Madness, mischiefs and power games
By
The Haus der Gerschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the most significant landmarks of Bonn, former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany. Literally translated, its name in English means House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany. And that is exactly what it is -a massive collection of theme and period artefacts in magnificent halls that house some the most striking and sobering images from Germany’s contemporary history. There you find an original of Adolf Hitler’s signature from the Reichstag(Parliament) on that fateful day in 1933 when his Nazi party, intimidated all other power blocs into acquiescing in the subversion of Germany’s fragile democracy. There you also find flashbacks to the brutalities of Kristalnacht, the violent night in 1934 when Nazi thugs led frenzied gangs to destroy Jewish shops across Germany, effectively signaling the beginning of Hitler’s massacre of six million Jews. And there you also find vivid and horrifying images of the Holocaust as advancing Allied troops liberated the concentration camps to reveal unspeakable evidence of man’s inhumanity to man.
There you can watch the televised address of late US President John F. Kennedy delivered at the height of the Cold War in 1961 when in a memorable show of solidarity with the people of Berlin, whose city was then under siege as the infamous Berlin wall was built, he declared: "Ich bin einBerlaener" (I am a Berliner). And there you will find huge slabs from that same wall, torn down by surging crowds and festooned in graffiti as the Communist regime that built it collapsed in 1989. Then there are happy images portraying the Wirtschaftwunder (Germany’s post-War economic miracle) and its author, Ludwig Erhard, second Chancellor of the Republic. In all a tour of the museum provides a riveting if haunting excursion into contemporary German history, economy, society and politics. But as a visiting Nigerian, confronted with rather depressing news of fresh outbreaks of violence back home, what I found most remarkable about the Hausder Gerschichte was a simple yet powerful message scribbled near the approach to the exit. As we made our way out of the museum last Sunday at the end of a marathon tour, I had the guide interpret the inscriptions from the message written in German to me. Here’s what the lines say: Your Christ, a Jew. Your religion, an import. Your car, a Japanese .Your coffee, a Brazilian. Your democracy, a Greek. Your pizza, an Italian. Your numerals, Arabic. Your script, Latin. And your neighbour? Still just a stranger? These few lines obviously speak volumes about Germany’s continuing debate with itself and the world around it, especially in the context of the country’s Nazi past and its resurgent xenophobia.
But the words also carry a thought-provoking message for all nations, especially those lands where the genuinely mad, the plainly ignorant, and the power-obsessed mischief-maker foster the demonization of others to rationalize wanton destruction and the casual taking of lives. The obvious intent of placing the message near the exit is to provide further food for thought to anyone who after the tour of the museum’s fare of barbaric images from modern German history still finds it in himself to harbour hatred of his fellow man. Germany is one country that should know the horrifying consequences of the kind of murderous hate that opportunistic politicking, rabid fundamentalism and extreme nationalism can breed. Nigeria should too. But it does appear that either our memories are too short about these things or that the mischief-makers among us have a longer staying power than the rest of us, as the on-going events in parts of the Middle Belt and now Kano sadly show. And there perhaps the utility of the museum message expires. Its purpose is to educate the daft, not eliminate the dastardly.
I do not think that all the blood-letting that Nigeria has suffered in the past couple of months can be traced solely to the ignorance of zealots who misread their holy books or the madness of chauvinists who misinterpret their history books. The fundamentalists may be ignorant and tribal warriors may be mad, but their sponsors usually act out of mischief. And there usually are sponsors. At the root of their resilience is the fact that no one has yet summoned the courage to put a stop to their deadly finagling. So they can be forgiven if they continue to think they can do anything and get away with it, including putting the country permanently on the boil to service personal and political ends. Politics really does have a lot to do with all these fire raising and killings. People are preparing for elections, we are told, and in their scheme of things the best way to contest elections is to make elections impossible. Again I say that it is not their fault. There are too many people who should be in jail who are not there.
If people who should by now be in jail had actually been behind bars, the sheer effort of struggling for their freedom and, possibly, their lives would have instructed a more profitable use of their energies away from their present mischief making. The troublers of Nigeria really are people who should be in jail but are still roaming free. The democratic regime of General Obasanjo has a choice to make: It can meet these people on their own terms and put them where they truly belong or it can wait for them to continue gaining in strength and brazenness until they feel confident enough to push the regime aside and take the country back to the brink they took it to just a few years back. For how long can this regime keep postponing the inevitable encounter with power-seeking criminals? And how many items can a government safely file away in the KIV (Keep-in-View) column? Not that the signs did not come early enough.
When the Sagamu riots and the Kaduna killings took place in the early days of this dispensation, people argued that the regime needed time to settle down to consolidate power before taking on the mischief-makers. How long is that going to take? And who knows where the fire will come from next, if not from within? Now, supposed ethnic warriors have started killing soldiers, claiming 19casualties in the Benue-Taraba theatre. This could undermine both troop morale and soldiers’ confidence in the democratic order. In contemplating such gory incidents, one recalls the haunting words of CNN’s Jeff Koinage last week that Nigeria’s young democracy could soon become one of fundamentalism’s casualties. How soon really is for this government to determine.
December 2001