THE IMAGINARY GOD OF POVERTY

Some countries in Europe demonstrated against Austerity imposed just yesterday on them, but here in Nigeria, we are just about cerebrating our 33rd birthday on Austerity measure, imposed on Nigerians by the then president of Nigeria Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Austerity measures was introduced in Nigeria in the year 1979 during Alhaji Shehu Shagar's administration as one of the condition for taking IMF LOAN. Until date Nigerians are still wallowing under the merciless monster due to corruption. In Nigeria, any evil that comes into the country does not go out anymore because our people are ready to house the evil and supply it with comfort and love. Since the Introduction of Austerity in the country. Nigerians have gone from fire to frying pan.

Austerity gave birth to hardship and military coups, through which Mr. Poverty and Mr. Bribery and Corruption came into being, while Mr. Poverty leaves countless bodies on its part Mr. Bribery and Corruption got elected into Nigeria political offices where they created Poor governance, Public fund embezzlers, Arm robbers, 419ners, Miracle Churches, Kidnappers, Human Sacrifices. Presently, our greatest problem and concern are not only that they control the nation, but they also control us and created fear in us that we Nigerians are afraid to fight back to claim our country back from the grip of these monsters.

Nigerians are ambivalent about corruption, Nigerians prefer to talk more about its evils than putting worth enough will to end it. As annoying as corrupt acts are, when push turns into shove, most Nigerians develop a lackadaisical attitude toward corruption. Much of the reason that Nigeria has not broken away with poverty, unemployment and inequality are that the people appear to accept the poor governance and corruption handed to them by politicians and state bureaucrats. The irony is that everybody is afraid. The people of Nigeria are afraid to fight back. The members of civil societies are afraid. The media does not care. The politicians? Well! They love it most when everybody is a coward. After-all, an unstable society is a great benefit to corrupt leaders.

Nigerians like to murmur and suffer in silence. They do not protest when the government and state institutions do not perform their duties. They do not mobilise themselves to demand that government, state institutions and people acting in Nigeria's name delivers first class services to them, and when such protest happens, there is always bad ending where some leaders of the protest receive a kick back from authority and end the protest without achieving the aim of the protest. Nigerians will rather shift the responsibility of fighting corruption to God, by constantly invoking their religious beliefs on how God will one day deal with all corrupt individuals and save the country from corruption. I wonder where or in the country that had happened. Perhaps Nigerians will wait until the end of days when Christ will come to take his people.

In Nigeria, the few that were able to secure a job are contented with the peanut wages they receive every month as monthly pay. Once a Nigerian can afford to buy a Tokumbo car, he feels on top of the world and less concern with the corrupt state of the nation. The Electricity Company of Nigeria frequently cut off power supply to households and businesses for days, weeks, months and years, yet, all that the people can do is to sit in their homes and murmur. This culture of suffering in silence is the reason for Nigeria's socio-economic quagmire where more than 50 years after independence not a single of the country's many problems have been solved. Nigerians will rather blame Satan, or the imaginary god of poverty for their suffering instead of standing up for their right. They will move from one church to the other, Pastor to Pastor, Mosque to Mosgue and Imam to Imam looking for miracles and breakthroughs. Many Nigerians have turned Pastors and Imams overnight because that is the present money making machine as it is found to be more lucrative than any other business. Churches and mosques are in every nook and cranny of our streets. No wonder Governor Fashola of Lagos state recently asked them to start paying tax.

We all believe in God, but God helps those who help themselves. Recently, it was announced that Nigerians spent over $60 billion to buy private, not to mention the expensive private yachts in our harbors, of which most of them are owned by our so-called leaders and the miracle Pastors while ordinary Nigerians are suffering. Our problem is that we have refused to take action and fight for our right to alleviate ourself from the grip of poverty and corrupt politicians. Fear and tribalism are the root cause of our problem. Are you not angry with the state of the country? How long must we endure this ill-conceived, hash and austere economic and social policies. We have been watching silently and have seen our politicians and their cronies enjoy while Nigerian masses continue to suffer. We have no job, no income, no savings and have no place to lay our heads while our politicians and the selected few live in mansions at the expense of our poor Nigerians.

Nigerians have been reduced to beggar-like condition. Are we not appalled by our poor living condition? Are we not appalled to see our children and other people's children selling on the street instead of being in the classroom? Are we not appalled to see children sleeping rough on the streets of our capital cities and scavenging for food while our politicians and their cronies frequent between five star hotels. Do we not care about our dignity as citizens of Nigeria? For years we have sacrificed and even today we are still sacrificing, but any time we look at our politicians and their circle of friends we see that they are in a different suit, in a different Four Wheel drive, in a different hotel, surrounded by bodyguards. How many more years should we continue to sacrifice and tighten our belts while our politicians and their cronies enjoy from our sweat? Is it not time for us to say enough is enough, that we Nigerians can no longer continue on this path of slavery?

Please Nigerians, if I may ask, are we not tired of all these corrupt politicians who call themselves our leaders? Are we not tired of the dictatorships, media censorship and bribery, torture, force imprisonment, kidnapping, arm-robbery, political instabilities, corruption, unemployment, etc.? Are we not tired of being slaves and beggars in our own country? Are we not tired of seeing our children and loved ones die of common preventable diseases? Are we not tired of sharing water from the same source with animals? Water infested with bacteria and viruses. Are we not tired of lack of access to education, health, energy, food, medicines, shelter and clothing? Are we not tired of having to endure poverty, starvation, diseases, humiliation, torture, oppression, in the hands of those we elected? Are we not tired of embezzlement of public funds by our politicians and our so-called leaders? Above all, are we not tired of their excesses?

Tell me, are we not tired of their corrupt practises and the looting of the treasuries? Their foreign bank accounts are swollen with hundreds of millions of our stolen dollars, pounds and Euros while hundreds of millions of us live on one dollar a day. Are we not tired of seeing them use our money to procure arms for their own protections while we are at the mercy of kidnappers and arm robberies. Our children go to school barefooted and on an empty stomach. Our hospitals are without essential medicines and equipments, factories are folding up for lack of electricity, harvested crops remain in the farm for the lack of good roads. Are we not tired of all their inaction? The wait and see and do nothing approaches to our problems. There are many of them that we have not chosen or asked to lead us, yet, they are carrying themselves around as our leaders because they rigged our vote. Such people we must demand to step down and allow elections to take place.

We must demand an end to the official corruption and graft in Nigeria, we must demand an end to the eroding of democratic values in Nigeria, we must demand an end to the injection of tribalism in our politics and religious conflicts in the country. We must demand better public services now. We must demand better education, health, transport and telecommunication infrastructures now. We must demand affordable housing now. We must demand irrigation facilities, tractors, Farming equipment and improved seeds for our farmers now. We must tell them that we are no longer going to tight our belts while theres are loosened. We must tell them that we are starving to death while they are developing protruding bellies, having lavish birthday parties while cholera cancer, typhoid fever, and starvation is threatening us and our loved ones. We must tell them that their greed and insensitivity to our problems are forcing the best of our people to seek greener pastures abroad where they are treated like animals, criminals and people without a country. For your information and to be on the safe side abroad, do not tell anyone that you are a Nigerian, else, you will be inviting the country's law enforcement eyes on you.

Nigerians should demand a share in the revenue from the sale of oil, gas, gold and other natural resources. We should demand a say in the way our governments are run, a say in the way our ministers are selected. We should demand a say in the way our country's money is spent and a say in the way contracts are awarded. We must tell them that it is not going to be business as usual anymore. We should demand change probity and accountability now. We should demand political action to solve the numerous problems facing us the people of Nigeria.

Nigerians, please look at the world around you. Do you not see or hear what is going in Asia, Latin America, Middle East Europe and North America? Can you not see that we are being left behind? Are you not ashamed that after 50 years of our independence we still use farming hoes and cutlasses for farming, tools our forefathers used before they were colonised? Are you not ashamed that after all these years of independence we cannot feed ourselves and our family; many of us cannot read or write and all we want to do is to leave Nigeria and travel abroad. Aren't you ashamed that after all the labour and hard-earned money spent on us in the school we are unable to find a job?

Point of correction there is nothing like god of poverty. Why we are poor today is because we are afraid to fight for our rights, to mobilise and demand for our right and test a free world just like the people in Europe and America. Please let us try to have a feel freedom and progress in our lifetime before we pass away. Do not be a fool forever or believe that a miracle will fall from heaven. The Europeans and Americans and Asians fought for it and got it. Middle Easts are presently on part to freedom while some have got it some are fighting to get it. My question is what is holding Nigeria and Nigerians from fighting for their rights?

Paffcomm
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