Longsuffering. Adjective. 1. Having or showing patience in spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people. 2. Suffering for a long time without complaining; patiently enduring wrongs or difficulties.
Someone has defined longsuffering as “the fusion of patience with power”. That’s pretty powerful, I think, and quite challenging. In our current highly driven, fast-moving, immediate results-oriented world, patience and being longsuffering are not quite your most prized qualities. For instance, there used to be a time when being described as aggressive would not have been taken as a compliment; not anymore. In this our ever-changing, everything-is-possible world, aggressiveness has succeeded in fashioning for itself a new garb. Who has time for being patient or longsuffering and have people clean their feet off you like a mat?
In our personal social interactions we make it clear that we will not stick any nonsense from anybody: not from the fellow commuter in a bus whose oversized luggage is causing us some discomfort; not from the woman in the neighbouring stall who temporarily unloads her heap of yams in front of our display table; not from the okada man who had agreed to carry us for N30 and was now reluctant to give us our N20 change on the pretext that the journey had taken longer than expected because the road was rougher than he had imagined; and most definitely not from the driver of the yellow bus who stops in front of us, right in the middle of the road, to pick up passengers. On these and numerous other occasions our anger quickly flares up and we show our displeasure in no uncertain terms. We Nigerians are not a people to be trampled upon just anyhow; we know how to defend our turf – and we won’t shy away from getting down to fisticuffs, if that is what it takes to ensure that our interests are protected. And it does not matter whether that takes place in Oshodi or the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. We are not a patient, longsuffering people. Period.
Or are we? Ah yes, when it comes to the stance we take vis-a-vis those who have rule and authority over us, you cannot find a more patient, longsuffering people anywhere else upon the face of the globe. We possess almost an endless capacity to keep absorbing just about anything it pleases their Excellencies and Royal Majesties to inflict upon us. In the past couple of weeks I’ve had my share of the fare constantly served us by these highly placed Nigerians.
It is no news anymore that Osun State was completely under siege for the two weeks preceding the governorship elections. Fierce-looking police and military personnel descended upon us like locusts, clad in black, with some of them wearing black hoods, riding around our towns in their open trucks with their guns cocked and aimed at us. A colleague who needed to get to Oshogbo for a conference some days ago spent several hours getting there from Ife that he chose to go through Iwo and Ede on his return journey. When President Goodluck Jonathan visited the state on Saturday, August 2, we were forbidden to open a single shop in Ile-Ife, where I live. Why should a visiting president deny the people their right to go about their businesses normally and earn their living?
I mentioned their Royal Majesties above because I had also experienced what I consider to be nothing but harassment at the hands of the convoy of the Ooni of Ife along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway a couple of weeks ago. For several kilometres the police escort kept waving a baton from the window, signalling that other drivers were prevented from overtaking the five or six-car royal convoy. I wondered, why was that necessary? Why are we constantly treated like we are pests in our own nation? What if, on that one journey, one also came upon the convoy of the Emir of Kano and the Obi of Onitsha, how long would the journey from Lagos to Ibadan take, given the leisurely pace at which vehicles conveying Very Important Personalities sometimes move?
Of course, the significance of the foregoing examples pales considerably when one now considers the various ways in which we are misruled and the price we pay for it: the unnecessary deaths in our hospitals and along our pothole-ridden roads; our days of idleness and nights of darkness because our leaders still cannot – or will not – provide us with electricity; and so on and so forth (one is beginning to sound like a broken record now for having gone over this list of woes far too many times!) And what are we doing about all of this as citizens? Is longsuffering the correct stance to take in the face of such challenges which threaten our very existence?
Of course, certain segments of the society are not as silent over our woes as the foregoing seems to suggest. We must appreciate the efforts of all those who continue to sound the alarm and, at times, put their lives at risk in seeking to call attention to issues which affect Nigerians’ wellbeing adversely. More of us need to get involved, especially those who do not feel the pain of poor governance in our land as bitterly as others. While we bear our private challenges with longsuffering, let us know that the ultimate transformation of our society requires decisive action.
