The baby is due

By 

Uwem Umana

In 1999, Prof. Chinua Achebe delivered a lecture titled "Tomorrow is Pregnant, Today is early enough" and after every pregnancy comes delivery. When is this delivery? For several years gone by, Nigeria had earnestly hoped and wished for a democratic dispensation. Despite all the odds of those years gone by, intimidations and threats by the military, Nigeria persevered through it all developing all kinds of immunity and resilience to survive those horrible years and when finally God granted us our sincere desire of democracy, our joys knew no bounds even though it is not the beginning that matters but the end.

Since this democracy was ushered in, the expectations have been pretty high especially from the masses. The elite have had the impact of this government even though the dividends have not yet gotten to the ordinary man.

The ordinary man still dreams of eating three square meals, the ordinary man still dreams of living in a decent apartment in a decent neighborhood. The ordinary man wishes that electricity would not cease, water would flow through the taps, that good buses would be available for him to jump into. When he is sick, he goes to the hospital and gets treatment at an affordable cost and efficiently too. This is just what the ordinary man wants.

The ordinary man does not want to drive any of these exotic cars He does not want to live in any of these highbrow residential areas. That is not his priority, What he wants is, anywhere he stays let him have access to all the basic amenities of life. Whether in Ajegunle or Ijora or Victoria Island, he wants water, communications, transport, education for his children, electricity, medicare and food. It is on this note that this year is very strategic to the ordinary man.

He has been told that the dividends of democracy do not come overnight but how come the others reap the benefits overnight? This question has been bugging him so very much.

He has been to the church, he has been to the mosque, he has even consulted the ancestral spirits, what is the matter with him as an ordinary man?

Does it mean that the patient dog eats the fattest bone or starves to death?

When will his time come to enjoy the dividends of so called democracy? I hope it would not be in the belly of the earth when the so fragile flesh would be rotting away. Indeed, the pregnancy of expectations is so high, that one moment longer might necessitate songs of guilt by the leaders of the land. The masses are crying for participation in dividends of democracy.

When he stays in his little dingy apartment without electricity and the man in the next main quarters ignites his huge dynamo and sends all the exhaust fumes to the ordinary man, can he be happy? Whereas the big man locks up all his doors and switches on his air conditioners.

When there is no kerosene for the poor man to cook, he starves and undergoes all sort of dehumanisation just to sustain himself. When there is no petrol and the cost jacks up, he is made to pay through his nose by the concurrent hike in fare, still his leaders drive all about in air-conditioned cars and keeps telling him that there is enough petrol in the depot but the problem is with the distribution network.

When will the ordinary man stop receiving tales from the tale-tellers? Tomorrow is pregnant, today is early enough to do all what has to be done.

The anger of the poor man is building up, though he has nothing to be stolen or be afraid of, he is scared of hunger and not thieves, he is scared of disease and not dying as a result of over speeding in a brand new car, he is scared of the big Molue that gets angry occasionally and takes all its occupants to the land beyond.

His expectations keep increasing. The psychological trauma is enough for him. Do not traumatize him further. He is tired of seeing his small boys run up and down in the persistent Lagos hold-ups shouting "buy pure water", he is afraid to return home each day, empty handed. He is even afraid of going to the hospital to see his sick child because he doesn’t have the money to pay his bills. The common man is tired of dodging his landlord day in day out. He is fed up seeing and hearing of money being exposed in the National Assembly as exhibits. He is just fed up hearing of the external reserves of the country shoring up and his situation worsening. He is just too worn out to hear all those promises of this year is going to be better .

Did I hear the ordinary man say he is tired of even being a Nigerian? This is delivery time, let there be a delivery of all the semen of expectations stored in his mind. He wants delivery! Delivery! And delivery! He does not want abortion, he has had enough abortions and miscarriages of expectations.

Indeed, the year of pregnancy is gone and we wish and pray that the government would deliver to the poor man down the road holding on tenaciously to those promises that seem to keep leaking away from the basket.

The writer is an author and commentator on national affairs