By Arukaino Umukoro

Like Tunisia, like Egypt … and maybe, like Nigeria?

Since the world woke up to the news of the anti-government revolts in these African countries, a likely scenario in Africa’s most populous country has been a major discourse across internet forums and social media platforms among many Nigerians. The scenes have being played put as mind images, should Nigerian politicians dare mess with the April general elections and votes don’t count. The probable scenario? Like their African brothers, Nigerians may take to the streets and vote them out of office with their voices and feet.

If it were to happen in Nigeria, it may not be like what the world has witnessed in these more-Arab-than-African countries, with different sets of beliefs and orientation. Many Nigerians, who have endured longer years of abysmal leadership and bottled up grievances, may not effectively handle a sudden change from absolute political power to people’s power. Just imagine what a frustrated, angry, bitter, violated citizen would do the very moment the tables turn in his favour; a massive people’s revolt may become unevenly heated and degenerate into a violent, bloody protest. Frustrated citizens may be relegated by known and unknown criminals, political thugs, and power-crazy politicians who would want to take advantage of it – after they may have spirited their loved ones out of the country to safer climes – probably Europe or the US.

Nigerians must be wise. Knowing some politicians harbour ulterior motives, most would gladly seize any opportunity to consolidate power, by any means necessary. We have seen the way they have fought in the National Assembly over a morsel of political bread, how they have crushed opponents in their blood thirst for power, how they have turned political differences into modern day gun fights and communal wars. That Nigerians should not tolerate any more of failed leadership is not the issue, but it must be done right, without causing further harm to our fragile nationhood.

http://www.cp-africa.com/2011/01/28/tunisia-egypt-nigeria/

We as a people are quick to look at any situation in any part of the world that differs from our own, and because it's different assume it's better for reasons that are beyond me.
Nigerians believe foreign languages are 'better' then their own (how a language is better then another is beyond me, it's all speech)
Nigerians believe foreign peoples are better then their own
Nigerians believe, for reasons that are again beyond me, their country is the absolute worst in the world and this is where the trend of millions of Nigerians flooding into places like Chad where they starve and burn in the heat before even giving Abuja or Lagos a try comes from.

This is the new own that puzzles me. Nigerians now think what is happening in Tunisia is comparable to their situation and is what is 'needed'. All of these examples of total confusion stem from 1 source. Nigerians have a flair for citing problems and a total inability to understand or explain them.
Any nigerian can make a 10 pages list of the problems in Nigeria, few can tell you why these problems exist and what the cure is since the cure comes from understanding the causeSo let me explain things for you. The problem in Nigeria isn't the government. It's the people. The Nigerian government has the task of running 150 million of the worlds more stubborn, defiant, corrupt, egocentric, materialistic and unpatriotic citizens that i personally know. It also has to chose from these people to fill it's ranks. So lets say we overthrow the government in Nigeria like in Tunisia and look at the problems in Nigeria. Nigerians would rather throw their trash outside in the open instead of looking for a trash can: The causes pollution health problems and a hideous environment. Nigerians will complain about the appearance of their country compared to others but still throw their trash about carelessly
Nigerians would rather pay a bribe to get out of a hard situation (bad test result, bad court ruling, arrest, being caught driving without documents). This leads to a situation where the naira is above life.
Nigerians would rather support a ‘big man’ or a ‘rich man’ then a man of honor of nobility. My dad does politics, and his career took off the minute he bought a Hummer, BECAUSE he bought a Hummer. Smh. This leads to a leadership that even if it was humble and not materialistic would be forced into money flaunting and hording because Nigerians only respect the wealthy…even when they’re poor…especially when they’re poor.

Nigerians seldom follow or care to learn the rules established in their own country. I’ve seen Nigerian police arrest people because of marijuana, when there’s no law in Nigeria against the use of Marijuana, but what does it matter, nobody knows this or cares to learn. The police themselves smoke it lol.


So you have the problem of a society with dysfunctional people, struggling to function.
Tunisia’s revolution isn’t to get a ‘better government’ It’s to GET a democracy. It’s to GET a government. Things that we ALREADY have but seem to be too careless and lazy to want to IMPROVE. Tunisia’s democracy will be flawed and infantile like ours once it’s established as it is in ALL countries. The difference is we’re not willing to improve it LIKE ALL COUNTRIES. A revolution to overthrow the Nigerian government will establish another government full of Nigerians, and when Nigerians are your problem, it’s foolish to being to clamor about an overthrow. That’s like covering the scent of pheces with pheces scented air spray.
My resolution is not for an ‘overthrow’. We should be proud that we have gone though decades of overthrows and now have the democracy that even Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania and Sudan wish they had no matter how flawed it is. Nigerias are still free to be themselves, to speak against their government, to vote, to assemble, to protest, and to be a part of their government, so an ‘overthrow’ isn’t needed, we’ve at least achieved the existence of a democracy in rough terrain. Instead we should work on IMPROVING our democracy, not destroying it and replacing it with the same thing, and Nigeria IS improving its democracy. We should push for lower salaries in the National Assembly, for governors and for the executive board. We should push for standards in our leaders, education requirements or clean criminal records. We should push for year round voter registration. We should push for electronic census’. We should push for more state autonomy so that each and every group of peoples in Nigeria are free to reach their potential. We should join our police forces and armies and improve them from the inside, and we should push for more regulation of schools, security, banks, and living practices.


This is what Tunisia is fighting to have the OPPURTUNITY to do. We already have the opportunity. Lets take it.

Hmmmm . . . . .

Are u saying that Egypt is not better than Nigeria? Did you how see clean and cool their streets look like?

We want to learn to riot? Abi dodge tear gas?

First, the situation in Tunisia and Egypt is totally different, I commend them for their courage but they woke up too late to allow tyranny rule for over 20 years. When we start saying people are not dying for others, it seems we have forgotten about the struggles of June 12 or Ken Saro Wiwa, we forget that at a time when politicians were on national TV adopting Abacha as a sole candidate there were people fighting and putting their lives at risk for this country.

Not all struggles can be achieved with strikes (ask NLC). We need change. There are young Nigerians that give me hope about what is needed in this country. Have you registered to vote? How have you contributed to any failing sector be it education, health or road accidents, Jos? Get in touch with the detribalized young people making a change, the struggle for our generation is different and we must seek out ways to create change and it will come albeit slowly. But it will come.

kcjazz:

We want to learn to riot? Abi dodge tear gas?

First, the situation in Tunisia and Egypt is totally different, I commend them for their courage but they woke up too late to allow tyranny rule for over 20 years. When we start saying people are not dying for others, it seems we have forgotten about the struggles of June 12 or Ken Saro Wiwa, we forget that at a time when politicians were on national TV adopting Abacha as a sole candidate there were people fighting and putting their lives at risk for this country.

Not all struggles can be achieved with strikes (ask NLC). We need change. There are young Nigerians that give me hope about what is needed in this country. Have you registered to vote? How have you contributed to any failing sector be it education, health or road accidents, Jos? Get in touch with the detribalized young people making a change, the struggle for our generation is different and we must seek out ways to create change and it will come albeit slowly. But it will come.

you need more than that to solve nigeria sorry

Egypt has a better infrastructure than Nigeria, 24-7 electricity and the people are still rioting. That speaks volume of the Nigerian people.

asha 80:


you need more than that to solve nigeria sorry

Dude, it is a start. I would rather start small, than wait for big things to fall from heaven. We all can agree, there is a problem, some young folks are doing stuff in that direction deviating from the past. I am all about solutions sorry.

kcjazz:

Dude, it is a start. I would rather start small, than wait for big things to fall from heaven. We all can agree, there is a problem, some young folks are doing stuff in that direction deviating from the past. I am all about solutions sorry.

goodluck.

No one is looking the way of Jordan which is the third Arab country now in this protest fever, there has been protest thee for the past three days and the are specifically asking the prime minister to leave.

Are u saying that Egypt is not better than Nigeria? Did you how see clean and cool their streets look like?

maybe a clean street isn't everything? Maybe having the right to be free from having another man be the master of you affairs is important to?


If nigerians 'riot' our streets will only get messier LOL. We have a horrible maintenance culture as a people. This is my point, our problems are cultural not systematic. Our system is honestly one of the best in the world, it's just the mentality of the people left to run and live under it is very counter productive.

Egypt has a better infrastructure than Nigeria, 24-7 electricity and the people are still rioting. That speaks volume of the Nigerian people.

VOTE. that's all you have to do in Nigeria, register, and vote.

Egyptians are fighting for the chance to do what many nigerians forget they have the right to.

VOTE.

maybe a clean street isn't everything? Maybe having the right to be free from having another man be the master of you affairs is important to?


If nigerians 'riot' our streets will only get messier LOL. We have a horrible maintenance culture as a people. This is my point, our problems are cultural not systematic. Our system is honestly one of the best in the world, it's just the mentality of the people left to run and live under it is very counter productive.

A clean street is indicative of a semblance of an orderly and organized society. I don’t know how our "system" is the best in the world, Egyptians have had it better than Nigerians with one dictator; while in Nigeria, another oppressor goes and another is ushered in to continue the oppression. Nigerians are too complacent to demonstrate, we would rather go to church and pray than to roll up our sleeves and march against bad governance.

I was at one of the local the airports to drop off my friend to take a flight to Abuja, it was a 9.30 am flight- Air Nigeria- it was delayed by 60 minutes which stretched from 1hr to 6hrs. At about 3hrs into the situation, I had started demanding to know from the manager why 60mins turned into 3hrs, but some passengers started calling me a troublemaker; meaning that I should be begging the manager to see if he ''could help us". Finally the flight got cancelled  at about 3pm, everybody  was mad, but some still saw me as an agitator, without considering the fact that had we stayed the course on demanding some answers from the managers they would have told us on time that the flight would be cancelled in order to  make up for a plan B. So this irresponsible action resulted that my friend missed his flight to Abuja and also his international flight since there no time to make arrangement for a road trip to Abuja. A lot of other passengers missed their international flights as well. Some people still believed that I acted in bad faith after this saga. Three things are possible in this whole scenario. 1- They believe that airline delays are the norms in air travel. 2- They have been used to getting same type of treatment from airlines. 3- They have accepted that they are powerless as against airline. These are complacency cultures that have permeated Nigeria's way of dealing with social, economic and political issues.

Why the hell are people screaming "register and vote" as if those votes will count?

Nigerians are just too spineless, docile, and downright cowardly to even contemplate a replication of the kind of mass uprisings witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt. This is not a matter of one self-serving 'activist' orchestrating a demonstration. Rather, it involves spontaneous class-action; revolts that are essentially un-led, but whose power and effectiveness stems from the sheer number of dissatisfied ordinary citizens who rise in unison - in a largely unscripted, unchoreographed manner - to demonstrate what is meant by 'power belongs to the people.

The key elements that are necessary for this kind of class-action by the masses are: (1) A high level of political participation and enlightenment among ordinary citizens (not the mere spectatorial  'participation' of the Nigerian masses), and (2) A fear-less resolve to achieve their objective(s) at any cost - underpinned by a readiness to sacrifice one's own life for the cause.

Clearly, these two elements are lacking among the Nigerian masses. The scandalous level of apathy, illiteracy and ignorance of majority of Nigerians, coupled with their legendary cowardice and docility (always servile to those in power at all levels) makes it impossible for the Tunisian/Egyptian paradigm to be replicated here.

I'm with Abagworo 100% on this one. Revolution huh? And may i ask what exactly our demands would be at this point?

Nigeria should break up.

The south south should go with their oil. So that there will be no money at the center (abuja) and all other lazy minded leaders of other regions will go home and make use of their land and human resources.

What vote will bring for us? Except somebody like Obasanjo, Yar'adua or Jonathan.  The opposition is really weak now and may be weak like this in next 20-30 years.

The Great Fela Summed it all - Our fix on Materialism is the hinderance.

In a country where people see GEJ as the Messiah - Options are very limited.


Everybody run run run
Everybody scatter scatter
Some people lost some bread
Someone nearly die
Someone just die
Police dey come, army dey come
Confusion everywhere
Hey yeah!

Seven minutes later
All don cool down, brother
Police don go away
Army don disappear
Them leave Sorrow, Tears, and Blood

[Chorus]
Them regular trademark!

Them leave Sorrow, Tears, and Blood
Them regular trademark
That is why

[Chorus]
Hey yeah!

Everybody run run run,

La la la la
My people self dey fear too much
We fear for the thing we no see
We fear for the air around us
We fear to fight for freedom
We fear to fight for liberty
We fear to fight for justice
We fear to fight for happiness
We always get reason to fear

We no want die
We no want wound
We no want quench
We no want go
I get one child
Mama dey for house
Papa dey for house
I want build house
I don build house
I no want quench
I want enjoy
I no want go
Ah!

So policeman go slap your face
You no go talk
Army man go whip your yansh
You go dey look like donkey
Rhodesia dey do them own
Our leaders dey yab for nothing
South Africa dey do them own

The simple reason why Nigerians will not react like the North Africans is because Nigerians survive inspite of the Government (Our government doesn't do anything for the people).

Egypt provides over $1 billion dollars in food subsidies and $12 billion in fuel subsidies per year to insulate its citizens from real costs. They are angry at corruption but even angrier that Mubarak is grooming his son to succeed him.

An interesting point is the Egyptian army commanders will not turn their guns on their own people - the people know this. If nah Nigerian commanders dead bodi go full ground remain.

Any attack on the masses by the army will surely bring in Al-Qaida into Egypt.

Without unity of purpose,such thing will never happen in the first instance and most especially in a polarized country like Nigeria.

Some ethnic like ibo do not believe in Nigeria,so i don't see them joining in such campaign.the northern would not agree with the south especially the christains.Unlike,tunisia and egypt that looked above ethnicity and religion,i don't see how such thing will happen in nigeria.

~Bluetooth:

Without unity of purpose,such thing will never happen in the first instance and most especially in a polarized country like Nigeria.

Some ethnic like ibo do not believe in Nigeria,so i don't see them joining in such campaign.the northern would not agree with the south especially the christains.Unlike,tunisia and egypt that looked above ethnicity and religion,i don't see how such thing will happen in nigeria.

You are absolutely right. Nigeria is a dictator's dream country, very easy to divide and rule. 
If Mubarak were a Nigerian, people from his ethnic group will not only support him, but also threaten everything from secession to making the country "ungovernable".

I have seen some pictures of the Egyptian military joining the protesters. Old women kissing these young troops. And protesters hugging the troops, because they haven't turn their weapons on them.

We all know in Nigeria, our soldiers would have no problem killing innocent civilians.

Now the Egyptian police have no qualms fighting the Egyptian civilians, just like our Nigerian police.

The way some people on here just compare things without real fact and physical proof is really lamentable, I sometime wonders what they are trying to prove, I go to Egypte, Tunisia, Turkey and the carribean on holiday on a regular basis, and I have toured a great part of the country sides and remote villages, honestly speaking, majority of the populace still lived in shacked houses like we have in Nigeria, rampant power failure, runs transportation with riketty danfo and coaster buses, bad roads etc.

Places like Turkey that attract 30 million tourist per year are not better than the Nigeria we talked so bad about, Comparing the city center of Istanbul, Tunis and Cairo with the who of Nigeria is actually not fair, If u go to the holiday hot spot in Turkey like Antalya, Side, Alanya, Mamaris, Bodrum, Kusadasi etc, they still experience rampant power failure and most of the hotels and companie still have a standby generators,  they uses mostly Domus ( turkish danfo) like u find all over Nigeria. They still farm and harvest with hard labour in those countries like we do in Nigeria. Even with their longer existence Nigeria have come to catched up with them in terms of development.

Just looking at pictures taken from a beautiful part of a country is not enough reasons to draw your line of judgement. I will scramble thru my photo's to show some of u how those places we are comparing Nigeri with actually looks like.

~Bluetooth:

Without unity of purpose,such thing will never happen in the first instance and most especially in a polarized country like Nigeria.

Some ethnic like ibo do not believe in Nigeria,so i don't see them joining in such campaign.the northern would not agree with the south especially the christains.Unlike,tunisia and egypt that looked above ethnicity and religion,i don't see how such thing will happen in nigeria.

You simply can not eat your cake and have it. The slam dunk betrayal of 1967 is the cardinal reason for your alleged disbelief of Nigeria by Ndigbo. By the way, you wrote “some ethnic like Ibo”; I shall appreciate if you can expatiate since Ndigbo are part of the “some ethnic”.

Our main problem is complacency. . .we are not satisfied but are prepared to "manage" with an empty stomach, dry taps, dark rooms, bad roads, high cost of fuel, poor or no shelter. . .believing God; hoping for the best while expecting the worst.

We are also too class-conscious for my liking. . .not bothered when we speed past able bodied ,en and women living other bridges, along the roads or in front of our gates. . .we only thank God "we" are not like "them".

As long Nigeria's capital remain in Abuja, there will never be any popular uprising. Abuja is a dictator's haven.

[b]The way some people on here just compare things without real fact and physical proof is really lamentable, I sometime wonders what they are trying to prove, I go to Egypte, Tunisia, Turkey and the carribean on holiday on a regular basis, and I have toured a great part of the country sides and remote villages, honestly speaking, majority of the populace still lived in shacked houses like we have in Nigeria, rampant power failure, runs transportation with riketty danfo and coaster buses, bad roads etc.

Places like Turkey that attract 30 million tourist per year are not better than the Nigeria we talked so bad about, Comparing the city center of Istanbul, Tunis and Cairo with the who of Nigeria is actually not fair, If u go to the holiday hot spot in Turkey like Antalya, Side, Alanya, Mamaris, Bodrum, Kusadasi etc, they still experience rampant power failure and most of the hotels and companie still have a standby generators,  they uses mostly Domus ( turkish danfo) like u find all over Nigeria. They still farm and harvest with hard labour in those countries like we do in Nigeria. Even with their longer existence Nigeria have come to catched up with them in terms of development.

Just looking at pictures taken from a beautiful part of a country is not enough reasons to draw your line of judgement. I will scramble thru my photo's to show some of u how those places we are comparing Nigeri with actually looks like.
[/b]

You dont have a fair sense of comparison. Nigeria with over 150 million people generates 3800MGW of electricity while Egypt with 82 million people generates 22,600MGW. So who do you think is going to have more power outages? Egypt's GDP per capita is $6400 while in Nigeria it's $2400. Egypt has its own problems of poverty, but Nigeria is far worse. About 20% of their population lives below poverty line, while it's about 70% in Nigeria,





Egyptian electrification rates in 2008 were approximately 99.4 percent according to the International Energy Agency (IEA); this rate is among the highest of the continent with a 100 percent urban access to electricity and 99.1 in rural areas. Nonetheless, approximately 500,000 people still lack access to electricity.

According to EIA data, Egypt had an installed generating capacity of 22.6 Gigawatts (GW) in 2007, 19.4 GW of which was conventional thermal generation capacity, 2.8 hydroelectric and 0.3 GW of wind generation capacity.

Sector Organization

Egypt’s power sector is currently comprised of sixteen affiliated companies (six production, nine distribution and the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company) all of which are under the Egyptian Electric Holding Company. Growing electricity demand in the late 1990s spurred industry restructuring and plans for limited privatization of the electric power sector. The country now has several privately-owned power plants which are financed under Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) schemes. BOOT projects allow for the financing and development of the large scale energy projects without impacting the country’s debt profile.

Conventional Thermal

In 2007, conventional thermal energy sources accounted for 102 Billion kilowatt hours (Bkwh) of electricity generation, about 86 percent of the total. Almost all of this was met by domestically produced natural gas. Existing natural gas subsidies combined with plans to expand generation capacity indicate that the fuel will continue to play an important role in Egypt’s electricity mix.

Hydroelectricity

Egypt has a well developed hydroelectricity sector and, according to the energy minister, has utilized most of the Nile River’s hydroelectric potential. In 2007, Egypt generated 17 Bkwh from hydroelectric resources, almost all of which came from the Aswan High Dam and the Aswan Reservoir Dams.

Other Renewables

With the Nile River hydroelectric resources utilized, plans are underway to further develop the renewable energy sector. The most recent EIA data indicate that in 2007, wind farms accounted for only 0.8 Bkwh of electricity generation, with no other renewable sources being used. Government plans to free up natural gas resources for export combined with vast solar and wind resources will lead to further growth in the sector. To date, the government is planning to further develop the Red Sea wind resources through the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund.

According to the Egyptian Electric Holding Company, other projects such as the solar-thermal Kuraymat development, should see start-up in 2010. This project is part of a larger future plan to export North African generated electricity to Europe through the Desertec project. Both of these projects will utilize concentrated solar power (CSP) with back up natural gas fired generators.

Nuclear

Egypt is also working on developing nuclear power as an energy source. It has a 22-MW nuclear research reactor at Inshas in the Nile Delta which began operation in 1997. The country has also approved a 1,000 MW power station at al-Dab’a which is open to international participation and is expected online by 2015.

International Connections

Work has been completed on the interconnection of Egypt's electric transmission grid with other countries in the region. The Five-Country interconnection of Egypt's system with those of Jordan, Syria, and Turkey was completed by 2002. Egypt also activated a link to Libya's electric grid in December 1999

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cabs/Egypt/Electricity.html