The news going round is that Nigeria
is broke. I, for one, do not believe that fallacy. However, if the treasury is
indeed empty or nearing emptiness, then what it means is that this happened
because the government, this government and past governments had not exercised
good fiscal, economic responsibility and management.
I am not an economist, but
I do know when money and other resources are being mismanaged. And as we will
all agree, including the whole world, Nigerian governments have never been held
in high esteem for fiscal management, unless we want to deceive ourselves,
which is another additional path to impending disaster.
What it also means is that despite the
massive oil revenue (and other incomes from other sources) earned over the
decades, these have not been managed to serve the people of the country, as we
have not really seen so much what the revenue has done to better the lives,
security and comfort of the majority of Nigerians, only a few highly placed
thieves.
If indeed this the case - that the
country is broke - we saw it coming, but we ran smacked with eyes wide open into
a waiting disaster. We have been cautioning our rulers for decades that no
country can sustain the massive corruption that go on in Nigeria. All
entreaties for our rulers (and sometimes, followers) to change have fallen on
deaf ears.
Some do not even entertain the thought
that oil, being a fossil fuel formed over millions of years, will be exhausted
one day, or that developed countries have been frantically looking for and
perfecting alternative sources of energy, so as to reduce, and eventually stop
their dependence on their energy/petroleum sources coming mostly from unstable
and irresponsible Third World republics like Nigeria.
Oil has been God's (or if you like,
Nature's) gift to Nigeria; we have failed miserably to make the most of it to ameliorate
our own lives, caused mostly as a result of selfishness, nepotism, greed and
insensitivity to our brother's plight. It has been "only for me and my
family" as against the communal spirit and morality for which many African
societies were noted before the white man came. It is “grab what I can while I
am there” and “I don’t care what happens to others as long as I get mine”. Very
sad what we have descended into. It is now always “Me or Myself or I”, not “We
or for them or for all of us”.
We now seem to be at a loss what to
do. Deep, brilliant and great minds of the society are even confounded and in
despair, and about to give up. Even our rulers, who are the causes of the
problems, are flailing about, secretly taking their family out of the country
and relocating them to "better and safer" countries, with the
intention that when the shit hits the fan, they will join their families
abroad. Meanwhile the ordinary Nigerians are being blitzed with poverty, bombs
and insecurity, poor healthcare, etc. on a daily basis, and also being fed with
lies and unfulfillable political promises, because the failed rulers still want
to hang on to to power and drain every single last drop of oil and money from
the country, as well as drain the peoples' blood and sweat in the process.
The other day, we were told we have
$38 billion in the Foreign Reserve; but what the government did not tell us is
what they did with the over $68 billion in foreign reserve that ex-President
Olusegun Obasanjo claimed he left for his successor, the late Umar Yar ‘Adua,
and which was passed on, albeit less a few billions, to Dr Goodluck Jonathan.
As I said, I don’t believe we are
broke, but then, the people of Nigeria have always been broke and broken
anyway, so it makes no difference to us, if the government of Nigeria his broke
or not. When we were practically swimming in oil and massive wealth did this
filter down to the majority, to ease the poverty of their lives and be proud to
call Nigeria and its various governments their own that they believe in? The
answer has always been No.
The fact is we have been short-changed
by our rulers, and we continue to be short-changed, with apparently no end in
sight. Even a beam of hope for better things to come, for better rulers to come
in 2015 is looking highly impossible now
and is fading fast, because, one, it is
looking more and more likely that we may have the same set, cabal, the same crooked
and obtuse politicians back in power to continue the looting spree, and, two,
it is even bleaker that some unscrupulous, blood-tainted and criminal elements who have illegally acquired some big
money (aided by those already in power) may also join those of their ilk who
are already at the driving seat. All kinds of worms are crawling out of the
woodwork to feed on our common wealth.
Let me quote Mamora Victor in The
National Mirror of Nov 17, 2014. “One of the reasons that many Africa
nations’ economy is in bad shape and poverty is common among the people is
because the society promotes people who have no history of productivity in both
social and economic entrepreneurship to public leadership. There are armies of
people who are unfaithful and unproductive as employees taking over public
leadership assignment in many nations of Africa. The implication is that the
culture of irresponsibility and mediocrity are been promoted. Hence, corruption
thrives. Corruption, among other meaning in English dictionary, means to abound
in errors. When a society promotes incompetent people into public office, then
they abound in errors and corruption thrives. Corruption is not only as a
result of lack of character but also lack of competence. People can be of good
character and abound in errors too or corrupt the economy. Two common
attributes of public leaders who abound in errors are lack of vision and
irresponsibility”.
If the above is not the Truth about
Nigeria, as an African country, please tell me what it is. Look at our rulers
(I never call them Leaders; Leadership is a quality, it cannot be bad, it can
ONLY be good) and tell me what you see or feel about them and their
qualifications and suitability for the leadership role we elected or appointed
them to do. Even the most highly educated of them fall victim of the corruption
disease eventually. It is an African disease, those you entrust with your
lives, your welfare, wellbeing and money, eventually betray you, once they get
to power, or maybe, the disease had been latent, only waiting to rear its ugly
head out, once they grab power, and at your expense. This unexplainable
phenomenon never fails to materialize.
Compatriots, we are at a crossroad (we
always seem to be nearer elections). The future is not looking rosy for those
of us alive or for many generations to come, if we continue to let things go
the way of the devil. Nigeria is on the brink now more that it was before, even
in the days of a certain military dictatorship. In fact despite the noise and
false assurances by our politicians, who are pleading for a second chance to
make lives better for us, we know deep inside ourselves that we are gradually
turning this nascent democracy on its head and abusing it. Democracy can only
be government of the people, for the people and by the people. Do we really
practice that or are even trying to practice that age old definition, that has
made other countries into great countries, imperfect as they may be, only
because Man is imperfect.
Where are citizen participation; openness
and accountability in government; free and fair elections; political inclusion
of marginalised groups and peoples; women’s participation; good governance;
political debates, ideologically-based political parties, dividends of
democracy for ALL and NOT for SOME, etc.?
No wonder the rumour is that the
country is broke. In fact, with the stupendous profligacy, corruption,
mismanagement and lack of foresight of the past 54 years, it is a miracle the
country has not broken down into a Somalia-like political terrain or
economically impoverished Haiti; and this is only because the country is
gushing with oil.
In the Holy Bible, Deuteronomy
15:7-11, “If among you, one of your
brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the
Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand
against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him
sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. Take care lest there be an
unworthy thought in your heart and you say, ‘The seventh year, the year of
release is near,’ and your eye look grudgingly on your poor brother, and you
give him nothing, and he cry to the Lord against you, and you be guilty of sin.
You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you
give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work
and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the
land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother,
to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
Unfortunately, I cannot get a
definitive quotation from the Holy Quran, because Islamic law is absolutely
incompatible with democracy. It is a
theocratic system with Allah alone at its head.
Allah's law is interpreted by a ruling body of clerics. There is no room for a secular political
system in which all people are treated as equals. Nevertheless, I am sure it
does not advocate the corruption of any system that deals with the welfare of
Man.
So, broke or no broke, Nigerians,
well-meaning and responsible Nigerians, must go for broke in 2015 and drive
these criminals out for good. The hard
truth is that we cannot and must not allow the present crop of politicians
(including the children they are grooming in their own image), and even civil
servants to continue running and ruining this beautiful country of ours.
I have to tell the Truth as I know it
always. I get my inspiration and encouragement from my people.
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