Nigerians hate shit but eat toilet maggots

(Nigeria) By Collins Okeke

I want to start with apologizing for the title of this piece. ‘Shit’ and ‘toilet maggots’ are not pleasant to see not to talk of eat but for maximum effect and want of a better analogy I have elected to use them.  Most Nigerians hate shit but eat toilet maggots. 

We like to espouse values we have not internalized. We pretend to identify with honesty, patriotism, ideology, internal democracy, ethnic and religious tolerance etc, but will never reflect them in our political decisions. We may not want to admit it but we inadvertently are responsible for the kind of political parties and politicians we have.

Yesterday some Governors from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, decided to defect to the All Progressive Congress, APC. Typically most Nigerians have found fault with this decision, I have heard and seen things like ‘strange bedfellows’, ‘they do not have ideology’, ‘they are not different from the PDP’, ‘they all thieves’ etc. 

These criticisms are not new, in the days to come they will subside and we will accept them either way PDP or APC. We will feverishly campaign for either or both parties, brush aside honesty, ideology and patriotism, all the good stuff and deploy all the bad stuff; ethnicity and religion to put them back in office.

We cannot in all honesty say the political system has not been fair to us. We have had parties and candidates with integrity and ideology like the National Conscience Party, NCP, established by Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu but we have spurned them and chosen the status quo. We did not vote Chief Fawehinmi when he presented himself for public office because we felt he will not win. 

I still cannot fathom why we did not vote for Mallam Ribadu. I deliberately avoided Gen. Mohammadu Buhari because I don’t want to be attacked by Nigerian crusaders.

We can cry all we want about how bad our political parties and politicians are. We can pray, hold vigils and desire God’s wrath on our politicians. 

We can complain about corruption, misgovernance, electricity, bad roads, insecurity, religious and ethnic intolerance etc. But I can make a prediction; Nigerians, this smelly disgusting shit we hate so much now we will gladly eventually eat its maggots.