23 Jan 2008 |
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| The problems facing us as a country will not go away soon. When some of us use our pens or keyboards to write nonsense on the pages of newspapers or the internet, we are sending dangerous signals to our politicians to continue to rape us, even in daylight. We invariably give them more audacity to continue to insult our collective intelligence.
Obasanjo is not the type of man that we should ever canonize because the likes of him brought sorrow and hopelessness to our lives. People like Obasanjo (military men and politicians who ruined Nigeria and destroyed the institutions of government) should be blamed for the spread of poverty, instability in governance and the uncertainties that face us as a nation. Obasanjo is a peculiar person in the history of Nigeria. He was a military head of state in 1976. He became a civilian president in 1999, 30 years after relinquishing power to a faulted civilian government headed by Shagari. In all, Obasanjo spent more than a decade ruling this country that attained its independence less than 50 years ago. To whom much is given, less is not expected. Obasanjo gave Nigerian pretty much less than what Nigeria has given him. It will amount to unnecessary time wasting to re-echo all that has been filed against Obasanjo at every point in time that he had found himself at the helm of affairs as a leader in Nigeria. However, keen watchers of historical details would continue to highlight his role in the 1979 flawed elections. They will not forget too soon his role in the rigged 2007 selections though he attained the top spot in 1999 largely aided by the bastardized criminals ensemble in the PDP. The significance that anyone would like to give to the framed achievements of Obasanjo is absolute rubbish. Why praise a man for the introduction of GSM in Nigeria? GSM was a business venture that has been sweeping the world for decades and with or without Obasanjo, it would have overtaken us anyhow. It is purely business and the credit does not end at his doorstep. Was Obasanjo the Minister for Telecommunications? Did he empower the citizenry economically or did the government distribute NOKIA handset free of charge? Nonsense! Obasanjo cannot be given the credit for any debt pardon/forgiveness that Nigeria received under his regime. To do that is to rubbish the achievements and the personality of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. In the end, what was the importance of the debt forgiveness in the light of all the monies re-stolen by Obasanjo, his family, friends, associate and all the political gladiators of the 1999-2007 ultimate demolition of Nigeria and Nigerians? Public service is a means to serve one’s country and the citizenry with the right sense of purpose. It is not a means to do anyone a favour. It is idealism to expect 100% efficiency from public servant but it is realism that anyone who could not serve optimally should find the honour to leave the stage. We have accepted thrashes as ok performances for governance in Nigeria and that is why we can praise dream-killers without stress. There must be acceptable standards or benchmarks to measure performance in governance. In the history of Nigeria, successive governments and the administrators have continued to fall below par. We must not condone this mess and praise anyone at all. The standard of living continues to tumble from one government to another and the cost of living continues to make astronomical strides for an endless gauge. The people are wretched and there is total social disorder. Obasanjo did not try at all. He was a pure hypocrite. On one of his journeys after leaving office, he was stuck in traffic because of flood and bad road connections between his stinking farm and Lagos. Less than one year after leaving office, his reputation continues to tumble the same pattern that he tumbled Nigeria. When he shamefully left office in 2007 giving us the shocker of increasing prices of petroleum products, I didn’t hesitate to describe him on my blog as Nigeria’s biggest shame. Today, I am sure more people will agree that I was right. Tell me, who in Nigeria today is living with the greatest shame among all the useless politicians who demeaned our lives? What is bad is bad and cannot be fine tuned or polished. Any attempt to canonize or praise Obasanjo is absolute pycho-eccentrism. People should stop intruding our intelligence by using the weaknesses of the law to put lids on our heads and veil over our eyes. Despite the short arm of the law in Nigeria, some of us can discern just and stupidity. Obasanjo and the rest of the pack who continue to loot our common treasury and those who continue to sow discordant tunes for their own benefits to the detriments of the rest of us do not deserve any single praise. We must salvage this country from the hawks and wolves so that the sheep and lambs among us can live safely and peacefully in this land still flowing with the proverbial milk and honey. We must sustain our voices of reasoning and make the best use of our active participations to the upliftment of our nation.
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