Nigeria: Roads to National Self Deceit

18 December 2012

THE seriousness and the power of any country can be gleaned from the quality of the roads it builds for itself. You can never be in doubt of America as the most powerful nation on earth or of South Africa as the strongest economy in Africa, once you leave their airports and hit their road! Driving on the roads of these two countries, for example, you immediately come face to face with nations that love themselves; nations that have respect for their citizens; nations that are sincere with themselves; nations that do not cheat themselves and nations that want to be taken seriously among serious nations. Have you heard of any scandal associated with South Africa's hosting of the 2010 World Cup? No, you won't!

In Nigeria, our roads also give a visitor an impression about us. With the knowledge of Nigeria as an oil-rich country and a pretender to the leadership of the black world and with the unmistakable swag of Nigerians wherever you meet them, you get a cultural shock once you hit our roads, especially the ones we call expressways! But don't despair. Our true story awaits you--at the home of the Nigerian rich! Once you navigate the broken and waterlogged roads and the mosquito-infested overflowing gutters and make it to the home of the Nigerian elite, you are lost in splendour and opulence, so much that you would need to pinch yourself repeatedly to remind yourself that you are not in the home of a Saudi prince! Nigerians are Forbes-listed rich citizens of a very poor country, the only ones in the world richer than their country! That is the story told by our roads!

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