Crime against Humanity

Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

The time is ripe for the ordinary citizens to orchestrate and execute the agenda of both political and economic reforms. They cannot wait. The people must ensure that all those who fail the country pay for their crimes and they must set new agenda for the way forward. Where there is a (good) will, there is a way.

Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

By Adeola Aderounmu

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I have been writing about Nigeria for quite a while now. A few times, l’d almost given up on Nigeria. Many times, l’d resigned and promised never to write again. It’s too easy to give up because Nigeria is heading no where. It’s easy to give up because you don’t see the impact of what you and others are writing about. It is too easy to give up because when one group of criminals are leaving the government, another group of worse criminals are stepping in.

I know many people living abroad who don’t ever want to hear you discuss about Nigeria again. As far as they are concerned, Nigeria will never, never get better and anyone hoping to change things is just chasing shadows. In fact, l also know many people living in Nigeria who either look at you with indifference or even laugh at you when you think you have some messianic opinion.

My guy, abeg leave story, if you can’t beat them, you join them. Let them dey chop, pray make your own time come. No be today abeg.

With these submissions and resignations, it is obvious that Nigeria is heading no where. The country is hopeless and vandalised. It is overrun by criminals occupying all public institutions. Ordinary citizens of Nigeria at home and abroad have come to terms with the fact that criminals are running the presidency, the senate, the various states and the local councils.

So they pray that as many people and as many families as possible can take turns so that the national cake can go round. These actually are the views of the educated and semi-literates too. Everybody has join the bandwagon that Nigeria is a geographical area whose resources must be plundered turn by turn by locals and foreigners.

Some citizens are so excruciated and excluded from the running of Nigeria that it appears that they don’t even know where they are and which century we live in. Several millions of Nigerians have been booted off the radar of civilisation. The people are so bruised mentally and physically they don’t know how to fight for their rights and freedom. They are so brainwashed and deprived they don’t know how to tear down non-functional governments and oppressions staring at them everyday of their life.

How then do you console a people who never experienced even 12 hours uninterupted electricity in their life time? How do you console a people harbouring certain generations that haven’t experience quality education in their entire life time? How do you console a people who now see education as a waste of time because of the way politicians turn to criminals and just cart away loots everyday? How do you console a generation that worships ill-gotten monies and ostentatious display of wealth.

There is no consolation but pity for the people who have no understanding for the meaning of life and how the rest of the world looks like in 2017. You must pity those who see a normal downpour of rain as a curse as it swallows houses, property and people. You must pity those who don’t know who they voted for in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015. They don’t even know who is running the country. A person or a cabal? You must pity a people governed by coconut heads who assemble regularly in London while the country lies in ruin and desolation.

You must pity the largest accumulation of black people on earth with the largest accumulation of tragedies. You have to pity the country that suppresses brilliant minds or simply turn them to criminals at home or heroes abroad.

You must pity the country that was once a rising giant but now a crawling cripple. You must pity the country that was once the hub for the princes and kings of the world but now a footstool for terrorists, separatists and militants.

You have to pity that country and people where murders by heavy stones is the order of the day at the economic capital. If you have some conscience left in you, you must sympathise with the country where brutal killings and rape in the hands of the herdsman is the order of the day on any grassland or arable land. The country is heading no where when the politicians sentence the people to death daily by their actions while they seek solace and comfort in London, Dubai and USA.

You have to pity this generation whose schools are constantly under lock as the majority of criminal politicians and the elites send their children abroad to receive quality education. In how many ways can we recount what is wrong with Nigeria, yet nothing seems to change?

What has changed in the last 2 years is that the administrative capital of Nigeria has moved to London by the man who promised the change now turned charade. He fooled Nigerians and made them pay for his medical bills and the education of his children abroad. What happened to leading by example?

This is a country heading no where. Whatever you read here now has been mentioned more than 30 years ago in writing and in songs. Is Nigeria a country? A place where people capture power and suppress truth and freedom. Is Nigeria a real country when poverty and hopelessness remain the rewards of citizenship. Cry, cry, cry for one of the most tragic sequences of political mismanagement in human history.

Still, Nigeria can go to places. The country can be free. Real change and absolute freedom will depend on the people. When they are ready for freedom, they know what to do. The criminals and politicians or even the cabals if they exist are very few and the people are several millions. They can become organised and in a matter of weeks change their destinies.

All they have to do is have a common goal and declare that enough is enough. When that happens, freedom will come and Nigeria will start to head somewhere. The people must unite and forge an agenda that will once and for all remove the clog from the wheel of progress.

The time is ripe for the ordinary citizens to orchestrate and execute the agenda of both political and economic reforms. They cannot wait. The people must ensure that all those who fail the country pay for their crimes and they must set new agenda for the way forward. Where there is a (good)will, there is a way.

aderounmu@gmail.com

My Random Reflections @ 45

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

This present unitary government that has now moved the headquarters of the Nigerian government to London is foolish, and a means to continue to breed bad leaders or to turn progressive leaders into mumus

 

The new clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria and the advantages for it will on the long run outweighs the useless unitary system that had kept more than 100m Nigerians in poverty, living from hand to mouth.

My Random Reflections @45

By Adeola Aderounmu

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Adeola Aderounmu

This is the 9th edition of my random reflections.

Nigeria is still in a lot of mess. Nigerian musician African China prayed that we should not let this country fall into a well. I am afraid that this country is not only inside a well, it is also drowned in the well.

ANOTHER MESSY, CLUELESS PRESIDENCY

Nigeria’s president is unwell. He is holed up somewhere in the world, most probably the UK. Earlier into his tenure, in several of my articles, l’d suggested that Mr.Buhari ought to be home to his family in Daura, taking it easy and enjoying the rest of his days.

In matters relating to health, it is not everytime we need people or doctors to advise us. Common sense about how our body functions and how it respond to stress and rest should be more important signals. No one can cheat nature. President Buhari should have handed over to Professor Yemi Osinbajo a long time ago. Now he struggling to stage a comeback in the kingdom of hyenas, wolves and jackals. Who was it that described Nigeria as a zoo again?

WE NEVER LEARN

In the time past, Mr. Buhari and his cohorts in the APC/opposition party demanded for the resignation or impeachment of Umaru Yar Adua when he was sick and flew round the globe in search of a magic healing.

There are other issues related to the above. We know that several billions of naira have been budgeted over the years for the State House clinic in Abuja. The fact that ailing presidents always continue to fly abroad for treatment is shameful and extremely embarassing to the black race. What was the meaning of independence again?

 

DASHED HOPES

We know just how bad leadership and massive corruption had sent this country into a well. The hope that came with the APC-Buhari mandate was probably about 20% of that which came with the botched June 12 1993 presidential elections.

When APC promised change that was to come in 2015, the people bought it. They did because the Jonathan government was wasting our time, money and resources. It is now obvious that this regime is not better than the Jonathan regime. With the kind of fluidity that allows cross-carpeting and merry-go-round, the two parties, APC and PDP are in principle the same nonsense.

This government (the APC-Buhari-Osinbajo mandate) so far is a popular disaster. It is not in such a way that one wishes that the PDP government was never defeated at the presidential election in 2015. It is rather in such a way that one looks back with sadness over what had taken place since 1999.

Both PDP and APC have brought shame, destruction, poverty and extreme hopelessness to the ordinary citizens of Nigeria who numbered more than 100 million.

 

HISTORY OF FAILURES

The civilian rule from 1999 to date represents a time in the history of Nigeria where criminals, thieves, looters, assasins and political gangsters remain in control of Nigeria. In terms of prosperity, this period of time is the worse in the history of Nigeria. Previous failures have been recorded during the military regimes 1966-1979, 1984-1999 and civilian rule 1979-1984.

 

CORRUPTION UNABATED

Corruption is also thriving under the Buhari-Osinbajo-APC Mandate, like never before. One month ago, on June 14 2017, Mr. Olusola Saraki was cleared and acquitted of all the criminal charges against him in the law court in Nigeria. If you are looking for the biggest scams of the 21st century, that judgement will pass as a key blacklist. Despite the promise of change, prosecutions for corruption are rare and the buffer provided by cross-carpeting remains a huge joke in Nigeria.

 

POLITICIANS OR CRIMINALS

The entire political class in Nigeria itself is one huge scam. There are no new ways to describe the levels of looting, stealing, mischieviousness, misdemeanour and outright crime against humanity that Nigerian politicians are commiting daily, on a large scale.

 

The incursion of the military into politics in Nigeria through coups and later the civil war, would forever remain a calamity. They left with a constitution that turned Nigeria into a unitary state. They promoted and sustained corruption, nepotism, tribalism. They also flamed religion and ethnicity and brought Nigeria to her knees. The country never rose again and Nigeria is still crawling.

 

NOTHING HAS CHANGED

There are a lot of things we had talked or written about for decades, years and months. There are no changes, so it’s like we are wasting our time. For example, we complained about former governors looting away states’ treasuries through undeserved pensions. Today they are still looting (in form of pensions) several billions of naira monthly.

Several former governors have invaded the Nigerian National Assembly as Senators. They are on live pension even though they have not become handicapped in any way. They are carting away salaries from the National Assmembly and pensions from their former states.

We are talking about a National Assembly that is sucking away between 20-25% of Nigeria’s annual budget through world record salaries and allowances.

Is that change? That is daylight robbery that calls for nation wide protests and revolution.

 

POOR MASSES ALWAYS DEFEATED

Nigerians surely love changes, the latest being the election of Adeleke as the Senator representing Osun West senatorial district. However, what remains sad is the sustenance of the status quo, that is, head or tail the masses have always lost.

 

RESTRUCTURE NIGERIA

Some people think this is new whereas Nigeria gained her independence in 1960 as a well structred entity. Governance was concentrated in the regions and the country prospered. True, the politicians had their shortcomings, but there was progress everywhere in the country depsite all the political troubles. Progress was based on the instincts of the various regions to develop and outshine one another.

Therefore the incursion of the military into politics in Nigeria through coups and later the civil war, would forever remain a calamity. They left with a constitution that turned Nigeria into a unitary state. They promoted and sustained corruption, nepotism, tribalism. They also flamed religion and ethnicity and brought Nigeria to her knees. The country never rose again and Nigeria is still crawling.

The new clamour for the restructuring of Nigeria and the advantages for it will on the long run outweighs the useless unitary system that had kept more than 100m Nigerians in poverty, living from hand to mouth.

The restructuring, now put better as both political and economic restructuring, will not be a magic solution. However, it should in a matter of a couple of decades be a blessing for the upcoming and unborn generations.

This present unitary government that has now moved the headquarters of the Nigerian government to London is foolish, and a means to continue to breed bad leaders or to turn progressive leaders into mumus.

The APC promised to restructure Nigeria and got voted for that purpose but to date the APC-mandate carriers are promoting the useless system of come, chop, clean mouth and go.

 

PERSONAL LIFE

For my birthday, it is been time well spent with family as usual this time in Sweden. We gathered at the family country home to have a dinner. It’s been so for over a deacde now.

Last year, the celebration was in Lagos, a place dear and close to my heart. It appears flood and badoo boys are wiping the state and people away. Shameful!

I am happy despite all the problems. Nigerians are supposed to be the happiest people in the world a few years ago. Are we all still happy? I guess so, especially in the absence of rage and urge to flush the politicians away for good.

I believe in change so I resigned my position as the president of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm after servng for 6 years and organising 4 annual Yoruba Days in Stockholm.

Last year l published a book The Madrilenian, a collection of 8 short stories.

My next book, a story about how an Italian family tried to cope with the post-mafian era has reached an advanced stage and may hit publication in 2018 or 2019. It’s fiction.

In our country Nigeria, the more things change, the more they stay the same. We are in a dilemma.

Life goes on and nothing last…

Live and let live

 

aderounmu@gmail.com

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

Nigeria @ 56: The Lucky Bastards!

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

It is better for Buhari to sacrifice his ego than for all of us to allow the APC-Buhari mandate to sacrifice Nigeria. President Buhari should be on his farm tending his cattle or country home playing with his grandchildren. If not now, when does he want to rest?

Nigeria @ 56: The Lucky Bastards!

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria enters her 56th year as an independent country in deep sorrow. Nigerian politicians who are largely responsible for the economic woes, recession and depression in the country are discussing how to sell the national assets. These politicians fit the expression The Lucky Bastards!

Who sells his father’s house or property without due consultations if not a bastard?

But the real reason Nigerian politicians are the lucky bastards is because they live in a country where there is no rage, yet people expect a change. That’s actually a huge joke.

There are not so many countries in the world where criminals rule the people and get away with it. There are too many examples to draw from but just the flash of news that the case against Mr. Saraki will be dropped, for example, reminds one that Nigeria is not a real country.

In real countries, there would be rage, occupation and sacking of criminals in government by force. The people will see to that.

Nigeria at 56 remains that geographical area where some people captures the center and oppress the rest-more than 100m. The exact population of Nigeria is not known as the northern part of the country is largely exaggerated in terms of the actual human population.

Whose assets are up for sale really? Who has the right to sell the people’s assets without a referendum or a long-term discussion on the benefits and disadvantages of selling national assets?

The common man on the street does not even know what a national asset means. In his world there is no difference from the crimes that has been perpetrated against him through looting of crude oil proceeds or mismanagement of revenues from other sources and the anticipated looting of the proceeds of the sales of Nigeria’s national assets.

The street implication of the sale of a national asset is simply the story of the prodigal child. The people who looted the country into recession are the ones selling and pocketing the proceeds of the national assets. Unless a referendum is done, or a national debate orchestrated, the street meaning of the sale of national assets will stand.

At 56, Nigeria is crawling. It is a big shame and a serious embarassment to the country that (ridiculously) brands herself as the giant of Africa. As far back as the early 90s, a lot of us joke that Nigeria is the sleeping giant of Africa.

In what ways can we now describe Nigeria? The dead giant of Africa will be appropriate. We have the bunch of lucky bastards to thank for that.

But seriously, who could have thought that the second year (now approaching) of the APC could have landed Nigeria into further mess? Only a few of us saw this coming. I remember how we were told to give the APC time. I remember how l always write that Nigeria has no luxury of time.

In several essays l kept complaining about the deviation of the APC from real governance.

In January 2016 l wrote that we cannot go on like this when the prices of goods and services hit the roof. If january 2016 was compared to september 2016, the january month was still a child’s play in terms of the hell that now prevail in Nigeria.

I was in the country to see things myself. It’s a sad situation.

Some people argued that some of us are impatient, that we should give the APC time. Now these people are quiet and they have disappeared from the social network because the APC has failed them. They are embarassed.

To be sincere, we are all embarassed. I am embarassed. I supported APC on the eve of the 2015 elections.

But when some of us write about Nigeria, we should not be seen an anti-government or anti-establishments. I think we go out of our ways to provide that check and the slim life wire that the hope of the common man hinged upon.

Total silence will lead to escalated genocide perpetrated through diverse mechanisms: hunger, road accidents, corruption, deprivation, inequality, injustice, lack of health, lack of education, lack of electricity, rise in social injustice, maladministration and outright war on the people as in the South East and the Niger Delta region.

I write about Nigeria because l’m hoping to one day live in the country that my mother described before she passed to glory. That country where she commuted by rail, walked Yaba to Ojuelegba and Oni Street Surulere by night, left her job to concentrate on family (thinking that things will always be the same, rosy) and procreated (not knowing that poverty could ever knocked on anyone’s door in western Nigeria).

I want to live in the country of my mother, the one that western Nigeria gave her. That’s why l write about Nigeria.

But the lucky bastards stole my future away in Nigeria. They refused to plan for my today. Not even one of them (from 1960 to 2016) will accept that they have done wrong. Rather they are still looting! Unrepentant criminals!

I am a long shot from the dream of living in the country my mother described. The distance was made longer when the APC lost the track very early in the navigation process of the APC-Buhari mandate.

If l am to live in the country that my mother described, the only thing l can ask for at this time in addition to good governance, is the resignation of President Buhari. He has failed and there are no signs that he will succeed before the end of this first term in office. If a miracle happens, he will bring Nigeria to the place it was when the corrupt PDP was sacked in 2015. They are all corrupt up till now. The lucky bastards!

If the APC-Buhari mandate maintains the status-quo, their first term report sheet will end with Nigeria buried in the sand. A country may not be left to govern!

There are so many reasons why president Buhari should resign. More than one year in office, he continues to blame the PDP for his failures. As a teacher, l would have sent (student Buhari) to the special education department. He needs help. He cannot lead successfully.

In the interest of the country at large and to rescue what is left of the first term of a tumultous and corrupt regime, the APC needs to do very quick analyses of her campaign slogans, manifestos and programs and find out what has gone wrong. The country is more important than individual interests or ego.

In an attempt to get back on track, the party should ask Buhari to step aside to allow for fresh minds and active millennium-compliant brains to help the country get back to productive ways again. In 2 years, a lot can still be put together. Someone in the APC needs to stop blaming the PDP. We all saw the problems before the change slogan was activated. Give us a clear blueprint!

Many people, at private discussions, have laughed about my suggestion that Buhari needs to step aside because politicians don’t resign or step aside in Nigeria.

President Buhari’s case is different, he is old and should be in his country home playing with his grandchildren. If not now, when does he want to rest? He needs to go home to Daura and let us retrieve our country from ruins.

It is better for Buhari to sacrifice his ego than for all of us to allow the APC-Buhari mandate to sacrifice Nigeria.

In more than 15 years of writing about Nigeria l have seen the country sailed without the men who thought that Nigeria cannot continue without them. The list will grow with time.

The APC must remember the first item on her manifesto/program. One of the long-term solutions to the several problems plaguing Nigeria is the political solution. We miss the country where our parents and grandparents thrived before the civil war. It is there (to the regional governments)  we must return and start to rebuild.

A country that is a fool at 56 is as good as dead!

 

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