By Adeola Aderounmu

A nation in coma: 50 years of bondage and 2 wasted generations

When I wrote Nigerians as captives: 48 years of waste one year ago I was hoping that my pessimism would be overturned somehow. Far from it..! 2009 has gone down in our annals as the worst year Nigerians ever lived. In total, it’s been almost 50 years of bondage, 2 wasted generations and more than 400 billion dollars missing.

It is now accepted that the generation that took over the reign of power from the colonial masters is a wasted generation. Unfortunately they have infected the generation that is after them and it appears the cycle of idiocy is still in motion.

One of the most unfortunate legacies sown into Nigerian politics is the attitude or mentality that if you find yourself in the position of authority or some form of power, you must use that position to steal while pretending to be serving. Ask any Nigerian young man vying for political office what his aspirations are. Young men and women alike have formed the opinion that politics is the quickest avenue to get rich by stealing or just looting. This is one of the reasons why Nigerian politics is full of bitterness and it’s about life and death since 1959.

In line with the above it may be pertinent to emphasis how my generation too has started to waste away. Just recently Mr. Bankole literarily told a colleague of his in the House of Representatives to “shut up and sit down” as the fellow tried to bring up the debate concerning Nigeria’s sick ruler. This means if given the opportunity Dimeji Bankole will gladly become a dictator. In other events Dimeji’s name keep cropping up in allegations of scandal, looting and self-enrichment. My generation is wasting away too. Hope is dim. How sad..!

2009 has ended and Mr. James Ibori will still walk free. This is the height of judicial ridicule. The Nigerian judiciary has become a citadel not only of lukewarmness but also of corrupt minds. In Nigeria, an ex-convict both nationally and internationally became a governor. The man is still free! Is Nigeria not yet a failed country?

Mr. Michael Aondoakaa is still the Attorney General of Nigeria. How do Nigerian diplomats cope among their international colleagues? Even as an ordinary citizen attending an international conference on development in Stockholm in 2002, I was quizzed by a number of participants on several issues. People asked me many embarrassing questions about Nigeria. Some of them could not comprehend why several homes in Nigeria are more fortified than European prisons and 419 activities were common.

Look at David Mark, a military man who served under Babangida. Together they ruined the communications industry. Up to this day no one has explained what happened to my family’s telephone number. These men looted uncontrollably and destroyed Nigeria. They are still in Nigeria and the looting game is still on, at various levels. Nigerian lawmakers now headed by Mr. Mark are blood suckers who assign money to themselves and distribute penury to the populace. Even the lazy executives want to build houses worth billions of dollars for themselves in the new budgetary plans while millions of Nigerians are suffering and living in extreme poverty. No greater scandal!

Head or tail, we, the ordinary people continue to suffer. We can go to hell for all the political gangsters care. Two years after the present illegitimate government was forcefully installed we have found ourselves atthe most humiliating position among the comity of nations. No greater shame..!

Our educational system remains hijacked by government officials who are proprietors and owners of private schools and universities. Public schools are in total rot and states of confusion. The quality of education is low as emphasis has shifted to profit and total corruption. Many of the children of the rich and looters have been sent abroad to school right from elementary schools as revealed recently.

We ended 2009 as a dark nation both literarily and proverbially. Nigeria is generating electric power that is embarrassingly low and ridiculous. The output may be less than 3 000 MW! The result is a state of near total darkness over the country. This is real and the effects on the quality of lives cannot be overstated. The effects of lack of electricity on employment opportunities and economic growth cannot be overemphasized. Infrastructures are commonly lacking and hopelessness pervades the land. Nigeria is in coma..!

We have suffered in the hands of those who used khaki, agbada and violence to recapture Nigeria in 2007. At the moment our constitution has been unofficially suspended with the illegal installation of a new chief of Justice. In the last 5 weeks (Nov–Dec 2009) the man who slowly supervised the stagnation of our lives since 2007 has been missing in action and no one knows what his true situation is. We continue to thrive on rumours and speculations about his health. But obviously he’s in a bad shape and that he has not be removed from his position shows that he was probably a puppet in the first place. The situation confirms the fears in certain quarters that Nigeria is ruled by a cabal and not an individual.

Still, we are being tussled around in Nigeria like idiots, all of us. Daily, we are fed with lies and deceits by those who are power hungry and inclined to evil ways. There is no need to ruminate over the implications of a country’s foremost citizen, legal or illegal by nature, lying helpless in a foreign hospital. We continue to spread all our clothes in the sun. The world is laughing at us and I continue to think about the racial implication of the intelligent question. Something is fundamentally wrong with the black race anyway. Nigeria is the largest black nation on earth. Something is wrong with us. I’m sure.

We are like 140m robots, programmed to fail as a nation but instilled with the eagerness of self-preservation and survival instincts. Another year has ended and our unusual resiliency has not allowed us to figure out how to re-engineer ourselves from our stereotyped siddon-look status into proactive agents that will seize the moment through collective reasoning. Why is it impossible for the rest of us to force justice and fairness on our system? Surely we may not be able to attain a common reasoning. Is that the colonial impediment that I was warned about?

Just when we are still pondering and brainstorming on what we can do to save our nation, the corrupt regime in Abuja came up with a propaganda called rebranding. The regime tried to shy away from the problem of corruption and maladministration. The best Christmas present ever to any Nigerian government was handed over by Nigerian terrorist named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. In the twinkle of an eye he laid to rest the fraudulent rebranding program that several Nigerians have criticized times without number. He updated our known reputations by taking it beyond our reach or control.

By putting Nigerian on the map of terrorist nations Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab reflected the failure of Northern Nigeria where Obasanjo allowed the likes of Umaru Yar Adua to disrupt the secularity of Nigeria through the establishment of sharia regimes. These treasonable acts provided the basis for the escalation of Islamic fundamentalism in Northern Nigeria. Innocent people are slaughtered routinely across Nigeria no thanks to the failure of the useless government to bring sponsors and perpetrators to book.

Umar Farouk represents the failure of the central Nigerian government. He is a classical example of failure of both the home and the society. He will stay for a long time as the link between two failed generations and an emerging generation of disorientated Nigerians. His activities, though highly condemnable and disgraceful will probably provide the needed reflection and reasoning over some of the problems plaguing this sick country.

2010 will be Nigeria’s year of jubilee. We should look back at our errors and shortcomings. Then we should look ahead-how do we want to continue this journey? The time is now for progressive minds to take the central stage, it is over due. If we must split back to regions, so be it. We should probably not continue to live as strange bed mates where our individual, wicked ambition is to steal from the treasury or be beneficiaries of questionable wealth through friends and families. Do we have a common national ambition?

We cannot continue to rely on our endless prayers from our sinful lips without the corresponding actions. It is a lame approach. Imagine the progress that will be accomplished if we take the necessary actions to define our mode of existence-regional governments or true federalism. Imagine what we can achieve if we ensure that the likes of Ibori and Aondoakaa are allowed to do time with Mr. Bode George. Just imagine the progress and national revamping if we insist on the rule of law, the end of corruption and the end of tyranny. We must define how we want to achieve these goals otherwise we are facing another 50 years that will remain characterised by waste, slavery, poverty and unhappiness under the cabal and their accomplices.

May the Glory of Nigeria come, soon..!

aderounmu@gmail.com