June 20, 2010
Popular Songwriter and Artist, Faze, in his most famous track Kolomental sang, “…Mental Case, start to dey crase…Na who dey crase for dis place…Kolomental…” We must confess that when this song first came out, some of us were livid with rage and furious with the Artist for having the audacity to sing such a stupid and ludicrous song or so we thought at the time.
Popular Songwriter and Artist, Faze, in his most famous track Kolomental sang, “…Mental Case, start to dey crase…Na who dey crase for dis place…Kolomental…” We must confess that when this song first came out, some of us were livid with rage and furious with the Artist for having the audacity to sing such a stupid and ludicrous song or so we thought at the time.
However, having listened carefully to the lyrics and having mulled over it in all of its significance and considering our dear nation; Nigeria and the very backward state of her affairs in a 21st century economy, we cannot, but agree with Faze and be filled with admiration for him for aptly capturing in a satirical style the state of our beloved country in that beautiful piece. Yes! The Artist is in consonance with the Nigerian State. Nigeria is actually in a state of madness. Ever since Independence, our country like the psychologists would say, has been something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against itself. We have done nothing but militate against the wonderful ideals of democracy. On the one hand, we have fought dictatorship, proudly advocated democracy and its great principles, but on the other hand, we have sadly practiced the very opposite.
Oh yes! Nigeria is insane, for it is only in an insane society, that you have a sitting government that almost the whole World has praised and is looking up to earmarked frivolously a whopping N10billion for a worthless and meaningless Golden Jubilee Celebration; worthless and meaningless because it is bleeding obvious that there is nothing worth celebrating in a nation that is yet to attain nationhood 50 good years after Independence. The nation’s lunacy is even more haemorrhagic when one begins to analyse the breakdown of the spurious Independence Anniversary Budget Spree.
Why if not for madness and executive lawlessness will President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan allocate N950million for an Anniversary parade and N350million for a national unity torch and tour when the same government claims there is cash squeeze and has asked the legislature to make a 40% across-the-board in the capital expenditure provisions in the 2010 budget against the backdrop of falling oil prices?
Why for goodness sake, if not for real insanity and executive recklessness will he apportion N50million for the First Lady and his Wife, Mrs. Patience Goodluck Jonathan for visits to special homes, orphanages, prisons and select hospitals when all over this nation, the prisons have decayed, outdated, dilapidated and in squalor state, and are overflowing with inmates, most of which have never been tried, can barely eat even a decent meal a day with the present N200 allocation for food daily per inmate, and when all of the nation’s hospitals have become mere consulting rooms, where one cannot even have access to a mere paracetamol or Panadol? And if we may ask, where in our Constitution or in the nation’s laws is the Office and Position of a First Lady recognised? We dare to contend that it be expunged forthwith.
Only a government and a nation that has gone nuts that will set aside N20million for sponsoring a special session of the National Children’s Parliament and another N20million to organise a party for 1000 children, when millions of children all over this vast country; children who are supposed to be in school are forced out of school to hawk wares and engage in all sorts of menial jobs to help augment their family resources and keep their families intact in peril of their lives. Yes, it is only a sin-sick government that will be planning to spend N40million to organise a Presidential banquet; N50million for callisthenics performances; N310million for a nonsensical cultural, historical and military exhibitions; N40million for “food week”; N320million on unjustifiable Secretariat equipment, accommodation, logistics and utilities; N30million for the design and unveiling of a 50th Anniversary logo when millions of young graduates are seeking for jobs that are non-existent in stagnating urban centres; when millions of people are out of jobs, and the few that have jobs are neck-deep in dept with unpaid bills that are stacking and piling up daily; when even the few industries and banks in the country are massively shedding jobs due to ill-conceived ideas, decisions and the failed policies of government.
Surely, only a psychotic government will map out N700million to accommodate and transport special guests; N450million to finance the production of branded souvenirs, gift items for foreign heads of State and personalities, and the placing of a large coat of arms on Aso Rock; N210million for Variety Gala night and fireworks, N120million for event managers and producers, when at the same time, millions of its citizens are homeless, without food and clothing, and go to bed hungry day in, day out, and when the cost of basic living is virtually beyond the reach of over 120million Nigerians.
Really, it is only a “desperately wicked” government in an insane country that will set out to give to the Ministry of Information and Communication tax payers money to the tune of N1.2billion for insertion of meaningless special reports on Nigeria in both Local and Foreign Media; N320million for jingles, adverts, billboards, documentary and publicity, and also dole out N105million to the Foreign Affairs Ministry for Anniversary parties by Nigerian Missions around the World, when at the same time the government insists that there is no money to pay the paltry Minimum Wage of N52,000 for workers being demanded by Labour and Civil Society. Truly, as it is written long ago, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” Or how else can one justify the jumbo allowances of N250million quarterly for the Senate president and Speaker and over N150million quarterly for other Senators and House Members (So-called Honourables), in a nation where the Minimum Wage is N5,500, yet we all buy and sell in the same Market; a Market with the same Market prices for all. Only in a crazy country, will you have laws enacted and promulgated without being enforced. It is only in a sick nation that elected officials who are supposed to protect the interests of their constituents do the contrary and subvert those interests instead. Without pretence, it is only in a world turned upside down would you find elected representatives mandated to bring dividends of democracy to the people deviate from their sacred mandate and rather siphon off these democratic dividends to personal foreign accounts and still walk freely the streets of our beloved nation.
Truly, it is only a disordered government that will assign N400million for the design and publication of a compendium on a nation like Nigeria tilting toward a failed State; one on the Legislature to cost N150million and another on the Judiciary to attract N50million; N10million to simply commission a Golden Jubilee Plaza and N540million just to design, construct and mount a Tower of Unity in the 36 States of the Federation, when all over this nation, there is monumental Infrastructural Decay and a practical lack of government presence.
Come to really of it, if not for our short-circuit thinking and close mindedness, why would this mad Administration be contemplating expending N200million for an International friendly football Match and Local Competition in the silly guise of a 50th Anniversary celebration? Is this making sense at all? If not for the state of confusion Nigeria finds herself, why is it that we don’t value our own, but rather prefer foreigners (we are not in any way insinuating that foreigners are not good), hence our National Team-The Super Eagles is in disarray, for no sane foreigner (foreign coach or whatever) would jettison his loyalty and allegiance to his own country for another. It is this silo-mentality and our unfocused state as individuals and as a nation that will not allow us to give one of our own a chance to really prove himself without needless complaints. With all of the resources being expended on the so-called foreign coach, we are not even sure of getting to the Second round of the ongoing tournament.
Oh yes! It is only a deranged government that will plan to appropriate N60million for musical concerts and carnivals in the nation’s 6 geo-political zones; N100million for Durbar Masquerades and cultural dances; N80million for the construction of 10 symbolic monuments of the founding Fathers and N150million for such irrelevancies as debates, essays; conferences, lectures, and colloquium for a 50th Anniversary celebration of a nation where the losses incurred 50 years after independence have far outpaced the gains at the dawn of Independence in 1960. Indeed, it is only a mentally retarded government that will set out to spend N40million for a simple Memory tone at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos, and plan to spend N500million for Security and Protocols and N25million for Medicals during the Anniversary in a nation bedecked with poverty stricken citizens with no access to doctors, dentists, decent food, clothing and shelter, and practically cut off from the National Grid.
It is only such mentally incapacitated government Officials that will be planning to embark on such fiscal recklessness in a nation where even though it is the sixth largest producer of crude oil, it is still importing fuel for local consumption thus making the people pay more for their God-given resources. The poor are forced to pay more for less and many live in poorly housed conditions; in the slums and ghettos, with roof falling through, not with wall-to-wall carpets, but with wall-to-wall rats and roaches.
The nation still has no energy supply, still have death-trap roads, unsafe airways, unsafe water supply, practically grounded healthcare and a backward educational system. The poverty index of this nation is as high as ever with at least 95% of the Citizenry living on less than a dollar a day. There are more frustrated young men, out of jobs, and hopeless, constantly living at tiptoe stance, not quite knowing what to expect next and where the next meal is coming from. The few Nigerians with jobs close from their work for the day only to get stuck in Traffic for hours on end because there are no traffic policemen on duty posts to do their job. And where there are, they leave their posts and flagrantly flout the laws. Why for instance would our law enforcement agents particularly the police deliberately allow innocent and ignorant citizens to break the law and then arrest them, only to milk them of their resources without actually charging them for any crime? Why should they allow fellow citizens to take one-way routes and then pounce on them instead of properly educating and cautioning them? Why should the police themselves who are custodians of the law be the number one defaulters of the law-they are the ones that take one-way routes the most, drive roughly and yet they have the audacity to indiscriminately arrest and impound the properties of innocent Nigerians without facing any punishment. The situation is indeed pathetic and there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, yet this government which most people have looked up to has decided to toe the same old path of destruction. History, indeed, they say keeps repeating itself, although in actuality, it is people that keep repeating history, and not that history keeps repeating itself.
There is no disputing the fact that the Jonathan Administration is seriously sick and in dire need of a doctor. When this President was sworn in to power and people were rejoicing and political jobbers were mouthing pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious irrelevancies, believing that his swearing in will bring in the millennium, we came out with a Statement on the Nation’s Eleventh year of Democracy, that while it may yet be too early to determine the thrust of the President Administration and that while he may be a much gentler person, he really is not different from his predecessors, as he appears dedicated to the maintenance of the status quo, in the light of the major decisions and policies thrust of his Administration since his swearing, and it may yet be that our prediction has been justified and we have been vindicated. Ultimately however, Nigerians must not allow this financial rashness to fly.
In the final analysis, it behoves Nigerians to reject this executive and legislative madness, and shake off their necks the yoke and bondage of inept leadership. The nation really has nothing to celebrate in the upcoming 50th Anniversary. All that Nigerians have in the last 50 years is pain and nightmare. Nigerians cannot afford to be taken for a ride anymore. We can no longer be taken for granted by the nation so-called leadership bereft of ideas; leaders who are still living in the past wallowing in 18th century ideas in the 21st century. We must liberate ourselves and break loose from all shackles of mental slavery and all that has held us down in the last 50 years. The body can never truly be free so long as the mind is still enslaved. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. We must reach out for the oasis of freedom come 2011 for there is no doubt that our souls collectively yearn for freedom. And the only way to effectively do this is through the ballot.
Whether this government carries out its so-called constitutional and electoral reforms to logical conclusion or not the masses of Nigerians at all spectrums of life must collaborate and form alliances for political power in the days ahead. We know that passions may fly high on ethno-religious differences, but this time around, we must grow up, toss aside such pettiness, submerge our differences and unite decisively and positively for political action. Freedom has many difficult challenges and Democracy is not perfect but this is the only hope we have to change this brainless kind of leadership that has kept us back in the last 50 years. We must stop grasping at the ideas of the past and look beyond the dangers and despairs of today to the bright hopes and freedom of tomorrow, and in the words of scriptures, hold firm without wavering.
Comrade Eneruvie ENAKOKO
(CLO Chairman in Lagos)
However, having listened carefully to the lyrics and having mulled over it in all of its significance and considering our dear nation; Nigeria and the very backward state of her affairs in a 21st century economy, we cannot, but agree with Faze and be filled with admiration for him for aptly capturing in a satirical style the state of our beloved country in that beautiful piece. Yes! The Artist is in consonance with the Nigerian State. Nigeria is actually in a state of madness. Ever since Independence, our country like the psychologists would say, has been something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against itself. We have done nothing but militate against the wonderful ideals of democracy. On the one hand, we have fought dictatorship, proudly advocated democracy and its great principles, but on the other hand, we have sadly practiced the very opposite.
Oh yes! Nigeria is insane, for it is only in an insane society, that you have a sitting government that almost the whole World has praised and is looking up to earmarked frivolously a whopping N10billion for a worthless and meaningless Golden Jubilee Celebration; worthless and meaningless because it is bleeding obvious that there is nothing worth celebrating in a nation that is yet to attain nationhood 50 good years after Independence. The nation’s lunacy is even more haemorrhagic when one begins to analyse the breakdown of the spurious Independence Anniversary Budget Spree.
Why if not for madness and executive lawlessness will President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan allocate N950million for an Anniversary parade and N350million for a national unity torch and tour when the same government claims there is cash squeeze and has asked the legislature to make a 40% across-the-board in the capital expenditure provisions in the 2010 budget against the backdrop of falling oil prices?
Why for goodness sake, if not for real insanity and executive recklessness will he apportion N50million for the First Lady and his Wife, Mrs. Patience Goodluck Jonathan for visits to special homes, orphanages, prisons and select hospitals when all over this nation, the prisons have decayed, outdated, dilapidated and in squalor state, and are overflowing with inmates, most of which have never been tried, can barely eat even a decent meal a day with the present N200 allocation for food daily per inmate, and when all of the nation’s hospitals have become mere consulting rooms, where one cannot even have access to a mere paracetamol or Panadol? And if we may ask, where in our Constitution or in the nation’s laws is the Office and Position of a First Lady recognised? We dare to contend that it be expunged forthwith.
Only a government and a nation that has gone nuts that will set aside N20million for sponsoring a special session of the National Children’s Parliament and another N20million to organise a party for 1000 children, when millions of children all over this vast country; children who are supposed to be in school are forced out of school to hawk wares and engage in all sorts of menial jobs to help augment their family resources and keep their families intact in peril of their lives. Yes, it is only a sin-sick government that will be planning to spend N40million to organise a Presidential banquet; N50million for callisthenics performances; N310million for a nonsensical cultural, historical and military exhibitions; N40million for “food week”; N320million on unjustifiable Secretariat equipment, accommodation, logistics and utilities; N30million for the design and unveiling of a 50th Anniversary logo when millions of young graduates are seeking for jobs that are non-existent in stagnating urban centres; when millions of people are out of jobs, and the few that have jobs are neck-deep in dept with unpaid bills that are stacking and piling up daily; when even the few industries and banks in the country are massively shedding jobs due to ill-conceived ideas, decisions and the failed policies of government.
Surely, only a psychotic government will map out N700million to accommodate and transport special guests; N450million to finance the production of branded souvenirs, gift items for foreign heads of State and personalities, and the placing of a large coat of arms on Aso Rock; N210million for Variety Gala night and fireworks, N120million for event managers and producers, when at the same time, millions of its citizens are homeless, without food and clothing, and go to bed hungry day in, day out, and when the cost of basic living is virtually beyond the reach of over 120million Nigerians.
Really, it is only a “desperately wicked” government in an insane country that will set out to give to the Ministry of Information and Communication tax payers money to the tune of N1.2billion for insertion of meaningless special reports on Nigeria in both Local and Foreign Media; N320million for jingles, adverts, billboards, documentary and publicity, and also dole out N105million to the Foreign Affairs Ministry for Anniversary parties by Nigerian Missions around the World, when at the same time the government insists that there is no money to pay the paltry Minimum Wage of N52,000 for workers being demanded by Labour and Civil Society. Truly, as it is written long ago, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” Or how else can one justify the jumbo allowances of N250million quarterly for the Senate president and Speaker and over N150million quarterly for other Senators and House Members (So-called Honourables), in a nation where the Minimum Wage is N5,500, yet we all buy and sell in the same Market; a Market with the same Market prices for all. Only in a crazy country, will you have laws enacted and promulgated without being enforced. It is only in a sick nation that elected officials who are supposed to protect the interests of their constituents do the contrary and subvert those interests instead. Without pretence, it is only in a world turned upside down would you find elected representatives mandated to bring dividends of democracy to the people deviate from their sacred mandate and rather siphon off these democratic dividends to personal foreign accounts and still walk freely the streets of our beloved nation.
Truly, it is only a disordered government that will assign N400million for the design and publication of a compendium on a nation like Nigeria tilting toward a failed State; one on the Legislature to cost N150million and another on the Judiciary to attract N50million; N10million to simply commission a Golden Jubilee Plaza and N540million just to design, construct and mount a Tower of Unity in the 36 States of the Federation, when all over this nation, there is monumental Infrastructural Decay and a practical lack of government presence.
Come to really of it, if not for our short-circuit thinking and close mindedness, why would this mad Administration be contemplating expending N200million for an International friendly football Match and Local Competition in the silly guise of a 50th Anniversary celebration? Is this making sense at all? If not for the state of confusion Nigeria finds herself, why is it that we don’t value our own, but rather prefer foreigners (we are not in any way insinuating that foreigners are not good), hence our National Team-The Super Eagles is in disarray, for no sane foreigner (foreign coach or whatever) would jettison his loyalty and allegiance to his own country for another. It is this silo-mentality and our unfocused state as individuals and as a nation that will not allow us to give one of our own a chance to really prove himself without needless complaints. With all of the resources being expended on the so-called foreign coach, we are not even sure of getting to the Second round of the ongoing tournament.
Oh yes! It is only a deranged government that will plan to appropriate N60million for musical concerts and carnivals in the nation’s 6 geo-political zones; N100million for Durbar Masquerades and cultural dances; N80million for the construction of 10 symbolic monuments of the founding Fathers and N150million for such irrelevancies as debates, essays; conferences, lectures, and colloquium for a 50th Anniversary celebration of a nation where the losses incurred 50 years after independence have far outpaced the gains at the dawn of Independence in 1960. Indeed, it is only a mentally retarded government that will set out to spend N40million for a simple Memory tone at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos, and plan to spend N500million for Security and Protocols and N25million for Medicals during the Anniversary in a nation bedecked with poverty stricken citizens with no access to doctors, dentists, decent food, clothing and shelter, and practically cut off from the National Grid.
It is only such mentally incapacitated government Officials that will be planning to embark on such fiscal recklessness in a nation where even though it is the sixth largest producer of crude oil, it is still importing fuel for local consumption thus making the people pay more for their God-given resources. The poor are forced to pay more for less and many live in poorly housed conditions; in the slums and ghettos, with roof falling through, not with wall-to-wall carpets, but with wall-to-wall rats and roaches.
The nation still has no energy supply, still have death-trap roads, unsafe airways, unsafe water supply, practically grounded healthcare and a backward educational system. The poverty index of this nation is as high as ever with at least 95% of the Citizenry living on less than a dollar a day. There are more frustrated young men, out of jobs, and hopeless, constantly living at tiptoe stance, not quite knowing what to expect next and where the next meal is coming from. The few Nigerians with jobs close from their work for the day only to get stuck in Traffic for hours on end because there are no traffic policemen on duty posts to do their job. And where there are, they leave their posts and flagrantly flout the laws. Why for instance would our law enforcement agents particularly the police deliberately allow innocent and ignorant citizens to break the law and then arrest them, only to milk them of their resources without actually charging them for any crime? Why should they allow fellow citizens to take one-way routes and then pounce on them instead of properly educating and cautioning them? Why should the police themselves who are custodians of the law be the number one defaulters of the law-they are the ones that take one-way routes the most, drive roughly and yet they have the audacity to indiscriminately arrest and impound the properties of innocent Nigerians without facing any punishment. The situation is indeed pathetic and there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, yet this government which most people have looked up to has decided to toe the same old path of destruction. History, indeed, they say keeps repeating itself, although in actuality, it is people that keep repeating history, and not that history keeps repeating itself.
There is no disputing the fact that the Jonathan Administration is seriously sick and in dire need of a doctor. When this President was sworn in to power and people were rejoicing and political jobbers were mouthing pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious irrelevancies, believing that his swearing in will bring in the millennium, we came out with a Statement on the Nation’s Eleventh year of Democracy, that while it may yet be too early to determine the thrust of the President Administration and that while he may be a much gentler person, he really is not different from his predecessors, as he appears dedicated to the maintenance of the status quo, in the light of the major decisions and policies thrust of his Administration since his swearing, and it may yet be that our prediction has been justified and we have been vindicated. Ultimately however, Nigerians must not allow this financial rashness to fly.
In the final analysis, it behoves Nigerians to reject this executive and legislative madness, and shake off their necks the yoke and bondage of inept leadership. The nation really has nothing to celebrate in the upcoming 50th Anniversary. All that Nigerians have in the last 50 years is pain and nightmare. Nigerians cannot afford to be taken for a ride anymore. We can no longer be taken for granted by the nation so-called leadership bereft of ideas; leaders who are still living in the past wallowing in 18th century ideas in the 21st century. We must liberate ourselves and break loose from all shackles of mental slavery and all that has held us down in the last 50 years. The body can never truly be free so long as the mind is still enslaved. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. We must reach out for the oasis of freedom come 2011 for there is no doubt that our souls collectively yearn for freedom. And the only way to effectively do this is through the ballot.
Whether this government carries out its so-called constitutional and electoral reforms to logical conclusion or not the masses of Nigerians at all spectrums of life must collaborate and form alliances for political power in the days ahead. We know that passions may fly high on ethno-religious differences, but this time around, we must grow up, toss aside such pettiness, submerge our differences and unite decisively and positively for political action. Freedom has many difficult challenges and Democracy is not perfect but this is the only hope we have to change this brainless kind of leadership that has kept us back in the last 50 years. We must stop grasping at the ideas of the past and look beyond the dangers and despairs of today to the bright hopes and freedom of tomorrow, and in the words of scriptures, hold firm without wavering.
Comrade Eneruvie ENAKOKO
(CLO Chairman in Lagos)
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