By Tony Nwajiugo

Thomas Jefferson opined that the very purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interest of the governed and not the governors. The deplorable state of Nigeria is akin to the proverbial tale of Nza the little bird burning out his life on fire upon the misguided belief that he is merely losing fats. It is surprising how every successive government in Nigeria appears to be worse than its predecessor and rings of nothing but a journey to the abyss.

It is deeply disturbing that in a country blessed with rich human and natural resources, people are migrating in millions out of the country for greener pastures as a result of bastardized and harsh economic realities coupled with endemic corruption that have eaten deep into the fabrics of every institution in this country including the churches, mosques and our traditional institutions.

Chaos! Anarchy!! Ethnic and religious divisions are now the order of the day. People lose their lives like mosquitoes every day in the hands of kidnappers, terrorists, hunger, avoidable diseases, armed robbers and even to some badly oriented trigger-happy law enforcement agents and which incessant deaths appear so insignificant and unimportant to a government whose primary duty is the protection of lives and property of Nigerians. Some people have labelled Nigeria as a banana republic and they are not far from the truth as Nigeria has no value for human lives. The once peaceful south eastern part of Nigeria is now bedeviled with incessant killings and kidnappings by the so-called unknown gunmen and people can hardly sleep with their two eyes closed. This Daylive newspaper on the 8th of January, 2022 reported the kidnap of no fewer than 31 persons from a train station in Edo state by herdsmen. The Vanguard newspaper reported of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack by herdsmen on the 28th of March 2022 wherein 63 persons were officially declared abducted while about 14 persons were killed. In all of these, it is disheartening that up till this moment, the Nigerian government under the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is yet to curb any of these menaces or secure the release of any of the kidnap victims.

The rate of poverty in the country has plunged a lot of Nigerian youths into unimaginable crimes and rituals all in the quest for wealth as an escape route from poverty and the government is complicit in this problem as they have perfected the very art of entrenching poverty as a weapon of dominance. Even the rich are products of the poverty-stricken society and have poverty starring them in the face at every turn. They are slaves to corruption and the insatiable acquisition of wealth as they perceive dollars as their freedom from poverty. The average informed elite stutter as a stooge for the ruling class. The University professor appointed as electoral returning office has no moral compass as his stomach infrastructure is more important to him than the good of the nation and ends up reeling out doctored electoral results that enthrone criminals as our leaders rather than patriots. The electoral body is an extension of the Federal Government and will not hesitate to do the bidding of our captors. Our judges have their chambers littered with filthy wealth from corrupt politicians as the imaginary scale of justice is lost to the highest bidder. Our pastors and imams have turned their pulpits to beggars’ stage where false prophesies are exchanged for wealth and the souls and minds of their congregation are perpetually in captivity far away from the truth of how their destinies can be realized from true patriotic leadership in our nation. A.C Konwea in his article ‘who is the thief in chief?’ aptly captured the dilapidated state of our nation in the following words

“Nigerians should believe this. We have lost our hard won independence. We are effectively no more an independent nation. We are no more a country of free men and free women. We are now a colonized nation. The future of the country has been mortgaged and Nigerians have been sold down the river like slaves. Nigerians are now starring down the abyss of perdition with no hope in sight…our new colonizers are black like us. They look like us. They speak like us. They attend the same schools like us. They work alongside us. The worship alongside us. Some of them even pastor us. They speak our common language but they are different from us…’

In the face of this disillusionment and the sorry state of the nation, one begins to wonder the need for a government in the first place taking into cognizance the very fact that we are expending so much to fund a failed governance apparatus which is only adept at entrenching misery while the Nigerian masses remain deafeningly silent. What is more confusing is how Nigerians grumbled and protested during the military era and past democratic regimes when a dollar could be exchanged for less than 50 Naira, 100 Naira and even 200 Naira but are crippled in the face of a dollar exchanging for over N1200. Nigerians protested when they could buy a liter of fuel for less than N87 but are applauding a government under whose watch a liter of fuel is sold for over N600. Nigerians agitated when the doors of justice were locked up by the military but are moronic where our courts appear to be a den of corrupt politicians bereft of any justice.

Is it not shocking that some beggars in the streets and abjectly suffering Nigerans still have funny defenses for politicians of their choice as if it is a loyalty contest for football clubs? Nigerians are more interested in having the corrupt leader from their tribe rather than eradicating the corruption keeping them poor. The fact of the corrupt leader being from a particular religious sect is more important than the heinous crimes perpetuated by such leader. The lamentable state of Nigerian masses is a case of a slave working so hard to elongate his slave tenure under his wicked master and this apparent docility of Nigerians in the face of excruciating hardship is nothing short of a clinical spiritual disease. Not a few catholic Christians have witnessed seemingly endless years of the “Prayers against bribery and corruption in Nigeria” customarily said at every Mass and church activity as has yours truly and yet corruption seems to get worse by the day hence my candid resolve that Nigeria does not need prayers. Nigeria needs a true revolution that will upset the current order of things and reset the country on the right path.

Whelmed in sad emotions over this country, one can’t help but conclude this write up with recourse to the words of Charlie Chaplin in his great submission about society where he said-‘…The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the powers they took from the people will return to the people…’

By Tony Nwajiugo LL.M, Partner- Hullbridge Solicitors, 08069544555

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