Category Archives: Independence

Nigeria @ 57, Lying Prostrate!

Nigeria @ 57, A Country Lying Prostrate!

By A Very Angry Adeola

My reactions to the independent anniversary celebration in Nigeria since the past 11 years when l started blogging is the same. Nigeria is a huge joke nowadays.

Recently a friend send me a text message and said that l have been quiet. Not really, 11 years of blogging on related topics cannot be silence. If you miss me on my facebook or on the Nigeria Village Square, go to my blog and read what l have written. They are as relevant today as they were yesterday.

Nigeria is ruled by criminals and so nothing has changed.

Anybody celebrating Nigeria’s 57 years as an independent country is most definitely a fool. It could also be all the criminals assembled in the APC and PDP congratulating one another for their conquest of Nigeria.

You really have to be sick to celebrate failure, backwardness, poverty, lack of vision, lack of progress and many other nonsense and rubbish. You need to be sick to celebrate a country where the president goes abroad to receive medical treatment. A country where the educationals system is in shatters. A country where there is no electricity and a governor is donating generators to the Police. You need a psycho check up if you are the celebrant!

Shamefully enough, a little over 2 years ago, all of us bought the biggest scam in Sub-tropical Africa. We subscribed to the change slogan of the APC. The PDP could not buy the scam because paradoxically it is the same as the APC. They probably went behind the scene to laugh at us and merry with theoir common friends, the criminal politicians.

For the past 2 years, far worse than the last 55 years before it, Nigeria is ruled by clueless and insane criminals. They keep swapping between APC and PDP and personally l don’t even know which party is which anymore.

Their sole aim remains self-enrichment. For all the shouts and pleas, the National Assembly continue to cart home billions of naira every month as salaries and remunerations. Two years after the change slogan, they status quo remain the same.

Several former governors continue to loot the states through the criminally induced pensions they granted themselves. The change slogan does not mean that they have to change their looting ways. Some of them are even looting at the National Assembly as senators. What kind of stupid independence are we celebrating when criminals are ruling and asking us to believe in Nigeria.

Dogaro patched the budget and remains a good friend of the president who till date did not condemn the looting through the budget. So there was nothing the APC was willing to change.  Saraki has uncountable criminal charges on his head and remains the senate president. You have to be mad to celebrate with these types of criminals when you should be in organised units asking them to vacate their seats or simply make the country ungovernable for them.

Invariably in all aspects of the Nigerian life, the status quo of corruption, ineptitude, political madness and haphazard socio-economic disorder remain the order of the day. For several months of the past 2 years, Nigerian was on auto-pilot as the incapacitated, mentally and physically unsuitable president continue to hinge to power at the detriment of the rest, more than 150 million mumus.

This is where Nigeria is, as a country, held to ransom by the elites who are stealing daily and misguiding the rest like mumus to a destination that is unknown.

In recent weeks, people who have raided and raped the country including one name Atiku are claiming to be apostles of restructure. It is obvious that some strategists sold him this concept as it was becoming popular in all political discussions, so he could use it as a platform to become the president of Nigeria. I curse the day a known criminal like Atiku becomes the president of Nigeria. The people who will make thay happen are cursed for lives, and they will suffer for it like we are all suffering for the PDP APC era.

If there is one way forward for Nigeria, it is the counting of criminals and their removal from all facets of the Nigerian life. But this is tough as criminality and corruption have become embedded in the souls of many.

Restruture is even become obsolete and almost dead before arrival.

The nations within Nigeria now want out. But it is not as if these nations will be ruled by saints. What if the criminals in government today eventually become the criminals in the various regions? Nigeria is not an ordinary country.

There is a curse hanging in the air on Nigeria.

The fact that the judiciary is not working is a very big mess for Nigeria. The politicians don’t resign out of shame and they always get away from being punished or their cases are postponed for life or simply thrown out. BUT WE KNOW THAT THEY ARE THIEVES AND CRIMINALS. THE LAWS AGAINST CORRUPTION IN NIGERIA ARE A BIG JOKE. THE LAW SYSTEM IS CRIPPLED!!!

I cannot finish my post today without talking about the optimists. There is a certain group of people in Nigeria, once they have figured out to make their own wealth from the system, then the country is fine and we should stop complaining. Crazy, selfish souls!

Government is there to ensure that there is fair, level field for everyone to reach their goals. In Nigeria, the level fields have been abolished and inequality is the norm. Education is almost abolished as the elites continue to send their children abroad. Health care is dead as even the president does not live in Nigeria because of ill-health. What then are we talking about and where do we want to start from?

Sometimes, some people are like, som what are the solutions? Really? Come back and ask me again the solution to problems when criminals are ruling in all the government houses across Nigeria. What a joke?

 

Angry Adeola (UNEDITED POST)

aderounmu@gmail.com

 

 

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Nigeria, A Country Heading No Where

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

20170725_095214

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

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

Nigeria @ 56: The Lucky Bastards!

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

 

 

At 55, Nigeria Still Crawls

Without complete and due accountability, without a system of government that removes power from one man in one place now called Abuja, Nigeria will crawl even when she celebrates 100 years of independence.

At 55, Nigeria Still Crawls

By Adeola ADEROUNMU

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

The present status of Nigeria is still fragile, more like in the heartbreaking mode.

Week 40 of 2015, 4 days to Nigeria at 55 and Mr. Buhari is not in Nigeria. There are no ministers to run the various ministries and federal departments. There are no blueprints or references or working documents to measure the performance of government.

This is lack of respect for more than 160 m people! It is disregard to the principles of democracy and good governance. It is a way of creating confusion in the land.

Candidly l don’t think Mr. Buhari knows the difference between civilian rule and military rule yet. It is disgraceful that the APC and Mr. Buhari cannot produce ministers more than 100 days after their mandate came into effect. They are not ready to lead the country and if care it not taken Nigeria’s economy will suffer greatly. The people will become poorer.

Surely the saintly, angelic ministers must appear someday. But how the APC-mandate under Mr. Buhari will unfold will be of historic significance.

No one has spoken openly about how public education will be revived and made affordable. No one has spoken about housing, standard of living and the welfare of the citizens. No one has spoken about how to move Nigerian hospitals away from religious or revival centers to structures where lives can be saved and cherished.

The pictures emerging from New York showing how Mr. Buhari and Mr. Obasanjo are mingling with Mr. Gordon are extremely insignifcant to the welfare of Mama Taju and Baba Chukwudi who are waiting in Ilasamaja and Onitsha respectively for the blueprints on the education of their children and how their future can be ensured.

Buhari OBJ Gordon

Buhari OBJ Gordon

This has been the pattern, that Nigerian rulers and the conquerors of Abuja continue to maintain a distance from the people. The reliance on the ineffective unitary system of government and the insincerity of the state and local governments are perfect scenarios for misgovernance and maladministration-the hallmarks of public service across Nigeria.

I remember the assault on us when Nigeria became 25 years as an independent country. There were all sorts of sponsored jingles on the national TV channels and radio stations.

Arise, salute the nation, come join the celebrations, Nigeria is 25, Nigeria is 25. Every day, every time, this jingle was imposed on our minds and melted into our subconsciousness.

Nigerian rulers are ruthless and they lack respect for the citizens. The jingles in 1960 and the jingles in 1985 orchestrated by the civilians looters and the military gangsters respectively were part of the greater plot to enslave Nigerians.

Sadly in the days approaching 2016 the majority of the Nigerian population are living as slaves. It is even sadder that the people who are living as slaves do not realise this. They have become so pre-ocuppied with different survival strategies that they do not even have the awareness that they  are living the lifestyles they didn’t choose, one which the power to change will always be in their hands.

The immediate post-independence generation is gradually fading away without winning back the Nigeria of their dreams. They allowed the criminal politicians and the military gangsters among them to get away just like that because of tribal or ethnic sentiments among other unacceptable reasons that promote evil over good.

Similarly the entire post-independent generations are entangled in a struggle between hope, promises and fading dreams. They grew up seeing their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, their friends and families carting away the treasuries from the local, state and federal governments.

Some of them are direct or indirect beneficiaries of this social malady. The majority are on-lookers shouting every weekend in mosques, shrines and churches. Some are disconnected totally from reality and thereby choose to kill, maim or kidnap others. They turn their anger and frustrations on fellow citizens using religion as a platform. Religion will remain among the most dangerous inventions of man.

As a result of the network of political gangsterism in Nigeria, the fight for a common country with fairness for all was lost a long time ago. It does not appear that the struggle for the emancipation of the masses will be fought again unless the civil society become organised and united.

When I am doing fine and when my family is doing better than our neighbours, l don’t care. This slogan is the hidden Nigerian anthem.

The selfishness and the evil in the hearts of men in any country are stumbling blocks working against the spirit of patriotism and the achievement of the common good of all.

There are radical ways to bring Nigeria back on track.

The government must work for the people and the people must work for the government. The political system must be right and the institutions of government must be functional.

All the things that have crumbled must be revived at the same time. Education, Health, Housing and Roads among a growing list of the things that have made life less worth living in Nigeria. Family planning and citizen orientation will avail much.

At some point the people must find the trigger to orchestrate the fight for what they want and how they wish to live a better life. The government full of corrupt people and treasury looters will not offer it to them on a platter of gold.

It must be emphasized that only an insignificant proportion of the Nigerian population have had it well. Even then they have co-existed with the wretched population in the same environment that is full of abnormalities.

All the sad situations in Nigeria are well known. Some people want critics to proffer solutions and we reply by saying the answer lies in good governance and accountability. It is as easy as doing what is right, condemning what is wrong and making sure you leave every situation better than you met it. How hard is that?

We have added that the political system and the political structures are not working. They give room to the emergence of criminals in public services under a unitary system that makes dictators out of democrats and tyrants out of soldiers.

Nigeria is always at a crossroads, the choices that the people and the government make each time are always on the wrong side of history. For example, Saraki is on trial and the man has not even resigned! Nigerian politicians are special breeds of criminals, hard-heartened and die-hard looters.

What decision can Nigeria make at this time? Another easy question!

After Saraki’s trial and wherever the law leaves him (free or in prison), Nigerians have a collective responsibility to continue this process of cleaning the political and public arenas.

There are Halliburton criminals in Nigeria and they are friends of Buhari, even travelling the world with him! Buhari is not even ashamed of what ordinary citizens are ashamed of. He is not yet a good ruler! It still looks like the birds of the same feather.

Nigerians have the power to occupy the entire country until the judiciary orders the police to produce all the Halliburton criminals in court. Let’s see where the judiciary will leave them when their trials are over.

Why should Nigerians even stop there? There are several hundrerds or thousands of politicians and military gangsters living in Nigeria and abroad who have looted the treasuries. Do they have 2 heads while Saraki has one?

Again, Nigerians have the right to occupy their country or the judiciary until justice served to one is served to all.

There are many ways to move Nigeria forward and two signals that need to be clear are that stealing is corruption and that no one is above the law.

One way not to move Nigeria forward is the ruling government playing the role of the opposition. The APC leadership has perfected the art of responding to PDP’s disruptive PRO machinery. The government that should lead is stupidly playing the opposition because of its lack of creativity and initiative.

As all these play out, if some people remain above the law, more than 90% of Nigerians will continue to live forever as slaves no matter the style of governance.

The way to make Nigeria great is to make every single citizen account for their time and service to country and humanity. Without complete and due accountability, without a system of government that removes power from one man in one place now called Abuja, Nigeria will crawl even when she celebrates 100 years of independence.

aderounmu@gmail.com