₦airaland Forum

@OP... Its not 40K, its 400k. Make amendment.

Posted: March 21, 2013 - 06:02

I used to think corruption was Nigeria’s biggest problem, but I’m starting to doubt that. Every time I probe into one of the many issues this country is encountering, at the core I find the same phenomenon: the widespread celebration of mediocrity. Unrebuked underachievement seems to be the rule in all facets of society. A governor building a single road during his entire tenure is revered like the next Messiah; an averagely talented author who writes a colourless book gets sponsored to represent Nigerian literature overseas; and a young woman with no secretarial skills to speak of gets promoted to the oga’s office faster than any of her properly trained colleagues.

Needless to say the politician is probably hailed by those awaiting part of the loot he is stealing; the writer might have got his sponsorship from buddies he has been sucking up to in hagiographies paid for by the subjects; and the young woman’s promotion is likely to be an exchange for sex or the expectancy of it. So some form of corruption plays a role in all of these examples.

But corruption per se does not necessarily stand in the way of development. Otherwise a country like Indonesia—number 118 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, not that far removed from Nigeria’s 139—would never have made it to the G-20 group of major economies. An even more serious obstacle to development is the lack of repercussions for underachievement. Who in Nigeria is ever held accountable for substandard performance?

Since I came here, I have been on a futile search for a stable internet connection that does what it promises. I started with an MTN FastLink modem (I consider the name a cruel joke), and then I moved on to an Etisalat MiFi connection (I regularly had to keep myself from throwing the bloody thing against the wall), and now I am trying out Cobranet’s U-Go. I shouldn’t have bothered: equally crap. And everyone knows this. They groan and mutter and tweet about it. But still, to my surprise, no one calls for a class-action suit against those deceitful providers.

A one-day conference I attended last year left me equally puzzled. Organisation, attendance and outcome left a lot to be desired, if you ask me. But over cocktails, after the closing ceremony, everyone congratulated each other over the wonderful conference—that started two hours late, of which the most animated part was undeniably lunch, and in which not a single tangible decision had been made. This left me wondering whether we had attended the same event.

I thought these issues to be unrelated at first, but gradually I came to see the connection. Nigeria is the opposite of a meritocracy: you do not earn by achieving. You get to be who and where you are by knowing the right people. Whether you work in an office, for an enterprise or an NGO, at a construction site or in government, your abilities hardly ever are the reason you got there. Performing well, let alone with excellence, is not a requirement, in fact, it is discouraged. It would be too threatening: showing you’re more intelligent, capable or competent than the ‘oga at the top’ (who, as a rule, is not an overachiever either) is career suicide.

It is an attitude that trickles down from the very top, its symptoms eventually showing up in all of society, from bad governance to bad service to bad craftsmanship.

Where excellence meets no gratification, what remains to be celebrated is underachievement. That is why it is not uncommon to find Nigerians congratulating each other with substandard results. It is safer to cuddle up comfortably in shared mediocrity than to question it, since the latter might also expose your own less than exceptional performance. Add to this the taboo of criticising anyone senior or higher up and it explains why so many join in the admiration of the emperor’s new clothes.

I have been writing this column for the last year, and after ten months I realised my angles were getting more predictable and my pieces less edgy. I figured newcomers do not remain newcomers forever and therefore decided to round up the ‘Femke Becomes Funke’ series this month, a year after it started. Ever since I announced the ending, tweeps have been asking me to change my mind and in comments on the columns and through my website I get songs of praise that make me feel my analyses of Nigerian society are indispensable. If I had no sense of self-criticism, I might be tempted to reconsider my decision to discontinue the series and start producing second-rate articles. Who would point this out to me if I did?

The hardest thing to do in Nigeria is to continue to realise there is honour in achievement and pride in perfection. I imagine the frustration of the many Nigerians who do care for their work, who take pride in their outcomes and who feel the award is in a job well done. When you know beforehand that excellence will not be rewarded, you are bound to do the economically sane thing and limit your investments to accomplishing the bare minimum. This makes Nigeria a pretty cumbersome place for anyone striving for perfection.


By Femke Van Zeijl

Source: http://saharareporters.com/article/femke-becomes-funke-celebrating-mediocrity-nigeria-femke-van-zeijl

pirate1: what are you talking about?


whose your daddy and what does he do?

Are you real at all? Looks like you are an auto-sys.

Pelummy: wat s nt good there?prison,deportation or drug trafficking?

None of it is good.

That's not good.

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), says its Vice Chairman (South-east), Dr. Chudi Nwike, was kidnapped in Anambra State yesterday, and the kidnappers want N30million in foreign currency for his release.

Raising the alarm in a statement in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party quoted Nwike's younger brother, who has been contacted by the victim,as saying the kidnappers have demanded the ransom.

''We appeal to the security agencies to do everything within their power to ensure the safe release of Dr. Nwike, while assuring his family of our prayers and support at this very difficult time,'' the statement said.

Source: http://saharareporters.com/news-page/hoodlums-snatch-acn-national-vice-chairman-south-east-demand-n30m-ransom-foreign-currency

You are one sick fellow. The black lady didnt create herself. Everyone in this world can not be the same. So stop this nonsense.

Nice one. Here is the picture.

Source: http://www.channelstv.com/home/2013/03/19/secondary-school-students-get-free-computer-tablets-in-osun/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

What is wrong with this dude?

Good.

Nigerians need to start asking their Government for accountability. They need to account for every single action or money spent while in Government. No one can help us, except ourselves. And stop calling God to help us, he will not come down to solve corruption or Boko Haram issue, only Nigerians can do it.

Start taking responsibilities, and stop demanding from God to solve the problems caused by the actions of our leaders.

What is wrong with this dude?

Goodluck man.

I hope they can contain this issue before the chemical gets into the hands of Al qaeda or Boko Haram.

What an i.diot!


Nigerians need to start asking their Government for accountability. They need to account for every single action or money spent while in Government. No one can help us, except ourselves. And stop calling God to help us, he will not come down to solve corruption or Boko Haram issue, only Nigerians can do it.

Start taking responsibilities, and stop demanding from God to solve the problems caused by the actions of our leaders.

Good. Nigerians need to start asking their Government for accountability. They need to account for every single action or money spent while in Government. No one can help us, except ourselves. And stop calling God to help us, he will not come down to solve corruption or Boko Haram issue, only Nigerians can do it.

Start taking responsibilities, and stop demanding from God to solve the problems caused by the actions of our leaders.

Good. Nigerians need to start asking their Government for accountability. They need to account for every single action or money spent while in Government. No one can help us, except ourselves. And stop calling God to help us, he will not come down to solve corruption or Boko Haram issue, only Nigerians can do it.

Start taking responsibilities, and stop demanding from God to solve the problems caused by the actions of our leaders.

Speechless...

I'm not a PDP supporter but this man spoke the truth. They are all rogues and bunch of criminals.

Nigerians need to start asking their Government for accountability. They need to account for every single action or money spent while in Government. No one can help us, except ourselves. And stop calling God to help us, he will not come down to solve corruption or Boko Haram issue, only Nigerians can do it.

Start taking responsibilities, and stop demanding from God to solve the problems caused by the actions of our leaders.

Nice one Mr Sanusi. You just stated the facts. It now boils down to what the African leaders will do regarding these issues.

[quote author=gmyguy][/quote]They are doing that in India.

gbogboti: The black man is cursed. The most disorganised race in the world.

You are very silly to utter such a statement. If you are an African, I repeat you are very silly. Your family may be cursed but definitely not my black/African race. How will the black race progress when we have people like you in our midst. You never wish the African race well.

I have an advise for you - change your color and adopt another race idi.ot. How can you say a black man is cursed? Once again, you are silly.

By Nuhu ribadu

It gives me immense pleasure to be part of this distinguished gathering. I am very honored to be asked to speak on an important topic that is at heart of the national discourse and therefore the key to any solution to our various challenges. Behind every problem confronting us, there is corruption. Corruption is a recurring decimal in every change of government in this country.

We have got a problem with our country and we all know it and therefore we do not need to be constantly reminded of it for it is an issue that we confront in our daily lives, in our schools, and our interaction with with the police, in the army or SSS, customs and immigration offices, prisons,the legislatures, the ministries, hospitals, in our courts and in the private sector as well like our banks, markets and not to mention, the media are daily awashed with mind boggling reports on corruption all over the country. Most of us here may be wondering how and when corruption took charge of our lives?

Since this event is taking place here in Kano and there will be no time to have an exhaustive coverage, let us just narrow the discussion to this part of the country, however, I will note that what happened here is similar reflection of other parts of Nigeria. for starters, I would like to take a walk with you down memory lane on our recent past as a region. Sir Ahmadu Bello the first and only Premier of Northern Nigeria and his lieutenants, most of blessed memories, led this vast region effectively for just about a decade. Keenly look at what they were able to achieve, largely with internally generated revenue because there was no oil then or it was insignificant in the revenue profile of the country. The last annual budget by the late Sardauna for the whole north was just 44 million pounds.

It is important to state that with this scanty resource, they were able to maintain law and order and ensure effective security of life and property for this vast region. They built Ahmadu Bello University, the largest in sub-Sahara Africa; they built Ahmadu Bello Stadium one of the largest and best in Africa at that time. They built NNDC, the largest black owned Conglomerate in black Africa; they built many textile factories, good roads, marketing boards, efficient water supply where it was available and good sanitation, well planned urban areas with trees and good hospitals with ambulances; good primary and secondary schools; Kaduna Polytechnic that is the largest in black Africa. Indeed everyone still recalls that golden era with justifiable pride. These were accomplished by men and women from here and not from the moon.

When Major Nzeogwu made his speech to justify the take over of power on January 15th, 1966, he mentioned that the military took over because the first republic politicians were collecting ten percent bribes.(though i am in disagreement with his assumption given the achievements recorded with the paltry sum) but nonetheless it’s presupposed that at least they were using 90 percent of the resources to do the work.
It would be great to pause the question ‘What is happening now’? It is either the other way around: public officials taking away 90 percent and using 10 percent to work or even outrightly looting of the treasury; infact from recent reports, a lot of money is stolen from the source, that it does not even make it’s way to the treasuries of the many governments in the country today .

To be fair, it is important to mention that there is corruption in every society including all the advanced countries. However the irony is it has not stopped development. There was corruption in the first republic too. But it was dealt with effectively and it was not allowed to be the cancer that it is now. It was not as widespread and as rampant in scale and magnitude as it is now. As I was writing this paper I stumbled on a tweet that got me thinking that read as follows, "The revenue Nigeria received for the whole of last year (2012) from the sale of crude oil is more than the yearly aid, the entire sub Saharan Africa received. Where is the money, where is the improvement?" This was a question posed to us by the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron at the World Economic Forum in Davos .

Corruption is a vicious cycle. Mismanagement of public funds has direct bearing on the country’s collapsing infrastructure, standard of education, health facilities,insecurity, injustice, unemployment, poverty and other challenges which are interconnected. The efficiency of public services and ability of the regulatory agencies to regulate the private sector are also affected resulting in collapsing infrastructure and poor services. Corruption dents the citizens’ confidence in the integrity of leaders and credibility of governments, it ends up with a total disrespect for authority.a sad situation we are in Nigeria now.

Northern Nigeria which Sir Ahmadu Bello led at independence is now 19 states, the federal capital territory Abuja and 414 local government areas. These 19 states and over four hundred local government areas got a total of N8.3 trillion from the federation account between 1999 and 2010. We know quite well that every one of these local government areas have budgets per annum that is more than the budget of the entire northern region of old. Can we please emulate the glowing examples of Sardauna?

My take is that they were not corrupt and that was the reason they achieved so much with so little. What is really happening now with all these huge sums have?

These local government areas do not even repair township drainages. They do not maintain existing markets and motor parks amongst many other things that would take a while to mention. Nobody knows what they generate as revenue internally because all the sums quoted in the reports and newspapers are just what they get from the federation account monthly. They hardly meet in council except when there are subventions to be shared. Local government is the nearest to the people and also has the easiest funds being stolen by corrupt officials and their collaborators.

The state governments are mostly not fairing any better. Some of the states have governors that are doing some commendable developmental initiatives but many of them just need our prayers. Governance has been reduced to periodic elections. Once a governor gets elected, he or she will start planning for a second term; and as soon he or she gets a second term, the scheme to be president or vice president will start being initiated. For those who are not going to be either president or vice president, the retirement house for many governors is now the Senate on top of installing his preferred successor .

The constitution enshrines a three tier government of local, state and federal levels. At each level there are supposed to be three arms of government – executive, legislature and judiciary. From all indications the legislators have become, in most cases, rubber stamps. They are supposed to appropriate money for the executives. They are supposed to do oversight functions. In short, they are supposed to check the excesses of the other arms of government.

Today, if the legislators are doing their work effectively, many who are appointed ministers or commissioners wouldn’t have been there. Their oversight functions are now reduced to visit to ministries and agencies to get packages. Even monies that are appropriated as budgets, the committees of the legislature are part of those being awarded contracts by these departments in addition to their very generous constituency allowance that is not subject to any check and balances. To make matters worse, many legislators, especially from the northern states, hardly attend sittings to defend the interests of their constituents. They are mostly busy traveling to various parts of the world with their new found wealth. There are a few of them who are very good but I do not know when most of these distinguished and honorables will sit down to really distinguish themselves in their primary duties of making laws for the good governance of the society.

The judiciary is supposed to be the last hope of the common man. Justice is an attribute of God and is the real foundation of any egalitarian society. It is sad to say that the judiciary in Nigeria has of recent times become the main legitimizing institution for any corrupt practice. When you rig an election it is the judiciary that gives validity to that election,when the politicians are not in agreement, a judge will give a helping hand to the one with more power and money. When you steal public money and the anti corruption agencies charge you to court it is the judiciary that cleanse that illegally acquired wealth and makes what is unlawful, Haram, to be lawful, Halal, it may be made Halal by the judges but the society knows it is not and God knows one day we will account for all these deeds, if not now then certainly later; and if not here then definitely in the hereafter.

There are two institutions that throughout our history are very critical to any reform of the society – religious leaders and traditional rulers. In this part of the world, we have a model for reforming society as espoused by Shehu Usman Bi Fodio and his disciples. They did the 19th century revolution to establish justice, ensure equity and entrench intellectual pursuit for public good. Resisting evil and enjoining good was the foundation of that order.

Today, most of the custodians of our cherished cultural values are those who help the oppressive status quo to get entrenched. Except for a few, most of our traditional rulers are part and parcel of the on going corruption. They did not inherit this system from our revered grand parents and parents. The subordination of these institutions to the whims and caprices of state governments have made many of them subservient to the corrupt system.

Similarly,a lot of the religious leaders we have today stopped talking the truth to power. The Ulama and clergies are supposed to be the successors of the divine prophetic messages. They are often reduced to various pathetically sycophantic prayers for the success of oppressors and corrupt people in power,or if they are not duping their congregations, then they are busy attending to weekly ceremonies for marriages, turbanning ceremonies or burials across the land. They do not pray for the poor or for a genuine peace and progress of the people and society. So what do we do or what is the way forward?

Many people hold the view that the solutions to our problems lies with leadership , yes they are right,and they also believe that the leadership is at the Highest level, anything short of a honest, fair, just,modern and courageous leadership at that level in Nigeria today will not bring us back to the glorious days of the past. the general blame is to the governors for the sorry state of affairs, but governors are not in charge of enforcement in Nigeria . Any society that does not enforce its laws properly will end up in chaos,lawlessness ,indiscipline ,insecurity,dishonesty and corruption,and this is the situation of Nigeria ,period. That leadership in Nigeria must lead in the fight against corruption, it will take a fearless and upright president to stop corrupt governors doing what they like with their state's money. The fight against corruption has to begin from there for it to be meaningful.

All of us must be involved in every way to raise the educational standard of our people at all levels in both western and eastern senses. It is not easy to mobilize an illiterate citizenry. We must enlighten and mobilize our people to be conscious of national and global trends and events,to fight election rigging and all forms of extremism in our communities. We must help in every way, individually and collectively, to get the right people to do the right things in the right ways. We must start naming and shaming corrupt people in our communities. In short, there is need for structural, institutional and attitudinal changes that should be deepened and widened all over our communities.

Today, whoever wants to get elected in Kano and many other parts of especially the north one has to evoke the name of late Mallam Aminu Kano of blessed memory. How much did he leave or what did he leave behind? Only his good name and good deeds! When President Shagari was overthrown by the military he had only N64,000 in his account. This is what the driver of a commissioner gives out daily, and yet he was president for more than four years in Nigeria. Many other examples abound in many parts of our beloved country, before and even now: it was done before and it can be done again,

The irony of fight against corruption in Nigeria today is that even the corrupt ones are pretending to be fighting corruption.A corrupt person cannot be in the lead in the war against corruption. We are deceived constantly by people in government and those outside government but are desperate for power or attention.These are the conmen under the guises as politicians and there are also a few conmen in the name of religious leaders. I appeal to these characters to please repackage. Kindly engage in other things that can bring you attention, drop this issue about “corruption that has now turned into a “cliche” that you are using to bring confusion to Nigerians.

There are sufficient laws and institutions to fight corruption in Nigeria today , what is needed more is the honesty,determination and competence to carry out the fight effectively at both the executive and judiciary level.

For now let us not be just spectators in the affairs of our country, Corruption is denying us national development. Let the good ones amongst us get involved in politics and activism. Let us keep putting pressure on our corrupt leaders. My good friend, Rotimi Fashakin of the CPC, says “the corruption in the past is mere bazooka and that the corruption of the present has gone nuclear”. We need to work hard to deactivate this nuclear weapon as soon as we can otherwise it will explode on us all.

I thank you all for listening.

God bless us all. Paper presented by former EFCC chairman Nuhu Ribadu at the two-day summit for Northern Development Focus Initiative (NDFI).

Source: http://saharareporters.com/article/corruption-and-national-development-nuhu-ribadu

Thank you amosy007, its the spambot.

Thank you coogar, its the spambot.

I don't really do alot of gaming but I know ALIENWARE is a good machine for gaming. You can as well look into the new Apple Retina Display, I think its nice because I just got one of the new 15-inch: 2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz. The memory is 16GB and the hard drive has 256GB Flash Storage. I saw alot of comments on the Mac retina performance on Youtube and the rating is high.

If you plan using this mac for gaming, I will suggest you max the hard drive to 768GB Flash Storage. I hope this helps?

My name is Nigeria, I need Re-Building and not Re-Branding!! (A MUST READ)



Few days ago, I spent 10 billion Naira to celebrate my 52nd birthday! I am Nigeria!!!.
I am divided into 36 unequal states, plus my capital territory, christened ABUJA . I have millions of acres of arable land and billions of cubic litres of water, but I cannot feed myself. So I spend $1 billion to import rice and another $2 billion to import milk. I produce rice, but don’t eat it. I have 60 million cattle but no milk. I have the capacity to feed the whole of Africa but I import most food instead.

I am hungry, please help and re-build me.

I drive the latest cars in the world but have no roads, neither can I boast of manufacturing a bicycle’s tyre. I lose family and friends everyday on my roads for which funds have been allocated to build and rehabilitate but the fund has been looted. I lose my young, my old, and my most brainy and productive people to the potholes, craters and crevasses they travel on everyday. I am in permanent mourning, please re-build me.

My school has no teacher and my classroom has no roof. I take lecture notes through the window and live with 15 others in a single room. All my professors have gone abroad, some of the rest are awaiting visas. Those that remain, depend on money raked from the sales of hand-outs to students. My students receive lectures for a maximum of 3 months in a year due to lecturers’ strike or students’ boycott of lectures because of lack of better condition of service and deplorable condition on campus. That explains why I have university graduates, who are semi- illiterates.
I want a future, please re-build me.

Malaria, typhoid and many other preventable diseases send me to hospitals which have no doctors, no medicines and no electric power. So my wife gives birth by candle light and surgery is performed by quacks. All the nurses have gone abroad and the rest are also waiting to go. I have the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world and future generations are dying before me.
I am hopeless, hapless and helpless, please re-build me.

I wanted change so I stood all day long to cast my vote. But even before I could vote, the results had been announced. When I dared to speak out, silence was enthroned by bullets. My rulers are my oppressors, and my policemen are my terrors. I am ruled by men in mufti, but I am not a democracy. I have no verve, no vote, no voice, please re-build me.

I have over 50 million youths with no jobs, no present and no future. So my sons in the North have become street urchins and their brothers in the South have become militants. My nephews die of thirst in the Sahara and their cousins drown in the waters of the Mediterranean . My daughters walk the streets of Lagos , Abuja and Port Harcourt , while their sisters parade the streets of Rome and Amsterdam. I am inconsolable, please re-build me.

My people cannot sleep at night and cannot relax by day. They cannot use ATM machines, nor use cheques. My children sleep through the staccato of AK 47′s, see through the mist of tear gas, while we all inhale Carbon Monoxide, poisonous CO-2 from popular ‘I better pass my neighbour’ (portable generators) and ‘Okada’ (motorbike taxis) The leaders have looted everything on ground and below. They walk the land with haughty strides and fly the skies with private jets (28 of which were bought in the last 12 months). They have stolen the future of generations yet unborn and have money they cannot spend in several lifetimes, but their brothers die of hunger. I want justice, please re-build me.

I can produce anything, but import everything. So my toothpick is made in China; my toothpaste is made in South Africa; my salt is made in Ghana; my butter is made in Ireland; my milk is made in Holland; my shoe is made in Italy; my vegetable oil is made in Malaysia; my biscuit is made in Indonesia; my chocolate is made in Turkey and my table water made in France. My taste is far-flung and foreign. I no longer cook at home but take pride in eating at take-away outlets fashioned after the Western style of living.
Anything made in my land is inferior; I prefer those made in England, America or Europe . To crown it all, items made in my land but specifically sent abroad with made in England labels are brought back from ‘Oyinbo’ land at 5 times the original price it would have gone for had it been sold as home made, please re-brand me.

My people are cancerous from the greed of their friends who bleach palm oil with chemicals; my children died because they drank ‘My Pikin’ with NAFDAC numbers; my poor die because kerosene explodes in their faces; my land is dead because all the trees have been cut down; flood kills my people yearly because the drainage is clogged; my fish are dead because the oil companies dump waste in my rivers; my communities are vanishing into the huge yawns of gully erosion, and nothing is being done. My livelihood is in jeopardy, and I am in the uttermost depths of despondence, please re-build me.

I have genuine leather but choose to eat it.. So I spend a billion dollars to import fake leather. I have four (4) refineries, but prefer to import fuel, so I waste more billions to import petrol and diesel. I have no security in my country, but would rather send troops to keep the peace in another man’s land. I have 160 dams, but cannot get water to drink, so I buy ‘pure’ water that broils my inwards. I have a million children waiting to enter universities, but my ivory dungeons can only take a tenth (10 %). I have no power (electricity) , but choose to flare gas, and vote billion of dollars every year to generate electricity but not a single watt has come from it. So, my people have learnt to see in the dark and stare at
the glare of naked flares. I have no direction, please re-build me.

My people pray to God every morning and every night, but commit every crime known to man because re-branded identities will never alter the tunes of inbred rhythms. Just as the drums of heritage heralds the frenzied jingles, remember – the Nigerian soul can only be Nigerian – fighting free from the cold embrace of a government that has no spring, no sense, no shame. So we watch the possessed, frenzied dance, drenched in silent tears as freedom is locked up in democracy’s empty cellars. I need guidance, please re-build me.

But then, why can I not simply be me, without being re-branded?
Or does my complexion cloud the colour of my character?
Does my location limit the lengths of my liberty?
Does the spirit of my conviction shackle my soul?
Does my mien maim the mine of my mind?
And is this life worth re-branding?
Is it re-branding that I need or complete re-building?

Others blame my calamities on the colonial master that has left my shore some 51 years ago. Without deceiving myself, I know I have problems, who will deliver me? May be what I need is to be re-born, Christians call it being born-again. Turning to a higher authority or changing direction. I mean to sincerely own up and turn to the man up-stairs, may be, just maybe solution will come from there.

To re-build a wobbling structure, there is need for dismantling of existing one (remember, if the foundation can be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?).. Shall I then consider the idea muted by some of my own who have fled abroad?
Some call for ‘Separation for Co-operation’ , others call for true Federalism – while others are yet asking for the return to Parliamentary system.
Which way do I go? on October 1, 2009, I celebrated my 50th birthday and my 52nd was just celebrated.
I do not want to carry on in my golden age without direction, … so, please, help me God. Re-mould and Re-Build me.

PLEASE PRAY PERSISTENTLY FOR NIGERIA!

PLS READ!!!


“Except in the eyes of the extremely naive and incurable swindlers in the corridors of power, this country has already collapsed; only that the horror of its probable disintegration would be difficult to face.” This fascinating quote by journalist and activist, Godwin Onyeacholem, truly captures the Nigerian reality today. It’s been 52 years in the making.

On October 1, 2012, the Nigerian State under the supervision of President Goodluck Jonathan will perform the ritual of celebrating the country’s independence. It is noteworthy that the Jonathan administration has decided not to go for the pomp and circumstance associated with such celebrations which really would have added insult to our collective injury. But typical of our ruling elite, the planned sombre celebration is just another ruse, meant to pave way for a more elaborate, yet misguided, multi-billion naira celebration in 2014 to mark the centennial anniversary of the creation of Nigeria in 1914.

By every standard one decides to judge Nigeria, it has failed woefully as a nation. It is worth repeating because there are those afflicted with eternal delusions about, to use the weasel words of our politicians, “moving it forward”, the way it is presently constituted. It is mere wishful thinking. No amount of fancy talk or transformational balderdash can alter the fact that Nigeria is a full-blown “kleptocracy”, a state ruled by thieves, in the words of Prof. Niyi Osundare, on the way to imminent implosion.

It has been said that Nigeria is a country of great potential and promise. It remains just that after 52 years: a country of great potential and promise. The reality, to quote Chinua Achebe, is that “Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that give least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth.”

That was almost three decades ago. We have since raised the stakes. “Today, rogues, armed robbers are in the State Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly,’’ former President Olusegun Obasanjo – a man who ought to stand trial for his unqualified misgovernance of Nigeria -- said a few months ago.

Obasanjo should know. He, more than anyone else, facilitated the emergence of these scoundrels who have taken over our democratic space.

Very few countries in the world can take the unrepressed pillage, outrageous abuse and unmitigated violation which the self-acclaimed giant of Africa has received and remain standing. David Cameron, British PM, has been quoted as saying, “If the amount of money stolen out of Nigeria in the last 30 years was stolen in the UK, the UK would not exist again.” There are many figures in the public domain about how much our leaders have siphoned from the country since independence. From Nuhu Ribadu, former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), we learnt that the amount is “more than six times the total sum that went into rebuilding Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War via the famous European Recovery Programme, ERP programme or Marshall Plan”. The ERP programme was $13billion. Interestingly, Germany, the choice location for medical care for our leaders, was one of the beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan.

We can spend the next few weeks cataloguing the problems of Nigeria and we would not have scratched the surface. Where do we start? Is it something as basic as education where it has been revealed that “Nigerians commit about N160 billion ($1billion) to the education of their children and wards in Ghanaian universities every year”. A recent newspaper report quotes the Chairman, Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Dr. Wale Babalakin, as saying “the cost excludes huge amounts also spent on education of Nigerians in other countries such as the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada and Malaysia”. From Dr. Babalakin we also learnt that there are about 75,000 Nigerian students in Ghana, a country which, in the last decade, has been spending up to 35 percent of its annual budget (far beyond the UNESCO recommendation of a minimum of 26 percent) on education.

Let’s take a minor issue like polio eradication. Just recently, the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) issued a report which noted that “of six global sanctuaries for the poliovirus (which stand against the anticipated eradication), Nigeria’s Kano and Bornu States are the most problematic”.

“Apart from Afghanistan, Nigeria’s northern region specifically constitutes major concern for global polio fighters, who now worry over the quality of local personnel and efforts. Although Kano, Bornu, and four other global (problematic) spots represent a relatively tiny proportion of the earth’s land surface area, the Monitoring Board had hinted that they ‘pose disproportionate risk to the likelihood of success for the entire globe’”, the report noted. “There are now just six countries with persistent polio transmission. Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan have never interrupted transmission. Angola, Chad and DR Congo have ‘re-established’ polio. Nigeria has slipped back in a quite alarming way. Afghanistan’s programme is consistently performing at a reasonable level.”

This is a snapshot of the sorry story of Nigeria. We are not just the poster child for corruption. Whether we are talking about education, maternal or infant mortality, security, justice and rule of law, we rank at the very bottom and are constantly in competition with the world’s most retrograde countries.

The failure of Nigeria is essentially the failure of leadership. For some strange reason, it appears, we have been cursed with bad leaders right from the moment the colonialists departed 52 years ago. Unlike in places like Ghana and Tanzania, our post-independence rulers, rather than building a new nation and an egalitarian society, were more eager to replace the departing colonizers and subsequently initiate a more malicious brand of internal colonialism from the contraption that was handed over to them.

Over the years, the quality of leadership has degenerated, breeding various vices and entrenching unparalleled corruption which has now become a directive principle of state policy. There are those who accuse “ordinary” Nigerians of complicity in this rot. A typical example would be to point to the policeman or woman at a “road block” and conveniently say corruption is a Nigerian and, therefore, there is nothing we can do about it. I disagree. If the man on the street is corrupt, it is simply because the country’s leadership has not led by example.

Where is the incentive for the policeman to be upright? Is it that his take-home pay can take him to and fro work in a month? That his children can get basic education or that his family can afford adequate medical care when they need it? Never mind that he is more likely to buy his own uniform and other paraphernalia of policing. That’s after he must have paid around N200,000 ($1250) to middlemen to join the police. Meanwhile, his Inspector General is the proud owner of numerous housing estates and companies and would rank amongst the richest men in the country.

Can a people really rise above the leadership they are confronted with? Leadership is everything! Since my encounter with Chinua Achebe’s book, The Trouble with Nigeria almost three decades ago, I have found it a constant companion. Achebe’s book goes to the heart of the Nigerian problem. But it is also a book that gives us hope that Nigeria is redeemable and we shouldn’t give up on the country.

At his pedagogic best, Achebe wrote: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are the hallmarks of true leadership. Leaders are, in the language of psychologists, role models. People look up to them and copy their actions, behaviour and even mannerisms. Therefore if a leader lacks discipline the effect is apt to spread automatically down to his followers.”

Nigerians are good followers. So, it is only proper that if our leaders have shown themselves to be lawless, Nigerians have learnt not to be law-abiding. ‎Achebe talks about indiscipline on the part of our leaders. I would add impunity. Ours is s system built and sustained by impunity. Our leaders know they can do anything and get away with it. It is their despicable philosophy of “there is no going back,”; “no shaking”, “I dey kampe” that has brought us to where we are today. As someone noted on one of the ubiquitous social media sites, we have failed repeatedly to win any form of medal in the Olympics of leadership. And the reason is evident: Our worse eleven have always emerged each time the opportunity rears its head.

But there is no use lamenting our leadership deficit. There is no chance things will change until the Nigerian people rise and take charge of their destiny. A little over a year ago, a “transformation train” predictably destined for disaster took off from Aso Rock, the seat of power. If Nigerians thought they had been taken for a ride by their leaders in the past, this is one bumpy ride -- no pun intended – in a “One Chance” transformation bus. Every action provokes an unsurprising feeling of deja vu. It has been a month since the First Lady went AWOL. There hasn’t been any coherent or intelligent explanation from the Presidency or Bayelsa State, her official workplace. It says a lot about a regime that rode to office on the back of a president that went AWOL for months. And for those who have been hoodwinked into believing that the First Lady is not a public official, let’s be reminded that she is also a permanent secretary in Bayelsa State.

For all we know, we may have a putative dictator on our hand. “The demonstration in Lagos, people were given bottled water that people in my village don't have access to, people were given expensive food that the ordinary people in Lagos cannot eat. So, even going to eat free alone attracts people. They go and hire the best musician to come and play and the best comedian to come and entertain; is that demonstration? Are you telling me that that is a demonstration from ordinary masses in Nigeria who want to communicate something to government? I am hardly intimidated by anybody who wants to push any issue he has. I believe that that protest in Lagos was manipulated by a class in Lagos and was not from the ordinary people.”

That was President Jonathan – a man who came to power two years ago on the strength of public demonstrations on his behalf -- responding recently to the nationwide protests in January against the removal of so-called oil subsidy. That insensate action was premised on the theory that there was an oil cabal that was ripping off the country through the oil subsidy scheme. As it turned out, this cabal so-called is an integral part of the current administration and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Is it surprising, therefore, that nine months later, no one has been brought to justice for the billions the government freely paid out to its dubious partners in the private sector?

[b] PLEASE NOTE: I'm not using this post to start a fight or embarrass the Muslims. I just want to understand more about the religion. Although I'm not a Muslim but I have close friends and families who are Muslims. If you feel offended, I'm so sorry but if you would like to enlighten me more on these quotes, I'll be grateful.

Here are some quotes from the "Holy" Qur'an which I find disturbing. Can any peace loving Muslims out there explain this?


Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war. Qur’an:9:5

Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission. Qur’an:9:29

Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah. Qur’an:8:39

So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief [non-Muslims]) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone (in the whole world). Qur’an:8:39

Fight them and Allah will punish them by your hands, lay them low, and cover them with shame. He will help you over them. Qur’an:9:14

Believers, what is the matter with you, that when you are asked to go forth and fight in Allah’s Cause you cling to the earth? Do you prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? Unless you go forth, He will afflict and punish you with a painful doom, and put others in your place. Qur’an:9:38

Fight the unbelievers around you, and let them find harshness in you. Qur’an:9:123

The Messenger and those who believe with him, strive hard and fight with their wealth and lives in Allah’s Cause. Qur’an:9:88

O Prophet, urge the faithful to fight. If there are twenty among you with determination they will vanquish two hundred; if there are a hundred then they will slaughter a thousand unbelievers, for the infidels are a people devoid of understanding. Qur’an:8:65

The revelation of the scripture is from Allah, The Mighty, The Wise. Qur’an:45:2

And He has set firm mountains in the earth so that it would not shake with you. Qur’an:16:15

Have you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out of it. Qur’an: 24:43

Slay the unbelievers wherever you find them.” Qur'an 2:191

Make war on the infidels living in your neighborhood.” Qur'an 9:123

When opportunity arises, kill the infidels wherever you catch them.” Qur'an 9:5

Any religion other than Islam is not acceptable.” Qur'an 3:85

The Jews and the Christians are perverts; fight them.” Qur'an 9:30

Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam” Qur'an 5:33

The infidels are unclean; do not let them into a mosque.” Qur'an 9:28

Punish the unbelievers with garments of fire, hooked iron rods, boiling water; melt their skin and bellies.” Qur'an 22:19

Do not hanker for peace with the infidels; behead them when you catch them.” Qur'an 47:4

The unbelievers are stupid; urge the Muslims to fight them.” Qur'an 8:65

Muslims must not take the infidels as friends.” Qur'an 3:28

Terrorize and behead those who believe in scriptures other than the Qur’an.” Qur'an 8:12

Muslims must muster all weapons to terrorize the infidels.” Qur'an 8:60
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When I saw this information, I didn't believe until I read those passages on http://quran.com.