The lamentations of a Nigerian citizen

“As long as I have any choice, I will stay only in a country where political liberty, toleration, and equality of all citizens before the law are the rule.”   - Albert Einstein

I don’t know how you might feel, but I think it is important to voice out my worries and publicly lament the deplorable condition in my dear country, Nigeria. Though, it is said to be untraditional for an African man to cry out, I will rather cry out than allow a few of my fellow country men and women, whom we had erroneously entrusted into their kleptocratic hands, the affairs of our country, to kill me in silence.

As such, I see it as an obligation to myself, my nation and importantly to God, to openly lament on their woeful performances over the years.

I am highly piqued by the insecurity in our dear nation and the dehumanized face of poverty as it has boldly taken over most homes. The insincerity of our leaders and their wasteful years on the seats of power is nothing that gladdens the heart. I am crying out against the injustice going on in our judiciary, where petty thieves, who might have hungrily stolen a loaf of bread, are not spared by the long hands of the law. Ironically, the hands of the law become shortened when those in the corridors of power and in our various government establishments siphon billions of public money. Discussing the oil subsidy thieves is subject for another day.

I have an objection to a government that weekly inaugurates and constitutes ineffective committees on important and urgent issues that affect the country. Painfully, their reports are thrown into the dustbins, not giving ‘a damn’ about the taxpayers’ money that go into these sittings.  I am lamenting today over our expensive politicians across the various states and the federal capital. Their self-centeredness, quest for materialism and visionless steering of the wheels of our rich nation leaves much to worry about.

Please pardon me, if I have gone against the African myth of keeping quite amidst pains and suffering. I definitely cannot keep mute about the daily killings, kidnappings, and armed robbery going on across my country. I think I should grieve over the continuous extra-judicial killings of innocent citizens, the daily ethno-tribal and religious exterminations going on in some states, notably in the Plateau, Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Bauchi and Kano states. It is even more lamentations when the failure of government to have a clear cut solution to these man-made wahala is pondered upon.

It is indeed lamentable the unambiguous mask of fear daily hanging on the faces of many of my fellow citizens, a frightening new look hitherto unknown since the end of the Nigerian senseless civil war. Our women and children, including our youth and elderly now live in fear; they walk around with fear, work with fear, trade with fear, worship amidst fear and even go to school and study in the classroom with fear of the mysterious ‘unknown’ gunmen, a lexicon our security operatives should be ashamed of in this 21^st Century.

Why should I not lament on the public thieves that have, over the years, been shamelessly stealing our old citizen’s pension funds? It is, to say the least, disgusting, the unpatriotic attitude of government to the slow prosecution of this ungodly cabal that have caused the death of our various patriotic retirees who gave their all to the sustenance of this nation.

I do not know if there is any wisdom in my lamentation, especially on the various imported foreign policies that, over the decades, have failed to work in our system and the illusive, overinflated yearly budgets annually presented by the various states across the country. I won’t lament but cry over the poor state of our roads, our outdated public schools, our hospitals, better regarded as eyesores and our famous epileptic power supply, including the disgraceful and alarming number of the unemployed in our land.

These are parts of my lamentation, a worrisome anguish I am certain many Nigerians share with me. While countless have decided to keep suffering in silence, I have thought it appropriate to openly cry out, cry my voice to hoarse or perhaps until I am heard. This is in the hope that many frustrated voices across the country would sooner or later join me in these lamentations as citizens of this great neglected nation.

The paradox of Nigerian ‘rich few’

 “A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men” - Thomas Carlyle

There have been various suggestions by different thoughtful minds on the need to do away with a few living human species among us here in Nigeria, where a few group of men and women  have over the decades turned us into modern slaves in our own country. These segregated few have greedily before and after independence forcefully inherited our collective national treasure. They cut across all the political zones and have been enjoying the vast rich wealth of this nation to the detriment of the majority of the population.

To be honest, it takes an animalistic feeling for someone to wish his fellow human being death, but the current situation in my dear country is quite frustrating and pathetic which could instigate a rational thinker to wish for the demise of some of his country leaders.  The Nigerian ‘rich few’ to be candid, are extremely greedy and sometime inhuman to their fellow citizens.

I sometimes conjecture silently, wondering if the inventors of some of the man-made devices that has helped alleviate and revolutionized our lives today, like the computer, the telephone, electricity, cars, airplanes, penicillin, the iPod, TV, radio, newspapers and the rest, were actually  these ‘few Nigerians’ . I shuddered on what would have been the fate of the rest of us. Definitely the computer would not have been affordable to an average Nigerian like in America; neither would cars have been built cheap, like Henry Ford did. I am sure majorities of Nigerians would still be sweating it out to communicate with their loves ones, as the price of owning a phone would be compare with the price of going on a holy pilgrimage to Mecca or Jerusalem. Again, I wonder how many Nigerian children would have died for lack of subsidy to buy a dose of penicillin, if the discoverer of the universal life safer was a Nigerian.

Ironically most of our present rich few are beneficiaries of the abundant legacies built and left behind by our past patriotic leaders. I am sure most of them would not have tested the four walls of western education; neither would they be in their present monopolized position and the wealth they are greedily holding on to, if the past nationalistic leaders were greedy like them.  Today, in the same country, education is monopolized by these few. Our hitherto vibrant public schools are now pathetic sites to behold. Only this cabal of greedy few could now afford to send their children to expensive private schools at home and abroad, while those public schools that nurtured them and gave them a ray of life are left to crumble under their uncaring watchful eyes.

It is sad that some of our present leaders are so blind to the realities on ground.  They are sightless to the fact that while they globetrot across the world, their own country is a public shame to see. They proudly traveled to various well organized countries and come back home to gawk shamelessly at the bad roads, hunger and insecurity in their communities.

The Nigerian rich few are part of the secret oil thieves that control the price of petrol and made it impossible for the average Nigerian housewives and mothers to buy kerosene at subsidized rate across the country. They see nothing shameful on the plight of our old citizens. Their self-centeredness and lack of patriotic vision has hampered their foresight to critically study how their counterparts in other developed nations have been able to hold on to that noble law as philosophically stated by Giovanni Cellini to his son in the classic: The Autobiography of Benvenito Cellini “it is a duty incumbent on us, and the command of God Himself, that he who has property should share it with him who had none”

The few self imposed rich men among us, don’t ever see it as a duty to share with us; they don’t see it as a duty to help facilitates the availabilities of good roads or hospitals in their communities without having a hidden agenda. While the world is getting global and breaking down cultural, religious and political barriers, my dear country Nigeria is still enmeshed in regional and ethno-religious segregation.

Well, any way the fortune of life deals the rest of us its blow, one thing that is certain is that our virtue can never be stolen, and the law of nature that has always given strength to those who are oppressed shall someday, sooner or later, prevail against these greedy few men and women, who over the decades have subjected the rest of us to suffering and smiling; as they continue to ride and surge towards illusive vanities.

ABUJA: A Beautiful Nonsense

“God must have loved the common people He made so many of them”

                                                                                                           -Abraham Lincoln

First, I must confess that I am still a stranger in this pampered city; since I am barely two months old in this capital of chaos and confusion. But all the same, these two few months have been quite challenging and eye-opening in my sojourn as a curious journalist.

Honestly, if not for the current security Wahala across some of the  hitherto hospitable peaceful states nearby,  I probably would have pack my bag and return to my former city, where  transportation, housing and food are still relatively cheap and affordable to many of us yanfu-yanfu, irrespective of where we work or live.   Unlike this mollycoddle city, made up of corrupt politicians, greedy landlords and their   unscrupulous agents, including of course some unpatriotic civil servants, whose only quest is to make money, build big houses, ride exotic cars and mercilessly exploit and oppress their fellow country men and women.

My two months sojourn in Abuja has shown and taught me that the over propagated and over pampered city is nothing but a purported beautiful city surrounded by slums and poverty;  A nation’s capital, with countless beautiful unoccupied estates and uncountable homeless citizens.   I am certain that my eyes have not been deceiving me so far about the city; a glittering metropolitan city from the outside, but so dirty inside. Thanks in part to the so-called satellite towns, with their embarrassing roads and ignominious homes; an exposé of the corruption in our system.

I don’t know what you think, but I believe it is a disservice to the majority of tax payers in this city, especially those hard working and dedicated public servants and other patriotic striving citizens who are forced to live in these shameful satellite towns to continue to live in these jungles, while the FCTA administration proposed and submitted a budget of 3…..3 billion naira to renovate the ECOWAS building, an international edifice.  Charity we have always been told and come to know should begin at home.  One would have thought the present administration should have wisely pump part of these billions into the disgraceful slums in Nyanya,  Karimo, Lugbe, Maraba, Gwa-gwa, and the other dehumanized dwelling place of millions of Nigerians across the city. I mean development with human face, not the present undemocratic, intimidation and demolition going on across the capital.

Isn’t it a beautiful nonsense that a city reputed to be one of the fastest growing cities in the world and the capital of one of the top five rich oil countries in the globe, is still disgracefully enmeshed with long queue in most of the filling stations across the capital and the expensive streets virtually taken over by   unemployed hungry fuel hawkers?  What should we call a city that has beautiful metropolitan roads, various five stars hotels and other gigantic government establishments like Aso Rock, the National Assembly, the CBN, the NNPC towers, the NCC structure, the NICON and virtually all the foreign embassies, including some eye-catching individual structures and yet has a poor unarranged transport system, with dilapidated buses, Kabu-Kabu, Keke NAPEP,  competing   the roads fiercely with various posh cars.

  A capital city that allows its citizens to be packaged  into long  articulated  vehicles like sandiness in this 21^st Century by the various multi-nationals  companies  milking us dry. Or should we close our reasoning and applaud a city that has failed to provide mass housing to its ordinary citizens, but blindly keep erecting expensive estates for its insatiable elites? A rich city that still could not stop children from hawking pure water, plantain, guru-guru and groundnuts on the streets, nor rehabilitate the multiple of beggars and hundreds of helpless almajiris that daily wander across the capital in search of food and shelter.

Abuja, the beautiful lighted city at night, but a careful scrutiny would reveal the darkness ravaging the slums around, ironically, this same slums host a large concentration of small business in the capital.   A nation’s capital with fake life and expensive lies, where the ordinary Nigerian is not welcome to stay nor encouraged to own a home. What beauty lies in a city that worship foreigners, but has no respect for its own citizens? An artificial and illusive setting where the price of everything usually double or triple its value.  Where is the beauty in Abuja or the sense of belonging if its overzealous officials could ridiculously demolished hundreds of homes like the one recently witnessed in Kyami and the others across the city?   A city with a large concentration of suffering and smiling citizens, daily antagonized by government officials and hourly oppressed by their elected representatives.

Anyway, I am still around, watching and laughing at the drama daily unfolding across the beautiful Federal Capital of my dear country, with a happy smirk on my face, convinced that everyone in Abuja, both the big people and the common people will certainly leave everything behind one day, and return nakedly to that unknown place, where nobody owns a land.

The fallacy of the Nigerian CASSAVA BREAD

When the news first hit town  few months back that the Federal Government under the leadership of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has plan to  soon roll out an indigenous special  bread for the mass population of  hungry Nigerians, the first thought that raced through my curious mind was that of bewilderment and  inquisitiveness . I was bewildered that despite all the security wahala the administration was going through, the president and his team could still have this indigenous idea to feed Nigerians on specially made cassava bread, a one- in - town baked loaf for the matter. Secondly, I was equally full of inquisitive, wondering what this famous bread would look like. But my prying eyes needed not much worry as the presido in company of his inner cabinet and other well wishers launched the yummy looking bread few weeks later amidst elaborate fanfare and  behind the scene expensive owanbe party and other chop-chop, merriment and jamboree that usually accompanies government launching in the country.

I could still remember the president happy smile as he took the first official presidential bite on the cassava loaf, as well as the grinning faces of his cabinet team and other well wishers who were lucky to be present at this historical unveiling of this MADE IN NIGERIA bread. I must admit that I could not control my watering mouth as they all took turn in biting the bread and chewed happily to cameras, and suddenly wished I was part of this hype. But not to deter my troubling soul, I made up my mind to go look for this spontaneous looking bread few days later across all the bread selling joints around.  I was highly disappointed when I could not find the shape of this presidential bread among the other less popular breads in all the bread outlets I visited. It actually took me a strong willpower to convinced my hungry mind to forsake the quest to eat this powerful bread and tell myself that after all what the president and his team have been able to invent in this 21st century is nothing but a fallacy that would never see the right side of the day.

Few weeks later, thinking about this proud invention by our government I realized that I ought to have been ashamed that I was actually longing to eat cassava bread, when millions of my countrymen and women were still finding it difficult to buy a mudu of garri in our various markets across the country, and that the hitherto cheap garri made from the same cassava has since gone out of the reach of the common man. Again, I reasoned that the government of President Goodluck Jonathan could have spent the millions of naira channeled into this famous cassava bread into ensuring that our popular garri as a matter of urgency become assessable and cheap to the citizenry. I suddenly had the impression that it is actually a slap on the face of the leadership in this country that while the world is moving fast into a 21st Century technological age , inventing nuclear energy, easy and modernized communication gadgets, new breakthrough in medicine, convenient transport system, admirable cars, phones, computers, realistic revenue generating and development policies  and other hitherto unthinkable man-made inventions, my dear country is proud to have invented bread from cassava, what a smack on the so-called giant of Africa.

I am equally appalled that the government could set up a special trust to oversee this 18 century invention and at the same time channel huge sum of money to propagate this uninspiring project. One would have thought that given all the enormous wealth at the disposal of the present administration the president and his team would have had the vision to encourage the invention of a made in Nigeria car, a made in Nigeria computer, a made in Nigeria phone or even a made in Nigeria match stick. It would have been commendable if the government had seen it as innovative if they had channelled the millions spent in inventing this garri bread into reviving our comatose electricity supply, our dilapidated public schools and our deathtrap roads. It would have made a lot of sense to me and I believe other frustrated Nigerians if its vision of development had seen the need to modernize the slums called satellite towns in our over pampered federal capital city, and the other eyesores in most of our villages across the 774 local government councils in the country. Truly, it would have been more dignifying if some of the millions spent on this presidential bread were put into reviving some of our passed out industries and dreaded hospitals.

It would have been laudable if the undisclosed amount of money spent in baking this elite bread were squandered on free conventional bread for every household in some of our hungry villages who over the years are still finding it difficult to buy the famous Agege bread, Fesojaye bread, Albarka bread and the other locally made bread available yanfu-yanfu across our streets. I believe Nigerians would have been more proud and grateful if the government had found a reasonable way to reduce the high cost of flour and the other high-priced bakery ingredients in our markets. They would have been more grateful if the outrageous cost of bread across the country was tame and made it possible for every household to be able to afford bread in their homes. But unfortunately the scenario today in Aso Rock is the obsession for casasava bread by the president and his team; one bread most of us know they will never eat privately inside their fortified mansions during their rich breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Well, thank God I never get to taste this famous presidential bread, as I am sure the taste would never have been compared with  the normal cheap bread we have been forced to buy and eat over the years since our return to a full fledge democracy more than ten years ago. Please have you tasted this presidential loaf?

RDV: PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSPARENCY FOR A CORRUPT-FREE NIGERIA

Recently our dear country has been grappling with the menace of insecurity occasioned by the terrorist activities of some known and unknown groups. This has resulted in an imminent threat to that thinning fabric that was hitherto holding the various units of the country together. However it is not only the acts of terrorism that is challenging the corporate existence of Nigeria. The conduct of our public office holders has been identified as yet another possible cause of the present state of insecurity. For several years now, the sharing of the “National Cake” has almost assumed a constitutional status, where public servants and politicians criminally enrich themselves with impunity to the detriment of the populace.  Most patriotic Nigerians who would have otherwise teamed up with the security agencies to fight the prevailing insecurity are reluctant to do so when considering the high rate of corruption in the polity.

Public corruption ultimately carries in its wake extreme reactions from the impoverished masses. Nigerians of today are enlightened and seeking emancipation from the shackles of poverty bequeathed to them by corrupt and criminally enriched public servants and their cronies.

However we in Rights and Democracy Volunteers (RDV) thank our visionary President, DR GOODLUCK JONATHAN GCFR for having the courage and political will to initiate a determined fight against corruption in his transformation agenda. The FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (FOI) ACT is a veritable statute in the war against corruption and we urge Nigerians not to ignore this Act.

In the last four months we have had reason to believe that Nigeria is undergoing a quiet revolution in the area of Public Accountability and Administrative Transparency under President Goodluck Jonathan. During this period we invoked the provisions of the FOI Act in investigating allegations of contract impropriety against the FCT Administration under SENATOR BALA  MOHAMMED, the FCT Minister.

Responding to our request, the Hon. Minister directed that relevant books and records be opened for our team of Volunteers to verify claims that contracts were awarded in outright abuse of official privileges and without compliance with the provisions of the Public Procurements Act.

At the end of the exercise, which included physical appraisal of non-perishable procurements, it was evident that:

a)      Procurements at the FCT are done in compliance with the provisions of the Public Procurements Act.

b)      Voluminous procurements are segmented to accommodate available finances over a period of time.

c)       The accounts of the FCT Ministry are properly and professionally audited by the Auditor General of the Federation.

d)      Victimization of any kind is non-existent at the FCT Ministry, as people are given equal treatment without the bias of gender, religion or ethnicity.

e)      The FCT Administration under Senator Bala Mohammed is transparent and embraces public good and accountability to a high degree.

IN CONCLUSION

1.       The FOI Act, as a transformation tool of President Goodluck Jonathan – led government, is not a fluke and is meant to bring democracy closer to the people and also assist the government in eradicating corruption.

2.       The Minister of the FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, has, by his respect of the FOI Act in giving our Team of Volunteers access to relevant records concerning our enquiries, shown that President Goodluck Jonathan means well for Nigerians, and that there is no “instruction from above” to frustrate the FOI Act as speculated in some quarters.

3.       Nigerians have a duty to make the FOI Act and other Laws of our nation work. Our public servants and political appointees must emulate Senator Bala Mohammed by ensuring that our Laws are respected so that democracy would thrive for the benefit of Nigerians.

4.       We enjoin Nigerians to support and encourage President Goodluck Jonathan in ensuring that the true meaning of democracy is brought to bear so that future generations of Nigerians will inherit a virile political and economic system.

Long live President Goodluck Jonathan!

Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!

ALHAJI SANI ALIYU                                                                                     BARR. IMO ABIAESSE

Country Director                                                                                                     Country Secretary

Please let’s appreciate IBB this time…

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

-Voltaire

To be sincere, I have never seen or met General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida a.k.a IBB, Maradona, the gap-toothed general, evil genius, the general on the hill top and so on, in person.  The closest I have ever come across or seen the alluring general was on TV, newspaper or magazine.  Being a Nigerian, naturally compelled me to  hear, know and see him on TV , hear his calm soft-spoken voice on radio or see his famous gap-toothed  smile in some of the  newspapers and magazines that were still lucky and bold to be floating during his long martial rule  as Nigerian military  president.

As a reader and writer , I have been fortunate to read and hear many of his utterances and actions, including the many gossips and hear say about him. And as time goes on, I became facilitated and at the same time awed about this Nigerian that has still remained an enigma in our existence as a nation, despite his many years out of public service. I read  and heard with awe  some of his  popular wahala with the Nigerian people,which includes: his structural adjustment programme(SAP), his long drawn battle with the late Gani Fawehinmi on suspicion of his regime’s hands in  Dele Giwa’s murder, his offence for killing his  childhood friend Maman Vatsa,  the popular notion that he had a hand on the  Ejigbo plane crash, his alleged involvement  in the Gloria Okon drug saga, the famous oil windfall and  his unforgettable annulment of June 12 presidential election.

I was fortunate to read and see his ideas, utterances and plans last year when he stepped out to contest one of the most controversial presidential elections in this country. And like a golden fish with no hiding place the media unleashed its fangs on the controversial general, bashing him from every angle and finally took him to the cleaners. They dusted his file and exposed his utterances and deeds to old and new generation of Nigerians and the rest of the world, taking advantage of social media through the internet. Though the bold general fought out with his valor,  the voice of the people was just too strong for him to win over this time around. He had no option but to forgo his ambition to rule Nigeria once again, this time as a democratically elected president. He had no choice but to succumb to the treacherous decision of his party to forgo its earlier zoning agreement.

Though I have never been a big fan of the gap -toothed general, nor subscribed to some of his policies in and out of government,  some of his ideas during his botch presidential campaign did appeal to me, especially his view on the issue of federalism and federal character employment. But of all his statement so far , I think his best avowal so far to me is his recent proclamation on the unity of Nigeria at the 9th Daily  Trust  Dialogue held in Abuja and I quote “ You see in this country we fought the war for  three years  for the benefit of living  together. I have a bullet in my body, so nobody will talk to me about secession or breaking away. If you do, I would always say yes, get my tailor to take my measurement, get on my khaki and go back to fight a war to keep this country together even at 71.” Wahoo! What a patriotic nationalist expression coming out from this old soldier. I wish many of our other retired generals, and self exclusive business and political elite will be bold to take their  cue from him and understand that we all have no other country than this big blessed nation and must be willing and ready to discard all our expensive and not so expensive babanriga, agbada, coats, suits, wrappers, caftans and what have you to salvage its threatened foundation.

It actually made a lot of sense to me and I believe to other rational thinking Nigerians that at last one of the many troops of retired generals and statesmen we have in this country have come out to boldly voice out his anger on the orchestrated plans by some of our self-centred, unpatriotic and prejudiced leaders and purported statesmen to cause chaos and divide this country.  At least, Nigerians are beginning to hear some fresh inspiring words  after the daily antagonized and instigating statements, utterances , press releases and actions of some of our religious, traditional and political leaders across virtually all the regions of the country; senseless statements that are not known with elderly statesmen across the civilized world.  Some of us have all been witnesses to myopic statements by different political groups, regional and tribal associations over some materialisms and vanities in some part of the country, thereby fueling our already tensed nation, with some of them shamelessly calling for the break-up of the country, forgetting that other factors like marriages, birth, trade and religion are strong natural reasons why this great country must remain together.

I think it is human to appreciate General Babangida this time for having the gut to speak out his mind on the current persistence bombings of our land and the killings of innocent Nigerians in the name of indigene/settler fracas. We should try to give a free applause to him for not taking a sidon look posture like some of the other old soldiers and statesmen who seem to have lost their courage and are afraid to say something as their ancestors land and graves are daily disturbed by bombings, ethno-religious brawls, dare devil robberies and other chilling orgies of blood bath.  

 Again, when I read the hilltop general’s speech at the dialogue I had no choice but to agree with some of his takes and observations; like his poke at our dear minister of information which went thus: “I would like to welcome another distinguished speaker, my younger brother , the Honourable  Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku. During my years in office, Honourable Labaran Maku was one of the hot –headed young student leaders in this country who was always leading student demonstrations against SAP and against very minor increases in fuel prices.”  

 I must confess here that I tried to picture the young frame of our said hot- headed minister then at the bottom of the ladder, and how he must have felt against the unpopular SAP and other hard economic policies  of the Babangida administration.

The general did not stop there, as he went further with his truthful jab. “I am very glad to note that a robust young idealist like him has now found himself in government. In fact, he is now the spokesman of the government at a time when it is facing a lot of criticism from hot-headed young and not - so- young labour, student, and academic and civil society critics for deregulating fuel prices. I am sure that Labaran will use his wealth of experience as a critic of government policy and marshal all the necessary arguments to rebut the phrases and coinages of hot-headed street protesters, since many phrases they are using today were in fact coined by him and his friends in the 1980s and1990s.”

A very important reminder, you might want to agree with me. I think the enthralling general deserves a resounding applause for reminding us that our dear minister of information just like some of his other hitherto hot- headed government critics who have now found themselves in government have since changed ship, and are now part of those encouraging and preaching the importance of oil subsidy not minding the unbearable hardship and wahala the policy is now causing in many homes and businesses across the country. Our hitherto hot-headed minister of information has since forgotten what it feels like to be at the bottom of the ladder, since he can now comfortably afford to fill his cars on the government earlier proposed N140 per litre or more if they had their way.

 Well, I don’t really know about you, but for me, I think the media and other empathetic Nigerians need to put on that human face and compassion that see and appreciate the truth anytime irrespective of whom or where it came from. I want to believe we can be generous with some applause this time around and spare the general the bashing and kick around for his patriotic declaration and readiness to thrust aside his babanriga for his retired khaki all for the unity of this great country, even at 71.