This other Nigeria is a cesspool of violence and degradation, a hell-on-earth where the only forms of recreation are sex, alcohol and drugs

It is inhabited, this Nigeria, by – among others – the givers and owners of oil blocks, by present and past presidents and their coterie, by bank owners who double as bank robbers, by legislators who moonlight as pugilists, by political godfathers, by governors and their commissioners, by contractors who transmute into money laundering fronts, by Christian and Islamic prelates fast to lie in God’s name, and by top civil servants who disdain both civility and service but worship greed and red tape. Inhabitants of this sector of Nigeria are hardly ever prosecuted for crimes committed, for they own the judges and the courts. Theirs is a Nigeria of little or no work but spectacular harvests.

Then there’s a larger, vaster Nigeria of deprivation, wretchedness and misery. This is a Nigeria of meager salaries, unpaid pensions, and petty allowances. It is a waterless, permanently powerless Nigeria. This Nigeria is a ghetto whose hordes are bereft of hope. It’s a Nigeria of overcrowded slums, of famished children wandering the streets, of open stagnant gutters that reek terribly. This other Nigeria is a cesspool of violence and degradation, a hell-on-earth where the only forms of recreation are sex, alcohol and drugs. It is inhabited, this Nigeria, by hoi polloi who must commute in danfo and molue buses. And their buses must clear out of the path the moment some privileged Nigerian shows up with a siren-blaring, whip-wielding convoy. These Nigerians are bashed and battered at will by the police, soldiers and any man in uniform. They are often treated as guilty even after their innocence is proven

. This Nigeria is a ghetto whose hordes are bereft of hope.

muyoto:

Are you sure we are talking of the same Nigeria? Poor? OK, desolate? maybe--and all the other the big big grammer whey you blow--but [i]definitely [/i]not bereft of hope. Ever wondered why in spite of how gloomy the picture seems, the suicide rate remains one of the lowest?

Kobojunkie:

Where is your proof of this? Let me guess, because your police never reports any of the many deaths as suicides, means there are no suicides?

Jakumo:

Some deep thought went into this insightful write up, Kobojunkie, and it rings true on several levels.

If I may play Nostradamus for a moment, I predict a class war in Nigeria, in which the deprived majority express their loathing of the idle rich minority by killing them with extreme prejudice at every opportunity, in a generalized extrapolation of the treatment already meted out to the owners of flashy cars by the car-jacking gangs who kidnap them, and stuff them into the trunks of their own cars to suffocate slowly in the stifling heat.

Jakumo:

Some deep thought went into this insightful write up, Kobojunkie, and it rings true on several levels.

If I may play Nostradamus for a moment, I predict a class war in Nigeria, in which the deprived majority express their loathing of the idle rich minority by killing them with extreme prejudice at every opportunity, in a generalized extrapolation of the treatment already meted out to the owners of flashy cars by the car-jacking gangs who kidnap them, and stuff them into the trunks of their own cars to suffocate slowly in the stifling heat.

Kobojunkie:


There are, it appears, two separate, dramatically different Nigerias existing side by side. Even though both Nigerias exist within the same space, they rarely interact. In fact, going by the sharp differences between them, these two Nigerias might as well occupy different universes.

One is a Nigeria of legendary affluence and opulent excess. It’s a Nigeria where there’s a slush of cash and the only trouble is that the manufacturers of luxury goods – in Europe, North America and Asia – are often too slow to produce the next amazing toy or high-priced idea that the wealthy, and only the wealthy, should buy. This splurgy Nigeria is filled with private jets, swanky mansions, bulletproof Mercedes Benzes, swimming pools, and round-the-clock power generators. It is a Nigeria where homes are guarded by mobile policemen, or even soldiers.

It is inhabited, this Nigeria, by – among others – the givers and owners of oil blocks, by present and past presidents and their coterie, by bank owners who double as bank robbers, by legislators who moonlight as pugilists, by political godfathers, by governors and their commissioners, by contractors who transmute into money laundering fronts, by Christian and Islamic prelates fast to lie in God’s name, and by top civil servants who disdain both civility and service but worship greed and red tape. Inhabitants of this sector of Nigeria are hardly ever prosecuted for crimes committed, for they own the judges and the courts. Theirs is a Nigeria of little or no work but spectacular harvests.

Then there’s a larger, vaster Nigeria of deprivation, wretchedness and misery. This is a Nigeria of meager salaries, unpaid pensions, and petty allowances. It is a waterless, permanently powerless Nigeria. This Nigeria is a ghetto whose hordes are bereft of hope. It’s a Nigeria of overcrowded slums, of famished children wandering the streets, of open stagnant gutters that reek terribly. This other Nigeria is a cesspool of violence and degradation, a hell-on-earth where the only forms of recreation are sex, alcohol and drugs. It is inhabited, this Nigeria, by hoi polloi who must commute in danfo and molue buses. And their buses must clear out of the path the moment some privileged Nigerian shows up with a siren-blaring, whip-wielding convoy. These Nigerians are bashed and battered at will by the police, soldiers and any man in uniform. They are often treated as guilty even after their innocence is proven.

Nothing illustrates the separateness of these two Nigerians as dramatically as two recent scandals.

The first scandal is the decision by the Goodluck Jonathan administration to squander N10 billion in a party to trumpet Nigeria’s fifty years of failure. A friend called me a few days ago and asked a rhetorical question that captured the sheer farce of it all. “Does somebody who failed an examination throw a party to celebrate his abysmal performance?” he asked.

Apparently yes, if Mr. Jonathan and his team have anything to say about it.

Nigeria’s fiftieth anniversary is a study in – to paraphrase Chinua Achebe – snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. At independence in 1960, many (Nigerians as well as foreign observers) projected that Nigeria was on pace to emerge as an important medium-range power. That projection has been mocked by Nigeria’s record of missed opportunities, of promising roads not taken, of sound initiatives abandoned.

Continued  . . . .

Students, labor unions, and a coalition of civic groups should insist that Jonathan call off this ill-advised, unjustified revelry. In a country where more than seventy percent of the populace lives on a pittance, why are we throwing a N10 billion jamboree? Is it to beat our chests and proclaim that we’ve invented a system for making large numbers of people suffer needlessly?

Which brings us to the other scandal playing out in Abuja. Members of the National Assembly have been making a very public demand for more pay. Indeed, these “honorable” men and women want a lot more pay for the NOTHING they do for the country.

Let me concede: to accuse these men and women of doing nothing is a tad too harsh and untrue. They do a lot of things, as a matter of fact. Last week, some of them in the House of Representatives, including a woman, tried out for Nigeria’s boxing contingent to the next Olympic Games. A few of them showcased an arsenal of feints, bobs, hook punches and upper cuts that should make Muhammed Ali (in his prime) jealous. Whenever TV cameras are fixed on them, some of these lawmakers speak in a manner that provides comic relief to a nation that sorely needs laughter. The senatorial arm of the legislature even gave the world a new mode of screening called “bow and go”. Which other legislature in the world can top that?

In 2008, all of Nigeria’s schools were shut down for several weeks because teachers went on strike to press a demand for a minimum wage of N20,000. The National Assembly stood by, nonchalant, as the then Minister of Education pilloried the teachers.

By contrast, each of the 109 members of Nigeria’s Senate got paid a salary in excess of N2 million naira and allowances totaling N180 million last year. Each of the 360 members of the House took home a salary of N1.98 million and a grand N110 million in allowances over the same period.

For that compensation, the senators passed 13 bills. The members of the House rang in 16 bills to better the senators’ output.