Okay so officially the back bone of the camel is broken and it can take the load no more. Maybe it is not broken, maybe it is strained or maybe, just to stretch the possible scenarios a little further, the camel has just about had enough of the same of the same role and just wants to have things done in a different manner.
I really was just going to shut my mouth, as against keeping quiet, when a good friend of mine shared an article that he had written and titled 'why blame the president?' It was very insightful and much more than that, very disgusting. Oh not the writing, that was splendidly done with his opinion well balanced. The disgust was the fact that everything he wrote about was so so true.
I had tweeted only just some 3 days earlier that if anyone thought that the issue on ground was that of the fuel subsidy removal, then they needed their heads evaluated by a competent mind doctor. Of course twitter only allows you 140 characters so you had better be making the best use of it. And that I tried to do. The issue is not about the fuel subsidy removal, even a blind Bartemeus knows that. But I think like the proverbial hay stack that broke the camels back, it was one issue to much for 'this' camel to take. Apparently 'this' camel loves life - you don't get to live much, if at all, when you lose your back bone.
In a country blessed with over a hundred and fifty million people across six geo-political zones, on a land area of 351649 sq mi, with several precious minerals and crude oil, it is shocking that the majority of her people live on two dollars a day or less! Yeah I know this is where you twirl your nose in disgust. No one would blame you. We Nigerians not on twirl our nose in disgust at the sorry state of the economy, we shake our heads in despondency at the laughable title "Nigeria, giant of Africa". A hiss at this point would not be out of place.
In my thirty something years I have heard enough promises by successive governments - now I know they were just mouthing of air for nothing of those promises have seen the light of day. Now they say "we want to remove fuel subsidy so we can provide for you good roads, hospitals...." and I am like what the ****! So you must rob the poor to make resources available to the rich? Well how else would you interpret a government saying that they would have to take away the mat that provides some sleeping comfort for you from the sandy ground, so that they would be able to provide you with a mattress, that may never come, sometime in the future. For crying out loud only a 'yabaleft' head thinks like that. Hmmm I guess I am starting to heat up.
The education and agricuture sector are in desperate need of funds. Not too long ago a state in the south west 'proposed' a hike in school fees to somewhere between two hundred and fifty thousand Naira and
three hundred and fifty thousand naire, in a country where the majority of the parents of the students and prospective students eke out a living in a very pitiable manner. Is it a mother and father who can barely pay for a rent of their one room apartment with their two children that would be able to afford that amount, or is it just another ploy to keep the children of the 'masses', as they are wont to call them, out of the commonwealth that partly is theirs? We can barely feed our people. Why? Don't ask me ask the freaking government that would always come up with one excuse or the other for the inability of Nigerians to have food, in spite of the arable land mass available in the country.
Good road networks are a farce. For a jouryney of twenty minutes, you may end up spending some two/three hours and yet they stupidly, that sounds to mild, senselessly took away the respite for the Nigerian who has to go from one end to another to provide daily sustenance to the family. The rail system? Do not even go there. I see what they call trains and even when dreaming I would never get on one.
Hospitals - *deep sigh*! I never knew the extent of the rot in the 'public hospitals' till i really got down to gisting with friends who work in them. Doctors now augment their salaries, as fat as it is, with selling of consumables to patients! Yes yes I know it sounds ridiculous and funny, but believe me it is the honest truth. While I was still fuming at the incredulity of it all another friend in another public 'service' hospital says to me "oh that place is even better". Case closed! I dropped the topic because there was no way I
could start arguing with not just two good friends, but two workers within that establishment.
Now the question I would want to ask is 'where the heck has the income over the last thirty something years that I have been alive gone to?' Okay so maybe not thirty plus years let's do a twelve year period; the length of this dispensation of civilian 'dictatorship'. If in that period of time you couldn't utilize the money judiciously, "what would change if we gave you our rights to the commonwealth on 'this' platter
of gold?"
*gisting - talking and speaking to one who is close to you
I really was just going to shut my mouth, as against keeping quiet, when a good friend of mine shared an article that he had written and titled 'why blame the president?' It was very insightful and much more than that, very disgusting. Oh not the writing, that was splendidly done with his opinion well balanced. The disgust was the fact that everything he wrote about was so so true.
I had tweeted only just some 3 days earlier that if anyone thought that the issue on ground was that of the fuel subsidy removal, then they needed their heads evaluated by a competent mind doctor. Of course twitter only allows you 140 characters so you had better be making the best use of it. And that I tried to do. The issue is not about the fuel subsidy removal, even a blind Bartemeus knows that. But I think like the proverbial hay stack that broke the camels back, it was one issue to much for 'this' camel to take. Apparently 'this' camel loves life - you don't get to live much, if at all, when you lose your back bone.
In a country blessed with over a hundred and fifty million people across six geo-political zones, on a land area of 351649 sq mi, with several precious minerals and crude oil, it is shocking that the majority of her people live on two dollars a day or less! Yeah I know this is where you twirl your nose in disgust. No one would blame you. We Nigerians not on twirl our nose in disgust at the sorry state of the economy, we shake our heads in despondency at the laughable title "Nigeria, giant of Africa". A hiss at this point would not be out of place.
In my thirty something years I have heard enough promises by successive governments - now I know they were just mouthing of air for nothing of those promises have seen the light of day. Now they say "we want to remove fuel subsidy so we can provide for you good roads, hospitals...." and I am like what the ****! So you must rob the poor to make resources available to the rich? Well how else would you interpret a government saying that they would have to take away the mat that provides some sleeping comfort for you from the sandy ground, so that they would be able to provide you with a mattress, that may never come, sometime in the future. For crying out loud only a 'yabaleft' head thinks like that. Hmmm I guess I am starting to heat up.
The education and agricuture sector are in desperate need of funds. Not too long ago a state in the south west 'proposed' a hike in school fees to somewhere between two hundred and fifty thousand Naira and
three hundred and fifty thousand naire, in a country where the majority of the parents of the students and prospective students eke out a living in a very pitiable manner. Is it a mother and father who can barely pay for a rent of their one room apartment with their two children that would be able to afford that amount, or is it just another ploy to keep the children of the 'masses', as they are wont to call them, out of the commonwealth that partly is theirs? We can barely feed our people. Why? Don't ask me ask the freaking government that would always come up with one excuse or the other for the inability of Nigerians to have food, in spite of the arable land mass available in the country.
Good road networks are a farce. For a jouryney of twenty minutes, you may end up spending some two/three hours and yet they stupidly, that sounds to mild, senselessly took away the respite for the Nigerian who has to go from one end to another to provide daily sustenance to the family. The rail system? Do not even go there. I see what they call trains and even when dreaming I would never get on one.
Hospitals - *deep sigh*! I never knew the extent of the rot in the 'public hospitals' till i really got down to gisting with friends who work in them. Doctors now augment their salaries, as fat as it is, with selling of consumables to patients! Yes yes I know it sounds ridiculous and funny, but believe me it is the honest truth. While I was still fuming at the incredulity of it all another friend in another public 'service' hospital says to me "oh that place is even better". Case closed! I dropped the topic because there was no way I
could start arguing with not just two good friends, but two workers within that establishment.
Now the question I would want to ask is 'where the heck has the income over the last thirty something years that I have been alive gone to?' Okay so maybe not thirty plus years let's do a twelve year period; the length of this dispensation of civilian 'dictatorship'. If in that period of time you couldn't utilize the money judiciously, "what would change if we gave you our rights to the commonwealth on 'this' platter
of gold?"
*gisting - talking and speaking to one who is close to you
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