yesterday, a friend of mine of facebook arrived at a conclusion that i had since reached long ago...reading nigerian news is likely to cause migranes, heart aches, high blood pressure and nervous breakdown. when i first started writing this blog a long time ago, i recall how someone said he was not going to read my blog because i was too negative and saw nothing good with nigeria. he felt that as a citizen with a chance to share my views with the world through my blog, i should seek out the good in the country and splash that to the world. that, to me, would not be fair to my reading public and i feel that if anything should be interesting, it should be the absurdities that make mainstream news in our country and that we have all grown immune to (like the 20 million naira children's party for 1,000 children to celebrate nigeria's independence i.e. 20,000 naira per child when whole families survive on about 3 dollars a day/ 500 naira).
and so, in order to stay sane, i swore off reading the dailies long ago. and true to expectation, i suddenly found my blog postings a lot lighter and i found myself able to laugh at circumstances that i otherwise would have found grim.
however, ignoring the news only to avoid heartache comes with a costly price. yesterday, my mum and brother travelled to Abuja. as usual, i got so caught up with myself and work that i forgot to call them to confirm their safe arrival. and so just before i closed from work today, i put a call through to them, and my mum got on the phone all grudgy and sore. naturally, considering the trip should have ended since yesterday, i wondered aloud if she was okay. apparently, and i would known if i read the newspapers, some ex-militants from the troubled niger delta region in southern nigeria were heading into Abuja city unannounced to protest their treatment under the celebrated amnesty programme when the police barricaded the city and stopped their entry. naturally, everyone else on the road (my family inclusive) was stuck in the mad traffic that ensued and didnt get home until past midnight.
which brings me to the question. can someone explain to me who gave the advice at the time, that paying off the devil would keep him away forever? i still do not understand the logic of promising armed bandits who hijacked the noble cause of the niger delta struggle and went on a kidnaping spree, millions of naira just to make them go away and hand in their weapons (which are illegally possesed in the first place). most of all, i still fail to understand why the nigeria state remains sovereign in the face of a brazen challenge by a few miscreants to the power of the state to enforce law and order. well, the excuse at the time was that the amnesty programme was a well-conceived trick to keep militants at bay while we hosted the world to the FIFA U-17 tournament but that has come and gone and the woodworms are now rearing their heads.
to expect that we are safe only because we stay in the commercial city of lagos and the capital city of abuja while the nation burns is tomfoolery. the nigerian government has again shown that they cannot exercise good judgment on national security issues as it is greatly distracted by the unbelievable amounts of unaccounted funds floating from pocket to greedy pocket and the issuing of mouthwatering contracts week after week under the guise of a Federal Executive Council meeting.
The consistent flagrant discountenance of the latent intent of our age old laws through sheer force (niger delta militants) and loopholes in statutory provisions (late PResident Yaradua's health drama and Yerima's child right versus religious freedom drama) makes it clear that we have come to the point we have collectively avoided for a long time. Nigeria is in the long run, made up of volatile black people,who have with time and western education realized that they are having a bad deal with the existing state structure... like somalia, like rwanda, like eritrea.
We now need a strong president. a president who will do the right thing and stand on the path of justice and public good even if it will lead to a secession of parts of this country. the glue that has held us together against our will for 50 solid years has obviously dried out and no longer holds the pieces together. run from it as we may, the time has come for proper representation of the nigerian citizenry and a full determination of the simple question: "do we want to stay together?".
at this rate, i can hazard the expected response. "hell no".
and so, in order to stay sane, i swore off reading the dailies long ago. and true to expectation, i suddenly found my blog postings a lot lighter and i found myself able to laugh at circumstances that i otherwise would have found grim.
however, ignoring the news only to avoid heartache comes with a costly price. yesterday, my mum and brother travelled to Abuja. as usual, i got so caught up with myself and work that i forgot to call them to confirm their safe arrival. and so just before i closed from work today, i put a call through to them, and my mum got on the phone all grudgy and sore. naturally, considering the trip should have ended since yesterday, i wondered aloud if she was okay. apparently, and i would known if i read the newspapers, some ex-militants from the troubled niger delta region in southern nigeria were heading into Abuja city unannounced to protest their treatment under the celebrated amnesty programme when the police barricaded the city and stopped their entry. naturally, everyone else on the road (my family inclusive) was stuck in the mad traffic that ensued and didnt get home until past midnight.
which brings me to the question. can someone explain to me who gave the advice at the time, that paying off the devil would keep him away forever? i still do not understand the logic of promising armed bandits who hijacked the noble cause of the niger delta struggle and went on a kidnaping spree, millions of naira just to make them go away and hand in their weapons (which are illegally possesed in the first place). most of all, i still fail to understand why the nigeria state remains sovereign in the face of a brazen challenge by a few miscreants to the power of the state to enforce law and order. well, the excuse at the time was that the amnesty programme was a well-conceived trick to keep militants at bay while we hosted the world to the FIFA U-17 tournament but that has come and gone and the woodworms are now rearing their heads.
to expect that we are safe only because we stay in the commercial city of lagos and the capital city of abuja while the nation burns is tomfoolery. the nigerian government has again shown that they cannot exercise good judgment on national security issues as it is greatly distracted by the unbelievable amounts of unaccounted funds floating from pocket to greedy pocket and the issuing of mouthwatering contracts week after week under the guise of a Federal Executive Council meeting.
The consistent flagrant discountenance of the latent intent of our age old laws through sheer force (niger delta militants) and loopholes in statutory provisions (late PResident Yaradua's health drama and Yerima's child right versus religious freedom drama) makes it clear that we have come to the point we have collectively avoided for a long time. Nigeria is in the long run, made up of volatile black people,who have with time and western education realized that they are having a bad deal with the existing state structure... like somalia, like rwanda, like eritrea.
We now need a strong president. a president who will do the right thing and stand on the path of justice and public good even if it will lead to a secession of parts of this country. the glue that has held us together against our will for 50 solid years has obviously dried out and no longer holds the pieces together. run from it as we may, the time has come for proper representation of the nigerian citizenry and a full determination of the simple question: "do we want to stay together?".
at this rate, i can hazard the expected response. "hell no".
Comments
Don't mind me, I'm ranting on your behalf. Keep writing. and I promise to wonder @Nigeria with you.