Photo credit: The Cable
Nigeria has no business being in this sorry state. At the last count it was said that two-thirds of the states in Nigeria could not even pay their workers’ salaries. Now, the federal government has thrown away the controversial subsidy. Petrol (PMS) is now sold for a whopping one hundred and forty five naira!
For a country whose one-time head of state once famously declared that, ‘Nigeria’s problem is not money, but how to spend it’, we have really come a long, weary way.
Nigeria became independent in 1960. The country was basically an agrarian nation. In fact, agriculture used to provide for the people then. Mind you, it was mainly the ‘hoe and cutlass’ type of agriculture.
If Nigeria had successfully graduated into mechanized farming, the country would have performed exploits. However, its hopes were arrested.
Nigeria struck oil in commercial quantity.
In a manner not unlike that of the biblical prodigal son, the orgies began. One thing that beats me is that history repeated itself. Nigeria was not different from Sodom and Gomorrah. The few people that chose not to revel with the rest were seen as outcasts. Truly, it is bad table manners to be talking while eating.
While ‘drinking oil’, Nigeria forgot about other means of sustenance. The sleaze went on and most Nigerians were happy with the crumbs that fell from the tables of the rich.
The story is told of how Malaysia, then a struggling country, came to get oil palm seedlings from Nigeria. Nigeria now imports from the Asian country.
Nigeria is now friends with China. It is not for nothing. Nigeria needs help from China. In 1960, when Nigeria gained her independence, China was actually undergoing a famine.
One can say that rather than being a blessing, oil has been a curse, as far as Nigeria is concerned.
While many people have blamed the leadership of the country, I am putting the blame on the people of Nigeria. Nigerians were willing participants in the spendthriftiness.
Instead of encouraging our leaders to plan for the future, we simply urged them on. It is only the people that can decide, like Roberto Duran in his boxing match with Ray Leonard on November 25, 1980, after receiving much punishment from the latter, turned to the referee, and famously shouted ‘no mas’, being Spanish for ‘no more’.
A people always deserves its ruling class!
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