As usual for many of us who are nothing but foreign Nigerian armchair journalists, we are quick to blame the dead and accuse them of greed. The federal government has done the same, quickly absolving itself of any blame while the traditional "it is your fault", "no you are the one that caused it" continues between the state and FG while everything remains undone until the next fire disaster.

Not that government officials are not doing anything anyway, the state government is busy with mass burials, many federal government officials are busy feeling "sadened" while the rest are "mourning". This indeed is a busy time for the rogues in power. For officials saddled with the responsibility of apportioning blames (federal ministry of blame distribution), they have been working overtime to ensure Aso Rock comes away from yet another mass suicide with clean hands.

The last time i checked, Nigeria is not the only country with pipelines. But it is the only country where citizens are forced to scoop fuel from sabotaged pipelines because:
- the people are hungry
- fuel pumps in the world's sixth largest oil producing nation are dry
- more than 70% of the population live on less than $1 a day

Roads are death traps, hospitals are mere transit camps enroute the cemetery, education has collapsed, power generation is fast becoming a luxury, water water everywhere none to drink, employment is only for the rich, politics is not about the people but about the pocket, flying coffins parade the airspace as airlines, mobile telephony taken for granted in Togo is paraded as a dividend of democracy, abandoned projects dot the landscape and programs such as jiggi Bola is the governments best response to tackle the nation's most pressing problems.

. . . and they say the people are greedy. Greedy to earn a living? Greedy to feed their starving children? Greedy to get fuel to run their cars and personal power generating plants in the face of PHCN's policy of darkness to the people?

. . . they say they were desperate? Too desperate to die fighting poverty, unemployment and government inefficiency?

Where really are the greedy ones? Those scooping a few gallons of fuel to feed their families or those stuffing their pockets with tax dollars while pretending to be "saddened", covering their faces in sackloth and ashes in a mock pretense of "mourning"? Are the greedy ones being buried in unmarked graves or are they the ones "vowing" to investigate another round of government-iinflicted tragedy?

What of those who die in flying coffins, felled by robbers bullets, lives snuffed out travelling on unmotorable roads, unnecessary deaths due to lack of drugs and adequate healthcare? Where they being greedy or desperate?

Who are these greedy ones? Those scooping fuel or those who circumvent their ineptitude by purchasing aircraft and helicopters to avoid the very roads they criminally abandoned while pocketing millions allocated for them?

D blast occured in abule-egba where i live! in fact, i was home dat day, was home 4 xmas, we heard over d radio, raypower, c, i wudnt go c 4 myself, it started in d wee hours, wen vandals burst the line and used 2 or more tankers 2 pump away the oil, prob. diesel! so by morning, inhabitants of dat area woke 2 see free fuel wasting away, so they got out containers 2 keep 2 sell or wateva n kaboom![color=#990000][/color]

Most of those people scooping fuel are not necessarily the poor folks - poverty is not foolishness, this is the point I am making - the same way, bad governance is not the same as foolishness, a few people who died were passer byes, killed by the greed of a few who wants short cut to a few Naira -

Nigeria is not the only country with pipelines, with poverty and with bad governance, but Nigeria is the only country whose citizenry tend to add foolishness in the name of sharpness to their way of living.

I guess the 419ers, the scammers, the armed robbers, the dubious are also right to do what they do because Nigeria is poor and they must eat? Abi?

D blast occured in abule-egba where i live! in fact, i was home dat day, was home 4 xmas, we heard over d radio, raypower, c, i wudnt go c 4 myself, it started in d wee hours, wen vandals burst the line and used 2 or more tankers 2 pump away the oil, prob. diesel! so by morning, inhabitants of dat area woke 2 see free fuel wasting away, so they got out containers 2 keep 2 sell or wateva n kaboom![color=#990000][/color]

So sad--I hrd on Radio 2,Even the bodies were shown on T.V.It's a Shame.
Even heard that they are scooping another 1--in LAG 2

so sorry, 4 the TRAGEDY,
SO SOBER, 4 THE SITUATION
SO SAD,THAT THIS PEOPLES STARTED THIS YEAR WIT US BUT, UNFORTURNATELY, THEM DIDN'T LIVE TO SEE THE END,
NOT TO TALK OF NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!! SO SO SOOOOOOOOORY
MAY THEIR SOUL REST IN PEACE, AMEN.

The last time i checked, Nigeria is not the only country with pipelines. But it is the only country where citizens are forced to scoop fuel from sabotaged pipelines because:
- the people are hungry
- fuel pumps in the world's sixth largest oil producing nation are dry
- more than 70% of the population live on less than $1 a day

are people really forced to scoop fuel?

Up until december they were no reports of fuel shortages

. . . and they say the people are greedy. Greedy to earn a living? Greedy to feed their starving children? Greedy to get fuel to run their cars and personal power generating plants in the face of PHCN's policy of darkness to the people?

If you watched the clips on AIT showing the people scooping the fuel, you will realise 99% of them are thugs! what happened to the people that stayed home and endured the heat and accept the fact they cant go anywhere?

cant be bothered really

LoverBwoy:

If you watched the clips on AIT showing the people scooping the fuel, you will realise 99% of them are thugs! what happened to the people that stayed home and endured the heat and accept the fact they can't go anywhere

Abeg tell them, those thugs are lazy, greedy bums

Thank you. For every "poor" thief, there are ten poor people who are not thieves. It's not poverty, it's mentality.

If you watched the clips on AIT showing the people scooping the fuel, you will realise 99% of them are thugs! what happened to the people that stayed home and endured the heat and accept the fact they can't go anywhere?

can't be bothered really

@loverbowy
you right. So right. people can ust talk for the sake of it sometimes.

And you right about the pipelines, Not just nigeria have it above ground, infact its not unusual practice i have been told. PPl who steal will do so regardless so ppl should stop making excuses and blaming everything on the govt especially on things they havent the foggiest clue about

walelead

Abeg tell them, those thugs are lazy, greedy bums

How come Nigeria has so many of these thugs?

are there no thugs in UK, Germany, USA, Libya etc? why are they not scooping fuel?

It is not about thugs. It is about a failed Nation.

The shame, disgust rub on Nigerians!!

@Babasin

Who failed the nation? the thugs of course, it is not the other way round - it is not the nation that failed the thugs - the thugs failed the nation.

babasin:

walelead
How come Nigeria has so many of these thugs?

are there no thugs in UK, Germany, USA, Libya etc? why are they not scooping fuel?

It is not about thugs. It is about a failed Nation.

The shame, disgust rub on Nigerians!!

@babasin, there are thugs all over the world but in developed countries, they have economic advantages.

For example, Economic advantges of thugs in the UK- :

They work as baillifs for the government
They work as club bouncers
They work as bodyguards for celebrities,
They terrorise rival football teams

I can go on and on. These thugs earn a living and support the economy with thier physique and mental orientation.

Tell me the economic advantage of an agbero in Abule-egba, Lagos

the system failed the people and the fortunates are calling them thugs,thieves, greeds,vandals,stupid and so on.( yes we are all saints).this people are creations of the system,if the system doesnt change we will still be receiving sad news like this.life and properties are not safe in nigeria.while petro is the cheapest thing you can buy in a country like venezuela,infact it costs u almost nothing to fill your tank,in nigeria even the middle class ready to pay any amount has to wait for days to fill thier tanks.i live abroad and i thank my god for that,but will never forget how brothers are suffering to make ends meets at home.nigerians are really very hard working people,always trying to survive in any giving situation.its a pity this people has to lose their lives like this,as a nigerian my hearth goes out to them and their families.the govt.has to do more to protect its citizens.

@ HBREDNIC

The system failed the people hence they became thugs and vandals? So why has others like me and you not become thugs and vandals and theives just because the system failed us also? or are we not part of the same system?

PRECISELY Yemmy precisely

@hbrendic,
i would not want to go into the topic of "system failure" because thats a very wide and technical topic. But i can tell you that system failure or not, some people will still turn out scoundrels. Just as @alabiyemmy said, weren't we all born into this system and made it out. There are druggies on the streets of london, mafias on the street of california, Did the system fail them as well? My heart goes out to the people that died in the blast but we need to call a spade a spade.

Whether the system has failed o!

or the people has failed o!!

or the thugs have failed o!!!

one thing remains the same;
if you expect a change or are waiting for a better day, you need to be alive and not dead, to achieve or experience it.
"No matter how hungry a hunter will be or his family is, even though he has not found a bush meat to kill in weeks/months, he will not be so desperate to hunt for lions in the forest. he will still look for bush meat, otherwise the lions might be more hungry than he is.

If this people died because they where fighting corruption in Government houses, i will understand because they would have been called "Heroes"

CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT AFTER THE BLAST FUEL NOW SEIZED TO BE SCARCE. WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THIS COUNTRY?
DO WE NEED TO SACRIFICE HUMAN BEING BEFORE WE CAN GET THINGS GOING WELL IN THIS COUNTRY?.
WHAT WAS THE CAUSE OF THE FUEL SCARCITY? NOTHING. BUT AFTER THE BLAST IN LAGOS, FUEL CAME OUT THE NEXT DAY WITHOUT STRESS.
FELLOW NAIRALANDERS ABEG MAKE WE PRAY FOR THIS OUR OBODO NAIJA.


NGBOR
WE SHALL ALL OVERCOME.