This is no joking time. It's an open secret that Nigeria is tending towards being a failed state and the reason is obvious. Nothing seems to be working.
We seem not to have a national blueprint for the development of the country. There is no national phylosophy of governance. No minimum standard of living for the average Nigerian. Every government in power caters for only its members through contract awards. And only a few grab the available contracts. We hear of contracts everyday but we can't see the products because much of the contract money is embezzled either to feather the nests of those in power or to serve as a war chest for future political campaigns. The new rich Nigerians are councilors, LG chairmen, governors, commissioners, board members of government parastatals, ministers and other political appointees. The middle class is almost non-existent while the generality of Nigerians are left panting and gasping for breath. No social welfare package, no unemployment benefits, no genuine medicare, no good roads, no electricity, no potable water, no cheap food to buy. The take-home pay of workers cannot take them even to the nearest bus stop. The political climate is unattractive to foreign investors because of frequent changes of government policies.
From one government to the other Nigeria is left drifting, hence the internal rumblings and bunkerings. Youths who have no means of surviving the welling hunger in them take to crimes. Graduates who are jobless think of survival tactics by joining 419 gangs, drug cartels and kidnapping rings. Policemen who receive peanuts as salaries take to demanding bribes at checkpoints and shooting innocent people out of frustration.
Who is to blame? It will be unfair to blame Yar' Adua solely for the mess in which we are now. Nigeria had been going down the drain before he was dragged to Aso Rock by a selfish cabal which was only intent on ruling without the concomitant responsibility. And before this cabal there had been others. Different kinds of groups, cults and mafias that are visionless and self serving. For putting the nation last in their daily calculations our once great nation and the hope of Africa has been reduced to an ugly elephant with kwashiorkor limbs. We have become the laughing stock all over the world, if not for corruption, then for political instability. We have been living a life of falsehood for too long a time, it's now time for Nigerians to ask their leaders: Where do we go from here -- community or chaos (apology to Rev. Martin Luther King Jnr)? Boko Haram is just a flash of the fire next time unless Nigerians sit down together and discuss how to give this nation a facelift. Any kind of surgery will do for as long as it restores our image and dignity as the true African giant.
Think, Nigeria, think.
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Posers for fellow compatriots. DOES NIGERIA DESERVE THE CALIBER OF LEADERS IT HAS BEEN HAVING SO FAR? IS THE COUNTRY WORTH DYING FOR AS IT CURRENTLY IS? WHAT CAN OUR LEADERS DO TO REALLY MAKE US PROUD OF OUR COUNTRY?
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