Date Published: 01/28/10
Nigerian is doomed By Oluti Ajibola
To my fellow Nigerians who expected this year to be a happy one I am sorry
to disappoint you. This year is going to be the most turbulent year this
country will ever witnessed. It is either going to be the end of this
contraption called Nigeria or the beginning of a new dawn. If we still
have a country after this year, it is going to be different from the
Nigeria we all know. Call me a prophet a doom if you like. I don’t
care. The dream I saw for this country is far from palatable. Forget
about prayer. God will never intervene in the affairs of this country
until we are ready to confront our oppressors head on. Governance has
practically collapsed in the country but our leaders are playing the
ostrich. Where else but in Nigeria will a country continue to run itself
without a leader for two months and the party in power continue to behave
as if nothing is amiss? No one except the president immediate family knows
the true condition of the president health. The Saudis are not telling us
anything. Forget his speech on BBC interview service. If we must
disbelieve the U.S Observer then he president must speak to Nigeria
through NTA or FRCN. The country is on the brink of a revolution but our
lawbreakers are still busy sharing Ghana- must- go bags. It is only in
this country that petrol being sold at 65 Naira the previous day will sell
for 100 Naira the following day and people will shrugged and say “at
least we dey see am buy.”
Where else in the world will a group of people who want to hold on to
power at all cost foist on us a supplementary budget purported to be
sighed by a sick president who cannot even address his nation on a New
Year day and all hell will not break loose? If this is not obtaining under
false pretence then tell me what to call their action. No matter how many
times they perfected their evil plan for the military to take over and
hand over to them, they will fail. Don’t these people ever learn?
Abiola made this same mistake; he paid the supreme price for it.
It is only in Nigerian a vice president gives instruction to an ordinary
minister to postpone a foreign trip because of crisis emanating from his
ministry as a result of his incompetence and the minister will shrugged
and say ‘to hell with you’ and proceeded on the trip. It is
from this nonentity’s ministry despite persistent fuel scarcity that
many ships laden with fuel were on the high seas waiting to offload but
has been unable because of his bureaucratic nonsense. These ships incur
about $35,000 demurrage daily. Anyone who doubted me can go to the
Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) who has been
pressurizing NNPC to stop this wastage and let them use their ships to
offload these cargoes to no avail. Some of these ships have been on the
high seas for more than four months!
Something must be wrong upstairs with those saddled (?) with the task of
running the affairs of this country if they can put such a fool in charge
of the most important ministry in this country. The man may be a professor
or a formal Vice Chancellor. So what ? Many professors in this country are
by quota so means nothing. The man is too old for the all-important
ministry he heads. He is bereft of new ideas. His ministry keeps telling
us they have enough fuel to go round but for saboteurs who are making
things difficult when all evidence on ground points to the contrary. The
sad truth is that the marketers who imports more that 70% of the petroleum
products consumed in this country stopped importing. They vowed not to
import again until government pays them about 75 billion bridging claim it
owed them, make a categorical statement about its deregulation policy and
allowed them unfettered access to bank loan. No matter how many filling
stations DPR closes, the scarcity will continue. The marketers have the
government by the balls and they know it. The government is desirous of
deregulating but is afraid of the aftermath because NUPENG and PENGASAN
have vowed to make the country ungovernable if government did not put some
things in place first. They want importation of fuel stopped. They want
the refineries fixed and new ones built. Minimum wages must be increased
to at least =N=53,000 per month, which I think is chicken feed considering
that a federal legislature’s total package without unaccountable
incomes excluding Ghana must go and all is not less than 100 million Naira
per year. They also want NEPA or are they PHCN now to give us at least 18
hours of uninterrupted power supply daily, which is reasonable. After all
Ghana provides her citizens with 24 hours of uninterrupted power daily.
The government knows they cannot meet these conditions because they either
are bereft of ideas on how to accomplish this or lack the will the do so.
I have always been a fervent believer of democracy but ten years of PDP
have changed my opinion. I now realize Abacha regime is better than what
we have presently. To hell with all politicians in Nigeria. They have
failed us.
Nigerians don’t believe in this country and will never fight for any
common cause. One event lends credence this assertion. Contrary to popular
belief outside Nigeria, we are no cowards. Nigeria needs to belief in
something before they act.
After the Babangida shenanigan that led to the political stalemate in the
country at that time, the lame duck man who the military selected to do
the hatchet job of the cabal who arrogated to themselves the sole right to
rule this country increased the price of petroleum products. PENGASAN (of
which I was a member) and NUPENG in conjunction with NLC called all
Nigerian to a sit- at-home strike. The NURTW who are also members of NLC
were the first union to break the strike by working in the evening after
buying fuel at exorbitant price from the black market. While we were home
and sometimes at our union headquarters perfecting strategies to further
the cause of checkmating the military, many Nigerian were trekking to
their offices and places of business everyday. I really suffered during
those weeks. While my family and I were practically starving, many
Nigerian were smiling to the banks by selling fuel (sometime adulterated)
in the black market. From then on, I knew it is worthless to fight or die
for any cause in this country. Everybody except few Nigerians already know
this is not a country but an amalgamation of nations waiting to implode.
Obasanjo had the greatest opportunity to put this country on the path of
progress by righting all wrongs. He could have given the country the type
of constitution it desired if he wanted because he had already checkmated
the so-called power cabal and became the country maximum ruler. His word
was law. He had the opportunity to write his name on the sand of time of
this country but he chose not to. He instead went on his ill-fated
jamboree called third term adventure. He is now one of the most hated
Yoruba man alive.
Back to why I said this year will mark the beginning of the end of Nigeria
if not the end. Election would be held in Anambra state in February 6 and
against all odds, PDP will repeat the Ekiti magic by declaring Soludo the
biggest crook we once hailed as the saviour of our banking world as the
winner. All hell will brake loose. Unlike in Ekiti, the loser will not
bother to go to court this time, as they know from experience this is a
useless option. The Uba brothers will join hands with the other political
parties. The aftermath will be a child play to the operation wetie of the
so-called wild wild west. The police will not be able to quell the
mayhem. Soludo will run to Abuja like Omoboriowo of old Ondo state.
Soldiers will come in. Many people will be killed. The world will be
aghast at the display of brutality by the soldiers. Those in power will be
afraid. The military would lose its remaining credibility because many of
them will support Yaradua. I don’t mean the one in Saudi. Two things
will either happen. The North will quickly rally some southerners that
still have credibility left; convey a national conference to work out our
differences or radical soldiers takes over and kill thousands I mean
thousands of people. Either way, we are doomed. The conference will end
up in a fiasco because the seed of distrust already sown would be
heightened. The north will experience what both the west and the east
once experienced.
At the end of the day, the only solution may be to your tent O Israel.
The radical soldiers will not last few weeks before another one takes over
and another and another. Abuja will become a battlefield.
Before I forget, those who forged the president signature on the
supplementary budget will try to replicate it on the 2010 budget. The move
will backfire. This will mark the beginning of the crisis that will engulf
the presidential villa. This crisis will consume them and all their
cronies. Obasanjo might have used Yaradua to spite us for rejecting his
third term folly, the imposition is now his nemesis. Head or tail Nigeria
is jinxed.
Oluti Ajibola
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