Babangida

Obama’s Victory: Provoking African Politicians to Positive Actions

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

In Africa the things that should unite us have been used to divide us and the outcomes are hunger, poverty, impoverishment, penury and wars.

At this moment (Nov the 5th 2008) in the United States, history has been made. Barack Obama born of a Kenyan father and an American mother became the 44th President-elect of the United States of America. American democracy is not perfect. It has its short comings and pitfalls. The rigging of votes by George Bush in Florida in 2000 and the dirty campaign mastered by his father will remain as some of the most shameful highlights of American democracy.

Nevertheless the peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected president to another is a trait that is worth emphasising when it comes to American politics and democracy. As Barack Obama waits in the wings as the president-elect of the United States, it is time to take up some provocative issues with some African countries and their leaders. This moment of Obama’s glory and triumph of people power must not be wasted without reminding Africans about their backwardness. This is the best time to provoke those extremely bad leaders and looters who are spreading poverty as a way of life for millions of Africans.

Americans have voted and Obama has been declared the winner. McCain was very quick to send his congratulatory message to Obama. If Obama had lost, he would have done the same to Senator McCain-send him a congratulatory message. McCain and Obama campaigned and sometimes one spoke ill of the other but that is the nature of politics. They did not however send assassins after each other and they did not wish each other dead. The crux of the matter was the United States as a country and how best the country can make progress. In Nigeria, many politicians have been killed under mysterious circumstances and no one has been held responsible for the killings.

Recently in Zimbabwe and Kenya the instrument of governance and violence was used to send many innocent people to their graves. Mugabe killed as many people as he could in 2008 just to silent the opposition and remain in power. In some African countries, the urge to remain in power or to acquire the power is with evil intention and revenge. Will there come a time in the history of Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe when elections will be held without violence?

McCain is not talking about power sharing and he has not told his supporters to go on the rampage. No one has complained about rigging of elections or the minor irregularities. The country comes first and personal interests stay in the background. Kenya and Zimbabwe are today practising a useless form of democracy called power-sharing government. The implication is that one corrupt leader coerce with another potential corrupt leader to destroy the mandate of the people. This scenario also implicates the opposition in these countries as agents of evil. A man who is seeking the good of his country will under no circumstances participate in an evil regime or a regime that is strangulating democratic principles.

They always argue for the government of National Unity in the name of peace. That is blatant lie. Who created the chaos in the first place? What these corrupt African leaders do is to sow distrust and hatred in the population and then capitalise on these misdemeanours to accomplish their own selfish ambitions which is primarily self-enrichment. In Nigeria, there has not been any peaceful election since 1959 except in 1993 and the results of that peaceful election were annulled by a military gangster called Ibrahim Babangida. The winner of that presidential election was imprisoned by another military dictator called Abacha. MKO Abiola the man presumed to have won the only peaceful and fair presidential election in Nigerian history was killed under the leadership of a dictator called Abdulsalami. Interestingly though the United States government was implicated in the assassination of MKO Abiola. This is because he died when an entourage sent from the White House was visiting him in a Nigerian Prison!

I have stated earlier that the United States is not a perfect country. Still the democratic principles in a way offer a lot of exemplary approaches that could be borrowed. In the just concluded presidential election in the US, the world didn’t even have to wait for all the results to be announced or counted. The winner of the presidential election-Barack Obama, was known even before the counting was concluded. This is impossible in Nigeria or Kenya. It will be an abomination in Zimbabwe for a winner to emerge when the final vote has not been counted. It will be a recipe for violence and disaster. As a matter of fact, votes have never been counted in Nigerian elections. Since 1959 this country that pride itself as the giant of Africa has continued to waste billions of naira on conducting elections that never matters. Nigeria is severely corrupt and unbelievably incapable of conducting a decent election 48 years after it became independent. This is very shameful indeed.

In April 2007, Mr. Obasanjo who was the outgoing president in Nigeria single-handedly installed Mr. Umar Yar Adua as Nigerian’s new illegal president. He was able to do this by conspiring with the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) whose Chairman is a man of questionable character. Obasanjo himself employed Mr. Iwu as the chairman of the INEC. But there is nothing independent about the INEC. It was manipulated and controlled by the ruling party in Nigeria. Mr. Obasanjo it must be noted had ruled for 8 years (1999-2007) using the power of force rather than votes. The votes were rigged and manipulated twice to allow him win the elections. The story of Nigerian Politics continues to be a very bad example to other countries in Africa. It is both devastating and disheartening.

I was particularly taken aback by the massive support that Obama received from Nigerian politicians and law makers. But have these lazy and corrupt Nigerian politicians sat down to ask themselves this question: Are we (Nigerian Politicians and leaders) stupid? They should ask themselves more questions:

• Why can’t we conduct peaceful elections in Nigeria?
• Why do we kill ourselves during election time in Nigeria?
• Why are issues and policies never discussed since the collapse of the second republic in Nigeria?
• Why do we rule the country by looting public treasuries and spreading poverty like wild fires?
• Do we need psychiatric tests before we are allowed to run for public offices in Nigeria?

Agreed that the incursion of the foolish military into governance in Nigeria (and other countries as well in Africa) landed a negative blow to our sense of purpose and direction as a nation: still that is not enough excuse to practise the kind of crude democracies that are seen in Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

In some African countries like Somalia, there is complete absence of a government. In 2008 Congo, a genocide war is brewing intensely because of the fight for the nation’s wealth. In Africa the things that should unite us have been used to divide us and the outcomes are hunger, poverty, impoverishment, penury and wars.

Some people blame the western world for most of the suffering, pains and political instability in Africa and even in parts of Asia. I beg to disagree on this generalized concept. In our modern world every nation has the means and possibilities to steer the wheels of its progress independent of its colonial masters or former oppressors. What is needed is the proper diplomatic dispensation that pursues mutuality rather than supremacy or vengeance as we saw in Zimbabwe. At this stage and age of globalization, I strongly believed that each nation is shaped not only by foreign influences but also by the thoughtfulness, soundness and sanity of its leaders and politicians. The sense of belonging instilled in the citizenry also plays a key role in nation building.

The question of public service in relation to intelligence, reasoning, accountability, probity and sanity therefore becomes very important in the analyses of the woes of sub-Saharan African especially. What is wrong with sub-Saharan Africa? Why does the attention of the world have to remain fixated on poverty, diseases, corruption and the gross incompetence of the leaders, politicians and warlords of sub-Saharan Africa?

Some people also argued that it took the US and the British over 200 years to accomplish their stable democracies. This is simply lame excuse and idle talk to allow African leaders to spread their shallow intelligence in a jet-age world. What is clear is that the parameters to measure progress over the last 2 centuries have been dramatically transformed. We are now living in a technologically advanced world.

This is the age of computer advancement and no silly excuse can be offered to support retrogression and redundant Cognitivism. What took months or years to achieve 200 years ago can now be done in micro-seconds. Even when I was a little boy, I wrote letters and waited for weeks and months before getting responses. Do African leaders and their uninformed supporters have any idea how long it takes now to get a response for my electronic messages or chats? Give me a break! The global world is now a leveled playing field and one part of the world cannot continue to refer to the prehistoric timeline of countries like the US and Britain in order to ascertain when to achieve true greatness. With the kinds and nature of resources in Africa, it should be the wealthiest continent in theory and practice.

There is corruption everywhere in the world but the nature of the corruption in Nigeria and some other countries in Africa for example is unparallel. There are probably more than 90m people representing more than 50% of the population in Nigeria who are living on less than 1 dollar a day. This is the difference between corruption in Africa and other places. The effects are profound in Africa.

It amazes me when people compare corruption or its impact in my country Nigeria with other places. The institutions of governance are heavily compromised in Nigeria. What is expected is that people move in and out of institutions that are functioning and regulated. For example whether George Bush likes it or not he would vacate the White House in January 2009. Bill Clinton before him did the same without any bitterness. It has never been like that in Nigeria. It is always a case of someone forcing himself in and other people forcing him out. This is the failure of institutions and a serious questioning of our collective intelligence is always brought to the front when these anomalies come to play on the world stage.

But the anomalies are not unexpected. For instance there is absolute disorganization and disorientation in our attitudes in Nigeria. In the US election it is possible to see exactly how many people voted, their race, their gender and their ages. This is an impossible mission in Nigeria. From the scratch, the voters register lists are falsified and ghost names are on the lists. Underage voting is common practice in Nigeria. Above all, it just doesn’t matter about the irregularities because a caucus of people would eventually sit down and verbally decide who wins and who lost in Nigerian elections. In several cases, the political godfathers determine the case of the contestants and the amount of money that can be spent during the bargaining plays a key role. We have seen in Nigeria where someone who is not a contestant or a candidate won an election!!!

Nigeria is presently seeking political reforms while Kenya and Zimbabwe are making do with unified corrupt governments. It is time to have intelligent inputs and outputs in the governments of these countries. Their progresses or failures will continue to inspire the rest of Africa. But there is an urgent need for re-awakening in Africa. From Congo, to Uganda, to Nigeria, to South Africa, to Kenya, to Zimbabwe, to Angola, to Rwanda, to Somali, to Eritrea, to Ethiopia, to Togo, to Ivory Coast, to Senegal, to Gambia, to Niger and to the rest of Africa. It is time to wake up. The victory of Barack Obama should henceforth be used as a new yardstick for the election processes for Africa.

No one should see this as an impossible mission unless we want to tell ourselves and the rest of the world that Africans are not intelligent. Do we want to tell the world that we are incapable of running smooth democracies? How much time does Africans need to be able to ascertain their independent which they fought for? Some diligent leaders fought and earned independence for Africa. Haven’t we allowed their labours to be in vain?

Africa cannot copy the exact form of democracy that we see in America but what is wrong with conducting peaceful elections? What is wrong with transferring power peacefully from one democratically elected president to another? What is wrong in building institutions that will stand for all time while allowing people and leaders to pass through them? What is wrong with trying for once to end the reign and spread of tyranny in Africa? What is wrong if African countries like Nigeria start to use the power of governance to create and spread wealth among the people? What is wrong with ending the wars and poverty across Africa?

Hopefully the presence of Obama in the White House and on the world stage will inspire Africa positively. Time will tell.

Poor man wey steal Maggi cube..!

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu.

 

It is becoming more obvious that the present illegal regime in Nigeria has nothing to offer the poor masses. That should not come as a surprise to anyone at all. Nigerians never voted for the man now parading the corridor of power aimlessly. When he is not parading himself in that fortress built with the blood and sweat of hardworking tax payers, he is on a flight to a secret place to rest or seeking some talismanic effects. This country don suffer..!

 

 

In this country, we will continue to speculate and anticipate. Yes o! when those who seized power using violent ballots and force have decided that secrecy and cultism is the way forward, then we have the right and freedom to use our imagination and cognitive powers. To quote an insider as your source will be tantamount to breaching security protocols and you may even be accused of sedition and then arrested on arrival. Many of us in this village square are definitely on our way to jail!

 

 

I appreciate Nigerian music a lot and Chinagoro (aka African China) has said it all in few phrases. Poor man wey steal maggi, them go show him face for crime fighter! Rich men (greedy politicians) wey steal money; we no dey see their face for crime fighters.

In Nigeria, you can go to jail for stealing a cube of maggi- a popular kitchen ingredient. That is if you are lucky that a policeman or an idle officer from the EFCC arrested you. If you are unlucky, the angry mob will dispense justice immediately-you are as good as dead. People will blame you if you go to jail or even if you die. Mumu, na maggi e steal sef…!

To avoid the short arm of the law in Nigeria, you gat to steal and steal BIG! You must be like Ibori or Obasanjo or Atiku or even Umoru himself to be above the law. You must steal a lot of money, in raw cash where possible. Load the monies (dollars, pounds, naira ati bee bee lo) inside your fridge, under your bed, inside suit case, inside brief case and inside your closet. Use any other technology available at your disposal to make sure that the money is not traceable to you. Use agents, offshore or recessive family members.

 

Start a business so that even if the money is traced to you, you can tell those fools at EFCC that it is money from your family business. You can even start an estate agency and tell them that you have sold one house and made profit and bought another one and then you now have an estate worth 20 billion dollars. Tell them and those internet junk journalists that you are an entrepreneur before you joined partisan politics. You must play politics like football; your aim is to always win. A draw must be your worst outcome.

 

Moving on-I have not written on the village square for a while now but I have continued to blog regularly. It’s more fun with the blog because you can describe some people as fools, idiots, thieves, looters, satanic, demonic, bad leaders and so on without anyone opposing your views or right to publish what you like! You can be hard on yourself as well and try to do things better. But someone will definitely not like your terms. Some people think it’s godly or angelic to steal, kill and make other people poor while you are merrying.

 

Blogging allows me to be who I am. I am not an apostle of perfection but I detest dishonesty and bad governance- the type that has continued to deprive more than 90m people of decent existence. The government of Nigeria has continued to maintain the ordinary citizens’ livelihood at the rat-race level predominated by competition for limited resources in a kill and go manner.

 

In no small measure, I practically hate all the hypocrites who parade government houses across Nigeria and I regret that I am still not able to do anything practical or physical to change the status quo. I regret that the trust and hope that we continue to build over the years have continued to crumble as well. In my mind, I have only families to return to, not country.

 

Farida and Nuhu do not make any difference in my perspectives of what crime fighting is all about. What I continue to visualize is a gang of thieves or looters changing the characteristics of the sheriff that they’ve appointed in their caucus meeting. Nigeria is not a normal country. The geographical area called Nigeria is managed by suspicious arrangements and oppression of common good. This is why there is still no real democracy in Nigeria.

 

Nuhu fought Obasanjo’s enemies with zeal whereas Obasanjo, his friends and families looted the treasury. What is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Was I the only one who learnt that in the moral instruction class in 1980? Half bread can only be better than none if the other half is saving another life.

 

You can’t fight financial corruption or embezzlement when the person initiating the fight against the corruption is corrupt. It is the same with other crimes. The situation is peculiar and made worse because the Nigerian Police is full of people of questionable characters (from the boss to the last man standing on the street) who extort money from the other people. A recent report shows that the Nigerian Police is the number one violator of human rights in Nigeria. The EFCC is part of the police and therefore remains incompetent to fight crime or corruption.

 

For example, the EFCC cannot investigate or prosecute Obasanjo, Babangida, Atiku and others. The EFCC is seriously programmed like an apoptotic cell. It has its limits and boundaries. This is why the EFCC is specialised in terrorising yahoo yahoo boys and fighting ringworm even though leprosy is deadlier. This is also the reason for the non-performance (apoptosis) of Farida when it comes to fighting the real war. Does anyone for instance expect her to investigate or prosecute the likes of Obasanjo or Babangida? No! That was not in the streotyping. If she dares, she will be sacked with immediate effect!

 

On a fair note, EFCC is not the problem with Nigeria. It is not even the police as a body. The problem is the system. It contains the wrong people (mostly rogues in plain term) in power. This is why they will instruct the police or SSS to arrest you at the airport and detain you in violation of your fundamental human rights! If they have their way, these rogues will kill you one time! The nest of killers (first used by Wole Soyinka) has always been a part of our existence but it materialises in different forms, shapes and sizes.

 

I have argued that being privileged or fortunate to escape poverty or penury in Nigeria has blinded many people to the real situations in Nigeria. A few flashes here and there have also been used to divert our attention from the real calamities: the prevalence of mass poverty in the population (which of course has been treated by several authors).

 

There are options for Nigeria and hopefully I will dwell on one or two of them in another article. We cannot continue like this. As an introduction into what I intend to discuss: there are options along the lines of changing the system totally or changing what the country is all about. The emphasis would be on the nature, composition and effects of a new system so that it becomes a complete deviation from that which sows hate, distrust and poverty. We may be deceiving ourselves especially with the emphasis on one nation. The time has come to look at the existence of this country more critically.

 

We cannot continue to ignore the options available to us. We must look at them and use our senses to come up with a viable road map that will serve the interest of everyone called a Nigerian. This country must stop serving the purpose of a few (who will charge the rest of us with sedition because the status quo was made for them and their likes).

 

The final irrevocable truth is if we don’t define how we want to live and what we want from living now (like some nations did in the last century), we cannot stop the future generation from doing that. One generation will break these curses and disappointments. It will happen!

 

 

EFCC: Mrs. Farida Waziri’s nonsense talk!

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

BY Adeola Aderounmu

CHAIRMAN of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, has said the anti-graft agency is not investigating former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. According to a Guardian Newspaper report of 14th October 2008, she said that Obasanjo has no case before EFCC.

That is very true-Obasanjo has no case before the EFCC. However he has a case before Nigerians. Obasanjo made Nigerians poorer than he met them in 1999. There was partial darkness in Nigeria when Obasanjo came to power. When he left in 2007 and after spending billions upon billions of naira he left Nigerians in total darkness.

Under Obasanjo’s regime, which marked his second time in power after ruling the country as a military gangster in 1978-79, several citizens were killed in a cover-up genocide. An entire village was wiped off the map. The people of Odi saw hell in Nigeria under Obasanjo’s antocratic reign. The rest of us suffered endlessly as we tried to put food on the centre table.

The politicians became richer and even Obasanjo who was a poor man when he came to power became rich overnight. He sold everything that belongs to the government to his families and friends in the name of privatization. A member of his family stole the money that was meant for the reform of the Nigerian Police.

I am not going to waste more time to highlight the many ways that this man deprived Nigerians of a good life. And people should stop giving him the credit for the gsmisation of Nigeria. There is more to the gsm than the gimmick that Obasanjo put up. An idea whose time has come can never be stopped. So whether he liked it or not, the wave of the gsm was destined to sweep over Nigeria as it has done in the rest of the world.

Obasanjo alone cannot be blamed for the woes in Nigeria but he played a significant role and for 8 years he could make enough impact to pull at least 50m out of the poverty zone. Instead more people were pushed down below the survival zone-to absolute penury. This way, Obasanjo ended up in the league of demonic dictators like Abacha and Babangida.

Obasanjo holds the world record for the greatest treachery in modern history. In a country of 140m people, he singlehandedly installed a robot slash puppet called Yar Adua as the president of Nigeria. With the help of one idiot called Maurice Iwu as the head of the electoral body, Obasanjo manipulated the electoral commission to install Umaru Yar Adua as the president of election rendering the power of votes absolutely useless and worthless. The mechanism employed was crude, brutal and non-compromising. Citing Nigeria’s notorious electoral history sine 1959 Obasanjo was proud to say that that is the way to do elections in Nigeria AND the people (including me) kept their calm. What a country!

The EFCC is presently one of the most useless organs of government in Nigeria. It ranks with the likes of INEC and NEPA as essentially useless bodies. OF what use is an institution that has no plan and no purpose? I have stated times without number that as long as people like Babangida and Obasanjo are free men in Nigeria; the fight against corruption does not exist. Imagine a man Like Ibori James living free in Nigeria. Ridiculous and scandalous. The government of Nigeria should stop deceiving people with the EFCC. EFCC’s only job is to burst yahoo yahoo 419 boys who were created by the negligence of the state in the first place.

EFCC should be tackling the head of the problem. Those who are Ex ministers, ex governors, ex dictators, ex state of assembly members, ex senators, ex this, ex that. These are looters, pure and absolute thieves who should be spending the rest of their lives in jails. The keys to such jails should even be thrown in the Atlantic Ocean. And here we are with EFCC telling us that thieves, looters and murderers have no case to answer.

It is simple, all man for himself in Nigeria. The looting continues, the poverty will never end and the devastation will mount. About 100m people living under extreme poverty, working tirelessly under the sun to make ends meet. And a few idiots in power stealing and merrying and gallivanting the globe in splendor.

No case to answer indeed. Madam please shut up! What else does one expect from a Nigerian cop? …….A history of dishonesty, violence, abuse, violation, treachery, dirty talk, meaningless utterances and what else?

Purchasing Power Parity or Corruption?

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

Olu Falae took Yar Adua to the washerman describing him as unfit and unprepared to rule Nigeria. Of course we all know that. I told a friend recently that something remarkable will happen in Nigeria soon. The fact is that Yar Adua is buying time and playing smart. His game will be up soon. But what will happen after Yar Adua is what I cannot fathom. Nigeria is too complicated to predict accurately. It is sad because in the end it is the ordinary people like you and I that always suffer.

Anyway moving on, Olu Falae who was the Finance Minsiter when Babangida milked Nigeria to dryness by stealing more than 12 billion dollars of oil money is talking again. He is now 70 and wisdom may finally have caught up with him. Here is one of those men who presided over Nigeria in a very evil way. I have no respect for any man who participated in truncating my dreams and aspirations.

To this day I continue to see almost every politician in Nigeria as evil or devilish and every ex-military ruler as satanic. They cannot be normal people because of the effects of their conspiracy theories, looting and negligence of duty/ obligation. It is not normal to steal more than 12 billion dollars and it is not normal to be a finance Minister when such a evil is perpetrated. A normal Minister will resign to save his good name and to protect the future of the unborn. Nigerian politicians are senseless with their looting and selfish mentalities and Yar Adua is just one of them-take it or leave it! Truth will always be bitter!

So what is Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)? It is Falae’s formula to bring the value of the Naira to 1 dollar= 50 Naira.

Here is the excerpt from the Nigerian Guardian Newspaper of October 4 2008.

He described the prevailing exchange rate in the country and urged the government to consider Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) option.

According to him: “We talked about it at the time and I said in 1990 that the naira was grossly undervalued and I gave an example. I said ‘Look, let’s take the PPP, what we called Purchasing Power Parity. What it means in simple language is that a loaf of bread is a loaf of bread and a bottle of Coke is a bottle of Coke, whether it is in Lagos or New York. In economics, it is expected that a bottle of Coke would give the same satisfaction in Lagos as it would in New York. In essence, what you pay for a good is the satisfaction you get from it. So, the price is an equivalent of the satisfaction you get out of that good or service anywhere in the world.

“Now, a bottle of Coke today in Lagos is N50, while it costs probably one dollar in New York. If Coke were the only commodity used and traded, then one bottle of Coke is one bottle of Coke and N50 should be the same as one dollar. That should be the exchange rate. Because the purchasing power and the equality of purchasing power over the added value at the same point in time showed that N50 should be the same as one dollar. If you did it for a basket of goods, not just a loaf of bread, you will find out that there is no reason the dollar should be more than N40 or N50.”
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That is Falae’s approach. I am not an economist so I doubt if I have any comment on that. But remember that Babangida with his empty skull said that Nigeria’s economic problems couldn’t be solved after he and Falae applied all the methods at their disposals.

What the fool didn’t say was that he was institutionalising corruption and kickbacks. He didn’t tell Nigerians that he was saving the gulf oil wind-fall in a private account for himself and his family. He didn’t say that he was going to use this money to win friends and enemies in the dirty politics arena in Nigeria.

AND the useless government in Nigeria is still bragging about fighting corruption. How can you fight corruption when a person like Babangida is not arrested and tried for looting and for destroying democracy in Nigeria. Sometimes when I read about the EFCC, I just laugh. There first job is to take IBB in and investigate the money from the gulf war. As far as I am concern, until you touch people who think they are untochables, you cannot fight corruption anywhere in the world. Every other thing that you do is artificial and make-believe.

If you set a good example with well known thieves and looters, then you can be taken seriously and other politicians planning to loot will think twice. What we have today is paying purely lip service to fight corruption while massive looting and enrichment continues in the public service and political establishment. This is why more than 90m Nigerians remain very poor and insecure. CORRUPTION AND NEGLIGENCE OF PUBLIC SERVICE DUTIES.

Purchasing power indeed! Take corruption away and everything will fall in place….

October 1st: Take a message to Nigeria..!

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Adeola Aderounmu

They called it Independence day-Oct 1 1960-which makes the country Nigeria a fool at 48. When I wrote a fool soon 47, I thought I would never have to do that again or that 365 days later I would eat my words. Today I can repeat myself loud and clear that Nigeria is a fool at 48.

Nigeria is 48 years old on October 1 2008. The government wants us to believe that it is working hard to make life better for Nigerians. How the government would do this without asking thieves and looters like Babangida, Ibori, Atiku, Anenih, Kalu, Obasanjo and the other thieves to give us back our monies is something I don’t understand. I don’t understand how you want to improve the economy and the standard of living when corruption is Nigeria’s middle name.

Nigerians in power or in position of authority are not only corrupt, they are also suffering from tribalistic inclinations and a profound form of madness characterized by self-preservation and wild accumulation of extreme wealth.

There are probably more than 150m people in Nigeria and more than 70% of these people live from hand to mouth-in absolute penury and poverty. Several Millions of Nigerians cannot spend 1 dollar in a day. They live under a government that pride itself as the giant of Africa. The statement is both an anomaly and an expression of insanity by whoever lives by that acronym. What giant? Even Ghana is doing better than Nigeria and little wonder many Nigerians are relocating to Ghana for the purpose of business, education and work.

Nigeria and Nigerians are bound to be in perpetual custody until one day when all the evil people will be wiped away. Imagine just how much all the politicians, state governors and House of Assembly members are carting away every month while the ordinary people are on the streets suffering and living hopelessly.

I will not agree yet with anyone who says things are getting better in Nigeria. A daily walk or even work on the street indicates otherwise. It is true that some people struggle and managed to escape the poverty line but this category of people are few, countable and most often opportunistic. A person getting rich in Nigeria in several cases is at an opportunity cost to the masses.

The government has failed to provide a level field that would enable equal realization of individual dreams and aspirations. The education sector has been reduced to absolute nonsense and the results from the recent WAEC indicate that education is no longer a key issue in Nigeria. The health sector does not need to be described! If the (illegal) president of a country has to go abroad to treat stomach ache, headache and other ailment, what else does one have to say about the health system? It means that there are no provision of health services in Nigeria.

The transport system does not exist. Almost every aspect of it is unregulated and in private hands. It seems that the government does not know what public transportation means. The roads are terrible and getting worse. It needs to be restated again that probably the worst road in the world is in Nigeria. It is in this same Nigeria that the government is building an ultra modern city called Abuja for the pleasure of those in governments and for the deliverance of wrong impressions to visitors to the capital of (Northern) Nigeria.

On one side, there is a war going on in the Niger Delta where the protection of life and the security of ordinary people cannot be guaranteed. The regional leaders have sown seeds of discord and the government at the center over the years has allowed foreign oil companies to continue to colonize the region as the people suffered, died or survive in poverty and impoverishment. On another side, there is another war purely for survival. It is rugged down there in Nigeria and the rat race situation is unprecedented.

Power supply is improving at some places but you cannot be sure that that change is permanent because of the corrupt system. In most of the places anyway, power availability or a steady supply of it remains a permanent mirage. The men who stole over 15 million dollars in 8 years while pretending to be working on the power sector are all free men. That is Nigeria-steal and walk free. Slap the people as many times as you can-and walk free. Loot, loot, loot, until you can loot no more! Loot, loot and loot because the treasury never seems to be empty. Loot and loot for your children and your unborn generations! Let those who are not in power suffer and struggle to eke a living! Isn’t it amazing that the richest country in the world has the poorest people living in it?

Nigeria is 48 but she is sick. Someone has to remind Nigeria that agriculture is supposed to be her number one foreign exchange earner and not oil. Some people have alleged that Nigeria gave Malaysia her first oil palm seed, today Malaysia produces more oil palm than Nigeria! Someone who is normal should tell Nigeria that she has the best human resources pool in the world and tapping 70-80% efficiency of that pool would transform Nigeria to the best economy in the world provided corruption, favouritism and tribalism are relegated.

Someone should take a message to Nigeria that education is still the key to the future. The role of medicine, technology and information technology should be emphasized to those fools in power and their useless spokesmen and women. The message should include the importance of the provisions of permanent and constant power supply. The importance of good road networks and extremely functional public transport system in the sustenance of economic growth should be pointed out. Someone should tell those thieves and rogues in power that there is difference between knowledge on paper or textbooks and actual implementation.

The rescue of Nigerians actually (in the end) lies in the hands of the ordinary man and woman on the streets. They must rise up and claim what is theirs-their country. They must stand up and let their voices be heard, their votes to be counted. They should put up strong opposition and resistance the next time their votes are annulled or when their votes are not counted. It’s easier said than done because we are always afraid to die. We are afraid of the people we thought are our fellow Nigerians-those who will not hesitate to pump the barrel in our skull to ensure that the barbarism and looting in governance continue forever and ever.

But the implication of not standing up against all odds is the reason more than 50 000 women will die in 2009 due to pregnancy related problem. It is the reason that up to 12 children may have died due to preventable diseases since you started reading this article. Not rising up for what we believe in is the reason that some of us were unemployed for several years allowing frustrations, hopelessness and anger to take over our lives. Not living in decent homes and never getting water from the taps are all outcomes of our “sit-down-and look- (siddonlook) approach”.

Nigerians are a lovely people and it is very easy to associate the vices in our lives with the failure of governance. It’s up to us if we want to live with these ills and vices for the rest of our lives or if we want to change things and prepare a better place for our children and children’s children.

Nigeria we hail thee, our motherland! A fool at 48!