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By Adeola Aderounmu.

I have just finished my first book.  The title of the book is CHRISTMAS IN HELL.

About 100 pages and five chapters plus an appendix, the book is basically a commentary on Nigeria. It includes thought provoking essays some of which have been published by the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper, the Nigerian Champion Newspaper and allafrica.com.

Some of the opinions and commentaries have also appeared on the Nigerian Village Square and the Nigerian muse. Some of them have appeared on my blog and have been refined in a well articulated manuscript.

Chapter one is about the people of Nigeria (not the history of Nigeria).

Chapter two talks about Politics, the Government, the state of Infrastructure and some disturbing ways of life.

Chapter 3 talks briefly about Diaspora and chapter four is just a selection of more articles and commentaries on Nigeria.

Chapter 5 takes a look at the future of Nigeria.

  

The book ends with an appendix which include how the BBC utilised my blog in a story and my commentary on Nigeria which appeared on allafrica.com.

The book wraps up with my concise view on Africa.

May the Glory of Nigeria come, soon!

  By Adeola Aderounmu.

“That census enumerators trek short or long distances to count people is a shame in the 21st century”

 

The National Population Commission (NPC) does not seem to have the final results of the 2006 census yet. So, maybe the eventual figures will tell us that we are more than 140million people.  It seems that policy executors in Nigeria do not know the pace at which the world is advancing every other day. This is the 21st century and it is now possible to count how many people live within a defined geographical region anywhere in the world without much hullabaloo.   

 

To count Nigerians is not a 5-day project. It is not even a 50-day project. Counting in every country should be a routine work revealing how many people live in that country at a particular point in time. It should also involve close monitoring of the number of births or deaths that are recorded daily or periodically.   

 

It is the work of some people to keep track of population flow. The first step is to make an attainment to the technological level when you can click on the computer and enter a database where the appropriate authorities are storing records of registration of all citizens within the country. Similarly, immigration and emigration of persons should be noted. Unless certain individuals have decided to live illegally within a country, we now know that all the people living in that country are registered on a database system.   

 

Taken simply in the Nigerian context, what we need in terms of knowing the population of Nigerians is a long term plan. It is a process that will start gradually, remain focused and eventually reach a stabile. Nigeria needs a system where her citizens are recognized by social security numbers (SSN) or what in other places is known as personal numbers (PN). This number which should be imprinted on our national IDs and passports is a tag that should not be changeable whatever happens! Everything that affects you (good or bad) should always be recorded against this SSN or PN on a computer database.   

 

This SSNs should be with all public institutions under strict conditions of confidentiality and trust regarding the personnel that work in such offices. Some private institutions may have special access too depending on the nature of their assignments. It should not be possible for a person to have double SSNs because fingerprints will go along with them. However, that does not rule out that identities cannot be stolen but if the law catches up with such people, they should face the music directly.  An individual’s SSN should be connected to records at the Hospitals, Tax offices, unemployment offices, Insurance companies, Motor Vehicle Licensing offices, Bank records, Statistics bureau, and so on and so forth.   

 

Where do we start from in Nigeria? The problem in Nigeria is that counting is not done with sincerity of purpose. Politicians meddle with everything that is of National interest for selfish gains and personal reasons. This is the debacle that must be removed. A public institution like the NPC has to be re-engineered to catch up with modern realities.  The way we count ourselves must change.  

 

Nigeria needs to focus on the task of her census with long term considerations. A 5-10 year plan to count all Nigerians coupled with daily observations of changes from the start will be a good approach. This will make good planning possible. We should monitor daily population growth and periodic influx or out-flux. Where you reside in the country should not be a factor, the point is that we should know that you exist and live within a certain region in the country. If you leave the country, it should be possible to detect that. We should also be aware when you return as long as you have taken the legal approaches to do these things. In crime situations, people can beat some of the checks or controls mechanisms but the essence of knowing the estimated number of people will remain. 

 

It is not ideal to count people in Nigeria using a deadline. This will leave room for panic and people will be rushing or running around aimlessly because they want to be counted in their homelands. There is no need to create chaos just because you want to meet a deadline. It is not necessary to count Nigerians in a hurry. It is also not a matter of life and death that a particular administration should be saddled with the task. Knowing the population is not a job for a particular regime, it is the reason that the NPC is in existence. This Commission, in the future and after good planning, should be able to send out population figures at a click!  Nigeria must look into the future; make concrete plans for things that work forever, not temporarily.

 

What about the NPC registering every Nigerian at its local offices, giving out SSN and taking fingerprints? All the local offices should be connected to a central computer network at the headquarters. State of the art technology must be in place to detect multiple fingerprints. Let us look at this scenario, a young man sought asylum in Greece and somehow surfaced in Sweden for the same purpose. He was told that his fingerprint has been previously recorded on the central European asylum seekers machine! This is the stage that the world has reached. A person need to be identified with his name, SSN, address, fingerprints, photograph, occupation, marital status, children (or not) and so on. A change of address should be immediately reported so that the state or local government knows who has moved in or out. People moved for many reasons; to be with family, change of job and so on.  

 

Having a lengthy time to take care of population figures will be more than enough to let people know how population flow is observed and what is expected of everyone concerning their registration on the database. When a child is born for example, the hospital should have the means (either by the computer network) or otherwise to inform the local NPC of a delivery. Obviously, the families of newborns know that they are obliged to get SSNs for their children.  Representatives of the local authorities would only need to see the baby and the information that they have received from the hospital about the sex, weight at birth, date of delivery and so on. The connection between the local authorities or local governments and the NPC should be paramount as the number of people in the locality should correlates with financial/economic implications.  

 

In essence, taking care of population figures or census is not supposed to be a big deal. It should become a way of life. With time, all Nigerians will be registered. The operations of the NPC must be completely computerized with appropriate backups. The number of foreigners living among us should also be noted. They should also have SSNs that can be coded so that once they appear on the system, it becomes obvious that they are foreigners and the exact country they come from appears. The nature of their businesses in Nigeria should also be revealed by the same SSN.   

 

It is unnecessary and a waste of time and resources to count people before, during and after elections. We should be able to click on the NPC database in the next 10 years and say there are maybe 150 million people in Nigeria. We should be able to say things like, 2 000 foreigners live in Ikeja and that 30 000 Nigerians have migrated to Europe in the last 2 years for example. The Nigerian embassies all over the world should have the responsibilities of the NPC in their various locations.

 

One hopes that in 2017, NPC will find it easy to look into its database system and tell us how many we are as Nigerians. One of their statisticians should be able to have a cup of coffee or tea by his side and still make a first click to find out the latest entry on the database network and a second click to give the total number of people that are Nigerians. By then it should be possible to stop counting cows, goats, chickens and sheep as humans. If Nigeria is also truly the heartbeat of Africa, then we need to set the pace not only in population or census aspects but in other areas that affect the quality of our lives.

 

The 2006 census should be the last time we count ourselves using paper and biro. It should also be the last time the government sent people to our homes for the purpose of census. We deserve our privacy! 

 May the glory of Nigeria come, soon! 

By Adeola Aderounmu.

Are you kidding me? I was just 35 years old on July 12 and you have been freaking me out with details of my pension for more than 3 years. Every other month you send me updates on my pension. Please stop bugging me! I am still a very active man and you are weighing me down with how much that I will get paid for the rest of my life if I stop working now. You have calculated how much my daughter or wife will get if I die now. Are you inviting homicide on me?

These insurance and pension companies are joking. Do they not know that I am a Nigerian?   Why are they being so nice to me? Don’t I deserve to be treated like Baba Railuway or Baba P& T or even worse than them? I haven’t worked as much as these old men did in their heydays yet these jobless companies have summed up my life at 65. Where were these companies when Baba P&T worked for 34 years? Baba P&T was left a confused man when Post and Telecommunications (P&T) changed name to become Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST). That didn’t bring any progress to him at all. Has anyone observed the differences between National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)?

I don’t know why Baba P&T retired voluntarily after 34 years in service. That was about 20 years ago. If I ask him that question now, in his old age, I may bring tears to his eyes. He doesn’t deserve any more of that. I can only imagine his pain and anxiety in taking that unusual decision. Just one more year to that golden number “35”. Thirty five years of service is the third stanza of the Nigerian National anthem. Why would a man not want to be retired by the government?

Baba P&T was lucky anyway. He spent his last kobo of his meagre wages on the education of his children. Baba has fondly described one of his sons as highly dependable. But the other children are doing the best they can as well. Everyone of them now has a family too. I am quite sure that this situation, no matter how imperfect, has helped Baba to survive to this day. How many pensioners in Nigeria can go for 20 years after voluntarily retiring from active service to motherland?

I will not be surprised if the problems in Nigeria are worsened by the curses of pensioners, especially those that have died without successfully getting their complete or befitting gratuity and entitlements. How can we redeem ourselves from these kinds of curses?

Post and Telecommunications (P&T) and the Nigerian Railways are two examples of government institutions that really used people and dump them later in life. There are other institutions where men and women gave their time, energy and abilities to keep the nation working. Many of these people gave 35 years of their lives. They stole nothing. They didn’t display disloyalty to the government. They obeyed their superiors.  They are men and women of honour in the service to the nation. They kept fate with the system. The system simply turned around and offered them stones. Many of these men and woman waited in vain for bread. It never came. Some died like lepers.

Isn’t it appalling to carry out endless verification exercise on a man who served his country for 35 years? Isn’t it injustice and betrayal of the highest order to hold back this man’s gratuity and pension? Isn’t it also amazing that the face of public service has changed for the worse? Tell me, who wants to die on a queue waiting for his/her pension? Workers of nowadays (including you and I) do not have the excellent occupational traits that our fathers and mothers displayed.

Stealing and distrust in governance has rapidly permeated every sector of the Nigerian life. What we find nowadays are successful public servants. Even junior officers have discovered how to build houses and marry more than one wife. Since it is useless to depend on the government for affordable mortgage houses or provisions for their future, these men and women found the short cuts. Only a few honest people are left in public and private services in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, the efforts of the evil people have completely overshadowed the diligence of the honest ones among us. The results are staring at us in the face. The failure of governance, the insincerity of the pensions board (does it exist?), the self enrichment of the politicians and the melancholy tales of our pensioners (like Baba P&T) are parts of the reasons people have taken desperate measures to salvage their future. It is a sad situation.

It will take more than a miracle to wipe corruption away from government, places of public services and private enterprises. It will be a collective effort on the parts of all and sundry. It is not a job for the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) only. It is something we must all work for and try to achieve. It will take time but it is not an impossible task.

May the Glory of Nigeria come, soon!

By Adeola Aderounmu.

No doubts, to battle corruption in Nigeria will be a huge task but not an impossible one. Kudos to the EFCC for even doing something at all. Something is better than nothing. Better late than never!

So, the current investigation and prosecution of some politicians who have contributed to our woes is a welcome development. This is something that should have started many years ago. That is, to prosecute all these thieves who call themselves leaders and politicians. Yeye people, agbayas!

However, we must await the verdicts of the courts in all the cases.

Left to me sha o, it is not enough to prosecute them or put them in jail. Another important thing is that they should give us back all the money that they have stolen or kept away in the banks in Nigeria and overseas. They must pay back to the last kobo. Stupid thieves, ole!

The other aspect is that, the people/governors been prosecuted right now are not even the first group of thieves in Nigeria. There are thousands of people who stole from us before these current bunches of thieves that we are now chasing and parading.

A lot of supporters to these thieves will see this case as purely vendetta.  For example, they will complain that it is because of crazy issues like; anti-third term agenda, worst election in history, election tribunal stuffs, personal ego boost, contract award within the presidency, sales of our refinery at a giveaway price and other yeye stories. There will be a lot of suggestions in the days ahead regarding those who are been prosecuted and why they are been selected for punishments.

No matter the suggestions, believe me, almost all Nigerian Politicians are thieves! My own wahala with this whole thing is that I don’t understand why some people cannot be prosecuted especially those who stole so much that they are probably richer than Nigeria herself. It is an open secret that some people in Nigeria are far richer than some countries in Africa and Europe.

For example, why haven’t we been able to prosecute the likes of Babangida? There is no statement of account yet for the more than 10 billion US dollars that Nigeria earned during the gulf war! But here we are chasing Kalu and Turaki. Why is Babangida untouchable? Is Nuhu Ribadu, along with his men, a coward?

All the deals that Obasanjo made in the last 2 weeks of his criminalized administration are questionable.  He is the greatest thief in the last 10 years. He stole more money than all these ants been paraded by EFCC. Somebody is not saying the truth! Is EFCC for chasing a few people? Of course, Obasanjo made Ribadu, so there is no way Ribadu and his men are going to unmake Obasanjo. This remains their ultimate task and challenge. We the masses are waiting. Babangida once dared Ribadu to prosecute him. He mentioned something like “he would tell Ribadu how he became EFCC chairman”. What is that secret between Ribadu and IBB that only Babangida knows? Who is fooling who?

Anenih-Transport ministry, Buhari-PTF, Atiku-PTDF, Obasanjo-Refineries and Transcorp and so on. These are the real thieves in Nigeria. The list is very long. One serving governor (Gbenga Daniels) is declaring more than 4 billion naira asset! Is that not madness? How did he get all these monies? It is not enough to declare assets in Nigeria; it should be stated how they got all these stolen wealth, line by line. I wonder if there is a state of the art hospital in Ogun state where one chicken is declaring 4 billion naira asset! Even the IPP is also from Ogun state! The other day it was common flood that inhibited his movement to Lagos. Shame!

I don’t know how the EFCC can possibly catch a big crazy fish by holding its tail. Why not hold the head, and firmly too. If you hold the head, believe me, the whole body of the fish will be under your control. A wise man seizes the fish by its head! This is how to fight corruption in Nigeria. Start from the top and be not afraid of anyone! Nigerians will line up behind you.

We want our money back, I have always insisted on this. We want to build this country for posterity; for our children and our children’s children. This shameless generation that we have known all our life time have rubbed their wastage on us.

Give us our money, all ye thieves who have been in the State Houses, Dodan Barrack and Aso rock. There should be no sacred cows in the Nigeria polity. Everyone is touchable. Believe me, nothing dey happen! As long as the right organs of governance are utilised. Bring them forward, one by one, let everyone come forward and defend their wealth. Ole!

There is nothing like: it is too late or let’s move the nation forward. These are expressions that have been used to drag the country backward. Now we are in the Stone Age (in the name of moving the nation forward). So much for forward! Common election, we cannot conduct with credibility! Census figures are still been doctored after how many years. What can we do right in Nigeria?

Let us stand well well wherever we are and make this fight and campaign against corruption a total one, once and for all. Anything short of a total eradication of corruption is worthless.

If all the 36 governors are guilty, bring them forward. Let them defend themselves. If Babangida is not willing to defend his wealth, why not prosecute him? If Obasanjo prefers to use the presidential jet for aiding money laundering, why should he be above the law? I heard he bought a new jet now. Wonders of corruption shall never end!

Double standards will ruin us the more. Corruption and greed is the root cause of our woes in Nigeria. It is the reason the value of a naira is worth less than a 15cm sheet of toilet roll.

If we stamp out corruption in the most sincere way, the Glory of Nigeria will come, now!

May the glory of Nigeria come, soon!

Adeola Aderounmu.  

The extent that these betrayals have ruined Nigeria is difficult to fathom. This is because of the complications that the boys from the North brought into the matter. To the boys from the North, power is theirs and this cannot be compromised. They have undersigned this pact with the blood of their patriarchs and the colonialists. They will go to the ends of the world to retain this power. They will achieve it subtly or by force. The wolves and doves among them cannot be seen as birds of the same feather but they execute the same agenda.

Femi had a clear goal of what he wanted in life. He had never hidden his intentions and his abilities as a leader are not in doubts. He is versed in books and practical knowledge. It was not a surprise that he lent his voice to the independence of Nigeria. He was very distinguished as a regional leader. He was convinced that he could lead the country if given the chance. He never got the chance.

One of the main reasons that Femi never got the chance was because of two boys who had graduated from the Baptist High School. These boys are Moshoodi and Aremu. Aremu was a year or two ahead of Moshoodi in the school those days in the 1930s.

By a stroke of fate in 1978, Aremu was leading the country but he was not a wanted fellow. He was an army officer, barely learned. His education is not a barrier anyway as the system has highly tolerated illiterates around the realms of power. This once prosperous Nation has recently nosedived economically and it was heading for the abyss.  There are many reasons for this and interestingly the people are looking for a messiah.

I was too young to know what has transpired between Aremu, Moshoodi and Femi as they were growing up. The 3 of them incidentally are from Ogun state in Western Nigeria. How hard can it be for people who speak the same language to understand one another?

Moshood and Aremu worked against Femi and ensured that the boys from the North cheated in the 1979 elections. The boys from the North came back to power: something they have always cherished as their birthrights. The Eastern boys are not close. Their own palaver is a different story entirely especially after they fought a war to leave Nigeria. There is an unwritten pact that they will never get the chance to lead Nigeria. This has worked so far, at least since the 1970s.

Femi was bitter but he went on with his life. His involvement in Politics was a huge blessing to the people from the West. I am sure I went to elementary school and secondary school almost free because of his policies regarding education. One of my friends told me that Femi’s family gets 1 kobo for every bottle of coca cola that is sold in Nigeria. How do people come about this kind of story? Riliwan told me many things that inspired him into Politics but he has not been successful. If he goes about with this kind of stories, he may need another profession soon.

Femi died an honourable man several years later. It doesn’t matter the shortcomings that he had. His name is forever written in Gold. He was betrayed by the Baptist Boys. After his death, a University was named after him. One of his daughters became an ambassador and the other children didn’t achieve much in Politics.

Moshoodi and Aremu carried on with their lives. Moshoodi benefitted a lot from the fraudulent government and he was very sure that the boys from the north would break their codes for him: they will let him be president too. This expectation never came to past and Moshoodi was bitter: he must have had the same feelings Femi felt 4 years earlier. For the first time in his life, Moshoodi realized that there are certain things money cannot buy. One of them is happiness and another is satisfaction.

Aremu tendered his chickens and pigs in a farm. He showed a little response to Politics. No one knows if this farm was built originally for him or for Nigeria. OFN can mean many things to many people. Nigerians never knew how Operations Feed the Nation disappeared into thin air. He tried hard to be a statesman, yet this was something that came to Femi naturally. Femi didn’t have to try.

By 1993, it had been some years since Femi died. Moshoodi was still successful with business (anyhow that came) and his participation in Politics is now fully fledged. Unfortunately, he still had to contend with the boys from the North if he must become a president. These boys have now changed uniform; they are now back to the days of barracks ruling. They must keep this birthright at all cost.  

Moshoodi won the hearts of Nigerians and won a landslide victory at the presidential polls. But he NEVER became the president. He died in jail while his mandate stared at him in the face. As a matter of basic principles of life, this was injustice of the highest order. Many things however plagued his longings for his mandate. One was the repercussion of working against Femi about 15 years earlier. Another important thing that stood in the way of his mandate was the clear betrayal of another Baptist boy.

Aremu declared to the world that Moshoodi was not the messiah that Nigeria longed for. With that, Moshoodi’s coffin was nailed forever. He died in jail under questionable circumstances. Some people believe that Moshoodi was killed by the Americans. A cup of tea was the undoing of this great millionaire, a Baptist boy.

Since the death of this Baptist boy, aided by the betrayal of a fellow Baptist boy, Nigeria stood at a crossroad, making no real progress. Interestingly, Aremu is still alive. He could have died in jail too when Sani (another boy from the North or outside Nigeria) put him in jail.  Nigerians raised their voices to the whole world and to the high Heavens. The hand of fate rescued Aremu.

Another superficial hand of fate ensured that Aremu ruled Nigeria for the second time after returning as a convict. The final betrayal of this Baptist boy came when he pushed more than 70% of Nigerians below the poverty line while pursuing economic reforms that were basically abstract to the lame man. Aremu fought corruption with his lips while one of his boys from the East regularly uses the presidential jet to fly women and dollars out of the country. One of the boys from the North predicted that Nigerians will eat from the dustbin. In a few years, millions of Nigerians cannot even eat from the dustbin, there is nothing to scrap.

Today, a boy from the North enjoys the outcome of the ULTIMATE betrayal in the history of mankind. Aremu, singlehandedly worked against 150 million Nigerians and used a boy from the East to install a boy from the North. It is not clear when the boys from the East will wake up to see the how they are used and dumped.  

The betrayals of the Baptist boys cannot be easily understood. It is more complex than a labyrinth. The Historians in Nigeria have their hands full. Posterity awaits their contributions.

  May the glory of Nigeria come, soon!