Last Friday, as I awaited my turn on the Petrol queue in suburban Lagos, I made new friends.
In between Tweeting from my mobile and nibbling on stale ‘gala’ and quaffing ‘La Casera’ in the sweltering temperatures, my new friends and I engaged ourselves in a conversation on Nigeria. Uzor was a clergyman, Tunde was an itinerant salesperson and Funke earned a living as a Banker. As has become the norm when Nigerians meet during a crisis, we took the Government at all levels to the cleaners; analyzing and cussing where applicable. My new friends were firebrands—passionate about their country and debating amidst caustic decibels.
As I posted my Tweets on my ordeal at the Petrol Station to my handful of followers, I asked the inevitable question intermittently: “So, guys, what can we do individually to save Nigeria?”
“E go beta”, said the Clergyman. “Only God can save us because the rot is so deep”, intoned the Banker. “Well, e go beta”, the Salesperson added resignedly, to compound my afternoon.
E go beta. Nothing sums up our woes as a Nation like those three words uttered passively. E go beta brings us to a point where we stop engaging our mental faculties—a dangerous and inert cul-de-sac.
Two months before, I was on a Job related tour around the country. In Nigeria’s oil rich Delta region, our tour-de-guide, a young man in his 30s, dwelt on the subject of our woes as a nation at every stop; at the slightest opportunity. “So what do you think of the Jonathan administration and who did you guys vote for around here?”
“Look, Oga, Nigeria’s problems are beyond Jonathan. We are dealing with a systemic rot here. Goodluck is doing his best and the Northerners are just doing all they can to frustrate and distract him with Boko Haram. Goodluck is trying….E go beta…….”
E go beta.
I hear these words all the time—in traffic, at the eatery, on campuses, at the office and while stocking up on groceries at the mall. I grew up to hear the cliché: ‘E go beta, na poor man prayer’. Some Nigerian artistes even did a duet bearing the sing-along: ‘One Day, e go beta’. The nerve of it!
I cringe whenever I hear those words. E go beta is probably why we are stuck with Politicians who do not know their onions. E go beta could be the reason why we do not ask our Local Government Chairmen or Councilors any questions. E go beta could be the reason why our representatives at the national assembly get away with murder. Our Pastors and Imams indulge us to keep praying and believing, dissuade us from joining the struggle to salvage Nigeria, because ‘One day, e go beta’.
E go beta is a national malaise. E go beta makes me cringe. E go beta is a death knell of some sort—the medical equivalent of a laparotomy leading to a complete cessation of life as we know it.
As we celebrate nationhood today amidst the long and boring speeches that will inevitably follow and the jaded goodwill messages from foreign embassies, the greatest gift we can offer our nation going forward will be to eschew the E go beta syndrome from our psyche.
E go beta has been an ill wind that has blown us no good.
The writer is on Twitter @egbas
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