“A nation that celebrates mediocrity in place of meritocracy is sure to be in perpetual state of economic and political quagmire.” – Yahaya Balogun
Why Nigeria is still standing is very mysterious and unbelievable! All strong nations I have read about or seen can never withstand the incredible damage, trauma, bracing flaunt of illegal wealth, dehumanization and pauperization of citizens like we have in Nigeria. Pardon this writer for being so disgruntled and for the use of strong words to convey his message. Some visits to some places in the United States and other developed countries can make you go crazy with psychological trauma about the uninhabitable situations in Nigeria.
The most profitable place to do dubious multinational business is Nigeria. If you are a honest person in Nigerian business environment, you hardly can make it without committing a self-annihilation of your mind and brutal damage to your esteemed conscience.
As a multinational company, if you know your way as a foreign company; if you can identify with political cults and do some buybacks or paybacks through political leverage, you will reap unmeritable gold and profits from Nigeria. You will be among the kings of corruption; you will easily dine and wine with sung political elites who are cabals in the ruination of Nigeria. Meanwhile, by engaging in the mindless and needless deceit, you just have to collaborate with the rogue politicians and the corrupt civil servants; you will go away with so many criminal business activities. Nigeria is a lawless country whose gullible citizens are disgruntled accomplices in raping their nation’s resources, and the future of their children.
In retrospect, look at the crooked MTN and the vulture Econet at their debut in Nigeria in the early 2000s. These two companies in collaboration with the mindless government swindled the gullible Nigerian citizens of their hard-earned billion of naira. Nigeria was a bazaar for the multinational companies. As Nigerians were being introduced to mobile telecommunications and to the global village, these mercantilists feasted on gullible Nigerians unfettered and unrestrained. We were raped blue, and there was no consumer protection agency or government establishment to check the ghoul business activities of these mobile providers. The pseudo-protection agency established by Obasanjo’s fiat was a conduit pipe to milk the unsuspecting and hapless Nigerians. It was all a hoax for political reasons.
Also, take a look at the antecedents and activities of Shell oil Company, apart from environmental degredation, uncountable lives have been lost to strives, genocide and health hazardous waste through pollution in the Niger Delta. Billions of dollars of Nigerian crude oils have vanished into the pockets of rogue Nigerian militaricians and their civilian collaborators. Their mansions and investments are scattered around the choice and highbrow areas in the Middle East and other western world. Yet, the unserious Nigerians celebrate these people with impunity and nonchalant mesmerism. Some of them who have served various sentences abroad before coming back to Nigeria came with triumphant entry to their kith and kin’s tumultuous welcome. A shameless country that is the cynosure and mockery of all eyes in the international community.
Disgustingly, any attempt to fight these corrupt people are usually met with stiffness and brutal resistance of corrupt people and their children who are symbiotically corded with them. It is not a hype to say these children of corruption suffer from Stockholm syndrome. In the process of fighting corruption, you’ll be made a sacrificial lamb. The best brains of Nigeria are in the Nigerian graveyards. They have selflessly utilized their brains for the emancipation of the vulnerable Nigerians, these gallant heroes and heroines have died prematurely through the state orchestrated political assassinations. Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 9 paid the ultimate price for challenging Abacha’s evils, Dele Giwa and Chief Bola Ige were consumed by the administrations of Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo respectively. Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, PA Ruwane, Gani Fawehinmi, Chinua Achebe and a host of other unsung heroes sacrificed their lives for Nigeria, and yet Nigerians remain warped and slumbered away their future in a whirlwind night. Nigeria is a scary political environment to operate in! Any Hobbesian society is bound to fester with so many vices. Hobbesian society is a society where life is short, brutish and nasty. It will be fully appreciated if this disgruntled writer can be proved wrong if we are not in a state of anomy in Nigeria. A nation that celebrates mediocrity in place of meritocracy is sure to be in a state of perpetual economic and political quagmire.
Buhari’s administration must be commended for uncovering the stolen wealth of Nigeria. His fight against cancerous corruption is unprecedented in the anal history of Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari is an African political reconnaissance. History is favourably on the side for fighting corruption and redesigning an egalitarian society after decades of rapes, defilement, degradation and dehumanization of Nigerian citizens. Just like Mandela, Buhari has been called unprintable names, but the unscathed Buhari remains unfettered in his efforts to rid Nigeria of corruption. Corruption is a cancer, once it’s metastasized, it affects every other part of the body system.
In the history of Nigeria, no individual like Muhammadu Buhari, has got the temerity and the audacity to fight corruption with the seriousness it deserves, and without any ulterior motive like Buhari is doing today. The only Rubicon of getting quick dispensation of justice in Nigeria is the corrupt Nigerian judiciary. The legislators stink; the executive is a composition of the good and bad elements in the ruling party. Buhari and Osinbajo are a one-man battalion in a war of attrition against corruption and indiscipline in Nigeria. Some of them in the ruling party have asterisks in their political nomenclature making it an impediment to get things done with the urgency they deserve.
Nauseatingly, everywhere you go in Nigeria stinks of graft and corruption. Corruption is an institutionalized problem in Nigeria, and people are in a state of confusion and hopelessness. Go to religious houses, it is blasphemous Hallelujah and fake Alhammudullilai everywhere! Saunter unto private and public institutions; do a random audit of selves and most families; or take a stock of the conscience of the nation, your expected results will be stunning and damming. There is Babangida in all of us. It is hard for economists to prescribe veritable economic policy for Nigeria. Some prescribed solutions to Nigerian problems are not working because the stakeholders do not want them to work for their instant and future gratification.
Nigerian constitution isn’t working because corruption has made it a shredded constitution. In Nigeria, we are all in Orwellian farm where all animals are equal under this shredded constitution, but one is more equal than the others as long as you have illegal access to common wealth. The economy of Nigeria operates under economic abracadabra. Meanwhile, under this economic voodoo, it is survival of the fittest in the house of commotion, oh sorry! corruption.
How can a country suffering from economic adversity not collectively support war against corruption? Imagine Nigeria putting her resources to prudent use, we will be one of the greatest nations on earth. Buhari is a one-man battalion in a country characterized with chronic corruption. He can’t do more than he’s doing now because he is surrounded with so many corrupt party members; the compromised judiciary and the dishonorable members in the NASSty legislative houses. His hands are tied because he’s avoiding to be an autocratic leader in a participatory democracy.
I am an unrepentant Buharist. I may not like his fallibility but his intention to see Nigeria get rid of corruption is the cord that attach me to his incorruptible persona. I believe very strongly that the end justifies the means. No government in the history of Nigeria has honestly wage an unrepentant war against corruption like Buhari. My problem with his administration is that, some of us are impatient supporters to see some corrupt people go to jail. Because our laws are ineffective to tame these political wolves, that is why people like Dino Melaye have unfettered audacity to “horhorbi” us with our fleeting and stolen wealth. As an unrepentant Buharist, Iam not dismissing people’s opinions as I am not in support of their insinuation about untenable submission or stereotypes of a man trying to rewrite our ugly history as a nation.
Moreover, if Nigerian citizens continue on this path of nonchalant attitude to reduce the epidemic of official corruption, this generation may not be forgiven by the next generation. As Nigeria struggles with her life at the intensive care unit of this administration, we must urgently assist her to be rescued from the hands of those who are bent on making her to be in comatose or perpectual political and economic quagmire.
