Abuja

The Curse of the Oil, Cost of Kerosene, Absence of Electricity and Greediness of Nigerian Rulers

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

Oil remains a curse to Nigeria, there are no doubts about that.

Norway has oil and is rated as one of the most developed countries in the world. Norway is a prosperous country. How did Norway and some other countries succeed with oil while Nigeria failed woefully? Before the unrest in Libya, Libyans were living a fairly good life!

On paper, Nigeria is a prosperous country but in reality the masses are suffering despite the oil wealth of Nigeria.

Nigerians including the poor masses living in the Niger Delta where Dr. Jonathan was born are rated among the poorest people in the world.

Northern Nigerians, especially the women are rated among the least educated people in the world.

What a tragedy!

Why is a blessed country like Nigeria home to some of the poorest people in the world?

This is because of poor management, bad rulership, and outright looting of the Nigerian treasury by greedy men and women who have pretended to be serving the country since 1960.

There is an ongoing trial in Nigeria where the immediate past speaker looted billions of naira.

Imagine what will happen to the European economy as a whole if 1 billion dollars is unaccounted for?

Has anyone imagine what will become of Greece or Spain if 1 billion dollars suddenly grew legs?

Even Sweden will suffer as a country if 1 billion dollars suddenly disappeared.

But in Nigeria, several trillion of dollars have disappeared since 1960 and the thieves and looters are free people, mostly.

Some have died and their children have inherited the stolen monies.

Then we complain that our economy is bad, that our living conditions are terrible and about all the anomalies that we put up with.

If all the looters living in Nigeria can return the monies that they have looted, Nigeria will pay off her debts in a matter of seconds and there will be plenty of money to resuscitate the rotten infrastructure and to build new ones.

There will be free education and possibilities to provide basic needs of life like food, water and electricity.
Nigeria does not deserve a debt pardon, aids or grants.

Nothing close to those is among our needs.

What we need is to join hands, surround all the looters and force them to cough out stolen loots.

Then we should start serving out serious consequences to those who are still looting or that will be looting in the future.

When all these have been done, we must not forget to re-diversify our economy. We must go back to agriculture. The groundnuts from the north and the cocoa from the west can feed the world again.

We have pretended to be working on our natural deposits but we have deceived ourselves for too long in that aspect.
We should seek genuine efforts to do real work and sustain and spread the prosperity of Nigeria.

THE COST OF KEROSENE

Assuming that all is well with Nigeria, we should have moved away from using kerosene as the source of cooking in our kitchens.

There are over 90m Nigerians living in poverty, so kerosene remains the number one source of energy for cooking. In reality this is still a dangerous way to cook food as explosions are common due to counterfeit kerosene products and poor kitchen habits relating to safety and precautions.

If all was well in Nigeria, a product like kerosene should be provided free of charge for families that still prefer this out-dated method of cooking using of kerosene stove.

But instead a keg of kerosene, usually about 4 liters went up to about N1 500 in the scarcity that we have seen in recent days.

In the absence of scarcity this product cost about N500. That is a lot of money for poor people.

ABSENCE OF ELECTRICITY

I have written several times about the sad state of electricity in Nigeria. Electricity supplies in several places are close to zero percent!

Businesses are grinding to a permanent halt in many places because of the lack of electricity.

In the computer village in Lagos, it has become so bad that small scale businessmen and women are on generators 24-7.

Do they have a choice?

These people are crying inside. They are tired, worn out and living with hope of a better day.

WHAT NOW?

The choices of good men in Nigeria are too limited. It’s as if politics especially at the top has been forever left to men of questionable characters, ex-rogues and gangsters.

Nigerians really hoped on Goodluck Jonathan but some of us did not. I respect the right of Jonathan concerning his aspirations but it is sad that Nigerians did not see that Jonathan is a PDP representative and that the PDP has no good plans for Nigeria.

The evidence since 1999 are there for all of us to see but Nigerians decided to differentiate Jonathan from the PDP.

The consequences are here with us.

The counter arguments are going to be rife. Nigerians will forget that the morning shows the day and that the hopes that they have in Jonathan are the same that they had in Obasanjo in 1999. Today, 12 years into the reign of the PDP, the standard of living has dropped sharply, and the percentage of unemployed Nigerians have increased. More people have dropped below the poverty level. Only a very negligible percentage of Nigerians have joined the (rich) middle class.

There is no hate over our arguments, time will tell. But I can add that 4 years from now the arguments will take known dimensions-a man cannot fix Nigeria in 4 years!

Nigerians will come to realize someday that with a PDP government and the current Nigerian mentality of service provision and lack of true patriotism, we may end up even worse in 2015.

Only time will tell.

In the meantime, there are reasons to step up anticorruption activities. There are urgent needs to invoke national debates on the way forward or backward for the various segments or nations within Nigeria. There is a need to discuss true federalism and what each region wants to contribute or take away from the national treasury.

The present structure is suicidal. There is a serious need to discuss wealth creation and distribution. With the threats of secession, growing terrorism, civil unrest and religious intolerance there has never been greater need than now to discuss about the entity called Nigeria.

Delay is dangerous!

June 12 1993

/ Adeola / 6 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

I have written about June 12 1993 or I have mentioned it in several essays before.

It is very important that we keep writing about it so that the story does not get distorted.

It’s been 18 years since Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida destroyed the hopes and dreams of a better Nigeria.

Nigeria and Nigerians lost the opportunity of being led by MKO Abiola.

It is sad because no one knows if Nigeria would have become a better place today or even one of the greatest countries on earth. We will never know what we missed or did not miss by the presidential mandate that was stolen in broad day light.

What happened on June 12 1993?

On June 12 1993, millions of Nigerians voted in the best election ever conducted in the history of Nigeria.

The elections itself had been planned along two party system. Social Democratic Party’s candidate was Chief MKO Abiola while Alhaji Bashir Tofa was the candidate of the National Republical Convention.

Nigerians voted massively in favour of Moshood Abiola.

Bashir Tofa (the opponent) was said to have sent him congratulatory messages.

As the results were announced, the prices of goods and services were falling.

There was happiness all over Nigeria. There was hope that a new dawn has come.

There was a tailor who refused to be paid for the services he had rendered. He was so overjoyed that “at last” hope has come to the people.

Bus conductor and drivers were offering free rides. You didn’t have to pay anything.

That was the spirit and mood until Nigerians received a rude shock from the military gangsters led by one notorious Ibrahim Babangida. He announced the annulment of the results of the elections without reasons.

There were many hypotheses trying to explain or justify the annulment including that Abiola was a creditor of the federal government, or that a few idiots would not like to see him be president of Nigeria.

Some people said it was because of what he did when he was in NPN that he betrayed or opposed Awolowo, a fellow Yoruba politician. He is also alleged to have sponsored military coups in Nigeria.

No form of arguments would justify the annulment of the June 12 1993 peaceful presidential elections.
The fundamental thing about June 12 was that an election held and Abiola won.

By cancelling the decisions made by Nigerians in a democratic process, treasonable felony was committed by Babangida and those around him including the late Abacha.

Babangida should be arrested and tried not only for corruption but for treason and crimes against humanity. Why is Babangida still a free man in Nigeria?

Are some people above the law in Jonny’s country?

The annulment was resisted by many true democrats, some were killed and many went into exile.

Many innocent Nigerians died in the failed struggle to actualize the annulled mandate.

Many Nigerian politicians sold their souls for porridge because they could not stand on the June 12 mandate. Political prostitution is an old business in Nigeria.

Baba Gana Kingibe was a prince of the game of political prostitution long before Atiku Abubakar.

Nigerian traditional rulers who could have pressurized the silly Babangida kept mute. They loved bribes because their prosperity is built on them.

Those whom we thought were leaders became rulers and accomplices to the crime. Obasanjo said Abiola was not the messiah. I don’t remember MKO claiming to be one.

Abiola died without realizing his dreams and without claiming the mandate he got from millions of Nigerians in the most peaceful and fairest election ever in the history of Nigeria.

The circumstances surrounding Abiola’s death remains controversial. He died in the arms of American visitors sent by Bill Clinton. He was poisoned in the presence of the American delegation. It has become one of the several conspiracy theories that he was killed by the Nigerian military government with the assistance of the Americans.

Abiola’s nephew told me how the issue of repatriation seriously pursued by Abiola became one of his likely undoing.

Those who are too young to understand the June 12 story should continue to discern what they read because lies will be told. Many things have been said against Abiola. Some of them may be true but nothing said can take away the fact that he won the election and that Babangida is a living criminal.

How the laws work in Nigeria is still a mystery. How can someone commit treason and be free?

The 2011 elections are by no means close to the peaceful and fair elections of June 12 1993.

And for those who are superstitious it appears that until something is done to make amends for the devilish errors of
June 12 1993, Nigeria may never make progress. Living conditions have become worse since then.

When Obasanjo was imposed on Nigerians in 1999 politicians thought they have made amends for June 12 1993. That was an error of judgment. Obasanjo was anti-June 12, so it doesn’t count in the superstitious world. In fact it may have added salt to the injury.

Since 1999 the standard of living has dropped and gotten worse. More people have become poorer and lives have been lost in several conflicts.

I do know that the Nigerian government also stupidly adopted May 29 as democracy day in Nigeria.

Sometimes I wondered how Nigerians allow the useless government to impose things that are evil on them.

It would have been better, to honour those who gave their lives for democracy that June 12 be made the national democracy day.

Or we just don’t have any democracy day and still honour these unsung heroes on October 1st every year.
Rather what we do is to decorate accomplished political looters and thieves with national honours.

It appears to me that for as long as we continue to deny the truth about the significance of June 12 and its role in the establishment of our struggling democratic process that we may not make any real progress in this country.

During the presidential debate in 1993 Abiola spoke to Nigerians and answered their questions on what his plans are and how he will help Nigeria to become great.

June 12 came with a manifesto and programs of hope. That is why it is sad that we didn’t experience the reign of Abiola.

A mandate similar to what Abiola got in 1993 and the hopes and confidence that came with it are necessary ingredients for growth and development of Nigeria.

I don’t think anybody can rule Nigeria successfully without a mandate similar to that which Abiola obtained in 1993.
It cut across religion, regions and tribes. It was a universal mandate, made in Nigeria.

It will also be impossible for anyone to lead Nigeria and make meaningful progress without a manifesto of hope and programs that are well planned and thought through.

The positive impacts of Abiola’s victory lasted a few hours; they are part of the most memorable hours of my life. For the first time in my life, then in 1993, I saw hope on the faces of Nigerians. As a country we saw light at the end of the tunnel but the light faded away, very quickly.

In 2011 we remain in the tunnel.

Related post:
https://aderinola.wordpress.com/2007/06/05/june-12-1993-just-like-yesterday

Dimeji Bankole: Why Nigerian Politicians Will Always Steal

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

ONE of my earliest articles in a Nigerian print media was published in the Nigerian Guardian of September 11 2001. It was titled Why Politicians Steal.

Nigerian politicians and public officials steal because they are all birds of the same feather, from the presidency to the last man in the local government. Their reason for joining politics was never to serve. The main reason is because they see politics as the shortest cut to wealth. It remains so because only a countable size of them have been punished and mildly too by the law enforcement agents and the short arm of the Nigerian law.

Dimeji Bankole (photo Nigerian Tribune June 6 2011)

Nigeria is a very abnormal country in terms of the game of politics. No Nigerian author or critic can argue that corruption does not exist in other countries of the world. Instead what we have noted is that whereas glaring corruption is condemned in other places it is encouraged and rewarded in Nigeria.

It is also a power game in Nigeria. It depends so much not on any institution or department but on the individuals who have seized power either by rigged /manipulated ballots or violence through guns/uniform.

Dimeji Bankole for example could dare to steal so much as he has done because he may have someone like Ibrahim Babangida or David Mark or even Mrs. Patience Jonathan as his role models. No one can rule out the possibility of Bankole’s arrogance being hinged on the fallibility of Mrs. Waziri who has also been charged with corruption at different times. It’s as if all Nigerian government officials are thieves, but to different degrees.

Here was a young man to which much was given. He rubbed his family’s name in mud like there is no tomorrow. Yet he was given all the time he needed to resist arrest by the Nigerian Police and men of the SSS. His eventual arrest may have been catalyzed by the forthcoming visit of Dr. Jonathan to the US. Jonathan cannot leave Nigeria on a suspicion of aiding one of their own.

Going by his likely mentors, Dimeji could have thought this way: why would anyone worry about how much I steal if Babangida and his co-travellers are still living in Nigeria without giving account of the money that Nigeria made during the gulf war?

He may also have thought of the several things he got away with while serving as the big-mouthed speaker of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? Where should we start? The N2.3b he misappropriated or the N9b that tore the house apart resulting in a free for all fight exactly a year ago? He is even alleged to have kept allowances of some house members to himself.

How many cases of corruption and stolen funds by other thieves could have been reference points for Dimeji?
Was he possibly thinking of how Ribadu provided a shield for Mrs. Jonathan and her famous money laundering cases? Was he thinking of how Generals Obansanjo and Abdulsalam were never even interrogated for the Power Funds up to the tune of N16b?

What about the Atikus, the Anenihs and the whole loads and lots of them who have looted Nigeria over the years?
Was Dimeji thinking about the billions of dollars that have been awarded to monarchs to fix the Benin-Ore road without any progress or prosecution?

Was Dimeji thinking about Dora and how she got away with the NTA corruption saga? What about the money wasted on rebranding? We need to dig deeper perhaps? What was on the mind of the well-educated young man who decided to become Nigeria’s biggest thief?

He may be thinking about Bode George. Bode got 2 years and can now enjoy his loot forever more. Dimeji may be thinking of getting 6 months like Tafa Balogun or even a plea bargain like Igbinedion.

In 2010 Dr. Jonathan wasted over N20b on celebrating 50 years of failure. Most of the funds were never accounted for. Was Dimeji hoping that his N10b loan was a chicken change considering the prodigal spending of Dr. Jonathan that has depleted the external reserves and plunge Nigeria into debt?

The young man is now talking. He said they shared the money. A bunch of thieves who called themselves legislators, who are already the highest paid politicians in the world, having the guts to add N10b on their already over bloated sums while more than 100m Nigerians live desperately on less than 1 dollar a day.

In an outburst of anger one of my facebook friends quickly recommended death sentences for all corrupt Nigerian politicians. It was an outburst emanating from a frustrated Nigerian student who sees a bleak future ahead of him as men and women entrusted with our national wealth continue to siphon billions of dollars into their private accounts and wasteful expenditures.

The arrest of Dimeji Bankole is a good effort but I can’t give it up for EFCC yet. Let him be taken before the prosecutors as soon as possible so that he can be proven guilty or innocent before the law. I am not satisfied with the arrest of Dimeji without corresponding hunts for all the living barawos in Nigeria.

I don’t like an EFCC built on individual ego. I want to see an institution that could, if necessary, try its own boss and bring him or her down for acts related to corruption. For example if Ribadu or Waziri are both guilty of acts of corruption then they have no business pretending to be serving Nigeria.

Why was Dimeji arrested when there are thousands of thieves and looters walking free in Nigeria? What about the governors who have lost their immunities? Are thieves and looters free because they are friends of the Jonathans?
Are looters free because they stole in the 1980s or 1990s?

Nigerian politicians will continue to steal and loot because the fight against corruption is too limited and selective. They will also continue to steal because they have not been severely punished. Dimeji for example, if found guilty, should be looking ahead to 20 years imprisonment or more but in Nigeria he may even be unlucky to get 2 years. Usually they get plea bargaining or 6months.

Worse still they keep a substantial part of the money, huge enough to launch another political campaign or a new political party in the future.

My tolerance to looting is zero. My opinion on immunity clause is that it has no role to play in a society where democracy, probity and accountability will thrive. Dimeji should have been removed since the N2.3b saga if there was no immunity clause. In a sane society, he and his co-thieves would not have survived the N9b saga that tore the House apart in June 2010.

He would not have had the possibility to loot further.

Nigerian politicians will continue to steal, loot and bribe their ways ahead because even members of the society think that these are normal things. Politicians have families and friends who see government jobs as an opportunity to loot the national cake. It’s an aberration but we see it in good light and accept it as the way to go.

Politics must be made what it is-a way to serve mankind. In Nigeria it is a way to get rich with the huge salary and excessive inexplicable take-home remunerations plus all the loop holes that make it possible to inflate, manipulate and forge contracts across all tiers of governance.

What I wrote about in 2002 is still true today. There are no genuine anti-corruption agencies to wipe out corruption fairly and squarely. I learnt since 1984 that nearly does not catch a bird and that what was worth doing at all is worth doing well. These are my takes on the fight against corruption.

Excuse Me Mr. John Campbell, I Was Denied An American Visa!

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

Mr. John Campbell in faraway America is probably feeling the pain, frustration and disappointment that several thousands of Nigerians face monthly in Nigeria and elsewhere.

He was denied an entry visa to Nigeria because his application did not meet the stipulated requirements and he did not appear keen to fulfill the questions raised about his planned trip to Nigeria.

I am aware that Mr. Campbell wrote a book that did not go down well with the Nigerian Authority. He had predicted the fall of Nigeria latest 2015. I have no grouse with Mr. Campbell’s prediction. There would have been no Nigeria today if Mr. Lugard and his co-travelers did not loosely weld the different nations together in 1914.

It is therefore a matter of historical calculation that one day things will either fall apart or to their rightful places. It will take men and women whom the gods want to destroy to continue to deny the way Nigeria is heading. The outcomes of the recent elections in Nigeria are too remarkable to ignore.

The story of biological evolution taught us that remarkable changes can be extremely slow, but they do take place. This is my take on Nigeria today.

As I was saying, Mr. Campbell should learn to follow the right procedures and he should not in any way think that he is special. It doesn’t matter that he was a former US envoy to Nigeria. He is human like the rest. The US embassy in Abuja and the US State Department are looking into the matter and they have protested the visa denial.

The question now is: how many protest letters shall the Nigerian Foreign Ministry or the Nigerian Embassies around the world write on behalf of the thousands of Nigerians who have been mistreated and denied entry visas to several countries around the world?

Let me begin with my own story. In 2002/2003 I was a UNESCO scholar trying to find solutions to the malaria problems in the world. I was living in Stockholm and had spent my summer holiday in London that year.

As the autumn gave way I had 2 important assignments to fulfill. One was to present a paper in Lagos, a sort of update on my research. The second was to attend the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) meeting and make a poster presentation for one of my research papers.

To cut the story short the option of travelling to the US was truncated because I was denied a US visa at the American Embassy in Stockholm. The reasons are the same old jargons; I am single and have no ties bla- bla-bla rubbish.

I have no State Department to turn to, so I wrote a strongly worded letter to the American Embassy in Stockholm. I expressed my dismay about their shocking decision to ground a UNESCO student on the Scandinavian Island based on such flimsy excuses. If the US Embassy in Stockholm cares to know, they can check my update at the Swedish tax office-it still states clearly-S-I-N-G-L-E.

When I write about my wife in my essays, it’s for the sake of simplicity. No long thing. The US embassy and other embassies around the world should learn how to respect people’s marital statuses and separate that from the purpose of visa applications.

Apart from family ties and employment, one of the several silly reasons for denying Nigerians entry or travel visas is predicated on the overblown drama surrounding some mischievous Nigerians. The truth is that Nigerians who engaged in swindling, forgery and other sorts of misdemeanors are quite negligible compared to the total population of Nigerians.

In a more realistic comparison Nigerians are contributing to the economic development of several communities and countries around the world. Such contributions are not appreciated because the Western Press dominate the airwaves and chose what to propagate. But we are not deterred; we continue to help the world through our commitments and dedication.

It pains when honest and innocent Nigerians applying for visas are lump both as economic migrants and fraudulent minds simply because they sought visa to the US, the UK and other places. Every application should be treated on its own merits. There should be clear distinctions between the roles of the embassies in foreign countries and the immigration officers on home soil.

Mr. Campbell became a victim of what I have always argued about. There are rules for visa applications which have relegated the use of common sense and discretion. Almost all the embassies in the world continue to live by the rules and that is where Campbell’s application fell flat.

It is very easy to argue also that he was denied a visa to Nigeria because of his negative comments about Nigeria.

On discretion and common sense, Mr. Campbell, in his capacity as the former US envoy to Nigeria, would probably still have been granted a visa with 6 days’ notice instead of the prescribed seven days. Unfortunately rules remain the standard for all embassy staff and visa officers. They live by it.

I wrote a story here about the French embassy denying an entry visa to someone who has probably travelled around the world, is on his way to Switzerland and only needed a Schengen visa to get to Sweden to visit family members. The rule says he must go to the Swedish embassy.

There are scores of provoking responses to my blog post on this issue and sometimes I just needed to cool off and accept that people see things from different perspectives and it is going to be impossible to impose common sense and discretion on people’s minds. People will never come to see things the same way.

Every concerned person will live with his or her own frustrations on this matter.

But as long as Nigeria last, Nigerians must begin to tell their own stories. I have written a lot about my disappointments in the Nigerian government. It is a failed government that has given rooms for so many opportunities for the promotion of negativity including maltreatment of Nigerians in embassies in Nigeria. In the midst of rife corruption and collective citizenry nonchalance, the situation persists.

Even as I try to write about other things, it is very hard to ignore the states of things in Nigeria- the primary source of our collective embarrassment.

In all I have tried to stay clear of praise worshipping because I know the interpretations that come with such. But those whose jobs it is should start promoting the likes of Fashola of Lagos. The rest of us-while appreciating the work done and contributing our quota-should never fail to let them know that there is still more work to be done. The goals are to lift our standard of living and both the value and dignity of our lives on all fronts.

To close, Mr. Campbell must be feeling the same kind of disappointment that I felt 9 years ago. Sometimes you feel that you should get something because of who you are, but you don’t. That is life, you can’t have it all. By protesting the American Embassy in Nigeria and the US State Department is protecting and looking after one of its own. Those who rule Nigeria, while it last, need to start taking care of Nigerians. That care may be an antidote to Nigeria dancing on the brink by John Campbell

The Day I Was Arrested At Frankfurt Airport

/ Adeola / 4 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

I’d wanted to tell this story since December 2010 when I was arrested by the German Police at Frankfurt Airport.

Sonala’s article stating MMA as a metaphor of a Non-Governing Governance gave me the needed impetus.

I have a butterfly knife that I love so much that I always carry it with me. It serves as a utility tool. Last December I took it with me to Nigeria. Somehow it ended up in my backpack where I also have the basic things that my children need.

We left Nigeria on Dec. 28 after celebrating Christmas in Lagos.

We went through rigorous checks at MMA. They turned everything inside out and we even went through the scanners and all their cancer-inducing machines.

You can imagine my shock when I was stopped at Frankfurt the next morning and ordered to step aside. The police were called immediately and I was interrogated and made to give a written statement.

They found my butterfly knife in my bag. They have a functional scanner there in Frankfurt. Or maybe they are not looking at just the human physiology like our brethren back at MMA.

They told me that I could be required in the court of law and a notification will be sent to me about that. I have waited since December 2010 but it appears the case was not pursued further. Hopefully this essay will not stir it up again.

The officers took my knife and wanted to retain it as an exhibit. I guessed they will throw it away. I told them that I really cherished the knife and that it meant something to me. They were a bit surprised but respected my views.

They said I can only retain the knife on one condition. I have to go out of the waiting hall and check in at Lufthansa’s desk. To save my knife it became necessary for me to check in at a point of transit. I took one of our baggage with me, put the knife inside and checked it in.

Even though I had the status of a “potential terrorist” I was still allowed to exercise my rights and to choose what I wanted to do with my knife.

We had luck that there was ample time to our connecting flight. I was still able to fly with my family. They were waiting for me at another point but they could see me. The arrest was something I had to sort out alone since I was the one carrying the bag.

If a butterfly knife on the side pocket of a backpack cannot be detected at MMA, I could only imagine the possibility of a terrorist being able to blow up the entire airport in these days of micro- and nano-technologies.

I remembered one day in 2002 when my things were taken from me at MMA. I was not given any choice at all. They just “obtained” me like that. They took my things and I left Nigeria with such a sad experience. The story is the same today. When I leave Nigeria these days I travel light.

There are several sad things about MMA that Sonala didn’t mention. I trust that he wanted to save Nigeria from some serious embarrassment.
MMA should actually have been converted to a local airport altogether. On developmental scale, MMA is on the same level as Iyana Ipaja because Oshodi is far better these days.

There is nothing about MMA that fits into international standard. I was embarrassed that my family first’s visit to Nigeria took them through this point of entry. There was nothing to explain because they have read many of my essays.

The traffic in Lagos almost made us cry and the work rate of NEPA not only made us deaf temporarily, it also ensured that my kids found a special toy in Nigeria-the torchlight. How they loved it!

I have also wondered about the crowd at the airport. Is it possible to divert the crowd to Onikan, Adamasingba or National stadium so they can provide the spectatorship that our football games are longing for?

I was afraid I could be mishandle by the thousands of uniform men at MMA and that was the reason I didn’t take any picture at all. Too many angry faces looking for preys!

It is as if all the security men in Lagos are based at MMA. The variant of uniforms will make a good thesis for a post-graduate student.
Someone should take the offer so that the rest of us can understand why thousands of uniformed people are stationed at an overcrowded point like MMA. Is that the meaning of double wahala?

There are so many waste materials, big and small, different forms and shapes, electrical and others littering all the premises of the airport. The interior of the airport is too stuffy, hot, disorganized and haphazard. It pains the eyes.

It took more than 2½ hours for us to retrieve our luggage when we arrived that fateful evening that eventually turned to night at MMA. I had to tell my cousin to take my wife and children home while I waited for the remaining luggage. My brother in law it was who kept record of the time. I’m happy he didn’t faint in the waiting process.

There was one funny but sad situation also that same night.
One of our luggages was not on the major conveyor belt. We were told it could have been sent to the small or extra conveyor belt. Bu alas!
They can’t find the guy who has the key to the conveyor. It was a sort of crazy-looking conveyor that led directly from the outside to the inside and it is used for transporting wheel chairs and sorts into the main waiting hall. After a long wait, they found the guy with the key.

When we got back to our base in Europe my brother in-law politely told me that it has taken just 20 minutes since we arrived and we are already driving home. What was I supposed to say?

He didn’t have to tell me about the absence of crowd or uniformed people. He didn’t have to say the rest. I’ve been living with it for nearly a decade.

The level of security at MMA is appalling. The long wait and long queues are surely pretenses that someone or some people are working hard. It’s all nonsense. The things that take you 5 minutes at other airports around the world can take you several hours at MMA. If you have a heart disease or you are hypertensive you should either avoid MMA or take loads of medication with you.

The sad stories about MMA are inexhaustible.

I was also frustrated that I have to fill some forms as I entered Nigeria even though it state clearly on the top that it is for foreigners. And every time I gave the form back there was something I didn’t do right. I was turning brain-dead on the queues and I can’t believe that officer expected me to write my full address on that form. Who knows there the forms are heading?

As far as MMA is concerned it is a serious embarrassment to Nigeria. To call MMA a disaster or a disgrace is an understatement. It is not organized at all. No one should hope for a terror attack at that airport, the fatalities and consequences would be devastating. Let’s not imagine it. MMA is the worst airport I have been to. It is what you get when you have a Non-Governing Governance.