Quick one on “We told you so”

There is a major argument on Twitter Nigeria and my brother, Ose Anenih weighed in on it today. Earlier, Amara Nwankpa and Victor Asemota gave their takes.

To be honest, I’m not quite sure if I agree with those who say that the “I told you so” gang should let it go. Given the suffering in Nigeria, people need to be reminded of their hubris from six years ago. This is me speaking as someone who also made the wrong choice back then.

I’ve reflected on it a whole lot.

I don’t entirely subscribe to the ethnic agenda part of the conversation (Benue and Plateau are my examples as I’ve said before) although I’ll admit that there was a bit of it involved especially from the older guys in the mix. What I do think is that a group of cynical bigots found many who were frustrated with what we saw as things going wrong in our country and managed to cloak their insidious message in a garb of hope called “change”, and in the process turned us into useful idiots.

Truthfully though, there was a mixture of hubris, the belief that we were the cool kids, urbane and classy thinkers, while those on the other side were provincials.

Some of us saw through it soon after the election was over and began to scream, others took their time, but by the end of 2015, and especially after the massacre at Zaria, it was already clear the direction in which things were headed. For me, it is hard to absolve anyone who was still stanning for this govt by the end of 2016, not to talk of those who willfully voted for it in 2019.

So the constant reminders serve a purpose. If anything, let’s remember how silly we were, and the bitter truth that we can look at the facts and still make the wrong choice.