Understanding The 2024 Situation In Nigeria

February 18, 2024February 18, 2024 / Adeola / Leave a comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

In 2024, some states in Nigeria do not produce a pin or a broom.

Understanding The 2024 Situation In Nigeria

In recent days (this February 2024), the criticisms against the Tinubu Jaguda government have toned up. There are reports of people dying of hunger. A woman fainted and her children are starving. A bag of cement is 9000 naira. A lot of things are displayed online with prices hitting the roof and bursting off.

But, how many of these problems in Nigeria are handiwork of Tinubu’s jaguda government and how many of it are due to the (stupid) expectations from about 200 million people? My explanations are long and perhaps repetitive.

Things are expensive globally

The rise in cost of living in recent years, especially since the inception of the Russia-Ukraine war, is on a global scale. In Sweden, I know of an interest rate on housing that flew from USD 700 per month to USD 1300 per month. How does a civil servant anywhere in the world prepare to cough out so much difference every month on mortgage? What about the cost of food, transport, health care and other stuffs? In our stores and supermarkets in Sweden, prices have hit the roof and a lot of families are struggling. But this essay is not about the situation in Sweden.

In a country like Nigeria, where the minimum wage is N 30 000 (< 20 USD), the hopes after the emergence of the Tinubu Emilokan jaguda government was that there would be a positive change. The man, Tinubu, made so many promises some people thought he would be their messiah. It’s turning out to be another episode of a long series of broken promises in Nigeria’s horror-filled politics.

Nigeria is running a useless system of government

Some of us have mentioned this several times but majority still troop to the ballot boxes every 4 years to keep the useless and senseless system of government working. As long as you are voting in Nigeria’s political elections, you are part of the reason Nigeria is what it is today. As long as you belong to a political party in this senseless system, you are part of the problem with yourself. How does this sound to your hearing: Make money in River State, send the money to Tinubu, Tinubu shares the money to Sokoto, Kaduna and the rest of the state including River State? How much of the amount River State sent to Tinubu do you think comes back to River State? Do the same math for Lagos and all the other states in the country where some economic activities are still going on. Do you think money made in Alaska would be send to Biden so Biden can send the money to Texas and other American states?

In Nigeria today, all the monies from the regions are sent to Tinubu in Abuja. Before Tinubu, it was to Buhari, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Babangida, Shagari, Murtala and Gowon. This senseless thing started after the coups of 1966. How can you send money to one person and expect accountability? How can you send all the monies in an economy to an individual and you expect that individual to be sane? Even you, you will go crazy and surely become very corrupt!

Make money in Rivers State, send the money to Tinubu in Abuja. Tinubu shares the money to Sokot, Kaduna, Imo and the remaining states in Nigeria. How much of the amount comes back to Rivers State? Does that even make any sense to you if you have some brain cells to think? But that is what you vote for every 4 years? You are the problem with yourself!

Nigerian Politicians are corrupt. They are documented criminals.

Some may argue that if Nigerian politicians are not corrupt, the unitary system would work. But that is the exact illusion that is created by the system and the (s)elections that come with it. That is what the criminal politicians what you to believe. That is why more than 3 generations of Nigerians have wasted away. That belief and hope in the system is the reason why this generation would die in extreme penury and poverty.

Globally, politicians are corrupt to varying degrees. But Nigerian politicians are documented criminals. Some were criminals before they entered government houses, others became criminals after emerging in government houses. There is no way a sane person will not become insane after emerging in Nigerian politics. It’s designed for you to steal or loot.

To be clear, the list of criminal-politicians living openly in Nigeria after looting in politics is endless. There is no justice under a unitary system of government and one of the reasons is the concentration of power in one person, at the center. Buhari, Jonathan, Obasanjo, Babangida, name them. All the former and serving governors. All the ministers, past and present. Everyone in Emilokan Jaguda government. They are all thieves. Nigeria is running a useless system of government supervised by thieves and you are crying that thing are expensive. You are not ready to save yourselves and your children.

Nigeria is a consumption-based economy

One of the consequences of sharing monies to different states in Nigeria was that several states became unproductive. Before the useless unitary system was introduced to Nigeria, all the different regions were very productive. Agriculture and industrialization were in full speed. The regions competed with one another. Their respective economies were vibrant, and the common currency was very strong. Infrastructures were built and maintained. Everything made in Nigeria and by Nigerians were of the highest standard. Our health care and schools attracted people from all over the world. That was the golden period of the regional system of government in Nigeria.

Fast forward post unitary system of government. In 2024, some states in Nigeria do not produce a pin or a broom. The politicians cross their legs, sit their asses at the government houses and wait for federal allocations that have been mopped up from a few productive states. When the money gets to them, they steal most of it, at the state and local government levels. The same at the ministries; ministers loot monies and they get away with their loots. There are almost no consequences for being a criminal politician in Nigeria.

Even in some states where minerals are mined, a few criminals in the states have cornered all the mineral resources with the help of unregistered foreign companies/persons. So, it would appear that the money shared to the states are looted by politicians. Then the income from the mineral resources that are supposed to be used for the state end up in the pockets of the same politicians and a few of their friends. These are the people you see buying houses and land for trillions of naira all over the country and abroad. Several politicians starting from the presidency down to the local government level just dip their hands into the country’s account and take money to buy houses in UK, Dubai and America. Then you are there crying that things are expensive, you are not serious yet. Our freedom will never come on a platter of gold.

A rotten head

What people are facing in Nigeria today are not only due to the pressure of global crises. Internationally, we are all feeling the impacts of a global economy meltdown. Interests on our mortgages are up in the sky, depression is high and homelessness (even in the absence of war) is noticeable. But what makes Nigeria unique is that the head is super rotten. The head is represented by politics and policies. It is represented by law and order. By accountability and patriotism. But they are all decayed!

It does not matter who is elected or selected as Nigeria’s president. You can be Atikufied or Obidiots or Agbadoists, it does not matter. Where did Anambra money go when Obi was governor? What did Atiku do with all he stole for years 1999 – 2007 as VP? The unitary system of government does not give accounts. It loots and assist to loot because that was the purpose of the system. In recent years, a man called Buhari, a classical dullard and a man of low mentality was pushed down the throats of Nigerians as president. In private conversation, we know that no one of us will employ Buhari as a gatekeeper or servant. He was that incompetent and incoherent. But some cabals made him a president. Unforgivable. Today, a certain Tinubu whose identity cannot be verified is leading. Everything about Tinubu is unclear. What is clear is that he, like Obi and Atiku, is one of the criminal politicians in Nigeria. But he is president.

The heads in Nigeria have always been rotten. The implication is that the rottenness spreads into the entire network and systems in Nigeria. There is nothing in Nigeria today that does not smell. That is the most viable explanation to how some people with no known source of extra income, can survive on USD 20 a month. Even a bag of rice approached USD 70 but we move, abi? Nigerians say they hustle to make ends meet. You don’t want to know what hustle means to some people. Let’s leave it there. Try to get something that is your right in Nigeria, like a passport. Try to open a bank account. Try to park your car in a public place in Lagos Island. Everything is hard and frustrating. We rip one another. The head is bad, rotten and smelly. You can feel it in everything in Nigeria.

Where do we go from here?

In some articles in the past, I have written very provocatively. I still do, sometimes. In one controversial article published in the Nigerian Village Square, I asked if we should lease Nigeria to the former colonial masters, to see if they can turn things around in 10 years. On more than one occasion, I wrote articles titled: No rage, no change. They are here on my blog. Today, I cannot stand by and allow a rogue called a colonial master to rule my life; that article on leasing Nigeria was borne out of frustration in the days of ignorance. Still the idea was to provoke to positive actions. More than a decade later, Nigeria is down the hole.

But I stand by “No rage, No change”. Sometimes, we say revolution. Sadly, Nigeria does not need a revolution that change people or replace people in a unitary system. Nigeria needs a revolution that would reshape the geographical space very dramatically. If Nigeria continue to exist in its modus operandi, I cannot see the light. Even the tunnel does not exist. As long as a unitary system of government remains, Nigeria and Nigerians are hopeless. 10 years from now, some will debate this provocation!

The big question is: what can you give to make your geographical space a better place for your children? If my generation or the one after ends thinking we can save Nigeria, then we would end up chasing shadows. Our lives may add no real values to humanity. Our parents died believing in a certain imaginary one Nigeria. See where it left us.

Our concern should be on our common heritage, our common culture, our common values, our common language. We must return to where the bubble bursts in 1966. Everybody need to know where we were before the 2 useless 1966 coups in order to understand what we are up against. It would not come easy because the politicians, the elites and the rogue colonial masters are also ready to keep Nigeria as a giant slave camp. But with a massive population of over 60 million representing, the Yoruba for example must be able to govern their Western Region where Agriculture was king. Nobody was eager to leave Yoruba Western Region for a low standard London or Paris, at that time. My mother stayed back in Abeokuta of the 1950s. She told me the story. What a glorious choice she made. In 2002, I could not make the same decision as my mother when the call came. What applied to a 1960 glorious Western Yoruba Land applied also to the other regions at that time. It is the regions that we must take back in order to pursue own peace, happiness and economic prosperity.

One of the greatest fallacies and chant of slaveries in Nigeria today is “We will take Nigeria back”. From who? Was Nigeria ever made for you? What is Nigeria? We have lived our lives on false identity. Sadly, we will die this way, with the identity that our ancestors did not bequeath to us. But we can save our children and the unborn generations by giving them their rightful identities. You can never claim back what was never yours. Nigeria was created as a slave camp. What belongs to you is Western Region-Yoruba, Eastern Region-Igbo (Biafra), Northern Region-Arewa, Middle-Belt and the South-South (The Delta). In this new age, perhaps more regions should emerge. Why not? Some of the most prosperous countries in the world do not even have a million inhabitants.

Finally, there will be no quick fix to all the problems that have accumulated in Nigeria since the erroneous coups of 1966 and the prevalence of mad, corrupt people in government houses since 1966 to date. If we correct the most fundamental error today (that is operating at the regional levels), our children and children’s children would have something to smile about in the next 20, 30, 40 or 50 years and forever.

We have to stop crying or lamenting on the social media and in real life. We need to stop praying from Maiduguri to Jerusalem and Mecca. Let us stop wasting time. Stop sharing nonsense. Share the history and stories that will change for our lives for better, forever. Spread the news that awaken our critical thinking. Let us disagree to agree that we need a proper plan for the rest of our lives. Our progress starts the day we start building our respective nations again. Everything starts on the day of our real freedom from a slave camp called Nigeria.

aderounmu@gmail.com

We Can’t Go On Like This

January 30, 2016January 30, 2016 / Adeola / 1 Comment

The silence of the Nigerian government on the current economic woes and the extreme rise in the cost of living is too loud.

Mr. Buhari must address the nation and tell the people how much longer they have to hold on. He and the APC mandate must know that ordinary people live in this country too-more than 100m-and they are suffering.

We Can’t Go On Like This

By Adeola Aderounmu

Yes, change is gradual. I know.

However in Nigeria’s case, we are not experiencing change in the positive directions. We need to talk about this and the time is now. Everything is getting costlier by the day and life is unbearable. The cost of goods and services are shooting up astronomically daily.

The cost of living in Nigeria is increasing astronomically daily. (c) Image by Adeola Aderounmu, 2016

Yes, l know the government is fighting a lopsided-war on corruption where only the PDP stalwarts are criminals. I don’t need anyone to remind me of that. I don’t need anyone to remind me that suddenly, everything is right about the APC and wrong about the PDP.

I don’t need a reminder that suddenly all the criminals in the APC fold are now saints until l can prove their indictments. So sorrowful actually, that it depends on me and not the EFCC, or the police or the judiciary-the institutions that have been unleashed on the opposition and PDP contractors.

But my father always said what is worth doing at all is worth doing well.

It is so sad that the APC-Buhari mandate took over power without a clear economic blueprint. Before the emergence of the APC-Buhari mandate, it was clear that the Nigerian economy was already collapsing.

It was clear that the politicians regardless of their party affiliation, have been looting the various states and national treasury on an unprecedented scale. It was clear that the corrupt former Minister of Finance and the incompetent governor of Central Bank have doled out funds and monies like Santa Claus.

Before the emergence of the Buhari-APC mandate, it was clear that Goodluck Jonathan has been committing economic and war crimes against Nigerians through his lack of leadership and pure weakness of mind.

Before the emergence of the APC-Buhari mandate, the rest of the world has made it clear that oil prices will continue to fall for a long time to come as inventions and innovations continue to provide alternative to crude oil.

Cars for example are driven by cleaner forms of energy including electricity in many parts of the world. Solar energy use is on the rise even in countries with long winter seasons and shorter days.

The world is changing and moving ahead. The Buhari-APC mandate must be informed about global perspectives and where the world is heading. Crude oil may not be part of the future.

When the APC was on the campaign trail, it did not roll out economic recovery plans and achievable people-oriented palliatives that will cushion the approaching hardship both on the short- and long-term.

Rather the party was busy dishing out sugar-coated promises as if crude oil was going to sell for 200 dollars per barrel in 2016.

It will soon be one year since the Buhari-APC mandate took over government and the most constant thing they have emphasized is that all the problems in Nigeria today are to be blamed on the PDP and Jonathan.

Indeed, the PDP, Goodluck Jonathan as a bad leader and definitely the APC are all accomplices in the problems facing Nigeria.

I don’t understand how anyone can actually sieve out the roles played by the APC politicians since 1999. Are the APC states or APC politicians not part of Nigeria? Is the Nigerian National Assembly divided into PDP and APC divisions?

The bulk can stop at the desk of the PDP between 1999 to 2015. But it was merry go-round for all Nigerian politicians and for the real and fake government contractors.

I did not envisage that a new regime will emerge in 2015 without the vision of what it would take to fix or address the problems. I expected a mandate with several tools, one that can fight corruption totally and address economic and political issues plaguing Nigeria.

I still cannot believe that it took Buhari-APC mandate about 6 months to establish a government full of old, overused politicians.

I did not know that Buhari-APC mandate will do exactly what the PDP government perfected for 15 years of misrule, which is to use political positions and ministerial appointments to pay back for funds invested in campaigns. I thought there would be a change.

I didn’t know that those who want change in the right direction will be called wailing wailers by the press secretary to Buhari. It’s hard to believe that the APC mandate is shooting down all voices of oppositions, even of those that propelled them to power.

The Buhari-APC mandate and all future governments in Nigeria must know that no matter what happens, some incorruptible social commentators will always be there. They will bear the burdens of the voiceless no matter who captures Abuja or the Nigerian states. So start sucking it up and get to work.

If you don’t know, last week a packet of Indomie now sells for N1500. But those who feed themselves illegally with taxpayers money using the federal budget as a tool of stealing don’t feel the economic pains.

The price of this bread went from N200 to N250 within the last few days. It may increase further considering the situation in Nigeria and the poor value of the Naira.

Unleash your internet E-rats on us when we tell you that we know that you are fighting a lopsided war on corruption but you have refused to tell us what you are doing about the price of sardine that has gone up by almost 200% in the last one month.

The Buhari-APC mandate need to send people out to the market where we buy our stuffs.

Go to the market and have a feel of what ordinary Nigerians are facing or going through.

For how long will this hardship continue?

In Nigeria whatever has gone up does not ever come down again. With a salary that has refused to grow, this is a dilemma. With a minimum wage of N18 000, it is a hopeless situation.

What we are telling you is that Nigeria is collapsing, the economy is bad. Stop blaming PDP or Jonathan. Get to work instead.

Mr. Buhari for the upteempth time will rather address Nigerians from abroad than from his office in Abuja.

For me, this is one of the greatest mysteries with the Buhari-APC mandate so far. Buhari did not talk or address Nigerians adequately during his campaign. One year later, he is still not talking to Nigerians.

An arrangee media-chat is not the way to go.

I am now sure that something is wrong somewhere. This time Mr. Buhari had to fly to Kenya to make promises of cleaning up the Niger Delta. Before then, it was from the UAE, US and the UK.

Can l predict that the next time Mr. Buhari talks to Nigerians, he will be outside of Abuja? Very strange.

This is my assignment for Mr. Buhari. In the next few days, he should stand or sit side by side the Minister of Finance and perhaps one or two economic gurus from the Central Bank or from Nigerian foremost economic institutions and make a joint public address.

What is going on? When will this end? Where is the change?

We can’t continue like this and the silence itself is too loud.

The silence can also means clueless.

The issues are clear. The problems are obvious.

So, they need to tell us the plans to bring us out of these woes that we continue to pay for even through higher taxes and increase in the price of electricity that is not yet available.

What measures are in place to ensure that the cost of goods and services do not continue to escalate in the face of the misfortune that continue to befall our dear Naira?

What measures are in place that the minimum wage or the regular salaries received by workers do not become useless in the face of continuous rise in the cost of goods and services?

For the hardworking civil servant who has planned to build his modest home with his N5m savings, what are his chances now that his budget has gone up to N15m because of the dwindling fortune of the Naira?

The cost of a plate of rice has gone up. The cost of transportation is up. The cost of living generally is set for the sky.

What are the hopes for Nigerians today?

I can raise a thousand questions on the present fate of the Nigerian worker, the unemployed, children, the elderly and the hopeless across the country.

These are the people that Buhari-APC mandate should be addressing, the issues and the problems that they face.

If the Buhari-APC government continue to blame the PDP without addressing the problems or issues, how does that help the common, ordinary people?

Again, we agree that Jonathan-PDP mandate destroyed Nigeria. Thanks for the information. What are the plans now?

The Buhari-APC mandate must thank the Nigerian resiliency at a time like this. I don’t know if it can go on forever. For we have seen changes in regimes that occured in the twinkle of an eye through mass revolts even in places where government gave hopes to the people.

In Nigeria, no one has addressed the country about a future that is hopeful. No plans, no visions! We just dey carry go as if nothing happen or nothing dey happen. Na wa o

But enough is enough!

Mr. Buhari must addres the nation and tell the people how much longer they have to hold on. He and the APC mandate must know that ordinary people live in this country-more than 100m and they are suffering.

In the short term, all the recovered and returned loots must be heavily invested on the people in such a way as to provide reprieve for the current suffering staring at them daily. Transport, cost of goods and commondities, health issues just to mention three need to be addressed.

On the long term, Nigeria must reach that point as quickly as possible where all the regions and states are productive and contributing massively to the earnings of the country. Nigeria and Nigerians must act as if the oil is finished.

It’s probably time to start cleaning up the pollution in the delta as rightly mentioned by Mr. Buhari in Kenya. Clean the place and let everybody go home. It will take 50-60 years l learnt.

A corrupt-free government, one that is steered from the regions is imperative for Nigeria.

Patriotic citizens who are dedicated to country and humanity are elements of nation building. The optimal utilization of the available human resources will avail much.

A broader economic agenda should cover agricultural export, investment in science, education and medicine. It should include national exploration and appropriate utilization of Nigeria’s mineral deposits scattered everywhere in the land.

President Buhari and Nigeria’s economic and financial gurus must present in earnest a comprehensive and doable blueprint for Nigeria’s economic recovery.

Enough of the silence.

We are waiting!

aderounmu@gmail.com

What Happened To A Pair Of Trousers At N52?

March 24, 2014March 24, 2014 / Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

In 1989 when I was at my final year of secondary school at Festac Grammar School in Lagos, I made a “senior uniform” for less than N100. So what has happened to making a pair of trousers for N52?

In February 2008 I asked a similar question: What happened To One Cup Of Rice At 30 Kobo? Six years on, Nigeria continues to sail precariously on stormy waters. Nigerians have never had it so bad and so hopeless. Any iota of hope that anyone kept until last week was vehemently quenched by the NIS recruitment tragedy. The tragedy was not only in the reported deaths but also from the evidential representation of the reality that the lame government and government follow-follow group try to hide or deny time and time again.

Festac Grammar School Prefects, 1989 set. (sitting 2nd from left: Adeola Aderounmu ca 1988)

In 1989 I could buy a chinos material for N35 and pay the tailor N17 for workmanship. With N50 it was actually possible to make a pair of trousers cut from other types of materials. So depending on the material of your choice, you could keep a balance that can be used for sundries.

It was not easy even back then to scoop or save up the N50. I was probably one of those who made their uniforms quite late during my senior high. Some students were radicals anyway. They didn’t really care about the pair of trousers. I was not a complete radical in that sense; we just had a dwindling middle-class family situation in Nigeria and some of us had to source some of the funds to get the things we needed.

My time stretch without the senior outfits was made even longer when I accidentally applied a very hot pressing iron on my pair of trousers on the night after I made the collection from the tailor. I could not cry. My mother who was also a tailor cum trader had to apply her creativity. My pair of shiny trousers became an adapted “baggy” short.

Ten years after my struggle to represent as a senior student and 4 years after l first became a university graduate, civilian government returned to Nigeria. The hope that was quenched earlier in 1993 when the military gangsters headed by one notorious General Babangida cancelled Nigeria’s most peaceful, free and fair elections was slightly rekindled when General Obasanjo was bundled into power in 1999.

In 2014 Nigeria’s self-styled democracy has proven to be a sham and an undesirable representation of the intelligence of the black race. Year after year since 1999, or more correctly since 1960 the rulers of Nigeria have systematically plunged Nigeria into crises that have deepened with time.

Under a presidency popular referred to as clueless and headed by Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria nears the brink. After years of neglect and maladministration in Northern Nigeria, terrorism (alleged to be both politically sponsored and religiously motivated) was set off. In general, insecurity in Nigeria has now reached a new frightening level. The dimension is unprecedented. Nigeria wallows in the doldrums. Resiliency is an overused word in Nigeria because an objective measurement of depression level will bend or break the threshold mark.

Nigerian rulers have always failed to fight corruption. They have always failed to lead, they preferred to rule. Under Goodluck Jonathan, corruption was redefined. Even when it is too obvious, this lame administration just failed to act. In different ways and under different manifestations the rulership of Goodluck Jonathan may go down as one of the most corrupt in the history of Africa.

On the surface of earth you will not find a similar act of tolerance to a combination of impunity, corruption and ineptitude. Nigeria remains the most openly corrupt country in the world and an utter disgrace to the dreams of the black race on earth. One week ago, the dreams of some young and old applicants were crushed. People were killed both physically and mentally in broad daylight under the watch of Nigerian rulers. That was a micro representation of the daily but larger pictures hidden across Nigeria.

What do you expect from a pair of trousers that cost N52 in 1989? Despite the declining fortunes of Nigeria at that time, it was still a period of time when workers who earned N2000 are considered “well-paid”. But when political madness goes unabated from a time when a politician or public servant can loot N1 million to this time when it is fine to steal USD 20b or more, it is only imperative that N52 cannot be adequate to buy a decent meal or snacks!

ln 2014 Nigerian politicians have realigned themselves along several blocks. The clear lack of ideology was expanded. You could move from APC to PDP or from PDP to APC depending on if the presidency was on your trail or on your side. It became even more obvious that the interest of the ordinary Nigerian does not exist in the political agenda of these greedy and corrupt lots.

As early as 2013, two clear years before new general elections, Nigeria stood still. Large sums of money continue to disappear from the local, state and federal treasuries as Nigerian politicians continue to loot and pile up funds for the 2015 elections. I have never seen a country so “silly” and so “ridiculously corrupt”.

In Nigeria saints have become devils. You will almost not be able to point at one honest politician or public servant regardless of their track records before they became part of the insane Nigerian method of governance. Once you’re in, your mindset changes and you become part of the people destroying Nigeria. Something is wrong inside of government I am sure.

Federal financial Institutions in Nigeria like the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance for examples have shown executive recklessness and harbour channels or leakages that make ordinary Nigerians impoverished. The misdemeanours of the Ministry of Finance in Nigeria are a disgrace to the whole of Africa. If you extend the scrutiny of official recklessness to NNPC you will be shocked that in Nigeria there is no campaign to arrest, detain and prosecute all the rulers and thieves in public institutions. No greater doom!

Why these public officers are still called politicians, ministers and so on remain another food for thought on the nature of law enforcement in Nigeria. For law and order in Nigeria, I suspect what I’ll define as Hidden Mental Handicap Syndrome (HM-HS). It’s an incapacitation of both the police and the judiciary as federal institutions in a country characterised by absolute systemic failure. It’s pure nonsense that some people are above the law! Why scrap history from the education curriculum in Nigeria? Our laws are not working; let’s scrap both the law schools and police colleges instead! Oh, I forgot, you don’t throw the dead baby and the water at the same time!

I know why I can’t make my pair of trousers for N52 today. It’s the same reason I cannot buy a cup of rice at 30 kobo. It’s the same bloody reason why millions of people in Nigeria are living below the poverty level, struggling to stretch hands to mouths. Some of the world’s poorest people are found in Nigeria. This is more than a shame. It’s a scandal on the intellectual capacity of the Nigerian people.

No single person, ministry or institution in Nigeria will admit that it is responsible for this tragedy of the hopelessness that pervade in Nigeria. It is this hopelessness that led several thousands of applicants across Nigeria to seeking jobs meant for a few hundred positions. In the end it turned out that the recruitment exercise like many things in Nigeria was also a scam.

People were ripped and people were killed, all in the name of executive recklessness. And life goes on as if nothing has happened. When billions of naira or dollars are stolen from the Nigerian treasury, life goes on as well as if nothing had happened! The money that had disappeared in Nigeria in the past few months is large enough to cripple the European economy! It may wipe Greece and Italy off the map of Europe.

The people who misruled and mismanaged Nigeria will not see why I can no longer make a pair of trousers for 52 naira because for some reasons they cannot comprehend the cumulative and negative synergic effects of their combined ineptitude, corruption and sometimes outright stupidity of job neglect.

The domino effect of half a century of misrule is huge. Today it will cost me about N2000 or more to make a pair of trousers of chinos material. The cost of living is high while the quality is extremely low. Nigeria is like a sinking ship, a place where almost no value is placed on human lives. Infrastructure developments are inadequate or non-existent in many places. Electricity remains at an evolutionary dead end in Nigeria. Many roads are bad and public schools have become relics. Security is zero and other vices are on the rampage daily. Such deprivations depict the sufferings of ordinary Nigerians.

In several ways public administration in Nigeria is similar to committing crimes against humanity. Nigerians hear of federal, state and local budgets every year. They know that the monies disappear in private accounts across Nigeria and worldwide. It goes largely unpunished in Nigeria because from the presidency to the local council, criminals hold sway.

In Nigeria you can steal USD 12m and walk free. You can be a murderer and get a presidential pardon. You can steal N225m and smile like a princess. You can buy 12 presidential jets and ask for more. You make Oliver Twist become an unlikely fairy tale hero by redefining greed and in-satiation. You can feed yourself with N1b of tax payers’ money. There is no limit to the extent of recklessness-everything appears lawless.

In Nigeria, you can be terrorist and own houses in Abuja and in other countries. As a clever media-smart writer you can blog or own a twitter account for billions of naira reward from government officials including the presidency. In Nigeria, pardoned and unpardoned ex-convicts and looters are free to roam again to repeat their madness-loot, kille or cart away. They win election and nomination every voting season.

You can even be a both a murderer and a looter today and a self-made saint tomorrow. Myopism is one of Nigeria’s greatest weaknesses. The other sources of weaknesses are of course religion, tribalism and a law enforcement system that is a complete joke. In Nigeria anything is possible to keep the status quo that promote evil and oppress the majority. The law is meaningless and aimed to punish petty thieves and the less privileged in the society.

One constant concern is also the people who want us to forget about highlighting the problems with Nigeria. They want us to proffer the solutions to the problems of Nigeria. Too easy! Just take a peep in the campaign speeches of each and every one of the major politicians in Nigeria. Take Jonathan for example and his “I have no shoes campaign of 2010”. With the exception of establishing true federalism in Nigeria the other solutions to Nigeria’s problems are contained in his campaign speeches. If Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign was his blueprint, Nigeria will be a paradise by now! What we need to take away is the madness that usually overtakes these souls once they get into offices.

Everything that has a beginning must have an end. One day monkey go go market e no go return . Imagine if the NIS recruitment exercise snowballed into a mass revolution. The national conference will be abandoned and a new re-awakening would have emerged in record time. Under such a rebirth there will be hope that through empowerment I will be able to afford a new pair of trousers again.

aderounmu@gmail.com