Leadership (Abuja)
Chika Otuchikere
28 September 2008
opinion
The federal government has already announced that this year's birthday bash to mark the country's 48th anniversary would be done in low key.
This is cheering news for Lookmann if only the government would disclose to Nigerians how much it has doled out to organise the various programmes billed to span a whooping six days for a low-key birthday extravaganza. How much would find its way into the already bulging pockets and kitty of the privileged organisers? Who these privileged organisers are should also be made known in the spirit of oaths of secrecy. President Yar Adua needs to provide answers to these questions, at least to assure us that Nigeria has improved in her anti-corruption rating. Or may be officials of no-nonsense Transparency International (TI) have tasted the nation's corruption toxin and joined the league of graft infested agencies by collecting kickback to give us a fast forwarded ranking!
Let's not allow little matters of corruption to kill our joy and distract us from having a loot filled 48th birthday bash for our dear country. In the spirit of the season, Lookmann has dedicated this edition to contribute a masses mite to the anniversary by giving a deserved birthday bashing. Every Nigerian, except those in the cold room, hot seat, corridors or even restroom of power would agree that Nigeria deserves a thorough bashing for how it has fared this past 48 years. The officials present and past should be given 48 bosah resounding strokes of koboko.
Has it not dawned on you that the larger population of the country fondly, or is it derisively, dubbed masses, have been transmuted into sitdon lookmen and lookwomen. That's the only industry which readily employs Nigerians in their millions all these years of massive unemployment, reason being that they are not paid to look. Is it surprising when the few other employing industries under pay, causing workers to regularly embark on industrial action to ask for a pay rise. Their work is to look, but the more we look, the less we see what our employers are doing. With the long years of working in this industry, Nigerians have become blind or is it sight impaired?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed run things and so, all our leaders these past 48 years have been one-eyed men having blind men as aides. It's not surprising that we started off 48 years ago as the emerging super power and giant of Africa but continued to move backwards with every passing year. Apart from slumping to become among the poorest nations in spite of our enviable potentialities we became a sleeping giant fast slipping into the abyss of inconsequential nations of the world. Little wonder the president jetted out to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment and all his blind aides swore with their lives and those of their family members that he went for lesser Hajj.
Nigeria has been crying as a physically challenged country and has, over the years, continued to depend on handouts from donor nations. Her sorry tale reminds me of many able-bodied Nigerians who disguise as handicapped persons and go to bus-stops and road sides to beg for alms. When they are confronted on why they decided to, when they are able bodied, they tell you they are victims of unemployment and poverty.
It is a big surprise that we have remained one indivisible country this long four plus decades. A lot of countries with less than a fraction of our resources, especially human, have split into bits and pieces without facing half the ordeals that have befallen us. Many would say that God is on our side. I would have swallowed that hook, line and sinker but if what I know of God is anything to go by, we would be indicting God to say He is on the side of a nation that He gave everything that any nation could wish for, including humans with brains, abundant natural and mineral resources, vegetation and weather condition and the same country wants Him to use His own hands to get things working.
A country where every citizen who finds himself in the privileged position of serving this nation at whatever level automatically catapults himself far above the people he was elected, appointed or imposed to serve! At leaving office, while such leaders turned looters counts his blessings by the millions, the people he purportedly led into penury and quagmire count the evil fate that befell them moaning their plight which goes from bad to worse, before God. And this has remained the story of the country these 48 years.
Could God have approved of a policy and system of impoverishing the people by stealing their collective wealth? God that we know is not one of injustice and would not have sanctioned the injustice that has been the order of the day these past 48 years. God is a loving creator and full of mercy but our successive leaders have exhibited they are nothing but merciless sadists with the greatest hatred for the country.
With all our resources, albeit now in their private pockets, we cannot boast of a single hospital in the country where ordinary directors of ministries, not to talk of the president and his immediate subordinates, can rush to without them knowing they would certainly die once admitted into such due to lack of equipment. In the same token, they dare not entrust the education of their children in one of the schools where they claim to lead. Their children must attend schools in countries developed by their God-fearing leaders.
Without necessarily making a long list of the devastation of this country by our so-called leaders, it is sufficient to mention that everything has been grounded including leadership. With all the potential and existing tourism sites, the country earns little or nothing from them. While our leaders dash out at the slightest pricking to spend tax payers' money on other countries' tourism, nobody comes here except few foreigners who come to exploit us. Today we are a wholly import dependent nation, importing even petroleum products which were ferried out of this country as crude oil.
The country has become a dumping ground for everything, from every country even those we shouldn't, especially second hand items. We hear that the under pants, brassiers, make-up attachment wig and everything most Nigerians wear are materials already discarded in the rubbish cans of these foreigners. We hear people now go to cemeteries in those countries and dig out coffins and ship them in as second hand goods. Of course, in quality they beat or so it seems those made in Nigeria. We even hear they are preferred by those who are addicted to second hand or fairly used items including fairly used cars.
Which can we say and which can we overlook? Maybe some day not too long from now, if we continue the way we are going, we may call on fairly used presidents of some foreign countries to be president while our locals are vice. Perhaps then we would agree that we muddled things up and need to discard our 48 years to start all over again. In the meantime, happy 48th birthday bash!
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What are we celebrating? the worst administration ever? While the rest of the world are working overtime to solve their varied crises, our own President is playing ostrich, hiding his head in sand pretending as if there is no crisis in Nigeria while conducting a cultish administration of sychophants administering oath of secrecy amongst themselves while the so-called people's representatives in the Senate and House have abdicated their responsibility of impeaching this do-nothing President. If Yar is not fit to rule or the job is too overwhelming for him, he could learn from Mbeki by resigning and save us the agony of his non-performance. Instead of leading the effort to bring about the much needed change, Yar has become part of our problem, like a cancer that needs to be excised - it is imperative that we got rid of him one way or the other and soonest, too. Good riddance to bad rubbish.