Does anyone know that a Nigerian has no respect anywhere on the surface of the earth? Shakespeare wrote: to thyself be true. I think the primordial problem of a Nigerian and Nigeria is that we have a false, unrealistic image of ourselves and our country. Who wants to face the truth; and the truth is that people drop us like hot potato when they hear that we are from Nigeria. Our president, governors and both federal and state law makers should not nurse the feelings that their positions confer them any honor outside the shores of Nigeria. We are a collection of cesspool and we stink to the high heaven, all Nigerians; not up to 15 people are left. Neither Ghana nor South Africa, nor any country in Africa has respect for us. Talk less of countries outside of Africa, we are badly crafted demons. Do we care, no; as far as we get money by any means, either through financial fraud or outright stealing; the end justifies the means? Back home, villages, towns and metropolis; so far we display wealth, leave money to children unborn, big houses, cars, accolades, swing women and our sons and daughters are in the choice schools anywhere in the world; nothing else matters.
A Nigerian is a dysfunctional being personified. I have told friends and I know the usual reactions, Nigeria will never progress: no light, no road networks, no water supply, no functioning hospitals, no good schools, primary, secondary and tertiary, increasing corruption, upswing in insecurity, unstoppable unemployment, no answers to fuel shortage, poor economy, useless people voted into power, intolerable poverty, receding longevity, increasing prostitution, child labor, dirty and clogged towns without proper drainages, chaos, difficulty doing business, kidnapping, violent armed robbery, insurrections, lack of integrity among people, class segregation, ethnic strife, religious wars and host of other negativities. The only hope for Nigeria lies on a total three hundred and sixty degrees turnaround from our old ways. Another second option is if what happened to the people of Noah’s era would descend on Nigeria; then there will be new crop of individuals and that name Nigeria would be expunged from divine and mundane lexicons.
How do Nigerians think: eat today for tomorrow we die? We hate our country, we hate our products and what is produced outside Nigeria is better. Our culture is useless and the cultures in Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Cameroun, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Dubai, Mali, Spain, Italy, France and other countries are better than ours. We have to destroy our schools, so that the child of a poor man will not get a better education, and I have stolen money to send my children to schools in USA, Ghana, Britain, Canada, Poland, France, South Africa and other nations of the world. Shut up, if you say anything, I will deal with you and no person will save you, you poor rat. We have to vote money to tar and beautify Ikoyi and Victoria Island; nothing should be spent in Ajegunle, which is a place for the poor suffering idiots.
Sorry, I will not be around during the summer for I will be taking my children to USA, to see Disney Land, we are not equal. Nigerians like to act as beentos; they like to create employments in other countries by consuming foreign goods. It is a classy thing to use peak milk produced in Holland instead of the ones produced in Agbara Industrial Layout Ikeja. The Igbos in Lagos and children of the elites do not speak Ibo language, such behavioral attitude is promoted viciously and they think that they are doing their children big favor, but decimating them in the society. Nigerians hate who they are and this is a fundamental problem; and how can nationalism be steamed up?
How can a leader defend his or her country when he or she has no interest in Nigeria and anything Nigerian? Jesus Christ said that if a man does not know where he is coming from, he will not know where he is going. Is it then surprising that when our rogue politician takes office, he or she stashes any available cash seen in the government coffer to Dubai, USA, London and other destinations? Their hearts are not in Nigeria and that has been the reason why they steal the country dry and ferry their loots to other habitations. How many politicians of other nations steal and pile their loots in Nigeria?
The main function of corporation is to produce goods and services, innovates and markets same for the benefits of the consumers. The consumers patronize a corporation by buying these goods and services, and the corporation makes profits which it deploys back to the organization and what is left is for the shareholders. Through the profits also, the corporation pays taxes to the government and provides employment for people, thereby helping to stabilize the society in which it operates. Some also go into helping the communities, like building schools, pipe born water and road constructions in the localities they do business and this behavior is called corporate social responsibility. Peter Drucker once said that managers are the organs of the corporations and the corporations are the organs of the society. If a manager does not carry his or her functions of organizing, leading, planning, budgeting and discipline; such organization will fumble. On the other hand, when an enterprise fails to carry out its functions, the larger society will suffer and chaos will ensued; and it is this reason that responsible governments all over the world have due diligent over sight on corporations through laws.
The question is: what are the functions of local government, state government and federal government in Nigeria? It will shock you that those that angle for various positions, local government chairman, legislator, governor and president do not know their functions and the reason why they are there in the first place. But why these men and women kill themselves to be elected local government chairmen, legislators, governors or president baffles me if the reason why they are going there eludes them. I think the analysis of a Nigerian brain which will be a good topic for doctoral dissertation research becomes elegant and timely. The only thing that preoccupies their minds is nothing other than looting the peoples’ commonwealth; they are not there to better the lives of the people or to improve the existing situation they met on ground.
Please, check this: the primary school which produced me in 1974 has collapsed and the area covered with grasses, reptiles and all kinds of insects; but wait for more shocking news, the school is still used today as a school where innocent children sit to receive education. The school is Christ the King School, a primary school located in Umunchi village in osuh Owerri, Isiala Mbano in Imo State. When Dee Sam Mbakwe was there, the school was a good place of learning, but subsequent governors in Imo State destroyed all the available spaces for learning. My story is the same story all over Nigeria. When I was growing up, especially when I was at Aquinas Secondary School Umunachi, Osuh in Mbano, from 1975- 1980, I used Okigwe General Hospital free for treatment; I fetched pipe born water from public tap in Okigwe township, fresh and I still remember the chlorine smell; this could not be different in all other small townships n Nigeria. Today, the new kids have not seen public tap water and if anything at all, it is bore hole they hear about dug by a semi-wealthy family member.
When I left high school in 1980, I was able to secure a job with National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON) in Lagos, precisely at Commercial Avenue, Yaba and many of my peers on or before that time did all over Nigeria. I did not come from a wealthy family, so I had to work before proceeding to Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt for a degree in Petrochemical Engineering. When I was at Aquinas, a trip to Okigwe from Umunachi took only 17 minutes, because the road was as smooth as silk and my story may not be different from other folks of that time. We had uninterrupted power supply then and the school authority rarely started the standby generator for power supply and my mates can testify to this in all parts of Nigeria.
Shagari and his cohorts were saints when put in juxtaposition with the present clueless politicians of today. It is only one scenario that can capture how Nigerians think: $2.1 billion was earmarked for arms purchase, to defeat the Islamic militants that have held Nigeria in the jugular, but the actors shared that money and allowed our soldiers to be butchered by our common enemy, because our soldiers were sent to the war front bare handed. This happened under the watchful eyes of Jonathan Goodluck. How did we know, because a man like President Buhari was sent by God to be our president? Had it been that president Goodluck won the election, this could have been covered as usual. Now check how Nigeria had been short changed by Babangida, Abacha, Abdusallam, Obasanjo and Umaru Yar’Adua.
In Imo State, all the good works of Dee Sam Mbakwa had been erased and the state drawn backwards to 50 years and the same goes to all the states of the federation. Babangida started monumental corruption in Nigeria, Abacha stretched it and Obasanjo overstretched it while Umaru Yar’Adua built on what Obasanjo left but Goodluck Jonathan finished its elasticity.
Those who have read 1984, a political satire by George Orwell will understand the functions of our elected functionaries. Ministry of plenty takes care of scarcity, ministry of power in Nigeria takes care of darkness, ministry of labor and productivity takes care of unemployment, ministry of finance takes scare of bankruptcy, and that has been the reason why nothing works in Nigeria.
During the 2015 campaigns, politicians used all their stolen money to vie for elections thinking that things would be as usual, but the emergence of Buhari has nailed all of them: stealing is not allowed is a big bill board all of them are trying to pull down. Now, we can hear them crying and pressurizing Buhari to step down on corruption fight. When APC won the last election, some of the PDP politicians decamped to APC, with their looting mentality, at last they found that Buhari meant business to fight corruption; so now they are feeling like fish out of water. Nigerian politicians are useless; and now even some of the APC politicians and other looting folks are frustrated that they are thinking of forming a formidable opposition party to challenge Buhari in 2019; but we know their antics and when the time comes, we will remind them.
This is not a normal condition for Nigerian politicians and, may Buhari live long to finish the work God has assigned him to do for Nigerians; at least for the poor masses. This man needs the support of the tiny sane people in Nigeria and the majority, mired in corruption can go to hell. It is time to produce and not to import; it is time to patronize locally made goods. Our naira should not be subjected to undue pressure. We can get through this; so far we do not backslide when the price of oil picks up again. One of the biggest problems of Nigerians is that they have short memories.
In Los Angeles, I have not seen many of them with their oversized family members for shopping; and a story was rife on how a Nigerian politician paid an African American lady $15,000 for a night stand. And that was our money; with Buhari, no more business as usual. Make dem cry blood.
Chukwuma Iwuanyanwu writes from Los Angeles