allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Come Down to Earth (Page 1 of 1)

I hate liars. I was discussing this fact with a three year old friend of mine, who happens to be a lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University.

By the way, he is also an excellent driver. Close your mouth. I know what I am saying sounds extraordinary, but have I ever lied to you? If you believed that, then you will believe anything. I was just being a bit economical with the truth. The last thing anyone would like to experience is to be a passenger of a three year old driver! No right thinking individual would expect someone that young and inexperienced to drive a car. So what were we all thinking when we gave a big thumbs up sign for. another equally ridiculous situation that happened not so long ago? I mean the launching of a second satellite into space.

The first attempt was bad enough; did we also have to support the second launch as well? Don't get me wrong. I am in support of development, but we haven't yet gotten it right in terms of crawling, so why do we want to fly before we even take our first steps? For crying out loud, we are still grappling with issues that less buoyant nations have solved. Not so long ago, Ghana, our close neighbour, celebrated one year of uninterrupted power supply. Can we even dream of that feat, even in the almighty capital city? Abuja is so so cosmetic. If one attempts to remove the glamorous make-up on the features of that city, what one would see would be wrinkles. The city cannot even boast of constant water supply. It is a normal situation to see residents in search of water. Can Abuja be really and truly described as a city? A city should have the basic necessities. Donkey years after independence, we still have leaders who talk about providing electricity and water as one of their goals. Isn't that an embarrassing situation? People like Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmadu Bello and Obafemi Awolowo must be turning in their graves. A while back, my mum told me that she no longer listens to speeches made by Nigerian leaders. The reason is because she is bored with listening to the same promises about delivery of basic services that she has been listening to since 1960.

Let us abandon grandiose projects and address mundane challenges like providing basic amenities. No use providing electricity in the 36 States if we cannot achieve that simple feat. Better to have constant power in just one location than epileptic supply in uncountable locations. Our fore-fathers found ways of entertaining themselves and storing food items before the advent of electricity, so if we can't have a steady supply of electricity in this age of technological advancement we should forget about it. Sometimes I shiver at the thought of the fate of Abuja in the years to come. Everything seems perfect at the moment, but who is fooling who? Lagos was once a beautiful city with magnificent structures, but because of the perennial problem of maintenance we have, see how that city ended up. What about our roads? In some cities, once it rains, the roads are a no-go area. These roads were built with billions of naira and what is their condition today? Not impressive, I tell you.

We need to re-prioritise. The first major project for this government is to put in place a comprehensive social welfare system that would be managed by competent Nigerians. The emphasis here is on competence. I am tired of seeing mediocre people parading themselves as technocrats. The kind of social welfare system earlier described would help. It is disheartening to be daily confronted by pitiable images of individuals with life threatening illnesses, begging for financial assistance. It tells a lot about the kind of values being upheld by the majority. Money is made available when one influential Nigerian and his / her relations need to go for a dental check-up in Europe. Not so long ago, an influential Nigerian had to go abroad for treatment for a minor leg injury and he was proud to announce that fact. A few years ago, a minister's aide applied for money on behalf of his boss. The money was to be made available, for him to celebrate his birthday. The aide was promptly given. Imagine! Nigerians are suffering in their thousands and this kind of nonsense was allowed to take place. It is always a priority of the ruling class for them to satisfy their every whim. No wonder armed robbery and kidnapping is on the increase. Young, desperate Nigerians have figured out that the society is indifferent to their plight and so they are finding creative but negative ways to grab some of the stupendous wealth that seems to be all over.

In a very popular single released by a musician known as Olu Maintain, he ends each line of the chorus with rhyming words, but all these words depict the desire of young Nigerians to acquire wealth any way they can. In the first line, the musician used" words like "hammer" which is a slang that means getting money anyway and any how. In the second line of the chorus, he ends with the word "hummer". The gist is that after he makes the quick money, he will buy a Hummer Jeep. The third line ends with the word "dollar". According to him, after buying the jeep, the next thing is to get cash in the almighty denomination of the Dollar. The chorus concludes with the young man disclosing to all that he will now search for naira (owo). That definitely needs no explanation. Our young ones are getting wrong signals from members of the society who usually have misplaced priorities. Based on the aforementioned, financial prosperity seems to be the ultimate for most young Nigerians (do we blame them?) Learning a trade or acquiring an education should be their first priority, but in their estimation, they need to be accepted by their peers and the society.

They have noticed that the more money an individual has, the more he/she seems to be respected. Check this out: A young armed robber, planning to raid a bus, later on paid the fare at the terminal and entered that bus, all the while pretending to be a passenger. However, he got into a conversation with a man in the front seat of the bus. The topic centred on the increase in armed robbery. The man the robber was discussing with, said he didn't really blame participants of such acts, that the blame lay with the authorities, because they have no concrete plans for young people (wasn't that a smart one?). His robber friend wholeheartedly agreed. Before they could all digest that part of the conversation, he brought out a gun and the raid began. That robber obviously had misplaced priorities. Having misplaced priorities is not a vice displayed only by young people. The government should reprioritise and save the situation .Launching satellites and whatnots is not our priority at the moment. We have to concentrate on more pressing issues or what do you think?

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