random relflection series

My Random Reflection @ 53

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By Adeola Aderounmu

My Random Reflection @ 53

It has been 18 years since I started to write this series: My Random Reflections. Usually, they bothered around my personal life and Nigeria. In recent years my focus shifted from Nigeria to what I expect of the future: a future that Nigeria would be dismantled so that the entrapped nations/countries in it can be set free to attain greatness and align with the super powers of the world. It is such a shame and a waste of human resources that both the intellectuals and fools in Nigeria are talking about a certain 2027 elections 2 years into the useless reign of the present regime. Invariably, each successive regime since 1999 govern stupidly and loot for 2 years out of four and spend the remaining two years planning for the next elections thereby bringing an already useless government to a total halt. This is the cycle since 1999 when one dictator called Abdulsalami finally handed over to Obasanjo to usher in a civilian regime. The return was overdue because in 1993, another criminal and dictator called Babangida refused to hand over governance to MKO Abiola who won the 1993 elections.

My stand on Nigeria.

I do not support Nigeria to exist as a single country because before the senseless and useless coups of 1966, Nigeria as it was, was a rising superpower courtesy of the regional government where each region supported itself through her own resources and the competitions between the regions meant that development was fast-paced and the regions were at some point faring better than almost all the European countries.

Yes, Western Nigeria was ahead of London and Paris before the coups of 1966 that brought a unified system of government to replace the regional government. I have flooded my blog with this historical perspective several times and since many young people do not know these historical facts, they are being fooled quarterly with fake elections that have buried Nigeria permanently as one of the worst places to live in the world.

I refuse to accept any tourist or tourists’ slogan that rate Nigeria high. The minimum wage in Nigeria is about N70 000. It cannot buy a bag of rice! Any Nigerian living on minimum wage cannot afford a 1 – 3 hour stay at any internationally rated tourist destination in Nigeria. So, please let that rest. There are several other arguments to support my claim that Nigeria is one of the worst places to live on earth. Drive around Festac and see a trip to hell. Drive off Lusada road. Drive Matogun area. Forget about Lagos Island where the distractions blind you from the realities of our lives in this country. For the past 3 weeks, from the end of June 2025 to this day the 13th of July 2025, you cannot register a SIM CARD in Nigeria. Is that even a country? Please…! Where else on earth does network that bothers on national security stops working? Where? Then you don’t get any official information and no date for activation of the network can save or take the lives of 200 million people.

The Value Of The Naira. The Black Out Factor.

The naira which is the official currency of Nigeria used to have more value that the pounds and dollars a few decades back. Today in 2025, the value of the naira is next to useless. A medium fancy mama put in Nigeria will demand N5 000 from you for a decent meal. In the lowest of category, maybe N2000 when you finish ordering 2 spoons of rice, one meat, 3 for N100 dodo and water for N200. In some places where they serve you meat, the meat is as small as a SIM CARD. It’s not better to cook at home. What can a minimum wage of N70k do? You can spend it in a few minutes buying bread, rice and yam. A lot of good food substances in Nigeria are out of the reach of the ordinary citizen today. What a tragedy for the value of the naira and what it can take home.

The value will continue to depreciate as long as the government remains corrupt. The politicians pay themselves huge wages, several millions per month to be sure. The country relies heavily on oil that belongs solely to the people of the Niger Delta. Production and manufacturing are declining or non-existence. A key factor here is the near total absence of electricity in Nigeria. In 2025, electricity remains scarce in Nigeria and it is essentially seen as a luxury. The Power Holding Companies are grossly incompetent and the infrastructure to maintain constant power supply in Nigeria does not exist. Several homes and companies that used generators or power plants have given up. The cost of fuel to run their generators and plants have increased astronomically. Nigeria is a typical scene for survival of the fittest. Eat or be eaten! The government does not work for the people. The government is dissociated from the ordinary citizens. The politicians and the people live in parallel worlds.

Our Health

One familiar news that came up this week was Buhari and Abdulsalami as patients at a London hospital. These 2 useless former rulers in Nigeria are old and receiving treatments abroad. If you want a reminder of how useless all former Nigerian rulers are, this piece of news is it. How can you be a president in a country and you do not deem it fit to build a hospital of international standard where you, your family and other citizens can receive treatment?  I made a recent post on this topic.  How crazy, how stupid can you be not to use your position to build hospitals across the country? People will not shout tribalism if you started it in your hometown and extend it nationwide. These rulers are fools!

What Next For Nigeria? Where Do We Go From Here?

Nigeria is planning an election for 2027. Already in 2025, governance is almost at a halt. It is the 2027 elections that is on the mind of the gullible citizens as the politicians formed new fronts, now coalitions as if anything is new. In a post on this blog, I have tagged Atiku as Nigerians biggest political prostitutes based on the number of parties he had formed or joined and in 2025, he lived true to that tag. In Africa, Atiku is the greatest political prostitute ever. Now, I have lost count of how many political parties under his arms.

In 2011, I dismissed any new elections in Nigeria. In 2025, my stand is the same. Elections in Nigeria will bring more poverty, more impoverishment, lower standard of living, ever sinking value for the naira and a life-long experience of hopelessness for a population approaching or probably over 200 million people.

Nigeria jagajaga in the lyrics of Abdulkareem.

There are flashes of comfort and affluence here and there but those in my opinion are distractions.

To get a picture of Nigeria, you need to visit places where the ordinary citizens live. Live among them, experience their pain, fear and anxiety. Those who said it is fun to be in Nigeria are the rich and powerful. They also include the people Fela described as suffering and smiling. 44 sitting, 99 standing!

Is there anyone in Nigeria today who can survive on a minimum wage of N70 000 naira which is less than USD 50/ month? How can a human being live on USD 1,5 per day? In 2025, you are expected to live on 1.5 dollars or less per day.

So, where do we go from here?

This generation of people or citizens preparing for the 2027 elections are wicked, callous, and selfish. The politicians and the general citizenry alike are evil.

Nothing good will come out of those elections. I have seen Nigerian elections since 1979 and the outcomes are the same and the culmination is staring at us in the face. Why do you want to do another useless election to promote insecurity, poverty, impoverishment, sadness, madness and total citizen disorientation? Why? Why?

There was a system before the 1966 coups that put the different regions in “Nigeria” at par or even ahead of the rest of the world. It is that system, an adaption of it or an outright dissolution of Nigeria that is the way forward.

I make bold to state that there is no politician or group of politicians that can save Nigeria under a unitary system of government. It is senseless, it is barbaric, it is madness, it is unheard of. It is not the solution. It is the ONLY PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA because it gave birth to all he myriads of problems we are facing.

So, why do you, why do we want to keep doing something that has been tested since 1966 and proven to be a failure? Who can explain that to me? I am a teacher and, in my training, you are not supposed to be planning to fail. Your goal is to succeed.

2027 elections in Nigeria is an affirmation in the belief of Nigeria to stick with failure. I will never understand it now and for the rest of my life. Never!

The system of government must change or the nations or countries in Nigeria must be set free. This is the only guarantee that greatness can come to this region in the next 2 to 3 decades. The fact that the change has not even occurred means that we have one or two generations already programmed to fail through the senseless unitary system.

I hope that our children and grandchildren will prosper in the Yoruba country. I have no hope other than that.

aderounmu@gmail.com

My Random Reflections at 40

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

I am 40 years old today. I started this series when I turned 36. So this is the fifth edition of my random reflections on Nigeria.

The occurrence of negative things and tragic occurrences in Nigeria are so rapid and frequent that both local and international media cannot stay abreast of the tragedies. Nigeria records one of the highest frequencies of terrorist attacks in the world today. How did we get to this point?

Adeola Aderounmu

Adeola Aderounmu

I remember in 2009 when a group (known as APELSIN TILL JOS) was planning to take a road trip from Sweden to Jos in Nigeria interviewed me at my home and how the trip was eventually cancelled due to political and religious riots in Jos. The upheavals in Jos in 2009 and 2010 now appears to be dress-rehearsals for the mayhem that Boko Haram has inflicted on Northern Nigeria and Abuja since the emergence of the Jonathan administration.

I don’t think that anyone is still in doubts about the gross incapability of the Jonathan administration. In terms of security Nigeria has never had it so bad. Many innocent people have been murdered and slaughtered by the blood thirsty terrorists in Northern Nigeria. Mostly the terrorists walk free and have constituted themselves to a potent factor that may end the union of Northern and Southern Nigeria.

In general the safety of life and property is at an all-time low and Nigeria has one of the lowest life expectancy in the world. In Nigeria people are not guaranteed of safety in their homes and elsewhere. The roads remain terrible and the airways got a bad hit due to the recent tragic Dana Air crash. Survival of both the fittest and the rugged is a daily interplay in the Nigerian society. Anything can happen at any time and any place.

Unless something ingenious comes up the sleeves of the occupiers and rulers of Nigeria, there is a slight probability that the regime of Goodluck Jonathan might go down in history as the last one for Nigeria. The successes of Boko Haram so far however tragic may trigger the emergence or reactivation of other regional warlords in other parts of Nigeria. At least a people or a tribe must have the right to preserve its own existence once the condition for such gets out of the hand of the irresponsible rulers in Abuja. Events in Maiduguri and other key strongholds of Boko Haram have lent credence to the prediction that Nigeria may cease to exist by 2015.

It is not clear how federalism, regional government or new nations emerging from Nigeria will survive. Corruption is on one side, loss of values and cultural disorientations are on the other side. Too many uncertainties and a totally disorganized system are lurking in the background. Educational institutions and loads of other values that keep a society sane are lost in Nigeria. Nigeria has been on a free fall for over 50 years and it seems the chickens are finally home.

The problems with Nigeria have folded into a complex labyrinth. It appears that the dead ends are numerous. The worst thing is trying to exit the lobes with rulers having bloody hands, corrupt minds and almost no sense of direction.  Many years ago Nigerians substituted their leaders with rulers and ever since the demise of the regional governments, the road to perdition was certain.

My biggest concern for Nigerians is their welfare. No doubt the followership has been almost as bad as the rulership. I tried to refrain from using leaders or leadership when I write about Nigerian rulers. They rule, they never lead. The welfare of the Nigerian is non-existent and somehow a Nigerian does not know what the state owes him or her. The last time I was in Nigeria, I saw again the disconnection between the ruled and the rulers. Everyman runs his own kalakuta republic and there was no way to check both individual and executive recklessness. Nigeria more or less runs on “autopilot”.

It hurts to see the persistent widening gap between those who are rich by crooked means and those who are poor because of their positions in the society. Nigerians are paying more for electricity despite the fact they run their homes with generators and power plants. In other places that I know, that single act of “social terrorism”-that is paying the government for what the government is not providing”-will so much raise dusts, unrest and upheavals that it will bring down the government in no time.

It is amazing how the governments in Nigeria remain in the face of extreme corruption, social injustice, insensitivity to the plights of the masses, increase in the death rate due to unnatural causes, low purchasing power, extremely low wages and other vices too numerous to list. Governance in Nigeria is a big joke. It exists in words and vanishes in acts.

When I write my opinions about corruption, bad governments, useless rulers and acts like the worthless federal character system, I do so against a background of experiences I’d had since I was 8 years old-the first time I had to lead a group and it the first of many years of leadership and service. Today, as I’d always been, I am contented with my life. I work to earn a living like I’d done since 1990, a year after I left high school. My parents taught me all I needed to know about honesty and I believe in them because they trained us with good examples.

It hurts also to see how stupidity has reigned supreme in Nigeria. Many people have told me that I would be killed if I join Nigerian politics because “you must steal”. If you don’t the people around you will set you up and eliminate you. I have listened to some people who are planning to join politics in the future, from 2015 actually. According to them there is money in politics and those who are stealing until now don’t have 2 heads. This type of motivation means Nigeria will probably not make it. People steal; they are still stealing and walking free. In a disorganized system where institutions don’t work and the type of governance is counter-productive, it is hopeless to be hopeful.

Sometimes my hope in Nigeria is not just diminished, it is gone completely. In Nigeria good people are not keeping quiet anymore, they are actually drafted into government to become part of the looters. Many Nigerians of good characters have been drawn from home and abroad over the years just to become evil doers in different governments (civilian and military). The Nigerian system spreads evil and poverty at an alarming rate.

They say that a people get the type of rulers it deserves. Maybe this is true for Nigerians. For many years the country was on a free fall, the acceleration was magnified when the military destroyed the regions and brought in the useless state system. It has not worked and all indications point to the fact that it may never work. Nigeria’s jagajaga governments have over the years brought disaster and penury on the majority now over 90 million.

Hope for Nigerians can come with life and attitude, not with religiosity. It is time to remove the veil of God. Nigeria has the highest numbers of churches and mosques in the world yet Nigeria ranks amongst the worst places to live on earth. The lessons are obvious. The deceits are huge. My first message for Nigerians in 2011 was simple, stop saying it’s God. Everyday Nigerians tell me in chat rooms that God will do it. Even the politicians are saying God will do it at the same time that they are stealing and reaping from a system that is programmed to fail over 100 million people and benefit those who capture power.

No matter which way Nigeria turns, the efforts to regain her glory and positive fame will not depend on men or women but on institutions. It will not be unilateral but multi-dimensional and an aggregate of several simultaneous but positive forces. It’s like trying to revive the dead because with the advent and spread of terrorism Nigeria became a confirmed failed state and itself a ticking time bomb.

Everyday people open their facebook accounts to actually read about what is going on in Nigeria. It’s quite amazing where people go these days for the latest news. With the way things are going now and with the unhindered massacre across Northern Nigeria and below it, one day the news will come that Nigeria has made the final turn. I have written earlier that a people have the right to preserve its own existence, so if you ask me where that turn leads, my answer for now is I DON’T KNOW.

I’m 40 and I’m happy that my parents and my teachers prepared me for the life now. I’m happy for the gift of life. I’m happy to be able to contribute meaningfully to other people’s life through my friendship with them and also through my activities in the Yoruba Union in Stockholm. It makes a lot of sense to still be in touch and actually making useful contributions to Festac Town through my involvement in the Alumni Group.

I’m blessed with a wonderful family here in Sweden. It feels like home. In 1995 I read a wall poster at my aunt’s place in Omitowoju-Ibadan. The inscription was BLOOM WHEREVER YOU HAVE BEEN PLANTED.

There is going to be a celebration on Saturday the 14th and I’m expecting about 40 guests to celebrate with me. I have been planted. With my family and friends, I bloom.

These are my random thoughts.