Corruption

Let’s Go And Die, Abroad! (Part 2)

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Who will tell our politicians that none of us is leaving this planet alive?

They think they will live forever l guess or why fly abroad to enjoy the medical facilities provided by responsible governments of other countries.

This submissive mental and physical slavery is one of the several tragedies of the African race. Buhari’s medical tourism and vacation is treacherous. It is treason against the people and country.

Let’s Go And Die, Abroad (Part 2)

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By Adeola Aderounmu

On August 3 2014 l wrote the first part of this essay. It was in the wake of Nigerian politicians travelling abroad for medical treatment and ending their journeys there. Since l wrote that piece, the trend has continued. Politicians and monarchs who should be symbols of national pride and patriotism continue to flock abroad for treatment. Some don’t make it back alive to Nigeria. Hence the title, Let’s Go And Die, Abroad.

Treason needs to be redefined. You let your people down by not providing them with essential health services that could save their lives. Then you fly abroad to another country to rest and enjoy the medical services provided by foreign governments. You fly to see your doctors abroad. You fly abroad for vacation. All in one. That to me is treason.

We all have loved ones who could have lived quality lives and longer lives if the people we entrusted our welfare and well-being upon had done their jobs.

This is 2017.

President Buhari of Nigeria travelled to the UK for vacation and medical treatment/check up. He is not a private citizen of Nigeria, so this is out of order and unbecoming of a first citizen. It is not ok. It is not right. For me, this is treason, to go get the services that you denied your own people.

It is also not excusable under any circumstances whatsoever. On more than one ocassion, the media aides and advisers attached to the presidency, tried to explain why Buhari always flew to London for medical check ups. They bring it down to doctor’s advice or Buhari’s doctors now living in London. Those reasons are childish and unreasonable.

Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960. It is extremely shameful, ridiculous and very embarassing for the president of an independent country to go and lie sick or resting in another man’s country after all these years post-independence. The idea itself is sickening. This is one of the tragedies of the African race.

Nigeria is estimated today to be around 170 m people. When the presidency in Nigeria remains attached to the apron strings of the slave masters in England, it is a show of shame and a voluntary submission to both mental and physcial slavery.

There are so many other message and weights attached to this disgraceful exploits.

  • Out of more than 170 m people, Nigeria did not produce yet the medical doctor that can treat her political class in Nigeria.
  • Nigeria’s hospitals are mere mortuaries.
  • Nigeria is a very corrupt country and the presidency is the biggest symbol of this massive corruption.

Every year since 1960, huge funds and other allocations are budgetted and donated to the medical facilities attached to the office of the presidency in Nigeria. If the meedical facility is useless and dysfunctional, what is the purpose of the annual budget allocation? This is the second year of the second reign of president Buhari, what has his government done with the budget of the health institution at his official residence and around the country?

President Buhari is not the first Nigerian president to visit abroad for medical reasons. We have seen the head of state who went to Paris to treat a toe. We have seen a vice-president who went to London to treat a scratch. We saw a president who was a former governor for 8 years and refused to build a specialist hospital for his kidney problem. He was bundled in and out of Nigeria, shuttled between several countries until his last breathe.

Who will tell our politicians that none of us is leaving this planet alive?

Here is a pattern that is disturbing and irritating. These irresponsible people called Nigerian politicians should have been tried for crimes against humanity. They were/are supposed to provide medical facilities and solve health problems for (now) more than 170 m, but rather than do that, they fly abroad to enjoy the medical facilities provided by responsble governments of other countries. Nigerian politicians must be crazy and out of their minds. Totally!

President Buhari is spending his second spell at the helm of affairs in Nigeria. On his first exploit as a fierce dictator and tyrant, he could have (unstoppably) built the best medical facility in the world anywhere in Nigeria. He did not do that. This is the second year of his democratic reign, he has not made a public declaration of his willingness to build the best medical facility in the world in Nigeria even though the country has the possibility to do that so that all our shameless politicians can for all time stop their endless medical tourism abroad.

There is nothing wrong to invest in such a project to end this shame once and for all. But you won’t hear such debates on the floor of the Nigerian National Assembly where it seems criminals have been gathered just to share and spend monies on personal effects. Then, they are on the next flight abroad once they get sick. Total and absolute nonsense. Peculiar mess!

When these shameless rulers who think they are leaders don’t invest in their own health and well-being on the Nigerian soil, they provide a fertile ground for exploitations of the rest of the population. When private medical health providers fluorish, only the wealthy will be able to use their services.

The poor will beg from the atmosphere to the stratosphere in order to enjoy the services provided by private health institutions. They often die waiting for help. Even what is left of the public institutions is disgraceful and still out of reach of the downtrodden.

President Buhari’s regime under the APC mandate is today the worst regime in Nigeria’s history. The scorecard at home is heartbreaking. On the away front, the president added a new dimension to the medical tourism. We are told he is also on vacation! Really?

Here is the irony. Nigerians living abroad hurry home to Nigeria (and other West African countries) hoping to find rest at different places depending on where their favourite locations are. Now you have a president who cannot find anywhere in all of the 36 states under his watch where he could have a vacation. It’s amazing, the lies of this presidency!

This is the same government that claims to be promoting made in Nigeria things. This is hypocrisy of the highest magnitude. This government has failed and it will not make it. It will never be right to say you are promoting local things when you enjoy foreign things. What happens to leading by examples?

In November 2015, l argued for the establishment of at least 108 modern and standard public hospitals in Nigeria. No one has picked up the argument for a national debate. They are still sharing monies for cars and houses.

This country is going no where near redemption soon if these are the type of politicians and rulers we want to continue to parade. Is it any surprise that Nigerians are suffering in their millions while a few are basking in glory in the rat race co-existence?

For Nigerians, it’s still a very long walk to freedom when the praxis is I-before-others. It’s a long, long walk when all that matters is preservation of self rather than the well-being of humanity and nature.

Nigerian rulers,  politicians and even the people are selfish and when everyone is so concerned about their self-preservations, living as if we will live forever, caution is thrown to the wind and the survival of the fittest turn men to vultures. It makes irrationality the norm and falsehood the veins of the system.

It’s a sad situation and when the rest of Africa start to believe this notion that Nigerians are now hungry, it spells doom for Africa and the African race. If your president cannot get treated in Nigeria, how can you dispel the notion that you cannot even feed yourself in Nigeria?

Mortals are watching. The world is waiting.

aderounmu@gmail.com

2016: The Heart-breaking Year 

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

There are so many things about 2016 that broke my heart into pieces.

In Nigeria today, ordinary common sense, profound reasoning and life changing positive reflections have been thrown into the gutters.

When money is taken out of the ratio, the next most influential factor for getting political appointment in Nigeria today is religion.

2016: The HeartBreaking Year

 

 

By Adeola Aderounmu

”To even imagine what lies ahead in 2016 under the prevailing global crash in oil-prices and other  revolutionary advances in the world is totally heartbreaking”-Adeola Aderounmu, December 2015.

The immediate quote above was how l ended my last essay in 2015. It was titled, Not Another Great Year.

I was among the people who expressed utmost pessimism for what the future (2016 and beyond) had in stock for Nigerians.  Our people in their gullibility prefer to hear such obvious omen from their pastors and imams at worship centers.

2016 wraps up for majority of Nigerians on a very low note. For several millions expectations were dashed and hopes were turned to hopelessness. It’s a cycle too easy to predict.

Way back in one of my end of year messages, probably 2012, l have stated that God will not save Nigeria. That postulation remain intact. In 2017, there will not be a divine or conjured intervention for Nigeria.

It is Nigerians who will decide when they have had enough of irresponsible government and selfish rulership. The fate and future of Nigeria will not be decided by the Church like one of my friends argued with me when l visited Nigeria this summer. If the future of Nigeria will be great, it will not depend on the Mosque either.

For in Nigeria today, ordinary common sense, profound reasoning and life changing positive reflections have been thrown into the gutters. When money is taken out of the ratio, the next most influential factor for getting political appointment in Nigeria today is religion. For the almost monolithic “religious” states, tribe is the decider. Nigerians have lost it, they have descended too low.

The trend had been upcoming and today it is well established. In the monolithic states, there is a system of rotation that ensures that the embezzlement of public funds is rotated among tribes every 4 years. If the public office is at a very local level, then it is different clans that rotate the looting of the local treasury.

Are we stiil wondering why more than 100 m nigerians live in penury, almost exclusively from hand to mouth?

In my local government, the enactment of a church beside the mosque was a reassuring signal that Christians will not be kicked out of the premises soon.

The last time l checked though, the people l met at my local government were complete outsiders. They know nothing about Festac Town and you can tell they are political leeches. They do not know the layouts of Festac and they have no idea how the community came into existence and the dreams we had when we were children.

Lagos state now provides a recipe that is replica of the failed country called Nigeria.

When religion, friendship, tribalism, hypocrisy, ineptitude, arrogance, stupidity, inefficiency, man-know-man and other vices are promoted above service and integrity, there will never be progress. Peace may even become a scare ideology. Rivalry and sometimes war will prevail even with the slightest of provocation. This is where Nigeria is today!

On a more personal note, since the summer months, l have written and called attention to the environmental issues that affect the people of Festac Town. Sadly the governor of Lagos State love the lslands more than the Mainlands, and Festac Town can rot because he does not give a damn. Both the governor of Lagos state and the ignorant sole administrator of Festac Town have pretended that they are deaf.

They don’t care about anything that does not bring returns to their pockets. How do we define political leeches again?

I think the people of Festac should be allowed to run Festac so that the people can know who to turn to when things don’t go right. The council should never be in the hands of complete strangers especially when they have used their religion as a jackpot. This is so sad and the rulers of Lagos have failed too.

Likewise, we continue to clamour that one man cannot rule Nigeria. Nigeria is a failed project under the unitary system. When the government is brought close to the people, it will be relatively easier to know who to hold responsible when projects failed and when infrastructure collapse.

Today in Nigeria, it appears that everything wrong with the country is the fault of Buhari. It is indeed true but it’s just that he is not the origin of the problems. His role has been more as a catalyst in destroying what is left of Nigeria. This is the second time he’s doing so.

The system of government in Nigeria will never work. It is designed to fail. The complain we are making today are the same complains that writers and critics made more than 40 years ago. The system of government is the same. Things got worse.

It is now not known how to convince the people that prayers don’t bring about technological development. It is not known how we can convince the people that religion and vigils do not solve national problems.

I don’t know in how many ways we can try to reach the people and tell them that it is what we do or not that affect the progress of our country. The outcomes of our actions and inactions are independent of prayers. Prayers don’t help a nation to escape poverty, food production does.

Prayers don’t help a nation to become healthy. It is the function of the health policy of the government and the investment in medicine and health care that do.

Theology does not take any country to the moon or mars. Science and research do.

Another year 2017 is here and Nigerians will start it with a crossover at churches and mosques. No matter what the calender says, it is just another day and another rotation of the earth about the sun.  Science says it’s a revolution of the earth around the sun, therefore there’s actually nothing new about rotation and revolution.

It is very hard to know how Nigerians, more than 150 million people can be reached and convinced on the meaning and essence of life. It is pretty hard and frustrating.

Recently some hopeless people gathered in London to celebrate the release of a criminal called Ibori. The likes of Ibori are numerous in Nigeria. They are the ones running the country. They should be happy because they are the lucky bastards. In some countries where corruption is not tolerated, their graves will be unmarked after they must have been summarily executed.

It pains and infact it hurts to see the foolishness of Nigerians on a global scale. People like the supporters of lbori and the praise-singers of other politicians help Nigeria to wash her dirty linens in public. The global shame is indelible and embarassing.

There are so many things about 2016 that broke my heart into pieces.

Many of them are repetitions of the inexplicable circumstances surrounding the governing of Nigeria, the attitudes of Nigerians, the behaviours of Nigerians and the irreconciliable diversity of the notions of the Nigerian state or statelessness.

Let me be clear, Nigeria is being misgoverned. This is not news. The country has been on a roller coast to hell since 1960. Therefore when the APC-Buhari mandate promised changes, Nigerians bought it. But it has been business as usual, and the status-quo after 18 months shows that this government is ideologically clueless. The economy is lying prostrate.

After the crossover ceremonies at the churches and mosques, who will tell Nigerians that the crossover is meaningless without the necessary actions aimed at progress, prosperity and the common good.

We must change the system of government even if we cannot change every other thing. We need to bring back governance to the doorsteps of the people. It won’t matter who we usher to Abuja in 2019 because one man will not rule Nigeria successfully.

Lets fight a common fight now. Let’s write about it, let’s talk about it. Let us enforce it. If we can, let us occupy the streets and the citadel of corruption called Abuja and call for a rapid response to the change in the system of government. It’s the biggest gift we can bestow on the unborn generations.

At the regions, there will be closer monitoring of infrastucture and health provison.  Educational needs will be tailored to local situations. Even housing will be structured based on regional population and peculiarities. Power can be generated using local needs instead of senseless national jargons. These won’t happen overnight, but our grandchildren will be happy we started a journey with their needs and prosperity in minds.

If all we want to leave to our children are our imported religions and ill-acquired wealth, then let’s all brace up for a 2017 filled with pain, anguish, sorrow and disappointments. we are used to them any way.

For as long as we continue to lie and pretend that the unitary system of government will get us somewhere, these outcomes, to different degrees in different homes and communities will remain our common denominators.

aderounmu@gmail.com

 

 

A Cupboard Full of Debts And Skeletons

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

I am just wondering if Mrs. Jonathan stole more money than tyrants like Babangida and Abdulsalami. President Buhari did not even admit that Abacha was a criminal.

Nigeria does not need to borrow money. Call out all the criminals who looted the treasury and line them up to return the money. The proceeds will dwarf the 30 billion dollars loan request!

A Cupboard Full of Debts And Skeletons

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By Adeola Aderounmu

The government of Nigeria is willing to go borrowing. But Nigeria is not a poor country.

Nigeria will never be a poor country. A country where you can bury a seed in the ground and find it sprouting up after 3 days will never be a poor country.

Sadly, Nigeria is in recession at the moment and the reason for applying to borrow money has been hinged on infrastruture development.

Nigeria already has loads of debt. Some debts were incurred doing ”useles projects”. These are projects that have no heads, yielding nothing in return. Loans have been mismanaged in the past. They have been looted. Even returned and recovered loots are never accounted for in Nigeria.

We know that Nigeria’s debts are already lined for for the next few decades. That means that the debts are already a burden to the upcoming generations. Our rulers are prodigal fathers and mothers.

The fact that the Buhari-APC mandate wants to add more debts on the unborn generation makes it a callous and heartless government.

When it comes to infrastucture development, the truth is that all previous governments in Nigeria are guilty of mismanagement. Almost all retired and serving politicians including military gangsters are guilty. Monies earmarked for infrastucture development were stolen or looted by people in government, their family members and other accomplices.

These individuals and politicians especially, are still serving in government or still having a say on the running of Nigeria from the sidelines. Nigeria is their haven and our hell.

Indeed, in their hands are more funds than what the Buhari-APC mandate wants to go fishing for in foreign lands.

All the funds in the hands of criminal politicians, (both retired and serving) that have not been mentioned by the Buhari-led government must be tracked and taken back. These looted funds should be added to the monies that have been recovered so far.

Together with the incoming loots from criminals like Obanikoro, journalist Abati, and custom-man Dikko, the 30 billion dollars mark will be surpassed too easily.

Nigerians are watching to know how much The Jonathans are going to give back after years of looting Bayelsa and then the federal treasury.

There are more possibilities to explore as a sure bet to developing the infrastructure that Nigerians so much deserved after years of misrule and lawlessness.

For instance, for how long will the APC-Buhari mandate remain afraid of the looters with the APC badge? I listened to the government’s spokesman Mr. Adesina asking people like us (the public) to provide evidence that can be used to prosecute the APC clan. Nonsense talk!

When the APC-Buhari mandate is ready, they will get more funds way beyond the 30 billion US dollars from the Amaechis, the Tinubus, the Obasanjos and even the Atikus.

When the APC-Buhari mandate stops waiting for evidence from people like us, they will beat the 30 billion US dollars mark dead flat when looters like Babangida, David Mark, Abdulsalami and other billionaires who made their wealth from government coffers are quizzed and made to return all the monies that they looted from Nigeria’s treasuries.

When Mr. Buhari is ready, he will join us in acknowledging that Mr. Abacha was indeed a criminal. For, in not acknowledging that Mr. Abacha was a criminal despite all the looted monies that have been returned from his foreign accounts, Mr. Buhari is deceiving himself and ridiculing the black race.

Mr. Buhari told us that his budget was not padded even when the budget padders especially one self-acclaim criminal called Dogaro already admitted to the allegations. In a popular response, he said padding was not a crime. Tomorrow Mr. Buhari can even tell us that custom-man Dikko who returned more than 1 billion naira is not a criminal.

How much money have been stolen by these criminals? What fraction of the money they stole are they returning? How much money can we recover from Buhari’s era as head of the PTF?

I’m just thinking out loud how many criminals, serving and non-serving that Mr. Buhari is shielding. Does he have skeletons in his cupboards. How many skeletons are in Mr. Buhari’s cupboard? How many skeletons are there in the possession of the APC-Buhari mandate?

The essence of all my questions is to indicate that Nigeria does not need to borrow money when so much money is locked in the hands of individuals, some very close to the president himself. Who is fooling who?

It seems Nigeria is running a government of cowards who are using the instruments of governance to chase the opposition and spare the cronies within the APC-Buhari mandate. Friends of the presidency are also saints.

That means the government is weak. It’s chasing down on easy targets like Reuben Abati the disgraced journalist and Mrs. Jonathan the former first lady. Have these two for example, stolen more money than Ibrahim Babangida?

All those who have looted in the past and in the present have disrupted infrastructure development in Nigeria, one way or the other. Small loots and megaloots have the same effects in the retrogression of Nigeria.

It is height of penkelemess to ask us the people to bring out evidence when it comes for the crimes committed by the APC politicians and those who the government considered as untouchables.

Where is the EFCC and the Buhari-APC mandate getting the evidence or proofs that are used in the investigation and prosecution of the PDP politicians?

The APC-Buhari mandate does not have my permission to borrow money. It however has my permission to take back all the looted monies scattered in Nigeria and abroad from all the looters and their families.

Lastly, dear APC-Buhari mandate, when you drop the idea of borrowing money, do not forget that the way forward for Nigeria may lie in adopting a political structure that is tailored to the peculiarities in Nigeria.

It was the number one point on your manifesto but it seems you have gone to bed with the demons of Abuja. So far, your reign has failed and you continue to chase mirage with the nonsense unitary system that enriches you and impoverish the people.

 

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Rule Of Criminals

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

One of the challenges facing Nigeria and Nigerians is how to achieve or establish the rule of law above the rule of criminals in government and everywhere.

The Rule Of Criminals

By Adeola Aderounmu

Which Way Nigeria?

One is saddened that there is no end in sight for Nigerians being ruled partly by politicians who are absolute criminals.

Ordinary Nigerians are facing very hard and extreme economic hardship and they also have to continue to cope with the reality that some of those who they expected to be part of the solution are actually political criminals.

My recent visit to Nigeria left another deep cut in my soul. What l saw is that majority of Nigerians are still suffering!

The kind of suffering in Nigeria exposes majority of the population to conditions that are completely unacceptable for humans. People have no access to basic facility or infrastructure. This information is not news.

However what may be news is that several millions of Nigerians are now in new category called systematic beggars. People are begging for food and money from those that still have a little to live on.

What l saw in Nigeria revealed that majoroity of Nigerians not only lack the basic things of life, they also lack material comfort. Many people are running around on empty stomachs.

In 2012, l defined mass poverty using Nigeria as a case study.  Since then the mass poverty situation in Nigeria has escalated.

Sadness is rampant. Deceit and mutual suspicion are written on everybody’s face. Today, a few people are tasking the government and police on the high rate of crime. The trend will continue because even the police are stopping people randomly on the streets and robbing them of their possessions!

Things are getting worse in Nigeria. The conditions of living are terrible. There is almost no word to describe the standard of living of the ordinary people. Poor is an understatement. What comes after low or poor standard of living? The living situations are extremely sad and disheartening.

At this sad point in Nigeria’s history, the lowest ebb the country has ever reached, one would expect that the government at various levels will show empathy and concern for the plights that have been inflicted on the people through years of misgovernance and negligence.

Alas! The present government is not helping matters in that direction at all.

As Nigerians are allegedly made to bear the grunt and pain of the decline in crude oil prices, the cost of governance itself remains at the same high level.

Governance in Nigeria is established on a twin culture of waste and propaganda.

The level of corruption in the present government easily contradicts the propaganda that Nigerians are paying for the low price of crude oil and the wastage of the Jonathan administration.

Nigeria does not depend on crude oil only by the way.

In any case if Nigerian politicians stop stealing and perhaps even start to drop some body and material weights, perhaps the effects of the drop in crude oil sales that have also also been aggravated by the Niger Delta Avengers would spread evenly among the population, and we can understand the situation together.

But sadly, as a manner of repetition, let me reiterate that the cost of governance in Nigeria remains high and wasteful.

Nigeria is spending a lot of money on arms of government that are invariably useless. The category that has been in the eye of the storm most is the legislative arm.

At the Senate and the House of Representatives, the revelations that have come to front since the emergence of the Buhari-APC mandate are shameful and scandalous.

A government that is fighting corruption mostly in the opponent camps yet housing criminals at its own backyard is a worthless government. That is what the APC government has become.

The scandals that have rocked the Senate where Mr. Saraki heads the other alleged criminals are enough to level it. But it stands as a monument of stinking corruption.

The scandals that have rocked the House of Representatives where Mr. Dogara heads the other alleged criminals are enough to sweep the house into the ocean so that it does not ever evolve again.

It is shocking that Nigerians know that they are partly ruled by criminals and they are suffering and living with the knowledge of the causes of majority of their problems. But they are not doing anything serious about it.

Something has to give in someday as a way of showing these criminals their ways out of governance.

We also actually need someone to remind this government of its virtual fight against corruption whereas the government itself is stinking and rotten, full of criminals in high and low places.

About 30 something years ago, when l was a little boy, l read an article in a newspaper. The title was: Who Is Fooling Who? I don’t remember the author but it mentioned that many things that are true today.

One of the challenges facing Nigeria and Nigerians is how to achieve or establish the rule of law above the rule of criminals in government and everywhere.

The political criminals are on the advantage because despite the fact that their criminalities are known and exposed, they have so far circumvent the law to their advantages. They have remain strong due to the weakness of the people and their passiveness to corruption everywhere.

The difference between common sense and political criminal sense remains crystal clear.

While common sense makes people leave the public scene in shame after a scandal, the political criminal sense makes people fight back using the weaknesses in the law especially in a nonsensical democracy like Nigeria where self preservation is the norm. Civility suffers.

The difference extends to the point  that with political criminal sense, every scandal is tagged as a political witchhunt. The political criminal sense does not deny the existence of a crime or scandal. It just fights against it.

Invariably, the changed promised by the APC has turned to a sham, more so because of the political criminals that persist and control the APC government.

When l’d visited civil service establishments during my one month stay in Nigeria, the situation and conditions of services are even worse. The morale is down, many things are still being done just like before.

The workers still receive bribes, the police are on the roads doing the usual collection and false accusation.  From the political criminals holding sway in Abuja, to the smallest streets in Nigeria, it is business of corruption as usual.

The things that have changed have brought more hardship to our lives. Things just got worse for the ordinary people. For example, under Mr. Fashola, Nigerians pay more money for darkness. There is promise of light and the bills are already higher for the services that have not been provided. What is 419 again?

The people earn less or nothing at all (when salaries are not paid for several month) but they pay more for everything. There are so many scams perpetrated by the Buhari-APC government that should have resulted to outright outrages.

But Nigerians are praying and fasting even on empty stomachs. Thanks to the magicians called men of God. Rather than build factories, more churches and mosques are sprining up everywhere in Nigeria.

Even in government houses where looting and stealing are taking place, there are churches and mosques in the premises. What is the meaning of den of robbers? Who is fooling who? Who prays in these religious houses and who are the political criminals in government?

It’s always a painful experience recounting the problems of Nigeria. Whereas we know that the solutions are easy. If people start to do the right things, just the right things, Nigeria will pick up.

But after decades of misrule and systemic disorientation,majority of the people are used to doing the wrong things. This cruel reality is what led to the emergence and sustenance of wrong doers and criminals in public offices.

So, the rule of criminals is very complicated.

There are other issues with the Buhari-APC mandate. Along with the painful existence of the rule of criminals, Nigerians are more than ever before battling with tribalism. Sadly too, the influence of religion in government has never been this prominent in the history of governance in Nigeria.

Up to the local government level, religious affiliation is a crucial factor in the curriculum vitae of office-seekers in Nigeria. What l saw in Nigeria shocked me!

That long-lasting solution of just doing the right things in public service eludes majority of Nigerians. But it must re-emerge side-by-side a political system or structure that is functional. That ancitipated change in political system has been called several names, from regional government to regional autonomy and even true fiscal federalism.

At this moment, at the end of august 2016, Nigeria is not working and the rule of criminals dominate the rule of law.

Nigeria needs a genuine political change.

Reference: Mass Poverty In Nigeria (2012) By Adeola Aderounmu.

https://aderinola.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/mass-poverty-in-nigeria-2012

 

aderounmu@gmail.com

 

 

My Random Reflections @ 44

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

The most amazing thing for me is the story of our present day heroes-the people who keep Nigeria running. These heroes are owners of surviving small and big businesses that run on generators and power plants for 24 hours a day.

My Random Reflections @ 44

 

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In 2009 l started this series called My Random Reflections. The first edition was My Random Reflections @ 37. How time flies!

For me, writing about Nigeria on my birthday has become a tradition.

This particular edition is remarkable in a number of ways. This is the first time l am writing one from homeland-Nigeria.

In an attempt to put up this edition, l’ll try to give a summary of some of the things that continue to be a source of heartache for me with respect to Nigeria.

Having spent a few days in Nigeria, l could write more than 1000 pages on what l have experienced so far. Majority of what l have seen and experienced are negative things.

In this year-2016, hopelessness pervades the country.

I am the man who cries when he writes about Nigeria. My heart bleeds. This was not the dream for Nigeria. Madness has overtaken this land.

There are uncountable issues to be addressed in Nigeria. I don’t even know where to start from. No one does. The level of destruction and general decadence is out of this world.

Things have finally fallen apart. Sadly, majority of the people don’t get it. No, they don’t understand the meaning of life.

If you are looking for the definition of selfishness, don’t look at the dictionary. Just take a trip around your neighbourhood. The selfishness of men and women have turned them to haters of fellow humans.

The government of Nigeria continues to fail the people, hence majority of Nigerians have been battered beyond repair.

Seriously, I don’t even know how to proceed with this essay. Nigeria is the dark country both figuratively and in reality. I have seen many long, dark nights and many boring afternoons of no electricity. It is almost totally absent so much that Mr. Fashola is now called the Minister for darkness.

I take long walks and l drive about town, what l see is [almost everybody doing the wrong thing] just to fulfil their own personal ambitions or missions for the day.

Nigeria is in a total mess.

I have thought about writing an open letter to President Buhari.

One of my suggestions to him would be that he needs to take a road tour of Nigeria and find out how the people are living and how they are suffering from day to day.  I will implore him to travel by land and water for once. He should fashy the plane for this fact-finding mission.

When l finally write the letter, l intend to point out the failure of the APC-Buhari mandate so far. A friend of mine got upset last weekend because he read somewhere that the APC still blames the PDP for the problems in Nigeria as if Nigerian politicians are different from one another.

Together my friend and l agreed that things didn’t have to get worse before they get better. The APC-Buhari mandate does not know what Nigerians are going through. If they know, how can they be so pretentious and callous?

The APC is just like the PDP (birds of the same feather) and together they have ruined the country and failed the people. The APC-Buhari mandate was not ready for its own change agenda. Under the APC-Buhari mandate thing fell apart very quickly and they are still falling like a pack of cards.

The verdict have been given on the APC-Buhari mandate: majority of Nigerians regretted their votes. This does not mean that they preferred the PDP-Jonathan government. They are just confused and confounded.

The people have concluded that Nigerian politicians are criminals who go to Abuja and other government offices across the country to steal and loot. It is this criminality that pervades the society. That’s one of the reasons why everybody looks at the other person with suspicious eyes and inqusitive minds.

Away from their pastors and imams the people you find in churches and mosques praying are the same people raining curses on the APC government. They have tagged this regime and they have pinned it down as the worst regime ever in terms of human suffering and the collapse of the economy.

Even my suggestion that the pdp-years would be the worst years of the Nigerian life has been dwarfed by the one year of APC-Buhari regime.

It’s getting worse with each passing day.

It does not matter what any APC-asslickers think or suggest. Everybody has reached their own walls and the chickens are eating one another’s intestines.

That is the people’s verdict-that this regime is the worst ever in Nigeria’s history in terms of human suffering and government insensitivity.

This is the verdict l’ve heard everyday on the streets of Lagos in the last 2½ weeks.

This is the verdict of the market men and women.

This is the verdict of the ones who have been thrown out of jobs and the ones who have never been gainfully employed.

This is the verdict of the men and women who run their businesses running on generators and plants round the clock.

This is the verdict of the old people who sit in front of their flats/homes everyday just steering at the sky hopelessly. Many old people in Nigeria are tired and without pension and care. They live like beggars.

Majority were not even civil serrvants. They did small businesses and they are now old and hopeless.

Some are not even very old. They are just jobless and hopeless. I see them and l cry. Nigeria is hell for them.

Even many young jobless people live like beggars too. They do unnecessary things and provide useless services and then beg for money. Someone can even remove a stone in your way and systematically ask you for money for lunch.

If your car breaks down on the road, some people will approach you for ”owo taku”-money that your car has broken down. These are some examples of the sad state of Nigeria.

In the anticipated letter to the presidency, l would point out to future governments in Nigeria that they need to set out at dawn and that they must make hay whilst the sun shines.

I intend to share the message of Mrs. Obi my secondary school teacher with President Buhari and the rest of the Nigerian population including the opposition-the PDP-that what is worth doing at all is what doing well. Mrs. Obi would be happy if l add her favourite line: nearly does not catch a bird!  We just have to get it right to make it work.

In addition to the letter to the presidency, l also intend to write a letter to the governor of Lagos state, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. In fact, l intend to write a series of letter to this number one man of Lagos. I hope he’s warming up for them.

I understand from some quarters that the regime of Mr. Ambode has embarked on some road construction and repair. I saw some myself.  I don’t praise public servants. Becoming the governor was never an obligation. It will forever be a choice.

Still, there are many, many bad roads in Lagos state. Ha ba! You have to raise your car to the first floor before you can drive on Lagos roads that are full of ”wells”. The use of the phrase ”pot-holes” is an understatement. For me, l don’t want to live in a state where there is a single bad road. I want all the roads to be like paradise road. By applying sense and responsibility, we can do it.

Rather than put pressure on the state and local government on the need to provide good roads everywhere, almost all the citizens of Lagos have bought Jeeps or in the process of buying one. This is one of the remarkable but terrible characteristics of Nigerians-they don’t seek to address a problem, they beat about the bush.

If everybody in Nigeria buys a jeep, whose responsibility is it then to point out the failure of the government in providing good roads? Naija sha!

In my attempt to call the government to order, l will not leave the local government chairman of my community out of the picture. He or she is the nearest person on whose shoulders the burden of governance rest.

In that letter or essay which will be coming in a matter of weeks, l am going to inform the present sole administrator and the future local government chairman of my estate about the problems that l see in Festac Town and l will give suggestions for the solutions.

We cannot go on like this. Again, it appears that we all sleep and face the same direction. The society is full of many mad situations.

I will not be sparing the governor of Ogun state as my country home lies in his domain. In fact from what l heard about the Lusada road connecting Winners Chapel, l have very strong words for him as soon as l set to work on all my complains.

I wished l have all the time in the world in Nigeria. I want to start talking to the people again. I have done that in the past before l left Nigeria.

I have thought about blowing my whistle again just like old time when l led the young people in my community on many missions just to keep the sanity of our community. Now hell is on the loose.

I have thought of writing an open letter to the Nigerian Police because l am so scared of the guns pointing at me everyday on the roads. Why are the police pointing their guns at every motorist? What is going one? Are we at war?

I have thought of writing an open letter to the Federal Road Safety Commission to complain about the absence of a single sane driver on Lagos roads. Everybody is mad they tell me! I see it too. Nigerians don’t know how to drive, and l mean it. They just move the cars like crazy people.

It is so bad l have not seen a single Lagos driver who knows how to turn left at the end of the road. Rather then turn, Nigerian drivers make sharp manouver. There is an unwritten agreement that everybody on the road must be agressive and drive like someone who is crazy. How can we stop the madness?

I have thought about writing and talking to every single Nigerian alive about their civil responsibilities, about the meaning of life and how to pursue happiness.

I have thought about writing a letter to the Ministry of Transport on the need to withdraw all the Okada drivers in my community and march them onward to their villages to different farm settlements where their children can be educated and they as adults can be gainfully employed and productive.

People need to be reintegrated into normal existence as soon as possible. Things are getting out of hand and getting worse by the day.

The government is failing. The people are failing. I have never seen anything like this anywhere else.

In Nigeria, since my return, l have done a lot of things to fulfil my roles and obligations within my immediate family.

I have lost family members who are close to me including my mother.

In this country, we have all gotten our shares of the Nigerian tragic existence. What a sad story we all share.

I have been on live program on Channels TV. On Rubbin’ Mind, l made a case for the Niger Deltans. If we make their home paradise on earth, no one will be mending or avenging any mess. It’s as simple as that.

I have done a newspaper interview and l spoke about the need to re-introduce reading into the school time-table for children. I also made an argument for the maintenance and bulding of libraries across Nigeria to ensure that the reading culture is kept. Reading from books will remain the best way to extract knowledge and inspiration.

If l’m opportuned, l could do one more TV interview/discussion on my new book, the Madrilenian. It was launched in Stockholm on June 18 and will be launched and released in Nigeria on July 16.

Oh, l almost forgot, l have spent substantial part of my return to Nigeria visiting my father. He is an old pal, a jolly good fellow at that.

I have spent quality time with my friends and acquaintainces. I have mingled with mechanics, vulcanizers, petrol station attendants, civil servants, traders, journalists, young and old people. I have walked the streets, walked into peoples’ homes unannounced and even chatted with strangers.

I have done my best and l keep my head high.

I know we can turn this country around. If we start from adopting a system of government that works (regional government for example), we will be able to re-educate our people in the different parts using our local culture and heritage as the re-starting blocks.

We can tap people’s energies, knowledge and creativity to put Nigeria back on the path of progress. We can bring back our people in foreign countries through reverse brain-drain.

Oh, what greatness we can achieve with sincerity, patriotism and honesty!

 

aderounmu@gmail.com