Uttering nonsense
When a man is
unable to allow his utterances be controlled by his cranial matter we assume
the person is drunk because alcohol has a way of loosening the tongue. If there
is no sign that the person is inebriated we begin to question the mental
capacity of the person and words like stupid, dolt, idiot or cretin come to
mind.
However, if such a
person falls into neither category because we are aware of the person’s
intellect and his bearing is such that alcohol and stupidity are excluded, you
are left to wonder and ponder at what the issue might be.
Running Nigeria is
neither for the inebriated nor the stupid, it is a job that calls on all
faculties; the exhibited ones need to be alert, sharp and commanding of the
authority and bearing expected of such who dare to lead.
Taking stock
The time has come
and the time is now that we can no more acquiesce to low expectations and
levels of achievement that are redolent of indolence rather than hardworking
effective and efficient leadership.
In our 6th
decade of independence, we have no time for people learning on the job, lacking
aims, plans, mission or a vision as to where they intend to take Nigeria in the
short term and at the end of their term in office.
Our democratic
experiment is now close to concluding its 13th year and what we have
seen more of is profligacy, prodigality, waste, corruption and a lack of
accountability. Billions of dollars have been ploughed into infrastructure as
power, roads, transport, rail, health and education but there has been very
little to show for those investments.
Rather our
legislators have growth fat on the largesse of the country earning humongous
sums that will make the eyes of real creators of jobs and masters of industry
water – to think from anecdotal evidence that our federal legislators earn more
than presidents or leaders of more advanced economies and then to see a paltry
work rate that is self-serving rather than in the service of the people is
unconscionable, dishonest, corrupt and unsustainable.
Things are NOT changing
However, the
biggest question remains what plans do they all have for the progress of
Nigeria and when will they stop promising and start delivering?
After the 2 weeks
of Occupy Nigeria and the strikes that ended yesterday, it appears the
reluctant government in perpetual inertia was forced to be responsive albeit
unilateral in all their decision-making dispensing of the rule of law for
expediency and convenience that the legislature is found having to exert itself
as the usually careless overseer of executive excess.
And careless they
have been because they have still not addressed the criminally fraudulent
matter of noticing the executive budgeted N250bn for fuel subsidies in 2011 and
actually had spent N1.3trn by September and they are asking for more to cover
the whole of 2011.
It still beggars
belief that there are no checks and moderating influences over the executive to
ensure they do not overspend without recourse to the legislature and if they
do, there are no sanctions and repudiations to be made to all responsible with
the possibility of criminal prosecution.
It is incredible
that any organ of government can overspend by 500% and the other organs of
government abdicate their responsibility with impunity; it indicates how
corruption has eaten into the fabric of Nigerian governance that it is
impossible for it to reform without some radical act of the people or God
forbid some other intervention that forcibly resets this untenable and flagrant
abuse of democratic processes.
We are caught as I
once said before in the grip of an unconscionable kakistocracy – it is the
government by the worse people ever selected to be in leadership.
Doing the worst of the least
Just before words
could be taken out of our mouths, the president when addressing certain youths
who in their excellence might abdicate their initiative and innate abilities
for subservience to the government we have today, he said, “If we
cannot build good roads for our children; if we cannot leave hospitals for
them, then one thing we must not leave for them is debt, for them to come and
pay.”[1]
I have been trying
to get my head round what the president really meant by this statement because
try as I might, I have found it impossible to make anything positive of it.
Then to think
someone thought this statement was so positively profound that is was the quote
on the FrontPage
advertisement of BusinessDay just shows how low our expectations of this
government have precipitously fallen that the government is not even exerting
itself to anything at all.
Nigeria needs roads
and she needs hospitals, those will contribute to the lifeblood of our economy
and wellbeing. Even theoretical economists who always tend to leave out the
serious human dimension in their modelling know that road infrastructure and
healthcare are critical elements of development that if we end up in debt
facilitating such the long term economic benefits will eventually pay off the
debts.
A race to ruin
What I read here is
a man that we have in elected office as president who has no vision for the
country, he is as laidback as a rug with not particular goals apart from the
default of not leaving the debts to our children whilst in the 5 years that he
has been running mate either as vice-president or president he has presided
over such an expansion of government to no end but for the aggrandisement of
their debauched lifestyles of untold opulence leaving nothing for the people.
It is a race to
ruin that does not address the real problems that affect the country be it
corruption, profligacy or the security deficit that allows a high-level
terrorist suspect to escape from custody at a time when the country is in a heightened
state of security.
Occupy their lives
This, my friends
can no more continue, we have another 40 months of this regime and something
must give, it cannot be the people giving in to business as usual anymore, we
need to make these people responsible, accountable and earning each kobo of
their keep.
Our Occupy Nigeria
movement needs to spearhead a series of tenacious occupations, we must
occupy their minds, occupy their thoughts, occupy their time, occupy their
space, occupy their lives, audit their time, audit their spend, audit their
lives, micro-manage all their activities and call each and every one
who takes money from the Nigerian coffers to account.
Politics in Nigeria
must stop being a cushy job of high-living in ostentatious consumption to feed insatiable
hedonistic appetites, these people should be too busy to find time for such
excess and if they cannot stand the heat, they should resign.
Occupy and force change for the better
If a politician is
not ready to put their best forward and make Nigeria the main priority of their
lives with everything Nigeria being front and centre of their focus, it is time
for them to retire with no benefits, they should take to life like all other
Nigerians do. Enough of this nonsense, enough of the rottenness that is eating
this country to the core and enough of the clueless leadership that needs to be
given a good boot kick in the backside to start performing.
Occupy Nigeria for
the change we deserve and we either force these people to do it or force them
out but by God, we will not wait until 2015 for this indolence to become so
ingrained that the future would have been eternally mortgaged to this looming
debacle and apology of a state of affairs.
Occupy! The time is
now.
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