|
Frustrated, Sick and Tired of these Painful Unsolicited Political Manipulative Interruptions of our Lives! By Emakoji Ayikoye New York, USA February 19, 2006
As most Nigerians like me who have lived in the country within the last twenty years may attest, we have in unsolicited ways suffered undue interruptions of our daily and normal lives under irresponsible, selfish, gluttonous, thievery and looting regimes. When we all thought that our nascent democracy will make a way out of our political, economic, and social quandary, the present administration seem hooked on interrupting everything we have achieved within the last decade. It seems to me that the evil geniuses within our political system are bent on returning Nigeria back to a politically, economically and socially worst place than we were a decade ago. These evil geniuses are busy propagating selfish superfluous aspiration to alter our constitution in furtherance of their selfish political agenda. Unfortunately, the essential aspects of our national life that may generate rapid progress is stagnated and desperately reduced to ruins. Excruciatingly for instance, our educational system is near total collapse; our economy isn’t what it ought to be; our basic social amenities are pitifully substandard. Unfortunately, Nigerians in this century are still under the hex and influence of our selfish leaders, who are only concern about propagating their self-centered agenda, instead of an agenda for our collective good. To these leaders including those of the current administration, I have good news for you: Nigerians have paid and are tired of paying the painful price for your irresponsibility; Nigerians are tired of perpetually having their lives disrupted by your vicious unsolicited political manipulations, resulting in some of the most horrendous political and socioeconomic quagmire that we have witnessed as a nation. I must caution all perpetrators, who want to take us back to the season of political and economic despair to beware of the wrath of God and that of angry citizens.
On Our Education… It is appalling to me that the education of our citizens seem unimportant to those who lead us. It is hard to comprehend why the education of Nigeria’s citizens is so neglected even as our educational system continues to deteriorate under the watch of our elected leaders. There is no better way to bring civility to a nation than by educating citizens aright; there is no better way to advance the cause of a nation than by providing them with qualitative education. Sadly however, our educational system is under siege. Perhaps our educational system is neglected by our political leaders purposely because they are carrying out a neglect agenda to keep citizens in the dark world of ignorance so they may continue their looting and mismanagement rampage in the country?
Certainly, there is a reason to everything under the face of the earth, and I am convinced that the collapse of our educational system has a political dimension to it. Otherwise, how can our elected leaders neglect and allow our educational system to crumble the way it has. Could not educating our citizens generate rapid economic, political and social progress for us like it has for other nations in the rest of the world? If only Nigeria’s elected leaders could get wise and transform our educational system into a world class type, the sector will evidently attract other African students to study in Nigeria, thereby, bringing not only their rich cultural experiences to our land but also huge economic gain in tuition fees. Nations in the West for example, have for so many years reaped billions of dollars accrued to them in foreign students’ tuition. Personally, my education here in United States cost me a whooping $10,000 to $15,000 in annual tuition only; not to talk of books, transportation, and room and board expenses; yet, my University is one of the cheapest in the United States due to government subsidies. Other expensive universities charge as much as $30,000 to $50,000 in annual tuition here in the United States. Because of the necessity of quality education, students are still paying these enormous fees to get educated here and they come from around the world, including Nigeria. I imagine that if we can improve our educational system to compete with those of the Western nations, Nigeria would not only save her citizens all these huge monies we are loosing to the West, but, we may also attract students from other nations to invest in our educational system as well, especially, when we make it less expensive and affordable. I therefore challenge our political and intellectual elites to consider this matter with uttermost urgency as the gains that await us if we heed this counsel are unmistakably colossal.
On Our Politics… I just can’t help but state that the mirage, the backwardness, and the pitiful state of our political, economic and social lives after over 40 years of independence are absolutely the fault of our selfish leaders. The overwhelming burden of suffering, poverty and instability that continue to plague our nation is indeed not diminishing in magnitude; as such, a terrifying hardnosed crisis which is capable of destroying the bedrocks of our existence is unambiguously created and is now the greatest threat that faces us as a nation.
As abysmal as our deteriorating national situation is getting daily, our elected leaders seem to not really care what happen to our corporate existence; if our leaders do not deal decisively with the eruptions of the unrest in the Niger Delta and in the rest of the country, we may awake to a rude and hostile reality, which may doom our democracy and future progress. Our leaders must stop hallucinating and living in the fantasy world of loots and extortion of public funds and arise to address our numerous but urgent national crises. Rather than continue to pursue selfish ambitions, let our leaders rise up to save our land. Nigeria must never be allowed to disintegrate for the sake of the black race who must survive the historically cruel world in which we live and suffer as victims of inequity. Nigeria needs every tribe, every ethnic group and people that make up the Nigeria we were yesterday, and the Nigeria that we are today and the Nigeria that we need to be tomorrow. Nigeria needs the Ibos, the Yorubas, the Hausas and all other tribes in the country today. Our political problems has absolutely nothing to do with the differences that exist within our various tribes as some have proposed; it has rather everything to do with the rogues that have mislead us and created the painful divisions that exist between us as a nation. One way or the other, the Ibos, the Yorubas, the Hausas and all the other tribes at the grassroots level have greatly contributed to keeping Nigeria afloat. Those who have sought our destruction and disintegration are our political rogue leaders. The traders, the farmers, the students and the generality of our people have been very patient with the political, economic and social mess we have had to put up with all these years of our independence. At this momentous time in our collective history, I have to say that Nigerians are frustrated, sick and tired of these painful unsolicited political manipulative interruptions of our lives!
On Our Economy… As even a Nigerian child knows today, the economic backwardness Nigeria is suffering is grossly due to the loots and extortion of our leaders. These leaders are brazenly gluttonous and heartless. In fact, the best way to put this across is, leaders over our head who perpetually indulge in looting and extorting our public funds deserve not to be called leaders as their unabashed acts of corruption can only qualify them as professional political thieves. Unfortunately, thieves usually steal mercilessly without any thought of living anything good behind for victims. In the same sense, our rogue and thieving political leaders may never leave anything good behind for us and for our children. Nigerians must resist every leader who loots us and our children to poverty. Nigerians must adamantly insist on accountability, responsibility and ethical management of our public funds at the local, state and federal level. Nigerians must begin to think of ways not to just make their individual selves rich at all cost; we must begin to get crazy about how to not just make ourselves individually rich but to also make our villages, towns, cities, states and the nation as a whole, a rich place for our corporate existence. Nigeria needs to learn economic lessons from China and India; we need to learn, emulate and execute secretes behind their rapidly booming economies. Perhaps by learning from these two exploding economies, we may rightly position our nation in strategic place of relevance in world affairs for the betterment of the continent.
On Our Social Lives... On our social lives, there is no doubt that if we improve and validate our political, economic and educational sectors, our social lives will definitely experience tremendous positive progress. If we do not however salvage of political, economic and educational mess, Nigeria may never constructively progress, and tragically we may end up as the shame of Africa and the black race in this competitive 21st century world of ours.
Less we forget, let me restate to the powers that be that the cardinal message in this article is Nigerians are frustrated, sick and tired of all the painful unsolicited political manipulative interruptions of our lives in our own God-given land for that matter!
|