Today, Nigeria bears the description of a Zoo by those who have lost hope in her to the extent that it has become a household expression among many. To this, divergent reactions can easily be recorded; while others frown at such a description, others seem to affi rm such and are ready to defend such to the last. But the question remains, why a zoo? Why not a nation? Or is the Nigerian nation a caricature of what a nation stands for?
Why have Nnamdi Kanu and the IPOB described Nigeria in the fi rst place as a zoo? What informs this seemingly atrocious clothing? Is Nigeria no longer the giant of Africa? Or has she lost her status as an independent nation among the comity of nations and known among her peers as the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Why a zoo? Th e Wilhelmer Zoo Stuttgart is in Germany.
I have been privileged to visit this zoo a number of times because of its outstanding beauty and order. Recently, I visited this zoo once more in the company of some of my colleagues from Nigeria, for the purpose of recreation and relaxation. In this zoo, one witnesses a compelling presence of order and discipline. The network of roads is of the state of the art; beautiful, neat and well managed.
The electric power supply is of utmost importance because the animals need this necessity of life together with the steady supply of water. Th e zoo attendants know what it means to give the animals their food as and when due, because they cannot risk the consequential rioting of these creatures. this, they endeavour to carry out their duties quite diligently, probably because of the beauty and command of order or negatively because of the fear of a possible unrest by the animals when denied these necessities of life.
A standard hospital, which takes care of both the animals and their attendants is erected in this vicinity. No half-measures are entertained; ambulances including helicopters are on standby waiting for signals to swing into action. Th e arrangement and order are simply awesome.
Th e workers are sharp and prompt to their duties. Hard work is the watchword and the workers elegantly carry out their duties in strict obedience to the norms and laws of engagement. All animals have their natural habitats. No eff ort is made to coerce any or subjugate one to a habitat strange to its existence. Care is taken to separate those that cannot coexist with others because of the grave consequences its neglect portends. Here, the law of nature has to be given prime consideration, consciously aware that danger lurks around the corner when it is consciously or unconsciously ruptured.
Nevertheless, the zoo has some basic limitations, for instance, the lack of freedom, since the animals are conditioned to stay in their given habitats and may be disposed of as the need arises. Th is is a little picture of what a zoo stands for and I doubt if the Nigerian nation fi ts into this great picture of order and discipline, which the zoo embodies. No, Nigeria cannot be a zoo. I still remember quite vividly the experience I had as a young student some years ago.
One of our teachers and formators just came back from Europe on holidays and on setting his feet in Nigeria, he sighed heavily and said; “back to the jungle.” As a young student, I was startled by this apparent off ensive expression by a man I held in high esteem. How could he deride his own nation in such terms? How could he describe his fatherland in such demeaning words?
I struggled to muster the little courage in me to question this seemingly unfortunate attitude of his, but he laughed and said, my child, you will not understand, but with time it will be clear to you; Nigeria our fatherland is a jungle. Quite recently, the entire Nigerian nation was surprised with Shehu Sani’s allegory of the Lion – King, the Jackals and the Hyenas, and the response of Mrs. Aisha Buhari, strongly pointing to the jungle nature of the Nigerian nation, which captures the vivid picture of the Nigerian character and shape much more than a zoo.
A literary icon, a great builder and formator, Nathaniel I. Ndiokwere, in his series known as “Only in Nigeria” enumerated the uncountable anomalies prevalent in the Nigerian landscape. I am sure, if he is to make some appendages to this work, greater litanies of evil not included in the already published work will defi nitely be mentioned, because there appears to be in the Nigerian state a daily geometric rise and breeding of evil.
It is only in Nigeria that a wanted criminal in any country of the world will hope to get himself or herself within the shores of the Nigerian state and once it is done he is free, and can politically contest for any position, and thanks to the structure on ground, will defi nitely win and become “a leader of thought.” It is only in Nigeria that the security agents become security hazards, consciously shooting down and maiming those they are paid to protect.
It is only in Nigeria that political offi ce holders will embezzle the public funds and glamorously make private donations from their stolen wealth and will still be greeted with applause and great reception. It is only in Nigeria, that an oil producing country will export her raw produce, to import it for her very consumption. It is only in Nigeria that a governor of state will insensitively and wickedly mandate and force her senior citizens (pensioners) to forgo their entitlements and proudly move about unharmed.
is only in Nigeria that the ruling class will shamelessly embezzle funds allocated for infrastructural development and move about unquestioned, and stupidly travel outside Nigeria to enjoy the very things they struggled to destroy. It is only in Nigeria that school dropouts take decisions for the intelligentsia and the intelligentsia will pitiably run errands for them. It is only in Nigeria that the past is always better than the present and the future completely unpredictable. Th e list is uncountable.
To therefore call Nigeria a zoo is to even dress it on a borrowed robe; this is purely deceptive, since it imposes on her a certain level of order and discipline that is grossly lacking in her very constitution. Th e picture of a jungle better captures the rape, domination, vandalism, dehumanization, lawlessness, indiscipline, hunger, disorientation, abysmal poverty which dots her entire landscape, the hopelessness and recklessness into which her leaders have plunged this beautifully blessed land into. Omenukwa writes from Germany
