By Jude Atupulazi
Nigerians are wonderful people. This is a country where you’ve got all sorts of people. Some live on the proceeds of others. Some feed off the scraps falling from the tables of those who feed off their sweat to get to that table in the first place. Yet others steal from both those eating at the table and those feeding off the scraps. But there seems to be one thing that defines Nigerians: never-say-die spirit.
The poor masses have mastered the art of suffering and smiling. You have only to buy some data and go to the social media to laugh away you high blood pressure. Nigerians have learnt to make light of their burden and I dare say it may well be what keeps them sane and alive.
Of course, a great many Nigerians have lost their sanity out of depression arising from their hopelessness, but a great many others too are trudging on, even laughing at their own misfortunes.
Nigerians are also known to criticize a lot, especially when outside the power corridors. They become economic experts and moral crusaders, but give them a little chance and they become as bad as, if not worse than those they criticize. That is why if you go to the various markets and you’re not careful you will be robbed blind by those who smile at you and even genuflect before you.
A priest once told me how he was totally deceived by a trader who, recognizing him to be a priest, started calling him ”Fada anyi”, or our father, and making him to believe that he could and should trust him. At the end of the day, the priest discovered too late that he had been deceived and sold fake products.
Indeed, in some markets about two hours are dedicated to prayers each morning and even if you are in a hurry as a client, you have to wait for the prayer sessions to be concluded. If you are a JJC (Johnny Just Come) as people new to a place are called, you’ll be having the shock of your life when the very people shouting, binding and casting out poor devils will cheat you. Yet, those are people who will protest all day long against the government and tell you how the government is uncaring.
For those in government, they do not go there because they love you or want to serve you, but merely to equip their pockets as much as possible with all the perks of their offices. By the time they leave office, they have acquired enough to last them and theirs a lifetime, while the populace toils in vain.
The intriguing thing here is that those leaders were put into office by the very people who complain against them. During electioneering campaigns it is the same people that will go after those with enough cash and rice to give, regardless of whether those politicians are into legitimate business.
The mantra these days is ”Give us this day, our daily bread!”. Once that daily bread is given, it is chikena (finish). Those that acquire power through such people go into office believing they have settled you and I, and thus, engage in unbridled squandermania, and I ask: for how long should this continue? In effect, we deserve the government and leaders we get.
Let’s peruse the write up below from an unknown author which succinctly captures the situation in Nigeria.
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Contentment is the grace to stand up from the dining table and look away from the food tray when your belly is full.
But the Nigerian public official, although filled and belching with excess, would still hide stolen meat within the corners of his mouth at a dinner, stuff fried rice into his socks, and try to shuffle moin-moin into his shoes. Madness, you say.
But who else would steal 80 billion Naira except a mad fellow?
I am no longer numbed at the numbers stolen in Nigeria, but I am terribly saddened by the titles of the pen robbers.
Kemebradikumo Pondei, that dramatic NDDC acting Managing Director that fainted in the Senate, was a Professor of Medicine. A man trained to build, repair, and even possibly manufacture life. Yet, he too got to the table and scooped jollof rice into his boxers.
Do you know who Diezani Alison-Madueke was? No, you don’t. When ladies of her age were wishing and praying to be admitted to Shell Petroleum as typists or tea girls, she was already on the board of the company as an executive director. God gave her the bigger privilege of marrying Allison Madueke, a naval officer and former military governor of two states.
She was a trained architect who transformed to become Nigeria’s first female Petroleum Minister. Yet, despite these privileges, Diezani stole our barbequed fish, roasted yams, and hid them in her bra. Like a mad woman.
You recollect that JAMB/NECO ex Registrar, that Professor, the one that stole almost a billion. Just go through his CV, he had been eating from one educational agency to another, non-stop, since the military era. But at almost 70, a grandpa, he comes from a detention facility and goes to court to defend himself for stealing monies he would never need. At 70, a man is nearer to his grave, but in Nigeria, a 74 year old Minister would steal to buy a plot of land to build a new mansion. His sepulchre, of course.
Our leaders make you poke at your credentials and certificates. lf medical doctors, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Doctors of Philosophy, and Professors, would be this bestial and mad, you wonder to what purpose is our education.
They say people steal government funds because they fear falling into the poverty trap. But how do you explain an Uzor Kalu, or Rochas Okorocha, who rode on private billions before politics and still stole the community goats and chickens. Or Lucky Igbinedion, former Governor of Edo State, who had a golden spoon in his mouth and nevertheless seized the feeding bottles of milk from the mouths of Edo babies.
A billion has nine zeros. With ₦80 billion, you can build a brand new town, local government area of 15,000 low-cost housing units, complete with roads, schools, and hospitals. ₦80 billion will build a new ten-Faculty University that can accommodate 20,000 undergraduates and graduate students.
But an accountant allegedly stole such a staggering sum. A fellow of ICAN. A distinguished member of a privileged elite group. Who else should know the cost implication of fraud better than a chartered accountant?
See, the almajiri, area boys, MC Oluomo, and their likes, are not the main threat to this beautiful country. The elite are. The Directors, Permanent Secretaries, Vice Chancellors, CEOs, Solicitors General, Senators, Governors, are the ones bleeding us. Not bandits, boko haram, or IPOB.
The elite are the ones bombing and destroying the social architecture of our nation with their unbridled hedonism. They think the stolen billions would enamour them to the dangers ahead. “But stolen melons are the sweetest…they don’t know the former guests are now citizens of hell.” Everyone is today a victim.
Having broken the social ligaments that hold our nation together, by stealing monies meant for education, healthcare, and infrastructure, the elite have rendered Nigeria a classless nation.
Billionaires are now stolen, emirs are kidnapped, and attempts have been made in the recent past to abduct a serving governor. The elite had sowed wild thorns, and the harvest is fully here.
Politicians steal in Japan and Senators thief in America. A $50,000 bribe. A golden watch. Or a misappropriated flight ticket or inflated hotel bills. But in Nigeria, our leaders don’t embezzle. They haul. Why? Because they are mad.
Our politicians, despite their jejune certificates, lack the intellectual capacity to solve our economic problems, and worse, they lack the contemplation of the right philosophy of public service. They aren’t kingly, and neither are they philosophic.
Leaders are made to live for God, and their existence is for society’s sake. We are to use our gifts, spend our grace, and deploy our earthly terms and years to serve community, society, country, and mankind.
No man living personally needs a billion. What for? Dangote, Buhari, Bua, Otedola, OBJ, Elumelu, TY Danjuma, cannot spend fifteen thousand Naira daily on Nigerian foods or meals. If they do, they will die sooner than their time. You will, too, because God didn’t create us to be excessive.
Every extra gift, talent, grace, money, and wealth we have is not totally for us but for society and state. We are to give, give, and give, for state, humanity, and posterity, although nature and law permit optimal material rewards and compensation for our efforts. That is why the Accountant General of the Federation, Minister, Governor, Senator, Rep, permanent Secretary, is well remunerated above others so he won’t run mad and go about stealing.
But all is not sad. Like Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin, there are a few saints in this country of sin. There are good examples despite the rot. Oby Ezekwesili was former Minister of Solid Minerals and Education. She does not have the look nor the body scent of a thief. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala handled our billions of dollars at the time Nigeria was awash with much.
Her hands are not hypo clean. But she didn’t haul our billions into her truck. If she had, no one would call her higher into WTO. We also have the like of Professor Ishaq Oloyede of JAMB, who started reporting and returning surplus to the Treasury, unlike his predecessors as JAMB Registrars. Therefore, in this country, not all are crazy.
Prayer: God, open the eyes of our elite to see and know that they don’t need what they steal. For only a mad fellow gathers stones and pans that are needless.
