those of us from the same school of thoughts will be able to know that the assumption of Nigerian’s political powers have always fallen in the hands of political brigands from a looting cadre simultaneously, since the scaring off of our colonial exponents in the name of independence by our so called heroes Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe and his allies.
Retrospectively, during the British rule, one hardly experienced any form of political ineptitude, albeit they may have had but they handled it in a way that it never affected the citizens. But in our present government, the poor citizens bear the 100% backlash of every crime committed by our government, in reference to the ongoing strike in our country, the federal government is responsible for the ASUU strike but the poor masses are suffering it alone because the children of our leaders are either studying abroad or in some of the best private universities in the country. The government is responsible for the poor state of our hospitals, but when they are sick, where do they go? And who suffers the horrendous foray of sickness? The answer is crystal clear, that’s why I dissent the idea of our leaders traveling abroad for medical treatments while our hospitals are left in an awful state. Nigeria has been in what seems to be an eternity of bad leadership, living our economy in disarray. Whenever I compare our country with other countries around the world, an apologetic poem which I composed sometimes ago always comes at mind. “Our dear fatherland Nigeria, we are sorry for the shame, bloodshed, disrespect that our leaders have brought on you. We are sorry about how your name is been ridiculed in the community of nations. We are sorry for scaring away the god sents who came from far away to rescue us from primitivity, please our father land, we call on you to send us new rescuers, but this time, send them from withing our country, so help us God”. The Boko Haram inter-ethnic pogrom that has led to conundrum in Nigeria today can be viewed as genocide. The northern leaders organized this group to persecute their rivals, the Igbos. The Boko Haram sect, though has been in existence since 2001, did not become popular in the country until 2009 when they saw the possibility of Goodluck Jonathan becoming a president, it then participated actively in sectarian violence, which occurred then in Jos, Plateau State and since then, they have single handedly committed many other evil acts which they mainly gear on annihilating the Igbo ethnic group.
Mohammed Yusuf, who remained the group’s leader until he was killed by soldiers in 2009, founded the Boko Haram sect. The crux in our country today is how and when a free and fair election can be conducted, does it mean that the current Nigeria lacks the idea of how a free and fair election can be conducted? Or does it mean that the leaders are so adamant to acknowledge the need for the general well being of the citizens?. Every election in our country seems to stir up trouble in the country. The irresistible taste of power has been the major cause for election misconduct in our country. This problem has eaten deep into our politicians to the extent that the governors cannot freely appoint or elect their own leader. History has it that on June 1993election, many Nigerians voted for MKO ABIOLA irrespective of ethnic and religious rivalry. for the first time in the history of Nigerian selection, I was told that Nigerian government was able to conduct a free and fair election. On narrating the story to us in my earlier years of secondary education, my teacher could see the joy on the faces of the citizens, my teacher went on and on in telling us how the prices of goods and commodities decreased automatically after the vote casting .for the fact that all that could go wrong went right on this day made the annulment of the election and the controversy it generated thereafter all the more remarkable, now the question is, if Nigeria could conduct a free and fair election as earlier as 1993,what-stops this government of our modern era from doing the same? Well, lets live the question for future, as the end will justify all. I am among those who view the erstwhile Nigerian/Biafran war or better put the Ojukwu/Gowon war as A PERSONAL WAR AND COLLISION OF EGOS. According to late Chinua Achebe in his personal history of Biafra, There are scores of people who also believe that neither Gowon nor Ojukwu were the right leaders of the desperate time, because they were blinded by ego,
hindered by lack of administrative experience, and obsessed with interpersonal competition and petty rivalries. As a consequence according to this school of thought, these two men failed to make appropriate and wise decisions throughout the conflict and missed several opportunities when compromise could have saved the day.
According to the late senator Francis Ellah, the Biafrans not only Nigerians, missed a number of opportunities to compromise and end the war earlier than they did. I think that in march 1968 when we were in a position to achieve a confederation, we should have accepted the opportunity, when we were insisting that Biafran sovereignty was not negotiable, as the government thought at that time, we ought to have considered the tragedy of the situation, because this country would have been much better if we had a confederation of four or six states, other than what we have now. Many people think that the war would have been prevented if we had a leader other than Ojukwu. The Biafran citizens saw the opportunity to end the war but they were unable to make their opinions known independently. Now in our modern Nigeria, were facing the same problem, our inability to decry to our evil government has kept our bad government in stability. It is very unfortunate that our leaders put only 10% of their interest in handling the well being of the citizens while they gear the remaining90% in looting and other corrupt activities, people in Imo state can support me in this, taking reference in the abandoned road projects in Imo state and the half baked constructed roads too. The government have failed to penalize the contractors, in other hands, I blame the state government for awarding road contracts to people who are not contractors. It’s only in Imo that I have seen medical doctors and lawyers handling road contracts, that’s about the height of corruption in the country. Poor masses are crying and some are dying as a result of bad roads in Imo state and the country at large, but the government has responded with silence. I think so much to the extent that I blame our economic problem on the lack of knowledge on the side of our leaders, take for example the breath taking amount of money we hear on the radio that our government spends on importation of some of the foods we use in Nigeria, for example, we provide a great quantity of tomato in our country but our government spends billions of naira in importation of tomato. Why cant they harness our own tomato so that other countries of the world can purchase from us?. During Biafran war, the economic blockade enforced by Gowon lead to great ingenuity and some unprecedented innovations. Biafran scientists developed a great number of rockets, bombs, and telecommunication gadgets, and devised an ingenious indigenous strategy to refine petroleum, by this, I mean to say that our government has failed to exploit the God given human resources at their disposal, they have been carried away by the petroleum income. The level of greediness through which the economic wealth is been shared is the most appalling. Our president unveiled N4.93 trillion budget to the national assembly for the 2013 fiscal year, this is particularly in the area of expenses on food, refreshment and welfare for the state headquarters. The state head quaters to spend N1,114,353.34 daily on food. Vice president to spend N1.114,353.34 similarly the vice president will spend N112,500,000 to purchase food in 2013 which puts the amount atN308,219.18 to be spent daily on food. We are not talking about theN4billion allocation for first ladies house in Abuja which the civil rights groups called penchant for profligacy on the side of the president.
