Nigeria’s problems are worth weeping for

By Jide Oyewusi

Sir: Whoever has taken a closer study of Nigeria’s trajectories would never but weep for the country. The magnitude of damage done to both the country and the people’s psyche by past rapacious leaders, the dire consequences the country faces sadly without any of hope of emancipation in the horizon as the country continues to drift further and further into the abyss of foreign loans would definitely elicit tears of emotions.

There is a common saying that when people are pushed to the wall, they are bound to react violently but some people have countered that Nigerians would rather enter such wall and keep pushing forward like chained slaves. That is because no matter whatever happens in the country, the most passionate concern of most Nigerians is to forge ahead with their lives and avoid all appearances of trouble at all cost and by all means.

Due to such innate attitudes of tolerance and perseverance occasioned by extreme fears, those in the helms of affairs in Nigeria have seen through the citizens and now dip their hands directly into the people’s eyes knowing full well that absolutely nothing would happen.

Nigerians in all works of life are ever so afraid of even their own shadows than to try to challenge any manner of absurdities playing out in their country. That is why cases such as alleged missing N210 trillion unaccounted for by the NNPCL can just be allowed to slide without any slight protest.

The same reason why the immediate past governor of the Central Bank could commit so much atrocities while in office and by now, his issue is almost becoming forgotten, What about the former Accountant General of the Federation accused of embezzling billions of naira or the case of a former minister whose assets gathered through foul means are worth more than two hundred billions? How many of such mind- boggling fraud cases do Nigerians remember? What about Nigeria’s solid minerals said to be under the whims and caprices of powerful Nigerians reaping all the revenues that normally should accrue to the federal government?

It is most disheartening that while all the massive frauds and lootings continue unabated, the nation’s health and education sectors are in shambles. Nigerians continue to die in large number on daily basis owing to the absence of standard medical facilities in the country and even those in government themselves prefer medical tourism to fixing Nigeria’s moribund health sector.

Education in Nigeria from the elementary to the tertiary is poorly funded and educators themselves live like paupers. There are even insinuations that some lecturers in the tertiary institutions are sometimes unable to afford the high cost of accommodation and simply turn their offices to residence. If a closer scrutiny is done of Nigeria’s emeritus professors, the physical appearances of many of them would always reveal decades of neglect and sufferings in spite of their erudition and scholarship.

Most of them apart from working under excruciating conditions are also drafted into the highly humiliating electoral assignments every time which none of them dares to reject for fear of losing their jobs. If those in such high positions are treated like dregs by successive governments and nobody has been able to come to their rescue, how much more of others in the lower rung of employment as civil servants who indeed are not actually better than slaves in their own land.

Nigeria’s roads remain death traps and while successive governments award billions of naira contracts for the construction of new road which duration take like forever to conclude, the old roads motorists ply on daily basis are neglected leading to so many carnage almost every time and so many loss of lives.

The Otedola Bridge on Lagos -Ibadan expressway for instance has claimed more lives than anyone can count or imagine, yet, nobody has been able to come up with what must be done to stop the daily carnage.

Any curious observer would always wonder why Nigerians appear to be so docile that nothing moves them or brings out their anger or annoyance at any point in time. It is not unconnected with the long years of military rule and the morbid fears already built into Nigerians by the junta. Nobody dared to complain or challenge the military irrespective of whatever absurd policy they embark upon in the polity. The few people who dared to confront them like Chief Gani Fawehimmi and Fela Anikulapo Kuti met their untimely graves and it was enough lesson for others to either keep shut permanently or prepare for trouble and problems.

Anyone who for a reason or another has had a taste of police detention or Nigeria’s inner prisons would never pray to return there. It is for these reasons Nigerians are ever so afraid to speak up no matter whatever hardship they face except on the radio where some know they can do so under the condition of anonymity.

Because of the terrible situations in Nigeria, almost every youth has his eyes outside the country with many trooping out on daily basis to just any available country where one could live comfortably and contribute meaningfully to societal growth.

In the bid to do so, however, many are unlucky to fall into wrong hands while thousands trying to access different countries through the seas perish in the oceans unceremoniously. Now, who would consider all these multifarious problems confronting Nigerians and not weep for Nigeria?

Jide Oyewusi is coordinator of Ethics Watch International and Friends of The Denied Inc.