Why has fate been so cruel to us and why has our
star dimmed and refused to shine brightly? Why do
we always take ten steps forward and twenty steps
backwards? Why is our case and example one of
constant failure, ineptitude, defeat, shame, lack and
incompetence? What is wrong with the Federal
Republic of Nigeria and what plagues and afflicts the
Nigerian people? Since 1960 every single one of our
potential deliverers have failed. They have not been
allowed to emerge and even when they do emerge
they have not been allowed to succceed. They have
either been killed, jailed, villified, belittled or
destroyed by the system and the neo-colonial
conservative forces that have sworn to resist change.
Worse still the sheer naivety, nauseating timidity and
simple lack of insight and foresight of the ordinary
people, who seem to have cultivated an
extraordinary capacity to tolerate injustice,
incompetence, wickedness and evil in their land,
does not help.
As a matter of fact it is that attitude and that
cowardly and weak mindset that has sustained the
disasterous sytem that has held Nigeria captive since 1960. The average Nigerian would rather go to the church or to the mosque to bear his or her mind to the priest or imam and pray about his or her
numerous challenges rather than march in the
streets and demand a change for the better from
their Government and President. Yet it is only in our
country that men and women suffer from such a lack of firm resolve and such a sorry and tepid affliction.
Karl Marx's view that ''religion is the opium of the
masses'' has no greater meaning or significance
anywhere in the world than in Nigeria where we all,
in a most cowardly manner, hide behind the cleric
and imam's ornate robes and refuse to insist on our
God-given rights from the government and the state. What a tragedy we have become. We deserve nothing but pity.

If God raises a deliverer
today it is the followership that will be the first to
question his credentials, oppose him, condemn him,
crucify him and kill him even though his mission and
objective is to fight for them and improve their sorry
lot in life.. That is the most tragic aspect of the
situation. Yet things are getting worse by the day. Just
heard on the BBC how 160 people were killed and
buried in a mass grave by BH in some north western
border town in Nigeria just yesterday. Worst still, quite
apart from the working classes and the teeming and
suffering poor masses both in the urban centres and
rural areas, no less than 80 per cent of our University
graduates in Nigeria are unemployed and have little
hope for the future. We are faced with all this yet our
people accept it all with a level of calm and stoicism
that is utterly shameful and quite unnatural. Man is
geared and configured to fight for his life and his
future but not the Nigerian.

The Nigerian would rather sit
down calmly whilst his oppressors cut his throat and
he would even say a prayer for them as they do it. It is
almost as if we have been bewitched or are under a
spell. We have become a nation of sadists, masochists and sociopaths who do not value human life, do not
care about the future of our nation or children and
who do care that in just five years from now, if we
continue sliding down this slippery slope, our country will be worse of than Congo Zaire. And of course once we get to that point the situation becomes
irredeemable.