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Presidential Lies, Public Stupidity and Just Dessert! By Angel Walker The subject of this mail is the sheer stupidity of the Nigerian populace. For 45 years, the country has taken corruption to a zenith unknown heretofore, and worse, has even become inept in the art of corruption so that a little hamlet takes first place in the T.I rankings. The string of plane crashes this year has totally ruined every so called 'gain' that President Obasanjo has claimed - the damage is incalculable. He has got on his soapbox, insulted an official of low rank in public while ignoring the aviation minister who happens to be his friend, and all the while, no-one has had the temerity to tell HIM to resign. That is why the Nigerian public, press and officials are truly stupid. If he is the President, then he should know the state of the airports. Secondly, he should know that paying less than $100 per ticket is not enough to cover operating costs. THirdly, the dear President has banned the importation of cars over 5 years old whilst permitting aircraft of 32 years or more to fly his airspace - who is fooling who? The amount he spends junketing the world for "debt relief" would pay for Instrument Landing Systems in all the airports of the country. Just the per diem paid to his overbloated entourage for one trip would pay for it. What I want to know is which 'private investor' or 'tourist' he expects to come to Nigeria when he has not improved basic infrastructure or security one bit! To the best of my recollection, Governor Wase died because Jos airport didn't have the ILS which costs only $15,000. Meanwhile, the dear departed governor however had about $3million (cash) stolen funds on the private plan in which he perished! With the exception of the November 28 1983 crash Nigeria Airways (which was due to the management forcing the Ghanaian pilot to fly in inclement weather), all the other crashes have been due to poor maintenance of the aircraft and runways or saboutage. In all these years, we have not had one single report of the cause(es) published. Who then is going to pay any heed to the President's call to invest?! When Mrs. Obasanjo died, the press went gaga with grief and every contractor took it as his excuse to go to Aso Rock to offer condolences and solicit for contracts on the side. NO one dared to ask how much was being paid for this surgery and at whose expense. I was even more flabbergasted to read that she was expected to recuperate at the "mansion"(!!!) of Senator Daisy Danjuma. Would someone please ask the inland revenue office what they are doing aside fr om deducting civil servants' taxes?! EVen EFCC should arrest the dear senator and ask the source of the revenue with which she bought the mansion in Marbella! More to the point, why has the EFCC not queried the president and ALL the former presidents on the source of their wealth which the entire nation knows they looted. From being illiterate soldiers, these creatures now parade as 'the elite" of society. Pardon my saying so, but the Press is fully responsible for this nonsense. Being part of the 'elite' in a society does not come by looting and raping an economy so totally as they have done. The issue of geneology, education and integrity are what make the elite and not the money accrued by fraud, murder, outright stealing (remember Buhari and the N2.8billion saga and ABubakar who outdid Abacha in 10 months as well as the customs officer/vice president's 'wealth') and other methods too gruesome to mention. In case you do not already know, the combined wealth of your defence minister and just one former president is more than the entire $32 Billion fomerly owed by the country. Until Nigerians (who are just as corrupt as the leaders they malign) wake up and decide to stop corruption at the individual level, more atrocities than the recent plane crashes will be waiting in the wings for the country as its due dessert. From the NEPA officials that steal equipment in order to be paid to 'buy' it back, to the clerks who are never in the office because they have another job as someone's driver, to the carpenter that takes your advance money and disappears - the country is rotten. As for the idiots who call themselves legislators (federal and state), a more sorry bunch have yet to be created on this earth. They are so busy being bribed and bribing and enriching themselves in order to join the 'elite' that they cannot boast more th an 3 braincells apiece. Shame. They should not be permitted to speak ANYWHERE. Everyone mentions God but no-one believes He will judge the lies, deceit, adultery, abortions, occult practices, murders etc etc etc. NO. HE who sees all will judge and is even now judging Nigeria. The children who perished are those whom He has decided to save from the calamity to come. One day Nigeria will look back and call them blessed. Worse is coming, and how! If individuals will not at least accept that they are just as corrupt at their own levels as the fools they have 'elected', then the country will continue its nose-dive till even the Lissa crash scene has more order. I have deliberately not addressed the state governors (thieves, one and all), because to do so will require at least 1000 pages. However, they are clearly better than the society that not only accepts them but fetes them after the y leave office laden with their ill-gotten wealth. Who then is the fool - the corrupt officials or the civil society who only complain because they have not gotten their grubby little paws on the government coffers too? At the end, ALL lose. The newly rich officials cannot fly without wondering if the plane will plunge them into eternity, they cannot drive cross-country for fear of armed robbers who they armed for their campaigns, there is no railway for them or the masses because of corruption and at the end, we all build higher walls, all the while knowing that one day, the fruit of the corruption will visit - be it armed robbers, decrepit planes, rapists on the road, police officers who will kill for N20 or even the simple lack of a decent road to drive the brand new Mercedes Benz on, or a house fire due to NEPA current surge. The poor corrupt masses are subject to even more harrowing lives, including nurses who cannot give an injection or spell , butchers as surgeons, children suffering from AIDS they got from sleeping with the rich AIDS-infested 'elite' who can afford anti-retrovirals. EVERYONE loses |