Looking at our political landscape in Nigeria, we have been shaped through a lot of factors; one can hardly make assertions without finding a prototype as we are faced with these prototypes in our daily political tussle.
We’ve had stories through the lens of subjective experiences, we have read stories from personalized experiences about what transpired earlier in our dear country Nigeria; what is more significant about these stories is the receivers readiness to develop further on these stories by picking up like terms.
Nigeria’s democracy is a very young democracy; it has been more like a flower about to be nurtured by the owner of the flower. Whenever the owner of the flower nurtures it well, it comes out neat and well-shaped but if the owner nurtures it badly, it comes out with nothing except its dry stock.
Every regime in Nigeria has obvious reasons by its owners about how and why it came on board; these reasons are basically subjective to the leaders of such times.
Hysteria: this depicts extreme fears, anxieties. These anxieties come in as each regime steps on or an old regime is about to be faced out.
Euphoria speaks of heightened excitement we derive from our daily activities.
While amnesia is a cognitive disorder related to issues of forgetfulness either via a sort of impairment of through man made factors.
To buttress further on these points, I would like to speak about what I seem to be much conversant with. I remember sometime in 1998 when our late Head of State General Sani Abacha was in power, I used to hear my parents complain about many things especially the state of the nation. I was just a child in primary school but I could read meanings to many of their actions. Then death took him away and Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar came on board but his regime was short paving way for functional democracy to be in place via the 1999 elections. I was still a child then but I could read what the atmosphere was producing. Moments of EUPHORIA came in when President Obasanjo was announced winner of the then election and Nigerians felt as thou their moments of HYSTERIA are over. Nigeria went into this functional democracy with high euphoria and this continued till when he was returned back to power in 2003. At this point in time, I was more engaged in reading things about Nigeria as I was still a child but a secondary school student. Before 2007 would approach, Nigerians have taken another direction in their mood, the EUPHORIA has turned into HYSTERIA as towards the end of his reign, a lot of things came up and so many actors were jostling for power. Then President Yar’adua ( of blessed memory) came into power and the anxiety dosed off giving way for EUPHORIA, then AMNESIA came in as well as the pains from the military years of despotism were forgotten, the pains and anxieties of the Obasanjo’s era were all forgotten. This same scenario came into play when President Jonathan took over power in 2010, and 2011 via elections. The EUPHORIA was high but as his regime went on, HYSTERIA sets in; everywhere was tensed, leading to his loss of elections in the 2015 pools. With the announcement of President Buhari in 2015 general elections as president, a couple of things dosed off. Prior to the election, everywhere was tensed and the HYSTERIA was high, but after the announcements, all went down and his regime was welcomed. Today, from EUPHORIA, many Nigerians have begun to have mixed feelings about the regime. One thing is paramount here, that as one regime goes out, Nigerians get to forget (AMNESIA) the previous regime and the pains it has cost and focus on the current and before the current gets elapses, Nigerians get anxious seeking for a new wave.
Hysteria, Euphoria, Amnesia are basic components of our political culture. Actors who did more harm than good to the people zoom out and zoom in after some years to receive accolades and support simply because we have forgotten.
A long walk to freedom………………………………….
When we speak of freedom here we are to speak of a lot of things but then this has to be narrowed. Are we free of knowledge? Are we free to press demands? Are we free to use information at our disposal to make informed decisions? Are we free enough to project a good state of well-being? Are we free enough to speak of our level of progress as a nation?
Where are the Nyereres? Julius Nyerere has written his name on the side of history just to liberate Tanzanians, and this set the precedence. I heard that he rode on a bicycle the day he left office and his life was typical to that of the common man
Where are the Kenneth Kaundas? This same former president of Zambia was said to have left office with just five thousand dollars in his account after ruling a country for 24 years; he has written his name on the side of history
Where are the Thomas Sankaras? He was said to have lived his life in tandem with the life of the common man in Burkina Faso.
Where are the Maitama’s (of blesseth memory)?
These basic questions need to be answered individually and collectively as a people. If our leaders would keep getting it wrong while we keep elevating them then we are yet to know what freedom implies. Our people have learned the culture of silence over time and this silence has yielded no results. Agitations for good will come with its own kind of sacrifices. We are not ready to sacrifice that’s why we make forgetting our priority. Mandela, took this noble journey and today South Africa and the world remembers him, Lithuli, Nyerere, Kaunda, etc took this path and their people remember them in a way.
Periodically we are faced with the puzzle of electing new leaders in a very tense and keenly contested atmosphere. We employ methods of substitution whenever a new leader comes on board while we remain tight to our mood forms of agitations. We hardly compare history to the present, and hardly do we use the present to make predictions because of our amnesia. We have resigned to faith when liberation does not go this way, we have learned to be helpless and be as harmless as anything.
Our roads are not good enough yet we keep voting this same leader who didn’t care to make our roads motor able because we have forgotten, our schools and hospitals are dilapidated yet we keep voting this same leader that deprived us from all these because we have forgotten (AMNESIA).
When we are able to balance the gap between illiteracy, unemployment, and inequality, then we can be able make a head way; When we are able to manage to live in peace with one another then we have taken a step; When our minds become so engrossed with project fix Nigeria then the smell of freedom is soon to come.
Freedom demands our ability to use the knowledge before us to demand for questions and have answers, thus, making informed decisions that liberates us.
I hereby rest my case that we need to retrace our steps or we will keep living in bondage.
HYSTERIA, EUPHORIA, AMNESIA: A LONG WALK TO FREEDOM II .

EVANS BINAN DAMI
Clinical psychologist/ writer/researcher/ social activist
[email protected]
blog: evansbinan.blogspot.com
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Hysteria, Euphoria, Amnesia: Long Walk To Freedom II – A Sequel To Matthew Kukah’s – Amb. Evans Binan