Thread by @chukaobi

Short Thread:
My “Independence Day Message”.

So last week, as I prepped for a long flight home, a pleasant elderly gentleman indicated that he had the seat next to me. We got talking.
“So what do you do?”
“I work in advertising. And you sir?”
“I’m a pensioner”
.....

I could see the quiet, almost mischievous smile as he said this. So I ask, “and before you were a pensioner, what where you?”
“I was a few things, including the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Of Nations.”
“Ah. So I’m seated with Dr. Emeka Anyaoku?”
“You are.”

What followed was many things...an education, an interview, a window into the maelstrom called Nigeria.

Dr. Anyaoku is 85yrs old, but he moves like he’s not a day older than 70. He has 32 Honorary Doctorates, from the best schools in the world.

His Memoirs are a must have. The Queen of England takes his recommendations. He flew into Uli at midnight during the Biafran War to entreat with Ojukwu peace terms (Ojukwu didn’t like them, but agreed to them with a few changes. It didn’t matter because Gowon rejected them all).

He got all 12 presidential aspirants in 2015 to sign an accord that they would accept the results of the elections & would be held responsible if any of their supporters incite violence.
He rejected the House of Commons (an honor that rarely ever goes to foreigners) to come home.

He only flies with a Nigerian Passport.
The “pensioner” was on his way back from a peace restoring mission in Zimbabwe, following the violence that trailed the elections.

Today is Nigeria’s Independence Day. I can’t celebrate it...because there’s nothing to celebrate. We’re worse off than we were before this present administration, maybe worse off than we’ve ever been since the war.
Plateau and many parts of the country are in turmoil as we speak.

Members of the ruling party are eating themselves alive just to win primaries- imagine what they would do to non-party opposition when it’s time for the real thing. The arms of government that are supposed to be independent are openly taking sides. Some even wearing PMB2019 Pins!

I can’t celebrate Nigeria.
But I can celebrate Nigerians.
I can celebrate Dr. Emeka Anyaoku.

End of Thread
#IndependenceDay

Side notes:
i) Dr Emeka says this political clime is worse than 2015. I asked who he thinks among the aspirants can actually birth the Nigeria that heads in the direction we all want; after thinking for about 30seconds he said & I quote:
“We’d be lucky to have Kingsley Moghalu.

ii) He refuses to stop believing in Nigeria. In 2015 he actually was convinced like Soyinka that Buhari had changed.
He told me 2 stories (one happened in 1984 & the other in 2016) that actually made me have some new respect for Buhari.
I still think he’s a total failure though.

iii) I cant recount half what we talked about; from the mundane to the dire.
His sense of humor? A1.
Lastly, he has a saying that stuck with me:
“It’s up to you guys now. I’m done- I’m at ‘The Departure Lounge’. All I can do is pray that my flight continues to be delayed.”

Amen.