Weep not, my country

Only few countries would go through what Nigeria had experienced in the past 55 years of her independence and survive. I make this statement with every sense of responsibility and sincerity of heart. On a more serious note, tell me any country, at least in sub-Saharan Africa, that could still stand on its feet - united and forging ahead - after experiencing a fratricidal civil war and several years of corruption and economic strangulation. Tell me just one. The sympathy and love I have for Nigeria continue to grow in leaps and bounds. I simply love Nigeria, which is why I constantly weep for her any time I remember her sorrows.

I weep for Nigeria not only out of sheer patriotism, but out of deep affection. I am older than independent Nigeria by just one year. Now see where God has placed me! Many of us born two years before or two years after its independence have surpassed Nigeria in wealth and fame. This may sound absurd but it is true. The Dangotes, Adenugas, Ovias, Jimohs, Otedolas, etc. can stand up to Nigeria in wealth and fame.

While individual Nigerians bask in wealth and global recognition, Nigeria - the giant of Africa - dances in the sun. Is it surprising that the global community sees and rates Nigeria as a poor country amid its staggering wealth and amazing human resources?

The oil wealth of the country has been the source of all the pillaging and rape it has suffered in the hands of mindless Nigerians and their foreign accomplices. Daily, our oil resources are siphoned by unscrupulous and fraudulent Nigerians through bunkering and other forms of thefts. Yet, our waterways are supposed to be manned by security agencies!

Wealth generated from oil does not go into the provision of amenities for the good of the people. Instead the wealth from oil is expropriated by those charged with its administration for their selfish aggrandizement. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its ancillaries have been under security and accounting scrutiny for quite some time now. And the news coming from this scrutiny has not been palatable.

What of the Power Sector? Since 1999 there has been a deliberate effort to deal with the problem of power, which has resulted in many companies shifting base from Nigeria to neighbouring countries. While Nigerian industries grapple with epileptic power supply Ghana, Niger and our other neighbours enjoy uninterrupted supply of electricity or gas from Nigeria.

Just last week Nigeria and Ghana reached an agreement on how Ghana would pay back over N33 billion owed Nigeria from power supplied to it. Is this not ridiculous?

I do not have any grouse with Nigeria helping our neighbours. But everything is wrong when Nigeria extends such gestures to other countries, while its own citizens wallow in want and penury.

The proper thing to do is to ensure that we have enough for local consumption before exporting to other countries. We have the capacity, as nation, to satisfy local needs of Nigerians and still export. However, this capacity has been diminished by corruption and other acts of sabotage against the nation.

It is painful that insecurity has enveloped our once-peaceful nation. From east to west, north to south, the situation is the same. While the southeast and southwest daily deal with kidnapping and armed robbery, the northeast and northwest fight terrorism and cattle rustlers. These ills are enough to pull down any nation. Terrorism, for example, has placed the entire world under intense alertness. Since 9/11 no place again is really safe any longer. The United States with all its might and sophistication sleeps in fear. It is the same situation in Britain, France and Germany.

Somalia, Sudan and Libya are already in the realm of failed states; while Kenya, Burkina Faso, Congo Democratic Republic and, even, Nigeria are gradually assuming notoriety in insecurity - particularly terrorism. Across the world, especially Europe, influx of refugees from Africa poses about the biggest challenge.

As I write, Nigeria and its citizens are passing through the worst times since Nigeria came into existence. Though the problems were not caused by this administration, they are eating the citizens up.

Right from independence it has been one form of problem or another - ranging from political turmoil to economic backwardness. At every turn it is easy to see the frustration in the faces of the people.

There is no administration, military or civilian, since independence that has met the hopes and aspirations of Nigerians. People are optimistic that the Buhari administration will be much better. We will X-ray this in the course of this piece. But the consensus is that Nigerians were worse off in the hands of past administrations. The worst, in the judgment of many people, was the Jonathan administration. This position is however contestable, because some critics argue that Obasanjo's was the worst.

In my thinking it is Nigerians that can truly say which of the administrations was the worst. Nonetheless, as a person, my answer would not be too straightforward or simplistic for a number of reasons.

My angst against Obasanjo remains righteous and personal. This was a man I helped in many ways to stabilize after his excruciating prison incarceration. He did not remember any of these things, instead he unleashed his security mad dogs to devour me. What on earth did I do to Obasanjo for him to want to destroy me? My offence was that I did not agree to support his mischievous third term misadventure. I was not the only person against it - almost every Nigerian was. He shut down all my companies and did many other subterranean things to get at me. Thank God I am alive to tell the story.

I believe there were many other Nigerians who were so mistreated. Today, Obasanjo calls himself an elderstatesman, walking the streets a free man when he should have been cooling his heels in prison.

Obasanjo has every reason to be in jail today. For 8 whole years he took the nation on a journey of deceit. He promised Nigerians that his administration would provide steady electricity before the end of his tenure. He spent over 16 billion dollars on this pipe dream. By the time his tenure ended state of power supply was worse than he met it. And nobody has told us what happened to all the money he claimed to have expended on non-existent electricity projects.

Whenever I sit back to think about the sordid experiences to which Nigeria had been subjected my stomach wrenches. The level of corruption in Nigeria is such that if nothing serious is done to curtail it we will wake up one morning and find there is no country again to call ours. There is no aspect of our national life that is immune from corruption. It has become a way of life.

I read a report in the media last Saturday which detailed how much Nigeria loses yearly to oil thieves. The report put the figure at over 14 billion dollars. Convert this figure into naira and your heart will be literally blown away. 14 billion dollars will be enough to provide sustainable and functional infrastructure for the suffering people of this country. This is the money some misfits carted away and wasted on sheer revelry.

It pains me that we are yet to devise a means to deal with corruption. All that has been done so far is mere rhetoric. It can be said that the first serious attempt at fighting corruption is made under the Buhari administration. But the fear in many quarters is that the whole thing will go the way of past efforts.

May I, however, beg to disagree: I believe Buhari means well this time round. Those opposed to his style must have something to fear.

Was it not the endemic corruption at the Customs that caused the President to appoint a retired military man to head the service?

Our electoral system has remained a worry to the good people of this country. This is one country where one votes and he is not sure his vote will count. For the past 17 years until the 2015 general elections our electoral system had been bedeviled with all kinds of problems – ranging from poor funding to election rigging. In fact, the entire system smacked of endemic corruption.

So, it was a pleasant development when Prof. Attahiru Jega (former INEC boss) introduced far-reaching measures to sanitize the system and produce a semblance of free and fair elections. He introduced the card readers and PVCs with special security chips to eliminate over-voting and other forms of malpractices that characterized past elections. The experiment generally worked, despite some flaws associated with the card readers.

As I wrote last week the judiciary should play a pivotal role in the consolidation of our democracy in accordance with the practice in other climes. Without a robust and courageous judiciary there will be no democracy. It is for this reason that it is called the last hope of the common man. Nevertheless, some of the judgments spewing from its chambers of recent give me and many other Nigerians cause for worry.

Though I have already called on the President to do something about our electoral system to eliminate all the impediments on its way of delivering untainted judgments, there is still need for all Nigerians to work together to make the judiciary more alive to its statutory duties.

The blame for the deteriorating state of things in our country should not be heaped on government officials and agencies alone. The citizens have a part of the blame. Crimes cannot exist in any society in isolation of the citizens of that society. Therefore, the rising rate of crimes in Nigeria is blamable on Nigerians themselves who see something and say nothing. If every Nigerian plays the role of safeguarding his or her environment then our society will be better for it.

It is inexcusable that some Nigerians deliberately connive with criminal elements to make life unbearable for other Nigerians. Recent facts from the police show that most bank robberies across the country are made possible with the active connivance of staff of such banks. What police have aptly termed 'insider job'.

If I may ask: Do these criminal elements live outside the society? Not at all! They live among us. After all, they may be brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, uncles or even aunties to some of us. The truth is that these thieves and scoundrels live among us to perpetrate heinous crimes against the people. It is high time Nigerians stood up to their social responsibilities by revealing the identities of these wicked people to the police for necessary action.

I am compelled to ask: For how long will Nigeria be allowed to bleed internally before it is salvaged? Will we fold our hands and watch it bleed to death? Those who work against Nigeria should bear in mind we have no other country to call ours. We should not allow the sacrifices of our forbears to be in vain.

It is gratifying to observe that it is not all condemnation: some Nigerians have worked very hard to keep the faith and make Nigeria great. They do this in many ways, including job creation, support of government programmes, and obedience to law and constitutionality. We owe this nation a duty no matter the social statuses to which we belong. From any theatre of life we can contribute our little quotas to its development by exhibiting good attributes that promote peace, harmony, and progress.

If Nigeria were to be a human being she would earn the highest award in the land for endurance, indefatigability, perseverance and untiring eagerness to sustain its citizens. For close to 55 years, it has bled and almost asphyxiated to death in the hands of unscrupulous elements.

We must spare a thought for Nigeria, rethink our values and make necessary sacrifices to reposition her to compete favourably in the comity of nations.

I believe strongly that very soon Nigeria will rise again. It cannot remain in its present state of inertia forever. After all, it has all that it takes to be truly African giant. The experiences of the past 55 years will come to play in the next four years when this administration will have served out its term.

It is our collective prayer that God will bless Nigeria and provide her the succour she needs at this period of pain, suffering and agony to continue to provide for her peoples.

My dear, Nigeria, weep no more!