ENVIRONMENT FOCUS: Don’t fall
for it

By Ako Amadi
March 9, 2011 03:20AM

Dazzled by the costumes and jewellery of
presidential candidates and their wives,
Nigerians seem to have forgotten how
things have steadily worsened since the
New Year. Fresh jobs have not been
created; doctors are on strike, and the
condition of the Benin-Ore road has
infuriated no less a citizen than the Oba of
Benin. Desert encroachment, deforestation
and coastal erosion are squeezing Nigerians
into the Middle Belt where internecine
conflict has erupted in the cold hills of Jos.
Food is insecure, sanitation nonexistent
and, of course, Shell and Chevron have not
switched off the gas flares in the Niger
Delta.

None of these issues is of any importance
in the campaigns to elect or select what
should be a democratic government in
Nigeria this year. Nothing, apart from
zoning, succession, future ministerial
appointments and contracts are vital in the
run-up to this election. This probably
explains why bombs are popping like
champagne corks to emphasise the
bitterness of a fight to the finish.

Innocent civilians, hypnotised by the
delusion of choreographed rallies, have
died in bomb blasts and stampedes. Over 75
million people are now registered to vote
for men and women of questionable
competence and integrity.

Speaking in the erosion-scarred south-east,
Goodluck Jonathan was all smiles, eulogising
and flattering the Igbo. He challenged their
prodigal sons in the United States of
America to “come home and assist in the
task of nation-building.” But Mr Jonathan
was not explicit on what opportunities the
economy would present to any returnee
professionals; nor did he give an insight
into how his government would address
those inequities at home that might have
contributed to their migration.

Jonathan’s beloved Igbo are not only in the
US and the UK. Some are adamantly making
their way across the hot Sahara, searching
for a better life in North Africa, ultimately
hoping to cross the Mediterranean. Many
are largely unaware of the implosions that
await them in the Maghreb.


By contrast, the children of Nigerian leaders
sit comfortably in the expensive, air-
conditioned American School in Abuja.
Apparently, the kids are being prepared for
an adult life abroad. These are the reasons,
apart from facilitation of money laundering,
for the interest by wealthy Nigerians in dual
citizenship. Meanwhile, the majority of
registered voters have no passports, no ID
cards, and no birth certificates.

If Nigerian schools and hospitals are unfit
for our lawmakers and their families, it is
testimony to the institutional decay of a
nation they misrule. In which case, such
leaders have no moral right to request
Nigerians already in America or elsewhere
to return. Any lunatic can construct that
logic.

Whether Irish or Scotsmen, Dutch or
Huguenots, Jews or Igbo, people never
leave their place of birth, friends and family,
or cultural environment, just for the hell of
it. Social biology and social geography will
assist the more scholarly minded in
comprehending the nature of human or
even animal migration. Those much-
romanticised “explorers” in history,
including the heroes who “discovered” and
colonised Africa and America, were actually
responding to economic hardship,
xenophobia, political and religious
persecution To the Diaspora: don ’t come
home—especially if you’re not a man or
woman for the trenches, or not well-
connected. Nigeria is hard work! Let your
head guide your heart. In case you ignore
my advice and decide to make the great
leap across the Atlantic, remember to leave
an escape valve. If possible, complete a
postgraduate diploma in Coping with
Corrupt and Insensitive Leadership before
your adventurous voyage to the Gulf of
Guinea.