I want to say Happy independence Day to Nigeria. I do, But the question is, are we? A sovereign Nation yes. Independent?
I want to believe in this thing called Nigeria, I do. But everywhere I look, some little good, and then overwhelming bad. Chaos. The words stick in my throat.
I want to say I believe in Nigerians; the people, but do I? Everywhere I look, I see fakeness, avarice, wastefulness, hubris and for no reason; I see young people who just want to make money quick, I see people who just want a chance to get to Aso Rock so they can do the very same things they are now on this ‘other’ side complaining about. I SEE REUBEN ABATIS WAITING TO HAPPEN.
I see things, little things in our everyday lives as a people, the things we have internalized as NORMAL, the ‘half bread is better than none’ mentality that makes you pay for something that costs 1000 Naira, you get the value of 600 Naira and you should be grateful; I see mediocrity, complacency, illiteracy, meanwhile higher colleges of learning spew them out on our streets every day, and social media has given them a voice to air their views and opinions and like a stinking asshole, every fucking person has one. But that’s all they are doing. Showing their asses that they forgot to wipe with tissue. Never mind wash with water or as in my case, soap. So many graduates, so little sense. I see a country that in every way is not ready.
A country where in 2015, you will get your voters card and go and vote along religious and ethnic lines. Because ‘he is so humble, did you see, he went and knelt and Adeboye laid hands on him.’ He IS a fucking illiterate, a school principal should NOT be my president. What people see is a miracle, ‘if it can happen to him, it can happen to me too.’ No, leave that for winning the lottery, not leadership.
But being President is what people spend a lifetime preparing for. It’s not a testimony story of going from shoeless to clueless; a deer caught in headlights. And yet, someone like former Governor Donald Duke, where is he, when Goodluck Jonathan is my president? Christian, Muslim, Pagan, Atheist, I don’t care. Is he/she willing to give their blood to see to it that this nation, La Cosa Nostra this thing of ours works, and works, and works as long as the sun sustains planet Earth? That is who.
I look around me, I do. The things we accept as normal;
-Bribery
-Lack of empathy
-Lack of accountability
-Tardiness aka African Time aka ‘fashionably late’
-Laziness – physical, mental, emotional, just laziness.
-A Lackadaisical attitude to just about everything. Nothing – just nothing gets done properly, from the president to the plumber.
-Absolutely no integrity, so that a person who is half-honest is actually hailed like they are something special.
-Where the people we put in office, we thank them for using up to 30% of loot for actual development; he could have chosen to steal ALL duh. “You people are not happy”. That is why Lagos State is so deplorable with the staggering revenues and allocation, and we fucking think Fashola is a King; we don’t care what goes into our National budget, we are robbed blind! People are poor, so heartbreakingly poor I cannot stand to think about it. But we are a nation of grateful people.
-Ignorance on a scale so staggering I am ashamed to come from a country that in 2014 people are waking before 6am to have a bath because it kills Ebola; and a stupid boy who survives contacting from his girlfriend deafens me with tall tales of how he beat the virus because he fasted and prayed and ate holy communion like it was the new Superfood and his church members came and prayed for him and read books on healing and goes on and on till I wish it had got him. I said it, kill me. I WANTED THAT JULIANA’S FIANCEE THAT SURVIVED EBOLA TO DIE – he is one of the worst sort; a country where a charlatan so-called Man of God tries to throw an extra three or four storeys on a building that was designed to hold two, then starts to spin a yarn about a plane that was hovering from the Kingdom of Darkness.
A country where the stark illiteracy is so staggering that when I find people I can have intelligent conversations with, I feel like I found gold. Yet, social media has given every Tom, Dick and Harry a voice and my god, they speak so loud.
We are sitting around waiting for a god that allows little children get abused by religious cults, people are branded witches and burned. We are waiting for an uncaring, capricious being, if it exist to come and build this land for us. Meanwhile, we cloud our minds with ignorance and most people feel that ‘knowing Jesus is knowing the most important thing’ you know notin Jon snow!
A country where T B Joshua will go free for what he has done; where we turn on our own and anything is sacrosanct , untouchable if it has the stamp of some god on it,. if it sacred and said in the name of the Father, the Sceptic and the Son. Well, I say, FUCK THAT. And you if that is you. So musch God, so little kindness that when you are kind to someone, the surprise breaks your heart. Where we have gone numb.
A country where people will put a tire around another human being and a crowd will form is not a nation I feel proud of this morning. From the streets to the corridors of power, we have lost our humanity. We are animals. And until we start to get it right from within – deep within, until we give 100% of what we are paid for, whether as a labourer, or as a President, this country will continue to hobble along until your Jesus comes. From the streets to the corridors of power, we have all failed! I haven’t. That is why I am here.
GOD WILL NOT HEAL THIS LAND. IF THERE IS A GOD, HE HATES AFRICANS IN GENERAL AND NIGERIA IN PARTICULAR.
Every citizen must stand up, PAY TAXES, then turn right around and ask ‘Hey, where did my money go?’ Leave God alone to tell T B Joshua about the score of Nigeria vs Argentina. Let us build this land. You cannot be passive. You. Can. Not. Posterity would judge you – but then you would get to the mercy seat quicker where God would forgive you letting this nation go to rot on your watch.
So, forgive me if I am not in love with this thing called Nigeria; and let me be quartered and drawn before I will wave that green white green today and pretend.
But hey, Happy Independence Nigeria.
Whatever makes you sleep at night.
PS Can’t believe these people are making me spend independence day in the hospital. We so hoped to get discharged yesterday. As it happens, seems we are here until Thursday.
Nice one Pearl. I only disagree on the issue of Lagos/Fashola and the “staggering” revenues and allocations. There are two sides to a coin. You have to match these revenues with the problems and demands. Forget the census figures. Lagos has a population of well over 20 million. The refuse generated in one month in Lagos, is more than what is generated in one year in Crossriver and Akwa Ibom combined. Lagos state has the largest state civil service/wage bill. Over 40 thousand. The next state to it is Kano with 19 thousand. Just a few examples why the revenues are not as staggering as you think and why a lot of people give Fashola the thumbs up. Meanwhile, I just love your style of writing. Im a convert/fan. Keep it up.
Thank you much. Thanks.
:-(:-[ don’t be like that… We are not that bad/ far off. Besides the private jets are the new carts, privately bringing in inivisble aammunition. We not doing badly.
Yeah. Haha
Pearl, i do feel your pain. I half expected someone to say we are only 54yrs and that places like US wey dey over 200yrs where once like us.
this experiment called Nigeria is a big failure. but as the land of my birth, we can only be optimistic
as per God hating Naija, someone once told me that if Jesus came again in his flaming chariot, mopol go stop am for checkpoint collect roja, while lastma/timariv go tow the chariot for not showing MOT/road worthiness certificate
I feel our pain. Its just a sad sad day. Meanwhile how are you doing. Just heard about your surgery. Hope you are ok. Take it easy oh.
haha…..”La Cosa Nostra”, really? the Italian Mafia will be offended by that because even they hav order within their organization.
that aside. I do believe Fashola is fucking cunt, and the revenues being generated by this state is 5x that generated by Edo State but the situation is depressing. the fucktard only reduced the LASU fees and unbanned bikes because if is going to be an election year ( a move i accurately predicted).
Truth is everybody will talk and complain and rant but nobody wants to take action (I am guilty as well). I would love to take action but how many of the masses are willing to do just that. They are content with suffering everyday only to get paid minimum wage by month’s end. Look at Hong Kong and the ongoing protests, look at Egypt and how the people didn’t rest until they got what they wanted. Look at the situation in Ferguson, it is a similar although different case to what happened in Aluu and i gave the Nigerian people 3 months to forget and move on and they did just that.
even the so-called missing chibok girls; I have counted more than 250 ( combined number) of the girls which have been “supposedly rescued” yet they are saying the girls are still missing. and nobody cares.
when you have a country where one political party always blames an incident on the other party, how do you expect the country to be.
i have made up my mind that the chaos in this country is entirely unfixable because of the mindset and thinking of the masses. so the best i can do is to crate my own order out of the constant chaos
A sobering reflection of our being. Thanks Pearl.
OMG! You just outlined what has been eating me up silently for years now; the normalization of mediocrity in this country. The saddest part is not the pervasive illiteracy, no, its the mind blowing ignorance, of the ‘educated’ ones. You were also spot on about not having enough intelligent conversations with people, one tends to intentionally dumb down to be understood by people around.