Democracy

Why God Will Not Save Nigeria

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By Adeola Aderounmu

In Nigeria God has been used to perpetuate and cover many atrocious acts both inside and outside of worship centers.

When dubious men and cunning women who have stolen Nigeria’s money enter into churches and mosques and ask God or Allah to save Nigeria, then you wish for the God that can answer by fire and consume the guilty flesh in his presence.

The characters of several Nigerian political and public officers call for evaluation of both the ordinary mental states and the anticipated cognitive capabilities in Nigeria.

In my opinion I think it is pure stupidity for a man to neglect his obligations and pray for miracles to achieve the goals of his obligations.

The problems with Nigeria are too complex.

It is also disturbing that since we see things from different perspectives, it appears there is no way forward. Since I have known Nigeria it has become increasingly impossible for the people to find a genuine way to seek the common good.

Increasingly, before and after the days of the songs made popular by “The Mandators” Nigeria deepens as an incomprehensible jungle of rat race.

I have no hope in Nigeria based on the status quo.

Nigerians themselves have acquired the Stockholm syndrome because millions of Nigerians will do anything to defend the nature of Nigeria. They will tell you to stop criticizing the government, that you should proffer solutions to unintelligent rulers and above all some Nigerians will tell you to hope in God who can do all things.

Really?

This veil of God has, in no small measure, contributed to the persistent underdevelopment in Nigeria.

The intellectuality and the creativity of the majority of Nigerian people have been truncated and incapacitated mainly by this mentality hinge on religious belief side-by-side negligence of citizen duties/obligations to country and humanity.

Isn’t it sad that religious rulers have now developed sticky fingers by stealing from tithes and offerings to buy private jets? Nigerian pastors now rank among the richest people in the world. If there is a real hell fire, these men will probably be likely candidates. Apparently they know there is none, so they feed fat on the masses who are scared and are brain-switched by religious indoctrinations.

Even Jesus whom they try fruitlessly to emulate was said to have rode on a donkey. He gave to the poor and needy, he shared with them.

Which God is going to save Nigeria? The one the religious rulers are stealing from or the one the looting politicians are pretentiously calling upon?

I don’t know how one God or several gods will save a people that permit and tolerate the looting of their common treasury. A people so resilient they cannot use the numbers on their side to turn the table in their own favour.

No one knows exactly how much has been stolen from Nigeria. The estimate (still growing by the minutes) runs into several billions of dollars. Several countries in the world would have become extinct if such were stolen from them. The sum stolen from Nigeria so far would have led to a global economic crisis if such amount were to disappear from the European economy.

At this time of the year and at the beginning of a new one, Nigerians will converge at different worship centers not only at home but across the world. They’ll pray for miracles in the New Year and they will pray that God will take control of the Nigerian political and economic situations.

Those who are stealing Nigeria’s money from the presidency to the local government will say the same prayer. Let us imagine a God like that of Elijah in the Holy Bible. Let us imagine a God like that of Moses in the Bible. Let us just imagine how fire and earthquake would have consumed all the hypocrites gathered in the temples, churches and mosques on the last day of the year, or even before then.

That type of God would have saved the helpless masses because by one swoop, 99.9% of Nigerian rulers would be consumed and 99.9% of the pastors and imams would perish.

If this is what Nigerians are waiting for, I am sorry to break the news again that several millions of Nigerians will go through this life without ever experiencing the true meaning and the essence of living. I am fond of calling this situation one the worst but hidden tragedies of modern era.

In recent months, I have pondered over the reasoning of some people that I’d encountered in real life and through other means. It is sad that some Nigerians have confused their personal achievements and survival strategies with the opportunities that the state is supposed to provide to everyone.

When people start to do well through their struggles through thin and thick or via their connections to the strings that fetch wealth from the Nigerian situations, they suddenly forget or neglect the maladministration, the gross incompetence and the severely corrupt nature of the Nigerian government across all strata. They give credits to their gods or to their spiritual fathers.

Some people are still struggling genuinely and some are also struggling with the anticipation or hope that one day, they will get to that point where they will benefit from the corrupt system. You can ask all the people who have been made wealthy by each successive corrupt government in Nigeria. Their testimonies of sudden riches represent the rude shock Nigerians got used to, with bizarre admiration.

All these categories of Nigerians converge in churches and mosques and pray that God will save Nigeria while they forget the roles that the citizens play in nation building. They forget the function of governments at all levels.

The other day I was at a gathering of some Nigerians in the diaspora. One young man was very emphatic about what should be done when you get the opportunity to serve in Nigeria. According to him and in fact, according to many confused and silly minds, “if you can’t beat them, then you join them”.

Majority of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora have unfortunately come to terms with the ill fact or misconception that the primary purpose of politics and public service is to enrich oneself when one gets elected or appointed into an office.

This is part of the sad reality that led me to the conclusion that Nigeria is in a very hopeless situation and that there is no God that will save Nigeria.

If Nigerians want to be saved or rescued they should abandon their churches and mosques and face the reality of everyday citizen roles in nation building. I don’t think they want to be.

The president of Nigeria and his vice are feeding themselves with over N1b annually on record and probably over N2b off record. In which other part of the world can this sort of systematic stealing happen? Since when do people who receive salary feed on government and tax-payers’ money? Nigerians should ask Jonathan about this and the insatiable urge from the presidency to spend all of Nigeria’s money and reserves.

Nigerians should get out of their worship places and ask about the report from each federal minister and every state commissioner about the outgoing year. They should seek answers to the ways their lives have been steered by those who they elected, selected or forced into offices. They should task the governors and lawmakers who are feeding and living on the highest paid political wages in the world-what have they done in the outgoing year to improve the lives of ordinary Nigerians?

Nigerians are going to the wrong places every Friday and every Sunday. God owes you nothing! The politicians and public servants owe you everything.

Nigerians, you owe yourselves that boldness to seek probity and accountability.

Take your drive away from places of worship and move towards the various government houses instead. Ask about the future of your children and yours. Ask about the quality of education against the backdrop of global industrialization and technological advancements. Make a request that the children of all politicians be educated in the local government where their fathers and mothers live.

Ask your local, state and federal governments about the state of health provisions when the president, his wife and all your politicians are heading abroad for treatments.

Nigerians, ask the people who rule you about water, roads, electricity and other social amenities that add meaning and values to life.

Ask about your police and the judiciary and how to make them work for you. Ask about jobs, housing, employment opportunities and social or welfare services that exist in the constitution but not in real situations. Ask about anything and everything that affect the way you live and the quality of your life.

Stop asking God. No deity will save Nigeria!

On your own part, you must come to the table with clean hands and pure hearts. In what ways have you contributed to the development of your family, community and region?

Are you looking for ways to impact positively on the people around you and on your community or are you looking for ways to “join them if you can’t beat them”?

Who told you that you cannot beat them? Stop believing in popular fallacies! Your gullible existence is sucking away positive energy from your living. Gandhi told you many years that you should be the change you want to see in the world.

You can pray from now to eternity and your lives and the future of your children will remain stolen and wasted. Your president can knee before men from now to eternity for nothing. Think more about your children and the useless country you are about to bequeath to them-a place where people get away with crimes, lootings and all sorts of atrocities.

You want to leave behind a country where they are not expecting anything from the state but where they have to struggle like it’s a rat race. Some people will do some extra struggle as history has always recorded, no doubt. But such situations that have now replaced normalcy can only be reversed by your positive actions and not by prayers.

God will not save Nigeria. I am sure. What will happen is that your pastors and imams will get richer tapping more from your meager earnings. You will contribute to building more churches and more mosques and no new schools for your children.

Your politicians (that include your fathers, your mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and acquaintances) will steal more money, get richer and sprinkle some crumbs around. They will give loads to churches and mosques, a confirmation that the churches and mosques are ruining your lives.

If you continue to pray without facing the realities, Nigeria will continue to waste away and possibly crumble. We won’t need seers to tell us that insecurity will rise, that the cost of living will continue to climb and that these difficulties will be directly proportional to sub-human standard of living.

Those who have escaped the poverty line should stop confusing their emergence with the real situation that ordinary Nigerians face daily. In 2012 Nigeria is rated among the most corrupt countries in the world and Nigeria is the worst place to deliver a child. These rankings are relative but a lot can be drawn from the statements, including the fact that Nigerian political and religious rulers are gangsters.

At the beginning of 2011, I wrote “My message to Nigerians in 2011, stop saying it’s God”. Since then things have gone even worse.

In 2013 I believe that Nigerians need to demand for as many as possible referendums.

It is very important to redefine the meaning of some words like: Nigeria, Nigerians, Regional Governments, Federal Government, Federal Republic, Federalism and Patriotism.

I read a bit of the Nigerian constitution and I thought it was written either by drunkards or some mad men. No nation will get anywhere with such a constitution. The application of common sense is far better than many of the contents of the Nigerian constitution.

For instance the issue of the federal character is clearly retrogressive and it gave a clear sign that Nigeria is not going to move forward anytime soon. We have subdued intellectualism and replaced it with resounding mediocrity. We have killed the voices of reasoning. I thought about some top employees of the Nigerian Immigration Service who are from Northern Nigeria and who usually ask their colleagues from western Nigerian to help them write letters to their wives and families in the north. My hope now is that they can at least send emails or sms on their mobile phones.

I also thought about some commissioners in Bayelsa State who served under Goodluck Jonathan. They wanted to travel to America with the Nigerian passport even when entry visas have not been sought. They were already asking for travel allowances ahead of visa procurement.

These types of men (and women) abound in Nigeria’s political space and public services due to local and federal character slash politics of thugs. Are we still surprised why the system collapsed in Nigeria?

In the Nigerian constitution, there are sections covering national awards. Over the years political thieves and known criminals who unfortunately are above the laws of the land have been given national awards in Nigeria. That alone, zeros the constitution because it takes a thief to honour a thief. Who is now fooling who?

In Nigeria millions of people are joining the bandwagon, looting, accepting bribes, cutting corners and doing anything it takes to “survive”. “If you can’t beat them, join them” is the national slogan and they keep praying to God. What a joint joke?

Some expectations are driven by absolute foolishness and blind faith. The things Nigerians are asking God to do are the functions of people and governments across the world. How can God fix a country where nearly all the national and state resources and funds are distributed into the private accounts of politicians and public servants? Is God a global magician?

When Nigerians are ready or when the veil of God is removed, they will rise up and claim what is theirs. How they do that is definitely up to them. Nigeria is not going to get better based on religion, prayers or miracles. God will not save Nigeria.

Only Nigerians can rescue and save themselves completely.

Doyin Okupe, Nigerians will rather stone you and Jonathan!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Some Nigerian rulers and power drunk employees of the Jonathan administration need to be called to order.

Doyin Okupe should be told that Nigerians will NEVER beg Jonathan to run in 2015.

If you ask me, I would rather have Jonathan out of office this minute. The guy is a waste of space and time. Under Jonathan Nigeria’s profile as probably the most corrupt country in the world gathered new momentum.

Jonathan will go down in history as the president of probes and committees. Not like the probes and committees saw the light of the day but rather that new ones are emerging daily.

Who will forget the uncountable corrupt practices under Jonathan? Jonathan defrauded Nigerians with the constant increase in petroleum products and its perpetual scarcity. Who will forget the Farouk Lawan and Otedola missing dollars? There are so many ways that Jonathan has messed up Nigeria.

These evils did not start with Jonathan but they escalated greatly under his watch making him one of the most incompetent handlers of Nigeria.

Doyin Okupe can continue to steal, loot and empty the treasury in Abuja. This is not the start for him. He’s been there for several years. What he should not do is to categorize all Nigerians as fools.

Doyin Okupe should be thankful to Farida who threw away or burnt his files at the EFCC.

In a normal country the appointment of Okupe into the presidency will have only one consequence: the end of that government through riots, demonstrations or total revolution.

But in a lawless and severely corrupt country like Nigeria, it will accrue praise among his bootlickers, family members, acquaintances and sycophants.

These are people who should be rotting in life sentences and they are returned to government with glamour. Jonathan is a disgrace to Nigeria and serious attestation to the uncommonness of common sense.

The other day Bode George, an ex-convict reported delivered a Herbert Macaulay lecture. The organisers of such events are definitely brain-dead or zombies.

The same pattern of madness brought a criminal like James Ibori to empty a state treasury for 8 years and the subsequent sponsoring of Yar Adua and Jonathan with stolen loots.

The evil in Nigeria will continue to rise when these types of aberrations are normal.

How can Doyin Okupe be in government and we turned away our faces? Lagbaja is so-so right when he mentioned 150-200m mumus.

Okupe should know that in 2015 (if Nigeria is still in existence then) the likes of him, Abati and Jonathan will follow the prescription that Abati himself gave us a few years ago.

Millions of Nigerians will gladly stone people like Abati, Okupe and Jonathan at rally grounds and probably follow up to the corridor of power (thanks Abati for the tips)

If your campaign funded by looted and stolen funds ever takes you to Jos, Kaduna and most of all Maiduguri, pray you live to tell the story Mr. Okupe.

Obama’s Victory: The Lessons for Nigeria’s Do-Or-Die Politicians

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Adeola Aderounmu

The American Electoral System is a modified form of democracy in itself. The people have become used to the system after 200 years and they are satisfied with how it works.

In my country of birth Nigeria one is constantly worried about the nature of the politics. Nigeria’s politics is a disgrace to humanity. It is depicted by lack of common sense and it does not serve the purpose for which it is intended.

Nigeria’s politics is bloody and deadly. It raises violent men and women and suppresses intellectualism.

Nigeria became an independent country in 1960 and since then it has been from grace to grass politically because someone fools and idiots ran the show using violence, arson and aggression.

In very worrying situations, intellectuals have been part of this worrying politics.

It is so sad because Nigerians are not ready or willing to change their violent democratic principles.

Check out this joke on facebook:

IF USA WAS NIGERIA, TODAY’S HEADLINES WILL READ:

•Don’t celebrate yet, Romney tells Obama (TELL magazine)

•Concede defeat, Obama urges Romney (Punch newspaper)

• 20 opposition cadres riot (The Sun newspaper)

• Romney Demands Vote Recount (Vanguard newspaper)

• Elections rigged (Guardian newspaper)

• No evidence of manipulation (NTA news)

• The Church declares elections free and fair (News Line)

• There will be violence if we lose; Romney declares (LTV 8 news)

• Election results for Arizona awaited (Channels news)

• Trucks with suspected ballot papers crosses into USA from Mexico (Tribune newspaper)

• Romney is an opportunist – Go back to your farm (AIT news)

• I will not accept results, Romney tells Obama (STV news)

• McCain heads to Election Petition Tribunal (MITV)

• White Majority rejects results (PM News)

• Kenyan Big Boy Senator Obama Throws Lavish Party to celebrate Election Victory (City People)

• Free for all fight at Obama rally in Grant Park (Channels TV)

• Northern elders, Arewa and Sultan rejects results (ThisDay)

• Republicans and Democrats supporters clash in Ketu and Ajangbadi, 14 dead, Romney threatens more heads will roll. (Sahara Reports)

• The people behind Obama’s victory: True story uncovered (Newswatch)

Funny. But Let’s Be Objective This Would Have Been The Report If USA Was Nigeria.

Food For Thought.
Learn And Change (likely source, ENVOY MAG facebook page)

These imaginary headlines are so true and sad.

Nigeria will not have a free and fair election in the nearest future because the political structures are weak and the system of government is very sickling.

True federalism is needed and there is an urgent need to take power away from the center.

The people of Nigeria actually need a referendum to decide on the future of the British creation. This is why Biafra will never go away no matter how much it is suppressed by the reigning gangsters in Abuja.

The poverty in Nigeria is tied to the recklessness of the political status quo that promotes nepotism and total corruption. Total corruption is the state where almost everything in a system is corrupt and where the mentality of attaining sufficiency and happiness are tied to malpractice and ills rather than common good. This is the situation in Nigeria and it is very sad.

If this generation is too cowardly and too corrupt to make the radical changes, I am convinced that one generation in the future (no matter how long it takes) will make it right. It will never be too late to catch up with the rest of the world if the world doesn’t end today.

Nigeria at 50: Two Wasted Generations!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

This post should now read: Nigeria at 53, third generation on the wasteline!

Goodluck Jonathan and his crew are further driving this country into everlasting perdition.

Nigerian politicians are still looting and stealing the country blind.

Impunity is at a record high, executive recklessness unabated, corruption without equal on a global scale, militants are lords and terrorists are on the loose. They just murdered more than 50 students in their sleep.

Lawlessness abounds and the animal kingdom syndrome persists.

Nigeria is on the expressway to hell.
_______________________________________________________

Original article from 2010 below:

One of the major inexplicable factors that continue to keep Nigeria in the doldrums is the myopic tendency of the general population including surprisingly the literate sector. Suddenly we kept quiet despite the fact that we know that (USD110) N17b earmarked for Nigeria’s 50th anniversary celebration is not only ostentatious but also wicked, malicious, ill-timed and very unnecessary.

The non-essentiality of the expensive celebration at the national level is not related to the wealth of Nigeria. There are retired army generals in Nigeria who boast of more wealth than some nations in Africa. Money is not Nigeria’s problem. Those who continue to rank Nigeria among the poorest countries in the world must develop better parameters for defining their expressions in relative terms.

When describing the nature of poverty and penury among the populace it will be worthwhile to present them against the backdrop of what has been done to the resources and oil revenues since 1960. Nigerian rulers, dictators, politicians and tyrants have stolen more money from the national coffers than probably any other country on the surface of the earth. Nigeria is therefore not a poor country per se. But the people are impoverished no thanks to the extreme mismanagement of the various rulers, the current ruler being no exception in any way.

Nigeria is 50 years on October 1st 2010. This time in our history does not call for any national celebration. It ought to be a time of sober reflection. Nigeria used to be the giant and pride of Africa. That was back in the days. Today, Nigeria’s economic and politics portray sad pictures. Our educational system is so bad that several Nigerian students are now trooping to Ghana for tutorship.

Those who have looted, stole and destroyed the country have several of their children and family members abroad for education and comfort. To be sure, some people who have genuinely attained economic sufficiency also travel abroad for educational reasons.

It is not only the educational system in Nigeria that has suffered. Almost every aspect of our lives in Nigeria has suffered tremendous setback in such a way that the overall quality of life for the ordinary Nigerian is below the acceptable level for humans.

In the Niger Delta for example where most of our revenues are generated life is far from being a beauty to behold. National and international conspiracies have transformed the rich oil fields to killing fields and a valley of death and despair. Even the locals have not helped matter. As governors, fake elders and senseless followers they have contributed to the devastation of their heritage.

In Nigeria electricity generation is near 0%. Millions of Nigerians and thousands of businesses, big and small, depend on power generators that also generate toxic fumes and devastating noises. Nigerian businesses are growing and developing faster in Ghana than in Nigeria whereas the Nigerian environment is now widely videoed and used in documentaries to emphasize environmental disasters.

Health care has been so neglected that almost every Nigerian politician travel abroad to seek medical help. Last week both Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan took their doctors with them to the US. Where should the ordinary Nigerian people go for medical help? They have no money and still depend on the dilapidated health facilities scattered around Nigeria.

Apart from education and health there is a general breakdown in the provision and availability of other basic infrastructure. Water is scarce and Nigeria made the global news in August 2010 as a result of deaths related to cholera. Toilets are primitive in many localities and the level of sanity is extremely low.

[As I write 2 days to our 50th anniversary, an avoidable flood situation is sweeping people away in Northern Nigeria and people are swimming to safety on calabashes. Millions are displaced. The news and images spread internationally but NTA’s cameras continue to shy away from the disaster. The focus is on the billions of naira been wasted on parties here and there to mark Nigeria’s failures].

In addition to cholera, malaria also remains a threat to human lives especially in children under 4 years of age and pregnant women. Nigeria is likely the only country in the world with records of polio incidence. While the politicians and the corrupt public and private individuals continue to amass wealth, the generality of the masses-more than 70%-continue to live in abject poverty. They suffer neglect and live day-in-day-out in hopelessness.

Politics in Nigeria is the greatest source of our national shame. It is one area that exposes us internationally as “incapable” of governing ourselves successfully. Somewhere along the line we threw away merit and replaced it with mediocrity.

Tribal politics rose to unassuming heights and corruption ate deep into every fabric of the society. The concept of politics-for-the-belly, self-enrichment, inexplicable insatiable, evil urge for stolen wealth and the complete absence of morality in public offices ensured that Nigeria moved from grace to grass with lightening speed. Nigerian politics to this day is dominated by criminal minds and nonentities because of the violence and deadly tendencies attached to it.

While the other nations of the world including neighbouring countries like Ghana and Benin Republic made progresses and giant leaps forward, Nigeria shamefully headed in the opposite direction. Development became stagnated as some individuals made away with the country’s wealth. The military men and the politicians alike stole with impunity and in such dimension never seen before among the human races.

The most disheartening aspect of the looting of Nigeria is that almost everyone who stole got away. Nigeria has one of the weakest anticorruption agencies in the world. The Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) started well and gave Nigerians hope but with the emergence of the third-term agenda of General Obasanjo in 2006 the agency went wayward and has never recovered. General Obasanjo made a mess of Nuhu Ribadu’s reputation by allowing Andy Uba-then presidential aide-to travel on presidential aircraft with looted funds without any consequences. Nuhu Ribadu did not resign as the boss of EFCC even when it was certain that the mission of EFCC was derailed. Today Mr. Ribadu is a presidential candidate courtesy of stolen funds. Who is fooling who in Nigeria?

Fifty years after independence Nigeria’s democracy remains in shambles and is highly disgraceful. In 2011 Nigerians are faced with presidential election which in my own estimation is a catastrophe waiting in the wings. In several essays I have argued that we don’t need elections in 2011. What we need are the structures to deliver free and fair elections in accordance to international standards. The starting point is a valid forensic-based identity registration for every living Nigerian. The arguments on these issues are available elsewhere notably on my blog.

While the government of Goodluck Jonathan will be wasting N17b (or more) on parties and prodigality millions of Nigerians will continue to live from hand to mouth and unsure of the next meal. Nigerian rulers are characterized by low levels of cognitive abilities. It doesn’t matter how little or much the education they received. It’s always the same sad story.

The amount of funds planned for this “celebration of failures” in 2010 is unwarranted. It should have been low keyed and time for sober reflections. We should have used this golden moment to evaluate where things went wrong and write genuine blueprints of how to emerge from our present pitiable predicaments.
Moreover this anniversary should have been dedicated to arresting and prosecuting all those living large as emperors with our stolen wealth. Not so.

Nigerian embassies across the world will waste funds this season to mark our ineptitudes and the world will pretend to laugh with us. In Nigeria on October 1 2010 Goodluck Jonathan will preside over the most expensive party in Nigeria’s history and cut the biggest cake ever made by man. No greater deceit. Shame is a virtue in my country of birth.

Nigerian rulers are fond of propagating lies and falsehood. They are so cut away from the realities of our lives one would think they live on another planet.

It is not a secret that most of the N17b would end up in private accounts at home and abroad because the funds have been inflated in the first place and contracts awarded to families, friends and fair-weather acquaintances. Nigerian rulers and politicians are also notorious for their capabilities to directly divert funds regardless of the original pretentious intentions. This is common in Africa and it’s a sad situation.

For the avoidance of doubts it is morally wrong for Nigeria to celebrate the 50th year anniversary in an ostentatious manner because of the resounding failure of the various governments since 1960.
Arguments against such a shameful charade have fell on deaf ears.

When Goodluck Jonathan planned or decided to execute a plan to celebrate with 10b Naira. We complained. We suggested that the money should be used to procure cancer testing machines for our dilapidated hospitals.

Mr. Yar Adua who was declared winner of the fraudulent 2007 elections died of kidney and heart problems earlier in 2010. The government of Nigeria should consider millions of Nigeria suffering/dying daily for the same/ similar reasons and procure kidney dialysis machine and other instruments relevant to the testing and treatment of kidney and heart problems.

It will also remain a human mystery why our rulers fail to see the need to divert money into the health institutions so that we can increase the life expectancy of Nigerians with figures less than 50 years. A friend of mine is planning to release a research report which amazingly revealed that the life expectancy in Nigeria is probably lower than 40 years. I have stated in several articles as well that the situation in Nigeria represents one of the hidden tragedies of modern era.

One man told me that if Goodluck does not do the party that some other persons will embezzle the money. This is the level to which the Nigerian mentality has descended. We have been brainwashed so much that we can’t think right most of the time. In our dear country several people believe in the principle of “embezzling turn-by-turn”. They think that government is a venture that will at different times benefit a few people directly and directly. This illusory mindset unfortunately and tragically is dominant in Nigeria. The essence of life is almost completely eroded.

The heavily corrupt men and women in Nigerian House of Assembly confirmed the stupidity in the Nigerian political space by reviewing upward the money for the party. We forget so easily that we live in a country where scavengers make less than 200 naira a day and they have families to feed. Sometimes they earn nothing over a long period of time.

Our politicians in Nigeria are special. We are complaining that we should have a low key celebration and use this time of our 50th anniversary to map out strategies that will make us emerge a developed country in our second jubilee and all we can get for the calamities in Nigeria is a party worth N17b or more.

The money is not a big deal to those who approved it because they can steal, loot and cart away millions through exaggerated salaries and bonuses while the rest of us can go to hell.

These people who think and act foolishly owe us no apology, no probity and no accountability because we didn’t vote for them. Our politics is jungle politics where the fittest survive and win everything. The weak and losers lick their wound and beg for favours.

We are in trouble and constant dilemma.

It is hard to believe how we reason and how corruption had destroyed the essence of our lives. Invariably the issues affecting Nigeria as a 50 year old crawling nation are huge and inexhaustive in a single essay.
Has anyone even thought of how much a N17b education endowment fund would avail if it is not looted?
Curse apart, suffering will persist on the African continent and even elsewhere in the world until social justice and true freedom are fought for.

They always say the best things in life are free. Social justice and freedom have not yet made the list. They are definitely not free. The oppressed must rise, fight and take what is theirs.

For Nigerians and several countries in Africa the days of true independence and liberation are still ahead.

aderounmu@gmail.com

follow me on twitter:@aderinola

To Reuben Abati: Go and Hug a Transformer!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

When late Abacha held Nigeria in his palm, Reuben Abati stood out as Nigerian Government Critic Number one! There was no dispute about whose article would be most read on Friday or Sunday back in the days in the Nigerian Guardian.

I do not recall anyone in Abacha’s government or thereafter calling Abati names. Abati was not even arrested despite all his criticisms of the dictatorship and later civilian governments in Nigeria.

At the height of his fame as a government critic Abati asked Nigerians to stone those in power. Was he testing his fame? This was when the Federal Government increased the price of petroleum products-the old subsidy lies that Abati would come to champion in January 2012.

I was told by someone who knows the Guardian very well that Abati was actually collecting brown envelopes for many of those articles that he wrote those days in the Guardian. Everything has fallen into places now that Abati has shown his real image. It may be true that he wrote many articles for money afterall many Nigerian journalists today still have their own favourite politicians.

I am fond of writing that Nigerians have no heroes today and when the likes of Abati remain the mentor for Nigerian journalists, then hope is quenched!

Last week Reuben Abati who now works for the inglorious Nigerian government blasted internet warriors and the rest of you who are fond of abusing Jonathan on facebook and on your blog pages. I am an internet warrior, I have abused Jonathan on facebook and my blog since 2006 is full of abuses and criticisms for the worst and probably most corrupt government in the world with headquarters in Aso rock, Abuja.

So I take Reuben Abati’s message as a direct war. But this is a terrain I know too well. So he and his bootlickers can bring it all on. I will help them spell their last names. T-H-I-E-V-E-S IN P-O-W-E-R.

Some of us have been here-online- long before Jonathan. I wrote to the late Yar Adua government about the futility of taking on internet warriors. Anyone who cares can browse my articles at the Nigerian Village Square. We-the internet warriors-don’t lose and we don’t come last. If Mr. Abati needs a reminder, I will like him to know that long after the reign of his present master, internet warriors will be here in different forms and shades.

It is be an over flog to remind Abati about the nature of the government he serves. How do you begin to recount the stupidity of the government of the day in Nigeria?

A government whose moral compass was lost even before it started sailing. You can tell, unless you wear the garment of the Pharisees.

Farouk Lawan just returned from Mecca. Under the government that Abati is serving, corruption was magnified and redefined. Only men who have no shame will serve in corrupt and useless government. In Nigeria whatever happened to protecting your father’s name and your own integrity?
If Nigerians heed Abati’s call of just a few years ago, then they should be stoning people like him now. It was his call, maybe we should obey him.

I recall my meeting with two of Nigerian’s finest bloggers (names withheld) about 2 years ago in Stockholm. Of course we talked about Nigeria and the government. They laughed at me when I told them that I stopped reading Abati after the Abuja-land saga.

They laughed because they thought I was ignorant to have been one of the several thousands of Nigerians that Abati took for such a long ride. When Abati appeared in Jonathan’s government, it was not a surprise to them. Both of them stopped reading Abati many years ago. They said they saw the light a long time ago.

No doubts I have also written in the Nigerian Guardian a handful of times. No doubt my articles started appearing in the Nigerian Guardian days after I got Abati’s email from (names withheld).

But Reuben Abati should continue to serve his new master according to his conscience. If he likes let him continue to fire at internet warriors and the critics of Mr. Jonathan. It will show his real colours and the nature of his job.

I have been in the blog industry since 2006. I don’t have the intention of retiring now because Abati is serving corrupt people which confirms his own status as a corrupt man who used his articles to buy his way into the corridor where everyone (according to him) should be stoned!

Some of us will never serve in government. Our middle name is Ilesanmi.

Those who join government only to turn against their own constituencies will not find peace. It’s a natural law. Those who join government and cannot resist the temptation to also become corrupt will live with both personal burden and the burden of history.

I have not met a blogger or a government critic who is campaigning for absolute moral purification. Human nature does not tally that line. This is why we separate private from public life I guess. All we have asked for is that those in government must deliver on their promises and stop looting our common treasury.

All we have asked for is that the wealth of Nigeria should serve Nigerians. Just yesterday Bobola Babalola wrote on Facebook that democracy in Nigeria is government of some people, by some people, for some people.

Abati has now joined the few who are taking the rest of Nigeria/Nigerians for a ride. That doesn’t make it ok. That doesn’t mean that Jonathan, his family, friends, executives, senate and other corrupt people can loot and we have to stay quiet.

Abati in government is not a receipt with guarantee. Abati in government is not a form of immunity.

No matter who serves in Nigeria, no matter who is looting in Nigeria, no matter how foolish or wise the government becomes, social critics and public commentators will be here.

It doesn’t matter how we are addressed, we take on this social burden to tell things as they are.

In 2009 I warned about the flood that has now taken Adamawa (check before 70 000 people perish overnight in the NVS). NEMA almost asked for my head. Even the government as a unit was quiet because it is a useless government, constantly so since 1960. People are dying now after N26 billion was spent on invisible dam projects.

Anyway, the government of Jonathan, in my view, is the worst government ever in Nigeria. No matter how much Abati and his followers rant, the truth about the cluelessness of Jonathan, the waste that his government has come to represent and the calamity of the consequences of his inactions (especially) in Northern Nigeria cannot be taken away like a pinch of salt. A thousand Abati and a fake permanent secretary in Bayelsa (aka ghost worker in Rivers) cannot do that.

aderounmu@gmail.com