Between Messi and Ronaldo

By Promise Adiele

Football is my passion. This week, I want to engage millions of people, who are crazy about football, those whose support for either Messi or Ronaldo has assumed maniacal dimensions.

I love football. I played football as a young boy. In those days, we played football for many hours, fatigue was never an issue.

In secondary school, I was a member of the school football team. In university, I played for my department when we won the dean’s cup.

Even now, I play football every Saturday morning, a serious physical commitment which I have missed due to the pandemic.

Bearing youths and the young at heart in mind, I had considered another title for this essay “Between BBnaija and Telemundo”.

Although I do not want to be drawn into a trite, hackneyed argument as to who is better between the two football maestros or the better programme between the second category, I think I have to lend my voice to the debate.

I know the above topics provoke excitement in people, pumping their adrenalin to the rooftops.

While the topics are engaging and offer a choice between two interests, they have distracted us from the reality of our conditions in Nigeria.

The energy, verve, and passion we show for these entertainment pastimes are benumbing.

Regrettably, we do not show the same passion and vitality for more fundamental issues which have direct consequences on our lives.

For example, if the title of this essay concerns public welfare, politics, economics or social behaviour, I am sure not many people will pay attention.

Before I discuss Messi and Ronaldo, BBnaija and Telemundo, let me first consider another title for this week’s essay which also borders on choice.

Let us consider the title “Between Nigeria now and Nigeria after 2023”. After dealing with this last title, I will graciously return to Messi and Ronaldo, BBnaija and Telemundo.

One of the defining characteristics of adulthood is freedom of choice. Our lives inevitably become the choices we make and in making choices, we must take responsibilities.

One can say that the conditions in Nigeria today are as a result of the choices we have made.

In many ways, we are complicit in the whirlwind blowing across our country. It is either because we voted for the wrong people or we have condoned poor leadership through sedating complacency.

Amid misrule, lawlessness, and anarchy, we only watch and comment, that in itself is a choice.

Man cannot totally be free or exonerated from his conditions. We are all guilty in one way or another for the deluge of inanities in our country.

Yes, we are not all part of the policymaking process, but by condoning criminality, by supporting those whose only mandate is to liquidate our commonwealth, by minding our businesses, to feed ourselves and our families, to pursue a career and live a normal life, we are all part of the problem.

Let us examine where we are now and also decide where we want to be after 2023. Right now, we are caught in the strangulating grip of economic woes. Our country is about to embrace another recession.

The naira continues to slide and lose value. Unfortunately, we are at the point where the only option left for our leaders is to borrow funds, Greek gift from China without any clear outline on how these loans will be repaid.

What is currently happening in Zambia with regard to loans from China should concern any well-meaning Nigerian.

Today in Zambia, China has taken over some of the country’s assets, flooding the nation with Chinese nationals to oversee these assets.

Already, some people are referring to Zambia as the first African Chinese colony. Mind you, I do not worry about loans.

Great countries take loans and repay them accordingly. But it becomes an exercise in idiocy when people, in a demonstration of economic illiteracy and desperation, take loans without any well-explained process of repayment.

In doing so, our leaders invite these economic predators to take over our assets in the inevitable event that we are not able to repay the loans.

This is where we are now. We have found ourselves in a place where insecurity holds sway.

Human life has completely lost its sanctity in our country as Nigerians die like cockroaches every day. We are daily inundated with gory tales of macabre killings, rape, torture, and kidnap.

I watched a video of mass killings in Southern Kaduna and could only flinch in utter disgust. I saw men, women, children and the elderly butchered and dismembered like mere animals. They were victims of incessant killings in Kaduna.

How on earth is it possible for the commander-in-chief to go to bed every night and have a good sleep?

How does our chief security officer eat and carry on every day while the citizens die like ants? We have found ourselves in a place where we do not know what will happen tomorrow, whose turn it will be, yet we have many security outfits funded by taxpayers’ money.

We have found ourselves in a place where many government officials have consciously resolved to loot and plunder the public purse.

The figures are crazy. Many in public offices, those elected to represent the people, those who ordinarily should ensure the welfare of the people, are in a looting spree.

Their resolve is to submerge the country and ensure the death of millions of people.

While people struggle for survival, while people die in hospitals for lack of adequate medical facilities, while people die on the roads every day in motor accidents due to bad roads, while civil servants are owed over a year’s salary and pensioners are not paid, while millions of youths are out of jobs, many public officials unconscionably embezzle humongous amounts of money meant for these necessities.

That is where we are now. But where do we want to be after 2023? First, in making a choice, we must choose people who have integrity, people who are free from corrupt baggage.

Let us choose people who are eminently educated, who will be able to design an effective economic prognosis that will lead to the revival of our economy and instil confidence in the people.

Let us support people who are free from bigotry, clannishness and nepotism, people who understand the diversities that define our country and respect them.

Let us choose people who will restructure Nigeria and lay to rest all the dissenting voices of disintegration.

I do not in any way suggest that we should look for perfect people because no one is perfect but we can make progress by making a good choice.

Talking about choices, between Messi and Ronaldo, who is a better footballer? Between BBnaija and Telemundo, which is a better programme?

As we debate and decide on these issues, let us also choose between where we are now and where we want to be in 2023.

Sorry if my title deceived you. Let us not waste our times on inconsequential debates when there are more fundamental issues to engage.