Curtains 2017

Another timeline in conventional calendar is on the verge of expiry, as we here post the last outing for this column in the year 2017. And all we want to do with this piece is think back and be thankful, because there are many things to thanks Heavens for.
Today is Christmas, and humankind is with near unanimity in celebratory mood despite the different religious persuasions of the diverse peoples. Permit me to seize the opportunity availed me by this platform to say ‘Merry Christmas!!!’ to you, my dear reader.
From the North Pole to the South, today’s event is customarily an entrée of sorts for the grand exit of an ebbing year. With barely a week to see off the year 2017 into the annals of history, therefore, we must acknowledge and be thankful that it is great grace to have come this far in spite of the enormous rigours of living – particularly in a clime like Nigeria.
And, trust me, living has been quantumly rigorous on Main Street where most Nigerians reside, if perchance it’s not been much so on Privy Street. It was widely reported, of course, that the country’s economy exited recession in this outgoing year, while the latest statistics cited by official minders showed rouge inflation to have tracked back for several months in a row. But the practical effect on Main Street was that there has been scant upswing in general living standards, which turned dismal as it could get in recent history. As at the close of last week, for instance, many Nigerians were locked in sheer existential forage for gasoline at filling stations where the famous Hobbesian dictum about survivalist instincts making life nasty, brutish and short seem a gross understatement.
That you are out there reading this piece, however, means you survived the experience. And for that we should be thankful. It goes without saying, among other things, that many people we personally knew severally looked forward to the incoming 2018 and indeed saw the year within reach, but they demised just before its dawning and aren’t here at this time to partake of the crossover. So, we really must thank Heavens.  
Even at the collective level, we should be thankful that the Nigerian nationhood is not in turmoil as to have uprooted most us from our comfort zones. Just take a look at the hapless victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeast. It needs no arcane insight to see how much of a horrid experience they are having, occasioned by basic incapacity of the governance system in our country to redress even the most elementary pangs of their displacement.
And yet, the entirety of our very nationhood sometime in the year verged on imploding along the lines of ethnic loyalties. President Muhammadu Buhari by his own testimony fought his fiercest battle with ill health this year, pitching the forced unity of Nigeria’s constituent nationalities on tenterhooks owing to primordial tensions over the open-ended pendency that then surrounded his return to the saddle. That was despite the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, very ably holding fort in his absence. Well, the president is now back with obvious vigour and healthily throttling at the helm, and some calm has been restored to the polity. The portents of a counter scenario for Nigeria’s fragile unity were simply too grave, and we must be thankful for having avoided these.

‘Living has been quantumly rigorous on Main Street where most Nigerians reside, if perchance it’s not been much so on Privy Street’

Also, separatist hotheads inspired by fiery crusader, Nnamdi Kanu, threatened our collective peace to some considerable extent. But thankfully, Kanu has now been forced to burrow underground amid security crackdown – deflating his breakaway agitation and restoring some calm to the southeast geopolity. Just before that happened though, you would think the region was beyond rescue from the secessionist high road, as could have compelled another recourse to force of arms in safeguarding the territorial status quo. Taking from the lessons of Nigerian nationhood history, we should be thankful for being spared such a grim recourse.
As it seems now, moderation by the majority appears to have prevailed in the southeast region, while Kanu has submarined from relevance in the scheme of things. His followers denied that he fled, though. They hold the military liable for his disappearance and have demanded that he be produced, whereas the military insisted that he slipped away before they could apprehend him. The salient point here is: whatever may be the truth about Kanu’s fate, it would be a grave error if the Buhari administration leaves the issues at stake in his separatist agitation too long in abeyance. Those issues are only simmering now, to be more rabidly canvassed by another arrowhead in the near future unless the government avails itself of the present armistice to begin redressing the grievances. Meanwhile we should be thankful for the present peace.
This outgoing year leaves a major dent in the anti-corruption armour of the Buhari administration, but we must acknowledge its modest efforts in staunching the deeply ingrained culture of graft in our national life. It was in 2017, for instance, that the president – for the first time since taking office – moved against persons in his inner ring when they came down with corruption indictment. He removed former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) Babachir Lawal from office, along with former National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director-General Ayo Oke over graft allegations. The catch, however, is: whereas Oke is already being fiercely hunted for prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Lawal curiously seems out of the prosecution radar and it’s been a defiant mum from the presidency.
But easily the biggest smear on the graft war has been the endless fudging by principal officers of government on who is liable for recalling fleeing former Presidential Pension Task Team chairman, Abdulrasheed Maina, into civil service despite his being wanted for prosecution on multibillion-naira pension fraud by the EFCC. Maina till date has remained in hiding, while denying any guilt and laying it on thickly against the integrity of the Buhari administration. He openly insists, among others, that the president actually is privy to the game plan of his restoration to the civil service. And only last week he once again spoke from his hideout, citing EFCC chief Ibrahim Magu as being in the know of his whereabouts contrary to public affirmations by the anti-graft czar.
“When I heard him that day, I laughed…because Nigerians were being taken for a ride. How could Magu that I respect so much say that? Because he lied! How could you say you were going to fetch me in Dubai, USA (or the) UK when you know I am here in Nigeria with you, when you know I have been in Nigeria for ages, when you know I have been working with you? Come on, come on! I am tired of this and I feel I am not getting justice,” Maina was reported to have said by the Sun newspaper. But again, it’s been a resounding mum from the presidency.

All in all, the outgoing year has as much been fair as it’s been foul, and we should really be thankful for outliving its tides. As I rest this piece, therefore, kindly join me to say: ‘Fare thee well, year 2017!’

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