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As The Year Ends In Nigeria...Reflections! By Prince Charles Dickson Jos, Plateau Nigeria This will be the last essay I write for the year 2006, a year that a lot has happened, one in which the last few weeks to the end has witnessed a lot that could end up affecting the forthcoming year. Once again the pipeline fire in which several hundreds were roasted speaks volumes. Also our condolences to the late Godwin Agbroko of Thisday Newspaper..a sad year one would have to say. For political analysts, the crystal ball is no longer as crystal as it used to be and could be. We witnessed some last minute magic, we have also in Nda Isaiah's phrase seen issues that won't go. We have seen so much that it is a miracle that the eye has not stop functioning. A sizable number of Nigerians celebrated xmas without the traditional chicken stew. It has been a year of hardship, and the Nigerian citizenry has again paid the price.. Except the 'god' factor, we can as well be planning how to make Yaradua perform as President come 2007, because if not for fate and destiny, the rigging has already commenced. I am not going to complain in this end of the year essay but thank God for Nigeria, I thank the Almighty that the nation has against all odds remained one despite all the abuse it has suffered in the hands of leadership and also the led. We remain optimistic that things could be better and with hope we embrace the new year, believing for once our voice would be heard as a people. For a year that the Judiciary was so bastardized and is still abused, one cannot but thank God for the last effort of the Supreme Court which sought to give sanity to the system through the Ladoja verdict. If not we perhaps would have ended a year without a Judiciary as every Tom Dick, Harry, Ribadu, Obasanjo, PDP and co. chose to rape that tier of government without recourse to sanity. It was the the year of 'third term' dance after squandering money on the project, the President came out to make a fool of the whole nation by calling black white in broad daylight. But we thank God that the redundant Senators against all expectations collected, ate the third term cash and still for once in a long time disappeared with Baba's money without delivering. It was a victory for democracy. It was a year that we fought corruption, the Ribadu way and anyway, Governors were impeached with impunity, no one cared, Ribadu pounced. Alams, Fayose, and Dariye were all made living witness on how not to loot without Obj's permission. The opposition was not left out in the hunt. But we give thanks to God that we are not all blind as some us saw that how to steal was simply to steal and donate farm equipment to the life leader of Nigeria, father Obj and you can be gauranted imunity. What a year, from Anambra, Plateau, Ekiti, Oyo, Lagos, Abia and others the drama was regular and for the onlooker one could not have asked for a more interesting Mexican soap other than the 'Governors Who Offended Obasanjo". We were witnesses of the continued plundering of state resources by the ruling party and its men. As we end, so many lives have been lost, through road accidents, air mishaps, unemployment, retrenchment, hunger and depravation, robberies, pipeline vandalization. But we thank God that we are still alive to continue the fight for a better Nigeria, so that a better future can be secured. We were counted in the early months of the year, the results are still pending, one hopes that they are not anulled or are they being withheld just to serve the purposes of the more we see the less we discern. INEC, Water Board, Police, everything has failed. It was a year of failed promises yet again. At all tiers of governance, we witnessed monumental failure but we could not complain. Only God knows how truly the average Nigerian feels living on hope that never goes beyond hope. Again we failed in our practice of representative democracy, as our representatives have being serving themselves. As the year rounds up we need thank God that only Okada was banned in Abuja, it could have been worse, El-Rufai could have banished poor men inclusive. Although it affected us, while the President and Vice has continued washing their extremely dirty wares, we watched on foolishly as spectators but at least we did not fight ourselves beyond the pages of newspapers. It has been a total abuse of the system, and one big shock that somehow we have continued to tag along...Today Obj serves, the next morning the Vice serves, infact the laughable part is that they ask us to pray as they do their foolish act. This is was one year that all the noise was about South-South Presidency that suffered and ended as a pipe dream or better put at the last minute was vandalized, now all we have is an all Kastina State arrangement. We thank God that NEPA or PHCN did not disappoint us. Infact sometime during the year a friend had electricity for eight hours non stop from PHCN, he had to rush to the nearest PHCN office to ask if all was okay. It could have been worse, buildings collapsed, and this was not surprising as the nation itself on several ocassion was dancing on the edge of collapse due to the idiotic inefficiency of the administrators of the system. As the year rolled by, security was again an issue, no one was safe but we thank God that we are alive to see the end of the year. But for the female National Team, the Falcons, there was nothing to cheer as we were made to watch the World Cup on Television, football one of the effective painkillers of the nation was ineffective due to the usual unusual Nigerian factor. I have left out so many things...not to bore us, not to sound like a broken record, but so many issues have refused to go, I wish us all the very best of the forthcoming year. May the blessings of the Almighty Allah see us through. Yours In The Service Of Nation...For the Good Of All And In High Regards...I Remain Prince Charles Dickson 234-0803 331 1301, 234-0805 715 2301 |