"Come in close…closer. Because the more you think you see, the easier it would be to fool you…" That's the opening line from a movie I've come to love (Now You See Me). Not just for the tricks and thrills I got from seeing it, but because it serves as a reflection of many things I notice around me. Magic was quite a fascinating idea as a child back then. I cannot say the same for today's children though. My generation witnessed magic in all forms. From the TV screen, to folk tales and even from nature. Words like 'sakura samanja' and 'abracadabra' were not far from our lips. There was also this circus show on NTA. We also experienced the magical appearance of white pigments on our fingernails after waving them vigorously at a flock of birds, and yes there was the tooth fairy. Let's face it, growing up for some of us was truly magical. Wonder where the magic and magicians have gone.
Perhaps we still have the magicians here with us. Only now they don't come dressed in capes and hats, neither do they carry wands or rabbits. They have traded their capes for suits and 'agbadas', their wands and rabbits for pens and staff of office. And with these new age costumes, they perform the greatest magical acts ever seen. The magical disappearance of billions of dollars (even though America will know), the magical disappearance of our daughters and the nonchalance that has followed it. Welcome on stage the greatest magician of all time-the Nigerian Government.
What exactly is magic? How real is it? Is there any truth to it or is it just something we choose to believe in? Magicians over time have come to describe magic in a simple term 'The Art of Misdirection', and our government has perfected this art. One crises on the heels of another, one scandal in the wake of the other; and as such the people are distracted, turned from the very issues that need attention. You would agree with me that the second Nyanya bombing didn't elicit the kind of reaction it should have. Neither did the case of the minister who squandered the nation's resources on jets and trips. They couldn't have. Not when we're looking for 234 or 276 (misleading figures) girls that were abducted weeks ago. Just when we're starting to query one incident, another happens out of the blue. And I dare say, none happens by accident.
I cannot speak of how smart they are, but to think this government is stupid or dumb will be to bury ourselves under the sands of knowledge we claim to have. They may not be as smart, but we all know they have the resources (our resources) to hire the kind of minds that can pull this off. I still imagine how grossly we would have been misdirected had the Wendel Simlin case not been foiled. And one is not even sure of how many of such attempts they've succeeded at. They are not stupid, they are not dumb; they know what they are doing. The mind can only handle so much information, and once you can control what a man thinks, you need not worry about what he'll do. They determine the last thing we hear at night, they choose the first thing we see in the morning. And with so much control over our conscious and sub-concious, they have unlimited power. Fear and despair have become the ultimate tools of this government.
Ever wondered how a line as benign as 'I had no shoes' can determine the result of an election. Here's how. They feed us with way more than we can handle. And when the time is right, they plant their suggestion, the grand scheme, the long con. Everything is calculated, everything is planned. None happens by happenstance. Before this coming elections, someone or a party is going to take the fall for everything. With that they'll determine the outcome of the elections.
If we seek to liberate this nation from the hold of these magicians, we ourselves must become magicians. We must also learn this art of misdirection, we must turn the tables, we must take control of the stage. We must now decide for the government what to focus on, we must start a cause for them to follow, we must now determine their discussions on the floors of the senate. We must turn our gaze from the conspicuous, we are to see beyond the obvious. They think we cannot fight many things at a time, we must show them how wrong they are. We hold our future, it is in our hands. We can no longer afford to be distracted, irrespective of whatever they throw at us. And for this we have been blessed with a potent tool- the Social Media. On it we have the likes of Toyosi Riise Akerele, we have Omojuwa, we have Linda Ikeji and every Nigerian that can type and click away on their device. The stage is set. The time is now. Curtain opens; Lights on, Abracadabra.
@adedamolah on Twitter
The views expressed above are solely that of the author.
