This House Has Fallen

Sir: The title of this piece was the title of Karl Maier’s book, an American journalist, written in 2000 about the chronicles of a nation (Nigeria) on the verge of collapse that has survived series of misfortunes ranging from coups, civil war, religious crisis, human right abuses, to our political history and democratic freedom.

While Maier in his book described his own as a house on the brink of a nervous break down, mine could be described as a house in ruins.

Though there was no death recorded, the casualty is gargantuan, all the occupants of the house were affected, some had severe injuries while the remaining were bruised. The occupants of the fallen house are yet to come to terms with how the structure they boasted could stand the test of time turned out to be a house of cards.

The fallen house is People’s Democratic Party PDP; the powerful institution that once enjoyed the trappings of power and also boasted would rule the giant of Africa for 60 years. It took six weeks (from March 28th-May 29th 2015) to be able to ascertain its decrepit state.

Before its collapse, the PDP led government could only be compared to the Ottoman empire of the 13th century. (Ottoman state rose to become a world empire in the Middle East that lasted from the 13th century to 1923).

While PDP was a political party that controlled one of the largest economies in Africa for 16 years the Ottoman Empire controlled the economies of the Middle East and South Eastern Europe from the 13th-20th century.

Both governments were conservative and profligate in nature: unwillingness or slowness to accept changes or new ideas.

A great deal of resources that would have been spent on defence, education and public works were used to satisfy the stomachs of our government officials and their retinue of aides while at the Ottoman empire, it was used to satisfy the carnal and bacchanal desires of the Sultanate.

The chickens are back home to roost, I pray they would be able to rise from political infamy and begin the process of building a formidable house that can take over the reigns of power in future. • Joe Onwukeme, unjoeratedjoe@gmail.com)