Last Tuesday, the lot fell on former United States president Bill Clinton to point the way forward for Nigeria. At the THISDAY Awards in Abeokuta, Ogun State, where he was the special guest of honour, Clinton directly criticised Nigerian leaders for inviting huge problems to their country. The former American leader identified "three big challenges" facing the country as stealing of oil money, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and talent flight.
President Clinton had been diplomatic in his remarks, but he found no way of deodorising the stench that pervaded the entire country: "You haven't done very well with the oil money... poverty in the north is three times what it is in the Lagos area... you have to empower people so they can succeed in the town and in the world," he said.
Did the American say anything new? Not at all. But we expect the powers that be to listen because no less a personality than Bill Clinton has said it this time round. Had it been the opposition party that said it, the PDP or any of the attack dogs in the presidency would have since attempted to prove it wrong.
In a way, the first challenge President Clinton mentioned has been responsible for the two other challenges. Probably 80 per cent of the nation's oil funds goes astray or gets stolen. And because the nation's resources are in a few hands, the majority of Nigerians are poor.
Poor living conditions - lack of electricity, clean water, justice, health facilities, good roads and other infrastructure - have driven many talented Nigerians overseas. These are self-evident truths that even a blind person can see. Interestingly, Clinton spoke in the presence of serving and former Nigerian leaders that have contributed to the country's destruction.
We thank President Clinton for speaking up for the voiceless majority of Nigerians. Indeed, a country that exports 2.5 million barrels of crude oil every day at $110 per barrel has no reason to be poor. But ours has become a rich nation of very poor people. And it is amazing that, despite all the theft going on, nobody is in a Nigerian jail today for stealing public funds.
Apart from the lack of jobs and basic amenities, insecurity has discouraged talented Nigerians in foreign countries from returning home. Crimes like kidnapping and suicide bombing that used to be associated with foreign lands have come uncomfortably close to Nigerians at home. Many returnees have been kidnapped for huge ransoms or murdered outright.
Nigeria can be great, as President Clinton acknowledged, with the right leadership. Thirty years ago, a great Nigerian, Chinua Achebe, identified "a failure of leadership" as the trouble with Nigeria. Unfortunately, the country's leadership since then has been growing progressively worse.
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That is the type of patronizing awusa and the misLEADERSHIP will jump on. Oh, Yes! Stuff that resonate with awusa rapacious instinct is sweet music Mr Clinton did not "say anything new". What should be new is the statistics on which the the "anything new" was premised. Even if there are bases for the assumption, did Lagos achieve the fit on the same federal allocation income as the North. If not, and Lagos did it out of sheer hard work, strict fiscal discipline as opposed to the freewheeling awusa kleptocracy, why would anyone want to reward irresponsibility? Is that the reason why a primordial-oriented newspaper like the (mis)LEADERSHIP uphold awusa barbarism as a justifiable reaction to self-inflicted misery? Why did awusa remember how poor they are only when President Jonathan, a Southern "infidel", only in the his second year in office, assumed leadership through a popular, democratic process? Are these people not ashamed of themselves. Is that the reason they truck loads of destitute awusas to the South to flood our streets and constitute themselves into lousy nuisance? But in nearly 40 years of awusa rule, they all forgot how poor they were, and there was no Boko Haram to worry about. These northerners need to be told something. It suites their greed to steer the Boko Haram agenda to a political convenience. The criminal sect have routinely said it that they seek to establish an islamist empire in Nigeria. They do not say their struggle is about poverty. But mischievous and misguided ideologues behind the worthless, backstreet misLEADERSHIP publication keep dribbling it away from the the real agenda, and promoting awusa poverty. It is no longer in doubt that Boko Haram are foot-soldiers, fronting for cowardly, faceless, clandestine awusa elite who sponsor the barbaric bloodletting. Now that Mr. Clinton pronounced them poor and destitute ( and they must remain so till eternity),he should give them a ROBIN HOOD to rob Lagos and turn over the loot to awusa. Or else, relocate every awusa jackass to Lagos or allocate oil blocs to each awusa moron. Now they want the same Lagos they abandoned for Abuja and left to rot. Su chi bura uba nsu,....duk. Barawo, dan Banza.
Mr Garden city boy, the north is not complaining its low economy, it is contented with what it has and very much satisfied. The people from the so call high economic areas are up north desparately looking and worshiping the almighty money. The rich area people constitute twenty to thirty percent of the north population.The north is not desparate for money, it preserve its culture, diginity and self satisfaction. The north does not borrow foriengh culture and ideas and look down at your culture and people.The oyinbo people indeed.Wake up from your dreams and face reality as a true Africans.I hope the Garden city boy is with me.
There are those in the Northern states who are angry at the entire system, not just with Jonathan. There are journalists from the North as well as intellectuals and analysts who see that the past as well as present leadership has shortchanged them. This did not happen just because Goodluck Jonathan is now in power. The same goes in the Southern states despite the overwhelming support for Jonathan from there in 2011. Also, it is important to note that when a region is under the scourge of terrorism and military operations, the economy suffers and suffers greatly, although I acknowledge that Yobe and Borno are the two worst affected states and some states in the North never recorded a terrorist attack. I must comment to harunaahmed22.ah about foreign cultures. Sharia law is ultimately a foreign legal system. This may be based from Islam but Islam came from the Arab world as much as Christianity came from the Western world. Nigeria is under the grip of foreign influences from all sides.