John Segun Odeyemi
Chronos – time, they say is the judge of history. Time also goes by quietly and mostly cannot be regained. On the first day of a new year (2026), we have a sacred duty, like the two-faced Greek God Janus (from where we get January), look back before we can look into the future. Whenever we fail to act righteously, justly and truthfully in time, we allow evil to mature in and through time. Nigeria, its leadership, and its people have wasted time. Instead of building, we have been tearing down. Instead of fighting corruption, we have nursed and enabled it. Instead of virtue, we have chosen vice for far too long. And time keeps going leaving our nation and its hubris to dwell in the darkness that it has chosen. All the tragic drama of 2025 is basically our chickens coming back home to roost. Beyond the violence, carnage and the incineration of entire communities, we forget that time records history by which tomorrow will remember our names and times.
The tragedy of a nation is exposed when men/women who hold power sacrifice the truth for political and economic expediencies. More tragic is when the ruling class no longer are able to distinguish the difference between moral rectitude and deformed (and often time deranged) appetite for avarice and greed. A nation’s termination is marked when the rule of law is jettisoned for cabalistic interests, when various factions exist in their own bragging rights and operate according to their own laws with unbridled impunity. The bellicosity, gargantuan appetites, and absurdities which have become the hall mark of the Nigerian elitist political class has found an insidious way to replicate itself in the majority of the populace creating a conflicting dilemma of a “rat race,” a situation of “a survival of the fittest.” If as Plato said, “you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” And yet time keeps running by…
The Nunc-dimittis begins to sing itself as a dirge for a nation where the lives of the citizens are worth less than that of a cow. An entire nation looks on as maniacs, emboldened state and non-state actors decimate mosques, churches and sack entire villages. The real beasts are not only the notorious “Fulani” herdsmen, Boko Harram, kidnappers, armed robbers, and terrorists who have successfully, over the years created a parallel state within our nation; the real beasts are those who strut in the corridors of power, who sponsor, abet, and enable anarchists, acting with arrogance and impunity. Worse still is the impotence of the nation’s governance to call these known puppeteers to justice. The puerility of our nation’s erstwhile almost invincible military might seem to have become a toothless bulldog, scraggly mongrel about to sink into the dusk of past military glory. The Nigerian military can quell a coup within twenty fours hours in a neighbouring country but at home is unable to suppress anarchists and terrorists. Again, time will be the judge!
No rational person pretends to sleep through a storm. s/he acknowledges the fact when the roof is on fire and acts proactively to save life and if possible, property; that is facing reality not some delusional optimism where you consciously avoid the elephant in the room and applaud inessentials germane to your welfare and longevity. We have at best a government lacking in clear ability to logically process issues. Rather, they act on impulse, a sudden adrenaline rush to the head. One after another, they make decisions that make one wonder which part of their physiology they reason from? Otherwise, how do you explain the capture of insurgents who have terrorized, maimed and murdered innocent citizens, then the government claims they are rehabilitated and immediately enroll them in the nation’s army? How does one logically process the fact that the government of Nigeria have a comprehensive list of those sponsoring banditry and terrorism, and they are walking free, worse still they are participants in governance. It is only in Nigeria that we have different government and non-governmental actors negotiating between our nation’s invaders, plunderers, rapist and mass murderers, and they speak boldly and act impunitively. These vile characters, at this time, hold an entire nation in a vice grip of death. Time will be the judge!
Even at this miserable time, those who are in power are in denial. It is only by the intervention of the US that the sleeping giant is beginning to stare- but not yet awake. Why should other nations have to tell us what we know already; that our nation is a joke, which for years we have avoided confronting? Clowns, career criminals, and near neanderthals are the ruling class and you expect to build a nation? They change the story to fit their own narrative without an iota of respect for truth and decency. To our national disgrace, there are people who are voicing publicly that the rest of the nation at some point maltreated the murderous herdsmen and now they are reacting. Only compound idiots will argue in this manner, hoping that they are addressing people who are fools! We have too many interlocutors who inject themselves into the national debate, and while there is no need for too much scrutiny, you can easily tell that these are candidates for the psychiatry wards. The working class have been beaten black and blue so regularly that they no longer understand they are abused. The intellectuals of the nation are the worst – they have perfected the art of double speak, reconstruction and lies; clergy, judges, professors, royalties, industrialists – most have sold out, betrayed the idea of a once dreamed of nation. They construct a vision of only today, forgetting that time flexes backwards and forwards. Even the Holy Book talks about the “hour of darkness”, in which humanity when acting from a position of greed – “they prefer to hide in the darkness so that their wickedness is not known.” They all forget that after dusk, dawn arrives, “and all that is done in darkness will be shown in bright day light.” All in time, all in God’s own time.
One of the greatest tragedies for a people is to have leadership where power is grabbed for power’s sake. The incompetence of the power grabbers is for the necessary chaos that is to ensue, because each person acts based solely on their natural ability and aptitude. If you elect a clown as your leader, do not feign surprise when he turns the seat of power into a circus. So also, if you elect a kleptomaniac and people of shady character, why show surprise when they embezzle from the nation’s commonwealth. Beyond rational comprehension, we find politicians starching away billions that they are unable to use even if they were given three lifetimes. This is the madness from the gods which precedes self-destruction… We keep wasting time, we keep wondering what happened to our country.
The nation was built on a false premise of unwilling bedfellows, and not until we separate our huts will each be able to sleep as they wish, we shall continue to butt heads. We have wasted enough time! We are at the beginning of a new year; we need to reconfigure how we use our time to benefit every citizen of Nigeria. Unfortunately, this year, I am unable to offer you the traditional and often regurgitated greetings, “Happy new year.” The only way to peace and a happy new year is known to all of us: simply put, Decentralize Governance, construct a constitution that works for a democratic system and Go Back to the Regions!
Tempus fugit. Carpe Diem!
•John Segun Odeyemi, Asst. Prof. of Systematic Theology (IBCS), New Orleans, Louisiana.
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