Nigeria

Nigeria at 50: Two Wasted Generations!

/ Adeola / 14 Comments

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.
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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

Goodluck Jonathan is just another waste of opportunity for Nigeria

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

There is a recurring dilemma with poor administration in Nigeria. No matter what the defenders of Jonathan or the previous useless rulers in Nigeria want to say in their defense they will not be justified. No, they won’t.

My argument…

When Babangida was the dictator and paramount ruler from 1986 to 1994, he was too busy with corruption and it’s institutionalization that for those 8 wasteful years he did not occur to him that Nigerians deserve good health facility.

When Babangida got sick or had a foot injury he would fly to France for treatment. I have always argued that Nigerian rulers are fools. That opinion has not changed. When the ruler of a country like Nigeria flies to France to treat a foot injury or stomach ache, then that ruler is a stupid person. What should 140m Nigerians do when they get sick?

It is not only Babangida who did such. Invariably Nigeria’s corrupt politicians take turn to queue at hospitals abroad when they are sick. This has been on-going for over 50 years. When Nigerians got independence in 1960 caution was thrown to the winds. Everything you can imagine collapsed, either gradually or suddenly.

A few years ago Babangida’s wife died in a foreign hospital.

In 8 years this guy could have used some of the monies he stole to build the best public hospital in the world in Nigeria but he didn’t.

The state governors, the state ministry of health and the federal health institutions do not see the need to make health provision in Nigeria a top priority. It became increasingly difficult to get quality health services in Nigeria. I can only imagine the cost of getting health care from private health institutions. Still the politicians prefer to go abroad.

General Adisa died in a foreign hospital and recently Ojukwu died in a London Hospital. The roll call is endless of how Nigerian go abroad to die because they (when they had the opportunity) did not see the need to build or utilize the facilities at home.

Late Yar Adua during his short spell at Aso rock-the global center of corruption-oscillated between Germany, Saudi Arabia and other countries to seek medical help. When he was governor for 8 years he could have done something to change the situation of health care delivery in Katsina. Even for his own benefit he could have set aside a certain budget to actualize the dream of getting treated in Nigeria. He almost died abroad-but he was package home to die.

Obasanjo’s wife Stella died while Obasanjo was the president. She went abroad to do a beauty operation and never returned. If the health institutions in Nigeria had been given adequate attention-who knows-the operation could have been carried out in Nigeria, it could have been successful. Many people hate to even talk or hear about beauty operations because they think people should be proud of their bodies while not neglecting the concept of healthy living.

Who can forget when Atiku Abubakar went to London to get clutches? This is supposed to be the vice president of Nigeria and a former state governor. Tell me why Nigerian political rulers are not fools?

It is against the backdrop of these ugly precedents and incidents that the recent trip of Patience Jonathan to a foreign hospital becomes yet another sad development in the history of Nigeria. Patience Jonathan is receiving treatment abroad. The presidency can afford to waste tax payers’ money in facilitating the treatment of Mrs. Jonathan abroad.

Of lesser importance is the nature of her sickness. In a country where red is white and black is green no one knows exactly what is wrong with Mrs. Jonathan. This is because the government reported that she is on a “rest vacation” as the media reports food poisoning, to ruptured appendix and food poisoning.

But where should the rest of Nigerians go when they are sick? The presidency is saying that there are no health facilities in Nigeria and that Nigerians can rot away or go to hell! If the unreliable Nigerian presidency is not saying this, then what is the message when Mrs. Jonathan cannot be treated by any hospital in Abuja or Lagos? Or is the message that Nigerian doctors are incompetent? I would seriously disagree with the latter.

One of my best friends lost his mother a few weeks ago. If the health care is Nigeria was working fine, she would still be alive. She had a disease that was treatable and manageable. Several thousands of Nigerians have died has a result of illnesses that can be treated or managed to prolong their lives-but they never got the chance.

Nigeria still has probably the highest maternal related deaths in the world and remains a hot spot for malaria related deaths.

The government of Nigeria represented by the incompetent presidency, the useless lawmakers, the useless governors, and several collections of corrupt people is an evil organization where the occupiers of power care first for themselves (and their families) and almost never for the people. It is sad that the people of Nigeria have not “run over” these governments over the years. It is really unbelievable.

There will be no justification for the people living hopelessly in Nigeria and dying from preventable causes while the presidency and the rest of the politicians merry in Nigeria, merry abroad and die abroad or almost dying abroad as in the case of late Musa Yar Adua.

In every Nigerian family there are people who need medical attention. There are friends and acquaintances who need a little health provisions. Every now and then we see how Nigerians desperately try to raise a certain amount of money to help friends and family members. Often it is too late even as the money comes in as drops. In many cases there are desperations to fly the victims to a foreign country! This is a sad situation.

This is the reason for my argument that the present regime headed by Mr. Jonathan is just another useless regime. This guy has been around for sometime, first in Bayelsa where he cannot point to any reputable or tangible project he did and now in Aso rock. In all of these years, just like the fools who ruled Nigeria in the past, Mr. Jonathan and the corrupt presidency that he represents has not seen the reason to build a hospital or to support one that he and his family can utilize.

Tell me, where is the hope of the common man in Nigeria?

The Bows: Tinubu and Clinton, Buhari and Obama

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

PhotoNews By Adeola Aderounmu

Former Governor of Lagos State bowing to General Buhari. This image has drawn many negative comments from some group of Nigerians. The reasons are obvious. First is the issue ot tribe and the other is the nature of Nigeria’s (crazy) politics.

Here is former president Clinton also bowing to Obama. Those who think that what Tinubu did was in order have used this image to press home their points.

Clinton bows to Obama

Clinton bows to Obama

To Reuben Abati: Go and Hug a Transformer!

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

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

All They Ever Wanted

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

There are many records and chronological analyses of what went wrong with Nigeria. Above all a once prosperous country with one of the greatest aggregation of potentials-both human and natural-was mismanaged, plundered and converted into one of the worst places to live on earth.

Nigeria

Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu

In 1993 in what appeared to be an act of treason a major electoral process was blasted by the tropical gangsters led by Ibrahim Babangida. So the hopes and stakes were high when a new civilian government emerged in Nigeria in 1999.

The events from 1999 to 2012 have proven that the problem with Nigeria was partly the military governments and partly the civilian governments. In my opinion Nigerians have suffered to various degrees under all known types of dispensations after independence in 1960.

But there is a group of majority that continues to bear the brunt of more than 50 years of crimes against humanity in Nigeria. More than 90% of Nigerians are estimated to be living in poverty.

This group is made up of people who are unsure of the next meal. It is this group that is called resilient, religious or happy depending on which investigation you read. They were the hopefuls in 1993 and 1999. All they ever wanted, and still want is the good life.

Unfortunately they will not get the things they want. Since the life expectancy in Nigeria is about 52.5 years it means that there has been a generation of Nigeria that went through life in the most hopeless way one can imagine.

They never had constant power supply, they never had good roads and they never lived in quality houses or apartments. They did not get the best meals money can buy.

Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigeria, photo By Adeola Aderounmu

In historical perspective this will translate to two wasted generations of Nigerians. It is hard to give up on the argument that the nature of the Nigerian tragedy makes it one of the greatest (but hidden) tragedies of modern era.

When the Arab spring was in vogue, with Syria still as its melting point, some of us saw it as a misplaced uprising.

I mean if the second wasted Nigerian generation was raised in North Africa they would probably have driven on good roads, slept in good homes and experienced what constant power supply meant. For the most, they may have lived longer.

The hope in Nigeria-where democracy exists on paper and its dividends in the pockets of the looters-is a misnomer. The description “resilient” fits aptly. Still, I prefer Fela’s description of Nigerians as “suffering and smiling”. The song “Sorrow, Tears and Blood” has the same relevance today as it did when it was released in 1977.

All they ever wanted, they never got. All they had left were taken away from them. A typical Nigerian worker or unemployed adult was a self-witness to the demise of public education.

Right before his eyes, he saw how primary health centers turned to primary death centers and how major government hospitals degenerated in a fashion similar to necrosis. History has a record of how lesser or fewer tragedies have triggered massive protests, revolutions and government changes in several places.

One sad revelation of the Nigerian society is that the country continues to produce rulers (never leaders) who eventually turned out to be out of touch with everyday life of the Nigerian people once the ascension is made to either top or trivial political positions. Therefore the conclusion that a people deserve the type of (ruler) it gets deserves a closer evaluation in the Nigerian context.

Those who are ruling Nigeria today were on our side when we started complaining that things are not right. Why is Nigeria getting worse under the people who saw the problem with us from outside of government? In My Radom Reflections At 40, I wrote that-irrespective of what the future holds for Nigeria-the shape of things to come will depend on institutions and not people.

Had it been that the institutions are well and functioning for example more than 99% of Nigerian politicians today will be serving prison terms or facing trials for corruption, treason and outright negligence of responsibilities.

However Nigeria has almost no working institution, therefore it doesn’t matter if the politicians got legal or stolen mandates, in the end they always do what they like. In uncountable situations they do bad things and get away with crimes and all sorts of unthinkable acts never expected of public office holders.

Even today the regime in Nigeria is a mockery of the meaning of democracy. Nigerian rulers do not hide their autocratic powers. The situation in Nigeria is almost hopeless because when good people get into government they become bad, corrupt and unbelievably silent about evil deeds.

Those who managed to get into government offices end up seeing those outside of it as the problem. They see them as envious or jealous people. There is something inexplicable about how governments work from the inside in Nigeria. Hence the cycle of idiocy for Nigeria is endless.

The situation in Northern Nigeria was avoidable. If the institutions had been there, they would have rid the society of criminally minded and corrupt people both in and out of government. In the worst case the appropriate institutions would have ensured the security of life and property in the case of criminally-induced terrorism. But when the foundations are absent and everything is wrong as a result of round pegs in square holes, things will definitely fall apart with almost irredeemable consequences.

Several concerned Nigerians have begun to argue for the reinstatement of true federalism as one of the ways forward.

For them corruption is a secondary issue as far as the problems with Nigeria are concern. True Federalism will probably be a way to induce peaceful political changes in Nigeria. It is sad when those holding firmly onto power do not see the transient nature of it.

By such negligence they stubbornly fail to initiate the right political alternatives that can bring probable succor and social justice.

Sometimes stubbornness can generate earthly consuming fires. If the fire starts on the mountain as predicted by Asa, there may be nowhere for us to run. In this sense the political option, with religious inclination, chosen by Boko Haram is too costly and deadly. Most of it is senseless.

Nevertheless, it has been spoken about for years and in many ways that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable. A violent change does not imply positive outcomes. The political structure of Nigeria must change.

It is better to approach the change constitutionally than to sustain the loopholes that terrorists are utilising to expose the weakenesses of Nigeria.

The common people will always be there. All they want is the good life