2014-2019: The Last Show Of The Wasted Generation?

June 14, 2015June 12, 2016 / Adeola / Leave a comment

Those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

By Adeola Aderounmu

Some of the early indicators from the Buhari-led APC administration are negative. Many supporters of the administration have been responding to the criticisms against the APC government by asking for time.

It is a genuine request to ask for time because time is the indicator and revealer of all things.

But the argument for more time in the Nigerian context needs to be understood and well-defined.

The endless resiliency of the ordinary Nigerians have made nonsense of the principle of time and performance as well as accountability and probity in Nigeria.

By sleeping away mentally while living in a country devoid completely of social justice and equity, the ordinary Nigerians have been as guilty as the marauders who raped the land and cart away the treasuries for themselves and their children.

Passive citizenry contributed largely to the wasteful years that befell Nigeria from 1960 to 1999.

In that time frame of more almost 40 years, the value, meaning and the quality of life in Nigeria degenerated to one of the lowest in the world.

To make matters worse the PDP-led government unleashed another complete 15-years of waste on Nigerians. The Obasanjo-Yar’Adua-Jonathan administrations of 1999-2015 impoverished the lans and left majority of Nigerians poorer than before.

These rulers and their precedessors bled Nigeria to the point of an almost irreversible damage.

The recent climax was when a country that is almost devoid of electricity claimed to be the largest economy in Africa.

It is still so bad that the suffering in Nigeria (for the ordinary, struggling masses) is comparable to the situations faced by people living under war situations or the threats of it.

The wait for change has been an endless one.

Hence, the category of people who are in a haste to see the Buhari-led government properly hit the ground and running after barely one month have genuine concerns.

They are the people who know that time is now a luxury that Nigeria can no longer afford. They are the ones who abides by the principle of ”the morning shows the day”.

However the proper function of time in the entire scenario needs to be highlighted.

Change is a process and not a single event or an isolated occurence. Therefore there will be a need to re-educate the rest of us who think that a Buhari presidency under APC is the antidote to all of Nigeria’s woes.

Indeed the gradual change in government and governance are parts and parcel of the processes that will bring about the conditions that are needed to bring back living in Nigeria to what it was in the 1950s and early 1960s.

In modern times, those years before l was born were the paradise years of the Nigerian life.

There was an early warning that Nigerians ignored during the run up to the recent elections of 2015. It wasn’t new but it was phenomenal and rampant. Some people continue to dignify political prostitution by calling it carpet-crossing. This permissive madness in the Nigerian political arena made popular by this wasted generation is about to ruin the traces of hope.

It has a lot of implications too. The most revealing is that irrespective of their political parties, Nigerian politicians are always after their own selfish interests. To a very large extent, it shows that politicians do not believe in the change that the ordinary citizens are clamouring for.

For them, politics is business as usual. Politics remain the easiest way to stolen wealth because the winners take it all!

Some brilliant minds continue to emphasized that until the political parties are separated ideologically, there will be no difference in what they bring to the table. Moreso tragic is the situation where the institutions that should check accountability and probity have been put in a state of permanent coma.

The sad situations from the past and present dispensations means that the strengthening of the institutions and their independence can no longer wait.

Changes may fail to happen as expected if the status quo of the various institutions remain the same. It means that the politicians will continue to steal, loot and propagate inpunity as if these ills are their birthrights.

In the same vein, there won’t be visible changes in Nigeria if the people do not understand that their own attitudes, their behaviours at their offices and in the society at large are also ingredients of the changes that everybody is talking about.

It is so disheartening to see that everybody is talking about change whilst nobody is changing the ways they have been doing things.

There is a lot of work to be done Nigerians!

The people must do what is needed of them as citizens and they must embrace patriotism.

The government must meet the people halfway to make the change cycle complete and running.

Buhari must appoint his Ministers before the end of June 2015 to redeem what is left of an already faulty start.

At this moment in Nigeria’s history-with APC-led central government-is what appears to be the last chance for the wasteful/wasted generation of Nigerians to redeem its name.

Politically conscious Nigerias and the people who will live in Nigeria by 2019 would be lost forever if they ever use the change slogan again.

In today’s Nigeria those whose fathers have ruined Nigeria and the contemporaries of their fathers are what we have left on the stage. Criminal politicians and soldiers who have been recycled and overused now have the last chance to redeem their useless pasts.

This type of nonsense must not happen again.

By 2019 one expects that the citizens must have played their parts. One expects that the government would have played her parts through exemplary leadership, total war on corruption, economic programs design to lift human dignity and political reforms to correct the sources of instability and mediocrity.

There are many more ways to know and measure performances. By 2019 the people must know if a new drastic measure will be needed and the awareness for that must begin in earnest.

If the tool of (last chance) change fails, the upcoming generation of Nigerians must begin to organise to weigh their chances of living a fulfilled life.

There is a tool that remained unused and that is a riddle that need to be solved. It is a two-edged tool. The more potent edge leads to a total generational shift and it will be wonderful to rid Nigeria of the wasted generation and their offspring that still loom large.

No matter what happens, Nigeria needs a functional political structure and system. Things cannot continue the way they are now.

Regional government and devolution of power are remedies to both the federal character system and the impotent geo-political zonings that have drained Nigeria of creativity and development possibilities.

A lasting change that will favour the people from the top to the grassroots will be very useful in evaluating the PDP- infected, power-hustlers APC government of Buhari.

The APC government has less than 4 years to rescue and redeem Nigeria’s wasted generation in what may be the final chance or opportunity.

aderounmu@gmail.com

The Bows: Tinubu and Clinton, Buhari and Obama

September 8, 2012 / Adeola / 3 Comments

PhotoNews By Adeola Aderounmu

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

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

Clinton bows to Obama

Lagos Traffic, Lagos Roads and other matters

January 8, 2011January 8, 2011 / Adeola / 1 Comment

Adeola Aderounmu

Many Lagosians and residents of Lagos have one thing in common-that is they know that Mr. Fashola has been doing a lot to improve the traffic situation in Lagos. There is no doubt about that. I saw that myself.

There is a network of road that is now being constructed from orile that will lead to badagry. It’s going to be about 10 lanes including rail network. I say bravo to the plan.

Lagos Road

One sad thing about the situation in Lagos is the bureaucratic problems imposed by the Federal Government. The useless Federal Government has been hindering progress in Lagos. Sometimes the argument is about whether the Lagos State government has the jurisdiction to execute certain projects or not.

You will never understand the madness of Nigerian politics. The useless Federal Ministry of Road and Transport or is it Ministry of Works and Housing has refused to develop or expand Lagos roads. Altogether they have refused to maintain the roads. And then a certain Fashola decided not to follow the way of the ineptitudes before him only for these Federal gangsters to come and stand in the way.

I am hoping that these bottlenecks have been addressed and removed otherwise the Jonathan government should continue to see itself as a disgrace.

The other problem that people are downplaying but which I think has affected the development of Lagos is the Tinubu factor. I have no praises for Tinubu for supporting the candidature of Fashola then and now. I don’t care about his opinions on Fashola. I don’t want people getting my opinions wrong. I have no single word of praise for any Nigerian politician.

Politicians are public servants and they must serve. It is just the Nigerian factor that has distorted people’s minds and opinions about the meaning of public services. Politicians must serve the people and ensure that the society is running smoothly. They are not there to be praised or worship. But the way things have happened in Nigeria has affected the way we look at politicians. Hence it is very easy for people to praise Fashola. They compare him to the idle minds before him.

I have no word for Tinubu except to tell him to go and sit down. Let him stop disturbing the peace and progress of Lagos. Indeed Nigerian politics is such that gives room, space and power to godfatherism, hence the grip of Tinubu on Lagos to this day. Few years from now, he will be history. All the people who think they are important yesterday, where are they today? Nigerian politicians do not learn from history.

But the greatest source of problem regarding Lagos (traffic, roads and other issues) is the people of Lagos. Majority of Lagos drivers have no clues about driving rules and regulations. They drive like idiots. It’s a racing game for them. First to reach, first to go. They don’t know the rules at junctions; they don’t know the rules on the expressway. You will hardly find a Lagos driver giving you way when you have indicated with you blinking light that you want to turn right or left or that you want to change lanes. They call it blocking.

Lagos drivers don’t know the meaning of lane driving. In some places, the government has repaired the roads, drawn lanes and all that. Where there are 3 lanes, Lagos drivers will ignore the lanes and change it to 5 or 6 lanes. Somewhere ahead they will all meet and the traffic will become jammed!

Many of the traffic situations in Lagos are not only as a result of over population but also because of extremely bad driving. If Lagos drivers use their lanes appropriately and follow driving rules, they will prevent up to 70% of the unnecessary traffic jams in Lagos. It is sad because they are ignorant and they don’t know the rules. Therefore they don’t understand why they have such traffic situations.

A journey of 20 minuets in Lagos can take 4 hours. Once I drove from Festac to Iyana Ipaja and it took 3hours and 45 minutes. In other countries that journey will take me just 20 or 25 minutes.

But it is worth mentioning that some roads are still very bad and they have also contributed to the menace of driving in Lagos. Iyana Ipaja by Abesan Housing Estate is the worst place in Lagos. One day we drove about 50metres in a time of 45 minutes!!! This is not an exaggeration. Residents say it could take one hour to just get through Abesan Gate!!!

It’s a region of about 10-15metres only. But the motorists approaching could be thousands and that causes serious problems sometimes. You only need to be trapped at that gate to understand the nature of the problem. Cars are still for minutes and hours. The road is bad and the people drive like mad people. But if they maintain like 2 lanes only for every road approaching that junction, the problem will be less even with the bad road network. But when more than 10 lanes meet at the same point, tell me, who goes first?

Abesan Gate, Iyana Ipaja

At berger area on Apapa Oshodi Express Way, it is simply a death trap. I won’t say more.

Berger Area Apapa Oshodi ExpressWay

There are many bad roads in Lagos but the people are optimistic that given another 4 years and at his rate of achievements, the government of Fashola can achieve more and alleviate the sufferings of Lagosians.

But Nigerians must know that there is a need to provide jobs and incentives in other parts of Nigeria. The gradual decongesting of Lagos will be a needed avenue to ensure that the infrastructures are not over stretched.

21 Road Festac Town

With or Beyond Fashola future governments in Lagos must have long term goals to take care of the problems in Lagos in terms of roads, housing, schools and water. Obviously there are other things that must be done to ensure that Nigerians in general can live a good and happy life.