What About Us?

January 24, 2016January 24, 2016 / Adeola / 1 Comment

When only few people are protecting the rights and interests of the common people, the cleavage in the society becomes deeper. We against them become instinctive and the survival of the fittest mode of existence becomes even more brutal.

What About Us?

Adeola Aderounmu

In an earlier essay All They Ever Wanted written in July 2012, l explained what the common Nigerian people hoped for.

I stated that the common people will always be there and all they will ever want is the good life.

In today’s Nigeria the ordinary people are fading out of the picture.

The good life in Nigeria today is measured by wealth only. It is a very sad situation.

You have to actually be a very rich person to get some (not even all) of the basic things of life. Most of them you provide for yourself- water, electricity, quality education and so on.

Name it!

In extreme cases, you’ll build or fix some of the roads that lead to your home using your hard-earned income or labour.

There are evidence that point to the quick disappearance of the middle class in Nigeria.

I don’t know if it is a good or mixed news that middle class is also fading away from places like the United States where poverty is also rife.

Globally, the statistics released recently are scary.

What has worsened the plight of the common people in Nigeria is not just the near absence of the basic things of life, but also that very few people are speaking on their behalves.

When we speak or write, we get shut down by those who think they are doing well and that life is a competition rather than an experience.

The advent of the social media, just like the discovery of oil in Nigeria, may become a curse for the common people in Nigeria.

If caution is not taken, the social media will be dominated by mainly heartless souls who probably rake in millions of Naira monthly to represent their paymasters in good light whereas the true plights of the masses are akin to crimes against humanity.

When the hijackers have not been the E-rats, they have been the lucky ones who now belong to the new definition of the Nigerian middle class-at least in their own opinions.

For, the gap between the have and the have-nots and the differences between comfort and the tragedy of poverty in Nigeria are profound.

Last week l stated that the people need to know the difference between civil responsibilities/patriotism and taking sides with the government.

Government have obligations, and not favours to the people and the country. Government should not be praised, but checked.

When only few people are protecting the rights and interests of the common people, the cleavage in the society becomes deeper. We against them become instinctive and the survival of the fittest mode of existence becomes even more brutal.

Worse still, when the people continue to think that their hopes lie in prayers rather than actions and forceful demands; the social disorder appears to be irreversible.

Several factors have contributed to the establishment of Nigeria as a flashy, but failed country.

All the monies that have been looted in Nigeria since time immemorial are enough to make every household in Nigeria a potential multimillionaire family.

Even 500 million dollars returned to Nigeria should have a profound impact on us, the people. It should. But we don’t feel it.

Rather, tax for common things like bank deposits have crept into our existence. What have they done with the taxes for more than 55 years?

But money alone is not the true measure of a good life.

People actually want to work so they can earn decent livings. People will like to see trust and commitment of government to the common good.

Think about the entire infrastructure that could have been erected.

Think about the jobs that could have been created. Think about the health sector, education, road, environmental policies, power supply and many more things that the government owed the people.

What about the manufacturing industry?

Just think about it.

Please think about it next time you compare what your kinsmen have stolen with what the others have stolen. Why would anyone calibrate crimes against humanity?

Think about it next time you think that those in government today are not as criminally minded as those before them. Did they not participate in the common rape of our common wealth since 1999?

Since 1960?

Where do you want to start from and where do you want to end just to realise that we the ordinary people are out of the equation?

Is it the environmentally-damaged South or the terrorist-infected North?

Think about your foolishness in defending any form of looting or criminality in government.

Think about the consequences of the unity of the Nigerian politicians and military gangsters in misruling Nigeria because of their personal gains/ambitions.

When you speak for them or when you stand on the same side with them it cannot be that you don’t know the difference between right and wrong, good and evil.

Why are you not on the same side with us, the people?

Why are you right? What makes the rest of us wailers?

I am a common Nigeria. So, what about us?

We put our hope in the Nigerian government in terms of providing better life for us after independence in 1960.

What about us?

Who is going to fight for us now that the value of the dollar has been taken to the sky? Who is going to fight for us when the prices of petrol and gas at the stations are beyond us.

Who will talk for us when we are all called wailing wailers because we have different points of view to your pay masters or families in government?

Is it just enough that you are doing well?

Did you think that we are on planet earth for a race or some sort of competition on who fares better?

What about us?

Our dreams? Our future?

Our aspirations?

What about the place of our ancestors, our homes?

What about our children?

What about us?

aderounmu@gmail.com

So, Where Are The Loots? Let’s TAG them.

December 20, 2015December 20, 2015 / Adeola / 1 Comment

Since lies are too hard to maintain Mrs. Iweala has sang a new song and the whole world is laughing at Nigeria. She delivered the recovered loots to Dasuki.

By Adeola Aderounmu

The hysteria that normally trail announcement of loots stolen and recovered have been with Nigeria since after independence in 1960. They come and go…

Nigerians are still dancing to the music of late Fela Anikulapo Kuti. He sang often of bad governments and how they looted the treasuries.

Nigerians are not asking, what happened to all the loots that have been stolen, recovered and relooted.

I am going to repeat something that has happened twice in the last decade under two different dispensations.

When Mrs. Iweala stopped dragging her foot and decided to give accounts for the Abacha loot under Obasanjo’s reign, she gave an account that was very ridiculous. She pointed out to a few things that were already provided for in the budget as what Abacha’s loot were used for.

Recently l saw that she had done exactly the same thing for the reign of Jonathan. She gave a report that the funds (it appears Abacha looted the whole world or what) were used to construct roads.

Since lies are too hard to maintain Mrs. Iweala has sang a new song and the whole world is laughing at Nigeria. She delivered the money to Dasuki.

A few weeks back l wrote an article: Why Are Our Politicians Criminals? On behalf of over 100 million people suffering and living under the poverty line, I am asking again: Why Are Nigerian Politicians All Criminals?

Since Nigeria always have a budget then it means that loots and recovered loots especially should be bonus or boost for the Nigerian economy. Also since the lies of the Nigerian government has become visible, thanks to Mrs. Iweala’s inability to be consistent with her lies, then it was high time to make new demands especially from a government that promised us change.

Nigerian government must start to tag what the recovered funds are used for…to prevent relooting

Let me be clear.

Can we have a proper account of the monies that have now been recovered from the Dasuki-Jonathan-Iweala loot? And please let no moron toll the line of Mrs. Iweala, don’t try to tell Nigerians that the money has been used for this or that. We know already that you are lying. So, don’t go there..!

From now on, Nigerians will like to see a TAG on recovered loots.

The images connected to this article are suggestions on how to be transparent on what happened to recovered loots.

Nigerians must see how looted funds can be effective life changers for them. APC must show if the change slogan is real or a fuss. Time will tell

Let’s TAG the projects executed with looted funds that have been recovered and let’s not use what the budget has provided for as covers for relooting recovered funds aka Iweala looting method 101.

One day the Nigerian government will be bold enough to actually retrieve the funds looted by other big political criminals in Nigeria

We are watching the APC mandate 2015-? to see what they will tell us that they have done with the recovered loots. There is no where in the budget that shows that anything will be done with recovered loots, so that should be a bonus boost to the economy that is today lying in ruins and desolation.

Watch out and read a follow up to this article. It will be titled, 2015 It Was Not A Great Year.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Saraki: Between Politics, Justice And The Common Good

September 20, 2015September 21, 2015 / Adeola / 2 Comments

Last week l asked Buhari why his cronies in the Halliburton scandal are still walking free. This week, Saraki’s supporters are asking why the judiciary is digging up Saraki’s criminal cases. Justice served to one must be served to all!

Saraki: Between Politics, Justice And The Common Good

By Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

There are good reasons why Nigerians should let the law takes its course on Bukola Saraki. If that means that he will be sent to prison for a while or even for the rest of his life, Nigerians should let it be. But many will disagree.

Yet, in my own opinion this is another opportunity to start the long-awaited process of social revolution in Nigeria.

Some people may think l am naive because of my expectations from the country called Nigeria. No l am not. I am just waiting for that final trigger that will gradually or suddenly eradicate all the criminal-parents and criminal-children of the criminal parents in Nigerian politics and military set-ups. These criminals together stole our future on the Nigerian soil.

As you read, they continue to steal the future of the unborn generation.

Nigeria has a long way to freedom as l always write at the end of my essays. The decay in Nigeria’s political arena remains massive and unprecendented.

The systemic decay since Nigeria’s independence in 1960 led to misrule, emergence of criminals in government and application of inappropriate political and military systems in the (mis)rule of Nigeria.

So in Nigeria today we have a confused generation coming on the trails of the persistent wasted generations.

My emphasis of labelling Nigerian politicians as criminals will be relevant until the cleansing process consumes all the consumables. I thought we should have cleansed the system by 2009 but now in 2015 Nigerians are still struggling daily with criminals in political offices spread across the country.

The struggle to cleanse the system will probably continue even when my confused and divided generation is long gone because the confusion and insincerity traits in Nigeria seems to have become genetic.

Sometimes some people ask, what is wrong with black people? They mean what is wrong with Africans? But it is this same people who become part of government and continue with the sickening syndrome of looting Nigeria and enriching themselves and their families.

So, indeed, what is wrong with Nigerians?

Don’t look too far. Some student rulers (not leaders) from western Nigeria made a student union budget recently and made the headlines for the wrong reasons. They blew the expenditures out of proportion and made room for looting. They are just students but already criminals!

This is a confirmation that corruption and political madness have become genetic traits in Nigeria and thereby pass-able from the wasted generation to the confused generation.

Criminality, an offspring of the decayed and corrupt system is seen as a legitimate right in Nigeria. Despite our weekly shout-outs, criminality and corruption continue to fight back, in massive doses.

On Bukola Saraki there is no need to be divided on the issue.

Nigerians have always failed to seize opportunities that could lead them to a social revolution, one that could bring some measure of justice and sanity to the polity.

True, Bukola Saraki is not the only criminal in public office. Almost all Nigerian politicians are criminals. So he can feel violated not because he is not guilty but rather because the police have not been given the go ahead to arrest Babangida, Abdulsalami and Obasanjo. In addition to corruption, there were state sponsor murders under these men!

Why is Saraki suitable for arrest and not the rest of the corrupt politicians in Nigeria?

This is where every government in Nigerians has failed! This is where Buhari-led APC just like Obasanjo-led PDP is adding to the endless problems in Nigeria.

You cannot handpick a criminal in the midst of thousands of criminals. It is wrong to start with one criminal when you have the net that can pick 10, 20 or even 30 at the same time.

You cannot chase one criminal out of a million. If an arrest warrant was given say to 10 or 20 alleged criminals or murderers irrespective of whether they are in service or retired, Saraki and his supporters will shiver even more.

Handpicking criminals and selectively prosecuting them are the hallmarks of political witch hunt. Saraki’s current war will be seen as a political vendetta no matter if that is true or not.

He has disobeyed all the tenets in the APC book since his deceptive cross-over from PDP. His dilemma is right in the face of the law.

However to handpick Saraki alone from a massive pool of criminals in the system is not fairplay.

This is where Buhari and APC are going wrong and perpetrating a system inconsistent with the war against corruption slogan. Make it real, make it total and don’t make it personal.

Last week l reminded Buhari of his friends and cronies in the Halliburton scandal. Why not open their cases parallel so everyone can see justice is universal and respecter of no one?

Irrespective of the interpretation of the Saraki dilemma, my position is that no matter how long it takes the law must be able to catch up with a criminal. Let all criminals go to prisons for a long time or forever. Let it be so.

Rather than try to shield Bukola, his confused supporters eating from the crumbs on his table or from the looted funds via the Nigerian Senate and the organised civil society owe it as an obligation to press the same judiciary and the police to ensure that known criminals like Babangida, Obasanjo and all the other hitherto untouchables are lined up next.

NANS supporting Bukola Saraki is just rubbish. NANS standing behind a criminal is yet another indication that corruption and criminality have become genetic in Nigeria. The children running NANS are part of a confused generation. What a sad situation!

To be clear, we always know that time is not a factor in criminal cases. The Bukola Saraki case justifies what some of us have us argued for. Bring criminals to justice no matter how long ago they committed their crimes.

Buhari and APC should stop playing with fire and time bombs. Stop the selective prosecutions! Bring the Halliburton criminals to justice as well!

I know some people support Saraki because they oppose Buhari and they are still in fetish love with Jonathan. Some of these people suffering from political hangover will even accuse Tinubu as being behind the Saraki’s dilemma instead of asking the judiciary and the police to extend their operations to cover all suspected political criminals.

Some people oppose Saraki not because they want the law system to work but rather because Saraki went against the desire of the APC in the National Assembly.

In 2007 around december 12 the EFCC took hold of one criminal called James Ibori. It was in those days when Facebook has not become widely used among Nigerians and the awareness created by the social media was still in incubation.

I wrote a piece on the NVS the next day after Ibori’s arrest on how EFCC should continue to pick up the remaining criminals and hoping that if they do that over a period of 2 years, Nigeria will be cleansed up to a large extent anyway.

But Ibori was let off the hooks in Nigeria. Again, it makes me look naive. I am not. I just want the best things to happen to Nigeria.

EFCC has proven to be largely a toothless bulldog. At some point it was Obasanjo’s tail in the hands of Ribadu-the servant of Adamawa.

EFCC is submerged in its own corruption cases. The ICPC too.

What happened to Ibori after his arrest is now history. Everyone who was not born yesterday knew that it took a foreign country to put him behind bars. It is just like an irony because the country where Ibori is currently jailed is loaded with looted monies from Nigeria.

There have been several cases after Ibori. Plea bargaining set many criminals on free foot in Nigeria. They pay a certain percentage of their loot, usually an insignificant sum to the Nigerian government and they walk free.

Sometimes even in the absence of plea bargaining many criminals have walked free or served ridiculous jail terms.

How should we reason at a time like this?

It seems that our awareness have reached a common threshold compared to when some of us where shouting alone at the top of our voices in 2002 or in 2007. How some of us have written on the same topic about Nigeria for several years is even worth reviewing.

When are we going to have the reach we desire so that one day Nigerians can collectively see the difference between good and evil irrespective of tribal inclinations or political affiliations?

Yes it is going to be a long way to freedom if Nigerians allow Saraki to escape justice in the court of law. Let him go there and argue his innocence.

This is the way forward if we want Babangida, Abdusalami, Obasanjo, Fani-Kayode, Akpabio, Tinubu and even Buhari in the same court of law so that they can give accounts of their stewardships in office.

Saraki’s dilemma can open the door to a social revolution. Nigerians, let it be. Ask that the justice be served round and sustained.

Why can’t we see it this way? Why can’t we seize the moment that can orchestrate the revolution of the people by asking the judiciary and the police to never stop until justice for one becomes justice for all?

aderounmu@gmail.com

How Much Money Does A Man Need?

August 9, 2014August 9, 2014 / Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

In 1996 before the end of my service year I met an elderly man in a village near Moniya, on the outskirts of Ibadan. I think the village is called Idi Ose or something like that. Some of my colleagues at that time had been going to that village before I arrived in Oyo State for my service year.

The village provided solitude, a sort of respite from the stress of the work we do as Nigerians at IITA. I think my colleagues really wanted to have a place where they can have peace from work and sip original palm wine or just relax in the shade when they have long breaks or at the close of work before heading home. There is always peace when you are close to nature.

The elderly man, a very good reason to follow on the short trips to the other side of the road, was a very good listener and he chose his words with wisdom when he spoke. On one particular day he revealed his vexations, his bitterness about the criminals and greedy people called politicians who loot or steal from the treasuries across Nigeria. His greatest disappointment was that the crazy politicians do not need so much money for a single, short life time. For most of us we will not live up to 36 500 days!

He must be in his 70’s then and he told us that he had counted the probable days left of his life. He made an example and said if he had just N1m, that it would be more than enough for him to live a good life for the rest of his days. So, he questioned the excessive looting by Nigerian politicians and public office holders. He could neither comprehend, nor understand the rational behind looting of several billions of naira or dollars by individuals.

It was from this elderly man that I first heard that having cars do not depict prosperity. It’s hard to admit such a line of reasoning in Nigeria and I understood it more in Europe where people leave their cars at home and enjoy bicycle rides to work and parks.

How much money does a man need actually?

The answers cannot be that easy and the question cannot be treated in isolation. It can also not be generalised.

The amount of money a man needs today will depend greatly on the country that he lives in. Even within a single country the amount will also vary locally or regionally.

But what a non-greedy “universal” man needs can be used a yardstick, sort of standard.

At every point in time, a man needs access to shelter. He needs food, water and above all a good state of health to enjoy the previously stated necessities of life.

But how does one define a universal man? Is he/she single, married or divorce? Does he or she have children? What kind of roles does the society play in the care of the underprivileged, the unemployed, the old, the ill and other categories of the people who one can classify as either dependents or weak?

In what ways can one connect the universal man to the others in the same society? This question is very relevant for countries like Nigeria because of the overwhelming abnormalities that obtain in how the society runs. It’s a totally dysfunctional society where bad politics and stupid policies have ruined the essential foundations of family, society and country.

A universal man who has come of age wants to have a job or do something in order to earn a dignified living or existence. At every point in time, he can live in one house or in an apartment. At every point in time, he can drive one car or ride a bicycle. He can only sleep on a bed. These things and all the other things that a man desires can be naturally influenced by taste and normal affluence.

However those who loot Nigeria’s treasuries do not understand that happiness comes from the perfect integration of work and play. They do not comprehend that happiness is also based on sound health, contentment with family, mutual coexistence with other people and peace with nature and environment.

[Abdulsalami, Shonekan, Babangida, Obasanjo, Jonathan, Gowon, Shagari and Buhari. Under these men, their executive councils, their ministers, several state governors and other accomplices that sometimes include their wives, Nigeria has lost over 600 billion dollars. They should be made accountable. Nigeria needs to make examples of the rule of law for real, and the “heads” are usually where to start so that other parts can straighten out. Never is it too late!]

Greed is the creator of insatiateness. When people working in public positions, Nigerian politicians in this case, start to think that they can build a perfect life based on the amount of money they steal or accumulate, then there is a tendency to open up a bogus life instead, that which is based on falsehood, criminalities and perpetual illusions that money is the sole basis of happiness or solution to life’s puzzle.

This is where Nigerian politicians are today. They found an evil haven in the nature of the crazy politics and ways of life that emerged in post-independence Nigeria. They created a buffer called the immunity clause that allows them to live as criminals in government and eventually they remain free criminals shielded from prosecution even after days of political plundering.

They found morally bad refuge in the useless law system that they helped to manipulate and rendered ineffective. Nigerian politicians who are well known criminals have rarely ended up in jails. Nigerians as a people are totally disorganised and weakened by ethnicity and religiosity amongst other factors that promote mental slavery. They back their own “local political criminals” or they simply adopt the “siddon look” approach. What a tragic sequence!

Does a man need up to 12 billion dollars in his life time? Why would a man steal so much money under the pretence of political service? Such crimes are previously thoughts to be reserved for the social misfits, career smugglers and armed bandits until it became the official pastime of public office holders in Nigeria.

Treasury Looters

What kind of satisfaction comes from buying properties that belong to the government and the people under the pretence of governance? Why do Nigerian politicians engage in looting competitions to acquire massive wealth that they cannot exhaust if they were to live their lives 100 times over?

Are these acquisitions growing signs of undetected mental ailments among Nigerian politicians? How much money does a man need? Leo Tolstoy made us understand how much land a man need. It’s just 6 feet.

The minimum federal wage in Nigeria is N18 000 per month. This poverty wage is so low and shameful it can only buy 3 standard meals at an average modern eatery in Nigeria. How does a man who earn N18 000 per month survives from one month to the next? Understanding this type of a question can help us arrive at what an average man needs to survive in Nigeria. It will illuminate the things Nigerians do in order to survive.

It will also in no small extent expand the scope of the mental ailments of the Nigerian politicians who earn more than any other group of politicians globally but still needing to steal or loot so much. Nigerian politicians will rub shoulders with the most corrupt categories of people in the world.

How much money does a man need? Is family a reason to become a thief in politics? How did Nigerians end up employing or selecting criminals as politicians all round and then end up doing nothing to rectify the anomaly?

When a man starts his own family, how much money does he need? How does he plan his household so that his usual income can cater for the need of his wife and children? What are the modern roles of women in Nigerian homes so that a family is able to maintain an economic stability that will keep them away from crime or criminal tendencies? I know that women are breadwinners in many homes anyway.

Irrespective of the amount of money that a man needs as an individual or as a breadwinner, the amount of money that Nigerian politicians earn and then loot will not be justifiable. It has been crime against humanity all the way.

Nigeria is paying her legislators the highest salaries in the world. Yet they receive unlimited bonuses, have access to contracts, and enjoy lazy times at the sittings.

Treasury Looters

In general Nigerian politicians earn a lot and steal a lot. A whooping 600 billion dollars may have been stolen from the Nigerian treasury in the past 50 years. About 200 billion dollars of these wasted monies have allegedly disappeared since the return of civilian rule in 1999.

What these looted or wasted monies could have translated into is immeasurable. But with simple logic, it is easy to assume that Nigeria is supposed to be the best country to live on earth. I mean who throws away 600 billion dollars? It’s insane!

The consequences include but are not limited to making Nigeria probably the most corrupt country in the world, one of the worst places to live on planet earth and a place where life expectancy is declining fast.

Nigerian politicians and former military dictators should be made to undergo extensive psychological evaluations so Nigerians can know what is going on in their heads. Answers may be needed for the sake of posterity. Nigeria may take the help of renowned anthropologists to do extensive studies on the mindsets of her politicians.

I’m serious to repeat that this is very important and necessary because Nigerian politicians are definitely not normal people. Their abnormalities are promoted by the absence of functional legal systems that ought to put away political criminals in prisons. It is also promoted by the absence of virtues that define sane societies for example Nigerians do not question the sources of wealth, they simply worship it. In the presence of money, majority of Nigerians simply lose their moral consciousness.

What is a politician or a group of politicians doing with stolen or missing 20 billion dollars or 12 billion dollars or even 1 billion dollars? Why would someone loot 300 million pounds in Nigeria and stash away in a foreign bank? Is the money his father’s savings or his family earnings? These types of politicians ought to have been rounded up and bundled behind bars.

It’s amazing how Nigerians have been enveloped by both the Stockholm and the Nigerian syndromes. These untoward attributes make up (the) almost irreversible tragedies that plague Nigeria as it is today.

How much money does a man need for a life span that is less than 100 years (36 500 days)? I don’t think these retards count their life span in days just to see how short life is!

All the atrocities committed by civilian rulers/looters and military gangsters have already taken their tolls and it is getting worse. Life expectancy in Nigeria is moving below the 40 year mark. Unpublished data in the hands of a medical doctor friend and classmate of mine puts life expectancy in Nigeria between 37-39 years old.

How long are Nigerians going to look on or away before they realise that their future had been stolen and that recovery lies entirely in their hands. The system of government is rubbish. We are just reading about a probable scenario where Goodluck Jonathan may have kept several millions of naira in Aso rock. Is Aso rock a bank or bureau de change? This type of trend is common in Nigeria but it is totally abnormal and crazy.

In every part of Nigeria, people need to organize sensible resistance and find ways to end the reign of the bad rulers and corrupt politicians. The people need to regain their consciousness and take back their regions in (to) normalcy. It’s going to be a very long walk to freedom.

It is known that all days can be for the thief. But no matter how long it takes one day must definitely be for the owner. With the nonsense immunity clause in Nigeria that protect criminals in government and the invalid status of the rule of law that fails to catch up with them, one day it will be time for the people to round up all the corrupt politicians and military dictators and tell them that enough is enough!

That’s part of the hope and probably one of the ways forward as well.

#prosecuteallpoliticallootersnow

#bringbacknigeriasmoney

#bringbackregionalgovernmentthatworksbeforethecoups

aderounmu@gmail.com

Criminals and Looters in Government Are Not Distracted

June 8, 2014June 8, 2014 / Adeola / Leave a comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

It is the people of Nigeria who have turned all their attentions away from what brought them to the present predicament that threatens the totality of their existence. The thieves in government have kept their focus intact.

In almost every part of the world one of the most talked about phenomena these days is undoubtedly the “bring back our girls” campaign. It is this sort of scenario that some opportunists (individuals and groups) have waited for to bring them back to public space and to win sentiments borne plainly out of hypocrisy and eye/lip services. Some are simply capitalising on the situation to give their own agenda a lift.

Meanwhile as the government of Nigeria was perambulating and talking rubbish everyday and buying the time it doesn’t have, the business of stealing and cover-ups in government are going on as usual. It is possible because stealing according to Mr. Jonathan is not corruption and because the people are suffering from the Nigerian syndrome. I have defined the Nigerian syndrome in a previous essay.

One thoughtless fellow called Maku spoke on behalf of the government and said that it is the main opposition party that is organising the “bring back our girls” campaigns. I didn’t know that all the people bouncing on the trampoline of the campaign around the world including notable celebrities in Hollywood now belong to the Nigerian APC. The APC of Nigeria must be the biggest political party in the world.

The people of Nigeria are easily distracted. This is a recurring dilemma for them. They cannot keep up with the loads of distractions provided by the failed and selfish governments since 1960. They don’t asked questions once you load them with deceits. When they asked questions, they move onto the next thing without seeking answers to their questions. Stupid answers are often satisfactory. These are parts of the reasons why nobody has found the courage to call Babangida a thief and initiate his prosecution for all the missing oil money during the gulf war.

Invariably, from one failed government to another the stories are similar. Oil money is always missing. If it is not at the NNPC, it will be among the execu-thieves. This oil money is so slippery it can also get missing at the state and local levels. As a tradition, oil money is always missing in Nigeria.

Now Nigerians have forgotten about the unanswered allegations of several billions of dollars that the Jonathan government also cannot account for. This confused government set up a committee to look into the matter. That in itself is a partial admittance that something is missing anyway. Then in the middle of the entire wahala Mr. Jonathan went on air during his chat to tell the world that “America will know” if billions of dollars is missing.

Why did Jonathan set up a committee to ascertain the allegations made by the central bank? Mr. Jonathan should just have asked “America” since “America will know”. Anyway the senate committee has now dismissed the allegation and concluded that “no money is missing”. This is despite the fact that there is absence of proper coordination between Nigeria’s financial bodies concerned with the sale of crude oil. We can now turn off the sound of Fela’s music-Oil money is (not) missing.

In any case the Nigeria house of representa-thieves and legis-looters are not unfamiliar with the way the corrupt government of Nigeria operates. Nigerians have myopic memories and are long-suffering. Nigerians are the most distracted group of citizens in the world. They suffer from their own syndrome-the Nigerian syndrome.

Many arguments, verbal or written efforts to make Nigerians reason are lost on many grounds not least on the tribal cards. Don’t argue with an average Nigerian on the tenets of good governance. The Nigerian syndrome is yet incurable. Yea right, the problem of looting did not start with Jonathan…why should we complain now? Why did you leave out Obasanjo? What of Shagari? The reasons not to start and finish the war on bad governance have been integrated into the cycle of idiocy in downtown Bongo.

The ethnic card will even be used to justify the crimes committed by one governor Akpabio. This man has ruled for 7 years in Akwa Ibom and as he prepares to leave the seat of government, he ensured that his financial future is secured. In Nigeria, criminals continue to parade the government houses in different forms and shade.

The selfish and self-serving Governor of Akwa Ibom, Mr. Akpabio (This man has no record of mental or physical disability to support his pension. But he will get:N200 million per annum, basic, N100 million, medical allowance, 5-bedroom maisonette, Accommodation allowance of 500 per cent of annual basic salary, Medical allowance not exceeding N12 million per annum for one surviving spouse)

There is definitely going to be an argument that he was a good governor or that he could have looted the money anyway like Babangida and others. In Nigeria a critic may never win any argument. The Nigerian syndrome is vast.

In Uyo and across all of Akwa-Ibom, I’m looking forward to the following campaigns, #akpabiobringbackourmoney

#no-pensionforakpabio

#socialjusticeforall

#socialsecurityforakwaibomites.

Nigeria remains in a big mess today for several reasons that some of us are not tired to write about every week. It is very important that the collective intellectual consciousness of the people do not give in. It must not dwindle. It must tarry and persist. For in relenting, evil will continue to rise and subdue good totally.

Nigerians must know that there will be no messiah in Abuja, not now, not in 2015. The system of government is so ill-structured that Abuja would not be a major factor for the eventual freedom and stability of Nigeria. Hence it is very important that we don’t forget to tune up the ways that may end the senselessness in government whilst we point out the persistent evil and crimes in the land,

Nigerians must ensure that the non-corrupt intellectual class rises up to do the needed. In several states in Nigeria, former criminals, former thugs and former riff-raff hold sway in governance. Government has been used to reward insolence and barbarism. In government it has remain impossible to be above board. All who come into it exit it as criminals or with criminal tendencies. It’s worse for those who came in as criminals. Regardless they all ruined Nigeria!

In every region, in every community, in very part of Nigeria, there is a need to change the mentalities of the people. I am aware of the agitation of the people from Western Nigeria. They are seeking self-determination or autonomy. But they must know that some people amongst them were part of the problems with Nigeria. They have been part of this nonsense going on in Nigeria since the fake independence in 1960. Therein lies a huge danger ahead should Western Nigeria emerge today.

The autonomy of Western Nigeria should not be sought as a license for the elongation of criminalities in the Oduduwa region. Before dawn, the Yorubas should have a full functional road map and blue print that will ensure that their self-governance does not lead to self-destruction.

In the end all the geo-political regions of Nigeria should be allowed to determine their own future. The benefit or probability of marching on Abuja/Aso rock by criminals and terrorists should be zeroed.

I strongly hold the personal view that irrespective of the aims of the Northern terrorists, and irrespective of the primary goals of their sponsors, the dismantling of the useless unitary government will promote the emergence of regional autonomy and make a complete mess of their ambitions. Who will march to Abuja or throw bombs in Abuja if there is no government there to be overthrown or if the power in Abuja is ceremonial?

I reiterate that no group of people would allow its own race to self-destruct or to be persecuted unjustly when the conditions for social justice and fair play are the rules and not the exceptions. A word is enough for the wise goes the Yoruba adage. When received, it becomes whole within.

Talking about social justice, what is good for the goose is good for the gander. I hope that Mr. Akpabio has made plans to ensure that all the unemployed people of Akwa Ibom will enjoy some benefits. If the people of Akwa Ibom have no social security in place, they have the right to sack all the dummies who rubber-stamped Akpabio’s looting largess.

If the people of Akwa-Ibom remain quiet and passive, they are drowned in the Nigerian syndrome. They are probably distracted as the looting continues. They are not alone, Nigerians are all guilty of the lack of will to sack corrupt governments and make them face proper justice. They are guilty of being at home with a system that is not working. It beats my imaginations!

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(After publishing this story, there are now more information that some ex-governors in Nigeria started this criminal activity of milking the states they ruled over, so Mr. Akpabio is not the only governor with criminal tendencies. There are many of them in Nigeria)