The absence of common
goal
Adeola Aderounmu
The biggest challenges
in Nigeria is the absence of "for the good of all" since the
day that Nigerians took their future in their hands by bidding
farewell to the colonial masters from Britain. On May 1, 2007,
The Guardian chose to publish the article contributed
by Pat Utomi who seems to be a good man standing among the
bunches that have just jostled for the flawed election in
Nigeria. This man, who appears to be without blemish, wrote
that he has henceforth dedicated his life to the struggle
called Nigeria.
In my opinion, this is a
very positive and healthy development. We have seen a few
honest men in the past but the problem is that they never get
to that vantage position where their good intentions can be
tested nationally. This to me is the greatest challenge that
Utomi faces. On face value, he wrote honestly and
intelligently. I am not in a position to assess this man
called Utomi but he has been around the corner long enough to
be taken by his words. We may never be able to try such men as
we should. In Nigeria, if you are not a thug or ruffian, you
may not be well adapted to survive on the political terrain.
Our democracy is not for decent people.
In our part of the
world, we are involved in the selection of public office
holders and an arrangement called kangaroo elections where we
may or may not need to vote. It doesn’t make a difference what
we do on polling days. I am still very amazed that we have
Nigerians who vote on selection days. Why do you vote when the
winner of the election could be someone who is not even a
candidate? You are 20,000 in your community and a total vote
tally of 100,000 could emerge.
Do Nigerians know the
meaning of boycott? You could even lose your life trying to
cast a vote for some lunatic attempting to reach a certain
political status! Why take such a risk? There are more than 50
reasons not to vote in Nigeria. The number is correlated with
the number of ways that do-or-die politicians achieve their
objectives. The 2007 elections in Nigeria is a new world
record for cheating possibilities. All other African countries
should never allow the Nigerian government to give them advice
anymore on democracy or how to chose or run their government.
The example of Nigeria can ruin Africa and the entire world.
The reason for all these
catastrophes and retrogression in Nigeria is simply because
there is absence of the common good. The politicians are
selfish and on average business adventure to milk the
populace. The blame is cyclic and the cycle itself is
idiotism. The reason for politics in Nigeria is not to improve
the state but for some nonentities to earn a living and siphon
riches for personal gains. The Nigerian state is not set up to
run itself like all modern systems are. Over the years,
Nigerians generally have resorted to any means possible to be
rich and live comfortably. This started with the rapid
collapse of the infrastructure, non-maintenance of anything
public/government owned. In short time, all social amenities
hit the rock and the basic necessities of life became elusive.
Eventually, only a few people live comfortably relative to the
140 million inhabitants.
Lack of common good bred
by a fearful combination of both greed and corruption has
ruined Nigeria. It is reported as one of the poorest countries
in the world while on the contrary and in reality, Nigeria is
arguably one of the richest countries in the world. There is
abundance of natural resources in the country. If you study
the geography of Nigeria, you will end up being confused since
you will not be able to understand why average Nigerians
should not be able to live on more than USD 100 per day if
they so choose.
This is attainable since
the intelligent minds have calculated that the wealth from the
Niger Delta of Nigeria alone can sustain the entire Africa. If
this is true, then it is extremely ridiculous that the people
in the Niger Delta of Nigeria are among the poorest in the
world. They are poor socially and ruined environmentally. Ask
the foreign oil companies about that and how they have been
aided by succeeding governments in Nigeria to trample on the
local indigenes. Indeed, what I call "mass poverty" prevails
in Nigeria.
Ask yourself, where does
all the income from the oil go to? Why are there no refineries
in Nigeria, the sixth largest producer of oil in the world?
Why is agriculture no longer the main foreign exchange earner
in Nigeria? Where are all the cocoa farms in Western Nigeria?
Where are the groundnut pyramids in the North? Where is the
Cassava from the East? Where are the products of the Ajaokuta
Steel factory? Where lies the coal industry? What happened to
the Hydro-Electric Power Generation system? Where are the
graduate employment schemes of old? Do not attempt a full list
of these potentials and don’t even think about the human
resources in terms of intelligence and availability! You will
be more confused and disillusioned.
So what went wrong? Many
things went wrong. The bottom line is the absence of the
common good. The politicians are the worst culprits and the
civil service was not left out as well. Nobody believed in the
government any longer and people did what they liked. The
results: prevalence of hunger, increase in road accidents,
increase in general morbidity and mortality-due to diseases
and a non-functional health system.
This takes me back to
Utomi. Is he sincere? How many sincere people do we need to
take Nigeria forward progressively? Shall we have more honest
men to stand up in the fight to save Nigeria? Nigeria is
collapsing and what she needs are the voice and actions of the
people with common good.
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