole life is built
on a foundation of falsehoods.
He finds out to his horror that he has killed his father, Laius,
married his mother, Jocasta and worse still, he is his children’s half-brother!
Wracked with guilt and inconsolable shame, Oedipus considers his fate, and is
finally pushed to the limit when Jocasta, on finding out the truth, hangs
herself.
Oedipus, upset at not being able to have seen the facts before
his very eyes, blinds himself with the pins from Jocasta dress. Orphaned,
widowed and blinded, Oedipus loses his throne and is placed under house arrest
by his successor and brother-in-law, Creon, who leaves it to the gods to
determine his fate. They decided to exile him.
But were the gods themselves to blame?
If I may continue to stretch the artistic license so perfectly
applied by the great late professor; now that Nigerians have been blinded,
humiliated, orphaned and most definitely on the brink of exile from their
birthright, who is to blame for our perilous position?
Increasingly, I see quotes posted via social media pointing to
the fact Nigerians have the leaders they deserve. Conversely, every now then, I
read articles and quotes stressing opposing views and blaming our situation on
the very DNA of the entity we all strive to improve. Nigeria,
they say, was put together to serve an economic master who has no interest in
the country working out its problems. Continuous strife, disunity and pervasive
corruption, are apparently the only currencies that work in the master’s favour.
Well, here’s the thing; everything that happened in Oedipus’ sad
story had been predicted years before when Laius, the then King of Thebes had
travelled to the oracle at Delphi. Distraught by the
predictions, Laius had given baby Oedipus away and ordered him killed.
Alas, this was not to be….destiny is a bitch! As the Yorubas
say; “the man destined to eat pounded yam before going to bed, may slumber, but
the noise emanating from the mortar and pestle will definitely keep him awake.”
So I wonder whether Nigeria’s
current disastrous situation was always ordained in the heavens and all we are
only victims of an unfortunate fate. The only way I believed I could satisfy my
yearning for an answer, was to go back and read about the early days of country
and see what our founding fathers thought of the task before them.
In the end, I found myself asking; was Nnamdi Azikwe actually
playing the psychic when he observed;
“I have one advice to give to our politicians. If they have
decided to destroy our national unity, then they should summon a round-table
conference to decide how our national assets should be divided before they seal
their doom by satisfying their lust for office…….it is better for us and many
admirers abroad that we should disintegrate in peace and not in pieces. Should
the politicians fail to heed this warning, then I will venture the prediction
that the experience of the Democratic Republic of the Congo will
be a child’s play if ever it comes to our turn to play such a tragic role.”
Or was Obafemi Awolowo already hinting at the vacuity of our
patriotism when he said;
“Nigeria is
not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in
the same sense as there are ‘English,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French.’ The word
‘Nigerian’ is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live
within the boundaries of Nigeria and
those who do not.”
Or let us consider the haunting words of Amhadu Bello;
“The new nation called Nigeria should
be an estate of our great grandfather Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly
prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the North as willing tools
and the South as a conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us and
never allow them to have control over their future”.
One could quibble at my selection of quotes, but could one not
also argue that if these were the words emanating from the men who fought for
our independence, then perhaps the very foundation of the house we sit in was
as false as Oedipus life? Is it a far-fetched argument to postulate the current
issues in Nigeria are entrenched in
the fact that it could be an untenable entity? Could the truth be this
straightforward or are the complexities too great for us mere mortals to
decipher?
With the incessant conveyor belt of dark information now
emerging about the spurious operations and underhand tactics employed by the
custodians of the black gold that holds us continuously captive, is it not
becoming quite obvious that our fate has been decided long before the country
was born?
But where lays the blame?
Are we really as blameless as Oedipus who (rightly) was only
willing to take responsibility for his blindness? Can we take a leaf from his
book and blame the gods for the majority of our ills? And if we do, who exactly
are these gods? And how do we achieve retribution?
Apollo, the god of the sun, took the brunt for Oedipus’ fate.
Some reckon the Apolline predictions obviously spelt out what was to come and
surely Apollo could have averted such a tragic ending for a clearly innocent
man. There are modern-day Greeks who still subscribe to this belief.
So where do we turn?
Ogun, the god of iron, was the ubiquitous deity in the Ola
Rotimi play….maybe we can blame him. Although I wager he will strike out in
revulsion, as many of us have deserted him and his fellow chums since the
advent of the Bible and Koran carriers from the West and East.
Hmmm….conundrum!
Okay, I am going out on a limb here and assert our gods are no
longer the traditional deities who were the parallels of the Apollos and Zeuses
of Ancient Greece. Only an insignificant number of us see the likes of
Amadiora, Ogun, Sarki and Sango, to name a few, as channels through which we
can dialogue with the Almighty. I submit that today, our gods are mere mortals
who we have spent the last few decades clothing with extraordinary undeserved powers
and reverence.
From the ever-present faces in our ruling classes to captains of
industry who have somehow managed to convince us (with our permission) that
one’s life means nowt, until you have accumulated incomprehensible riches and
inexplicable resources. Put in that mix a few men of God who are always on
hand, to continuously bless this collective and you end up with a well seasoned
band of brothers.
These are the new-day Nigerian gods. I could name names, but I
do not want to give my poor mother a heart attack! She already believes writing
about these things is precarious enough.
Having said that, this is one of those situations where
identification will be tantamount to overkill. Everyone knows the people we are
talking about…….and as to the question of whether they are to blame. Well, let
me put it this way.
Is petrol N97 a litre?
There you are then!
Perhaps the blame lies with both men and Gods. The Gods abandoned us when the bible & quran carrying invader-enslavers unleashed mayhem on our senses. And then, we returned the favour by decidedly turned our backs on the Gods.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, the relationship between Yoruba Gods & men have always been two-way (unlike the slavishness with which we are expected to follow foreign monotheistic gods)!!