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Terrible Times By Imohimi Uduigwome Airenevboise
In Nigeria we live in terrible times. We are a nation heading for the precipice with our eyes wide open expecting a bridge to appear miraculously to prevent us from falling down a yawning valley. I have read a lot of articles where the authors preached something akin to expecting a cauldron of gold at the end of a rainbow, light at the end of the tunnel. They know its fairy tale but something in them hopes that is true. Having faith in Nigeria, believing that Nigeria will regain its lost glory, audacity of hope (apologies to Obama).Is there a bright future for Nigeria? We have heard the rebranding Nigeria slogan,’ Good people. Great Nation, someone came up with a slogan that better encapsulate the present situation, ‘Great people, Bad government” That is a slogan we can all relate to and sadly its true. However I think Good people, Great government of thieves’ won’t be a bad slogan for Nigeria.
There was recent headline news in one of the dailies in Nigeria that revealed that serving and retired military officers along side some top officials in the present Nigerian government are deeply involved in oil bunkering. To some of us this is not news. The mafia that controls the lucrative oil bunkering activities in the Niger Delta control the reigns of government at Abuja. If this is in dispute why has the government not arrested the people behind oil bunkering? Are they ghost? The best we have seen are some artisans who are paraded (obviously guinea pigs) as oil bunkerers all in a bid to fool the unsuspecting public. These artisans are daily paid and are recruited to work for a couple of weeks and later used as sacrificial lambs in order to give the public a false impression that the government is working hard to stamp out oil bunkering.
Oil bunkering is capital intensive not to talk of protective money paid to both the youths in the area and security personnel. So how can labourers who can barely feed themselves not to talk of their family be said to be involved in oil bunkering? The activity is in the hands of senior military personnel and top government officials. These are the saboteurs of our economy that we call leaders and they expect us to rebrand Nigeria while they continue to perpetrate their nefarious activities. What I fail to understand is, is the Yardua government a hostage of the oil bunkering mafia or is he also involved. In any sane government anybody no matter how highly placed acting inimical to the interest of the people is promptly arrested and brought to justice. In Nigeria they find their way into government.
Our refineries do not function, we rely solely on imported fuel, government officials whose thinking is obviously warped tells us (with a wide smile on heir face)that the fuel we consume is heavily subsidized and that we will soon be made to face the bitter reality of paying a realistic (read higher) price for the fuel we consume, the oil companies and oil bunkerers are busy polluting the Niger delta environment and some lady is telling us we need to rebrand! Yes we definitely need to get a hot iron and brand thief on the head of politicians feeding fat on our toil and sweat.
The fastest way to wealth in Nigeria is to join the military and get posted to the Niger Delta or to go into politics. The best houses in Nigeria are owned by politicians, serving and retired military personnel.
Just the other day and obviously comfortable senior military officer watched as over four tax payers trained and paid naval ratings descended on a young lady and battered her for having the audacity to remain on the road with her vehicle when their boss was in a hurry to go through a road constructed for all Nigerians. Most Nigerians believe that they are living in the George Orwell’s animal farm. Military personnel and politicians believe they have rights over ordinary Nigerians because they (in their misguided notion) truly believe that they are “more human” than other Nigerians and deserve to enjoy the resources of Nigeria to the detriment of others.
The Niger Delta region has been devastated. It’s a two prong tactical environmental warfare; oil pollutes the land and water ways while gas flaring renders the air not fit for human and animals. The oil companies get away with environmental crimes(in Nigeria) that even the mere thought of committing such acts in their homeland would land them in jail. Can we blame them? Who takes the greater blame when an African sells his brother to a white man as slave? Who do we hold responsible when people who ought to caution the oil companies are busy receiving blood money for the devastation and death of their fellow Nigerians caused by severe environmental pollution(I believe its should be called environmental poisoning)
Two years down the drain we are still waiting for our government to wake up from slumber. Electrical power generation has turned into a money spinner for connected politicians as government continues to spend money on non existent power projects. The crime wave is on the increase as our under equipped police force continue to marvel at the sophisticated fire power of armed bandits. These sophisticated arms are purchased by politicians for their thugs who use these guns to wreck havoc through armed robberies and assassinations when they are not busy doing other dirty jobs for their political godfathers. They have also delved into kidnapping for ransom (to think that a couple of years back these scenes happened only in South American countries) At first it started with kidnapping foreigners, then oil workers, now they have started to kidnap bank staff. I guess until they kidnap a senior military personnel or a big politician, the kidnapping issue will not be resolved.
Early this year a Nigerian who was tired of all the lies of politicians was patriotic enough to publicly tell a governor in one of the northern states that his purported achievements were all lies. He failed to get the support of other Nigerians (read unpatriotic cowards) at the venue. He was arrested and taken to a kangaroo court and today he is now in jail. All our human rights lawyers who usually stumble over themselves to offer pro bono service during high profile cases like that of Nuhu Ribadu failed to utter a word in defense of this patriotic Nigerian. Someone called Nigerians a nation of whiners guess it’s true. We talk, debate, write lovely articles, but do we ever take action? No. We see those in government stealing, we applaud them. The dailies carry stories about corrupt officials and even when they have incontrovertible evidence, they shy away from revealing the person involved. The immediate past former president and his vice are both trading words (and comparing notes) over who took and did not take bribe from officials of an American company. Other Nigerian officials involved in the bribery scandals are relaxing with their loot because the financial crime agency (EFCC) has decided it’s safer to leave corrupt politicians and pursue advance fee fraudsters and dubious foreigners who evade government taxes. The current president (who surrounds himself with dubious and corrupt officials) anytime he deems it fit to honour us with a public appearance is always looking forlorn and lost as if to say “nobody told me it would be difficult to preside over Nigeria’ The Nigerian nation is like a ship without a rudder, drifting away. Government officials constantly contradict themselves on policy issues, policy reversals is now the norm. A policy statement is made in the morning, before the sun sets a reversal is already in place.
When we have a government that does not care for the people, leaders who treat their dogs better than those they profess to lead and when those who ought to talk are scared of condemning the government over their inaction or wrong decisions then truly we are living in terrible times. |