Top 10 moments that made us hide our faces in shame this year

by Wilfred Okiche

 

These were the shameful moments of 2014.

Some were pathetic, some were sickening, some were tragic. Mostly they made us cringe inwardly and hide our faces in shame. Is this the price of being Nigerians we wondered?

10) That time #BringBackOurGirls protesters were attacked in Abuja

While the federal government failed to act decisively early on, locating 276 school girls abducted from a federal government college in Chibok, Borno state, it took the protests of an unrelenting group of concerned citizens led by the formidable duo of Obiagaeli Ezekwesili and Hadiza Bala Usman to keep the girls on the front burner and a lukewarm government on its toes. These protests were doing us a huge service. Which is why it was with shame and utter dismay that we watched clips of paid stooges attempt to disrupt the protests by attacking peaceful protesters and damaging property. It is still hard to believe these people are Nigerians.

9) That time Aminu Ogwuche practically walked free

This year, Nigerians received the most shocking of news when Aminu Ogwuche, the suspected terrorist accused of masterminding the April deadly bomb blasts in a car park in Nyanya. This was doubly so as local authorities made a big show of succeeding in getting Ogwuche extradited from Sudan only for the DSS and Police Force legal teams to conspire to let him walk as a result of the sheer volume of ineptitude displayed. Ogwuche has since turned around to sue the federal government for his ordeal.

8) That time GEJ had another media chat

Mr President alone, can fill up a good portion of this list but in order to spread the love round, we shall restrict his cringe worthy moments to every time he conducts a media chat. We understand the importance of those chats in helping us get a feel of our C-in-C but when they become the conduit for his avoidable gaffes and sound bites, then perhaps, he needs to rearrange his media team. Or better still he needs to show us once and for all that he has a firm grasp on the expectations of his office.

7) That time Abacha was awarded a centenary award

At a time national morale was low, government took it upon itself to embark on a splashy, ostentatious celebration of our centenary. Worse still, national honours were awarded to every military dictator that had the good fortune to plunder their own share of the national treasury. Exactly what message was being passed by such an unpopular decision- apart from an open endorsement of corruption- remains to be seen.

6) That time the anti-gay bill was signed into law.

Like a thief in the night, the presidency nodded assent to a bubbling surface of homophobia by signing a dangerous and poorly conceived anti-gay bill into law. The law which criminalizes same sex unions and gatherings not only violates so many human rights, it places the country’s already wobbly HIV/AIDS response 100 steps back and puts us on the wrong side of history.

5) That time the offensive #BringBackGoodluckJonathan posters were put up

With general elections scheduled to hold early 2015, it is only par for the course that the politicians and lobbyists would come to battle with guns blazing to make sure their choice of candidates are elected. The #BringBackGoodluckJonathan posters that blighted prominent city landmarks in the capital was one sick joke taken too far. It was decent that Mr President ordered the immediate removal of the offending banners but the fact that they happened at all is just sickening.

4) That time the Nigerian Army “tactically manoeuvred” to Cameroon

Time was when the Nigerian Army was the giant of Africa, setting examples for other African nations. These days however, unravelled by years of neglect and demystified by a seemingly superior Boko Haram insurgency, our troops are a mess. In August, about 500 of them fled from heavy fighting in the North East to Cameroon where they were promptly stripped of all their weapons and given refuge. The top brass called it a simple “tactical manoeuvre” but that didn’t make the shame any easier to bear.

3) That time Jonathan went dancing in Kano                                                                  

President Jonathan took the limits of indecency to new depths when he went dancing at a PDP rally in Kano state while welcoming Minister of Education, Ibrahim Shekarau back to the fold barely 24 hours after terrorists bombed a car park in Nyanya, an Abuja suburb, killing about 75 people and injuring hundreds more. The images were crispy clear and his message intent. No spin doctor in the world can explain this macabre dance. To think that Mr President is a grown man in full possession of his faculties.

2) That time members of the House of Representatives were filmed jumping the fence

The first House of Representatives seating since speaker Aminu Tambuwal’s defection from the ruling PDP to the opposition APC was always going to be rowdy one. But no one could have envisaged the mega drama that ensued at the House of Representatives when police men stormed the gates of the NASS complex and prevented the pro-Tambuwal legislators from getting into the building. To the utter dismay of everyone watching, the honourable members began to jump the fence and promptly smuggled the embattled speaker in.

  • That time Patience Jonathan screamed “There is God oh!”

It was the video that launched a million YouTube hits. The first Lady, Patience Jonathan’s private shame was exposed to the whole world when she attempted to do some damage control of her own after her husband’s administration failed to respond swiftly to the tragedy of 276 school girls kidnapped from their secondary school in Chibok. Rife with bad grammar, fake tears, shoddy acting and lacking any real empathy, Mrs Jonathan’s viral train wreck of a performance was both comic and tragic.

The writer tweets from @drwill20

 

 

 

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