If Nigeria were to be a man or woman, he or she would have been an unusually repugnant and nauseating ugly creature. The list of shocking absurdities oozing out from Nigeria on a daily basis makes her no less repugnant and nauseating. Many are yet to recover from the epic fraud associated with the April elections that imposed an unwilling and lack lustre Musa Yar’Adua on Nigerians. The world was astounded at the level of immorality, barbarism and indeed mental inferiority that made such a sham election possible in the world’s most populous black nation. For the racists, it provided further ammunition in their argument that the Blackman is essentially an inferior creature.

As conscientious Nigerians continued to wage a vicious war on the conduct of the elections, prompting the setting up of a kangaroo electoral reforms panel, and as the now militant judiciary continued to overturn the electoral victories of many of the imposed rogue politicians, some had begun to see a silver lining behind the dark clouds. But like the ugly creature that she has always been, the recent, and more manifestly fraudulent local government elections held in a few states is proof once again that no amount of cosmetics can turn around an ugly face.

Nigeria and the vultures that hold her hostage is a nation that is almost beyond redemption. Neither the local and international outrage associated with the 419 April elections, nor the militancy of the courts was enough to dissuade the shameless, unconscionable cabal from wreaking yet more havoc on the impoverished citizenry. Vain, immoral, undignified and mentally inferior, Nigerian leaders must be creatures “made in hell.” They have gorged themselves full of looted funds at the expense of the enslaved masses, yet they are not satisfied. At every opportunity they continue to tighten the noose on the necks of the hapless masses.

I am yet to see any nation quite as bad and as dysfunctional as Nigeria . Once out of the shores of Nigeria , even within Africa , you would be confronted with this grim reality. Sierra Leone like Liberia came out of a gruelling civil-war to recently organise free and fair elections that saw an opposition party come to power. Jacob Zuma’s win of the chairmanship of the ANC in Post Apartheid South Africa , in spite of contesting against an incumbent President Thabo Mbeki has consolidated its consistency in organising free and fair elections.

Both this scenarios would have been impossible in Nigeria . A chairmanship contest, or an opposition party confronted with an incumbent Nigerian president would like a religious ritual face the rigours of “do or die politics” which includes victimisation, intimidation, harassment, possible assassination and ultimately a blatantly rigged election. Though many, like the Ostrich with head buried in the sand, government apologists, and outright advocates of the devil would seek to deny it, Nigeria has by every practicable standard become a failed state.

Any nation that fails to provide the most basic and fundamental infrastructure, security of life and property, a reasonably fair electoral process has failed enough to be classified a failed state. The nation is presently beset with rickety death traps as roads, perpetual darkness and thirst as a result of near total absence of electricity and potable drinking water, dilapidated, dysfunctional schools and hospitals, over 50% unemployment, hordes of violent armed robbers, sponsored unending ethnic cleansing riots in Northern Nigeria, routinely rigged elections, guerrilla conflicts in the East and Niger-Delta amongst numerous other social vices and attributes of a failed state.

The scenario in acknowledged failed states like Somalia is hardly any different from the Nigerian predicament. In the years ahead, Nigeria predictably faces more strife and dysfunction going by her consistent progressive decline in all critical sectors of national life. Any keen watcher would have observed that a comparison between the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s etc would indicate that Nigeria has progressively gotten worse with time. The schools, hospitals, electricity supply that functioned in the 60’s and 70’s began a steep decline in the 80’s. The roads that were largely motor able in the 70’s are now death traps. 419 and money rituals was very rare and largely unknown in the 60’s and 70’s, but by the 90’s it had become a way of life. Election rigging was minimal in the 60’s and 70’s; by 2003-2007 it had become a perfected ritual. The menace of armed robbery used to be quite rare, these days they operate in battalions.

No doubt, the trend of progressive decline is not likely to change anytime soon. If anything, it is more likely to worsen. Factors like uncontrolled population growth, increasingly decrepit infrastructure, poverty, unemployment, an abracadabra democracy and its attendant instability will ensure that Nigeria remains destined for a future of strife, conflicts and uncertainties. It is interesting to note, that after 8 years of an unprecedented oil boom, Nigeria is still as bad and indeed even worse than she has ever been, it is therefore certain that nothing short of a revolution can possibly bring any change to our unfortunate (maybe cursed) nation. The creature is sure set to remain ugly for a long time to come.

Comrade Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

Email:lawrencenwobu@yahoo.com

Robot  Villager

# 1 var sbtitle4603=encodeURIComponent(The Ugly Fa...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 23.12.2007 17:18

NWANZA  Villager

# 2 Nigeria and the vultures that hold her hostage is a nation that is almost beyond redemption. Neither the local and international outrage associated with the 419 April elections, nor the militancy of the courts was enough to dissuade the shameless, unconscionable cabal from wreaking yet more havoc on the impoverished citizenry. Vain, immoral, undignified and mentally inferior, Nigerian leaders must be creatures “made in hell.” They have gorged themselves full of looted funds at the expense of the enslaved masses, yet they are not satisfied. At every opportunity they continue to tighten the noose on the necks of the hapless masses. Umaru Yar'adua should cancel the recent local government election. Call for national referendum to repeat 2007 elections in 2009. Sack Professor Iwu and constitute another INEC for 2009 Streamline the political parties to just three. I am yet to see any nation quite as bad and as dysfunctional as Nigeria . Once out of the shores of Nigeria , even within Africa , you would be confronted with this grim reality. Sierra Leone like Liberia came out of a gruelling civil-war to recently organise free and fair elections that saw an opposition party come to power. Jacob Zuma’s win of the chairmanship of the ANC in Post Apartheid South Africa , in spite of contesting against an incumbent President Thabo Mbeki has consolidated its consistency in organising free and fair elections. PDP need to kick OBJ out of their party for good or split the party between PDM & NPN. We need a strong opposition party in Nigeria as an alternative to AC & ANPP. Both this scenarios would have been impossible in Nigeria . A chairmanship contest, or an opposition party confronted with an incumbent Nigerian president would like a religious ritual face the rigours of “do or die politics” which includes victimisation, intimidation, harassment, possible assassination and ultimately a blatantly rigged election. Though many, like the Ostrich with head buried in the sand, government apologists, and outright advocates of the devil would seek to deny it, Nigeria has by every practicable standard become a failed state. OBJ changed PDP constitution, and used a coupe to install himself as chairman BOT. We just got a cabal that won't go away by any means, and he got evangelists everywhere. Any nation that fails to provide the most basic and fundamental infrastructure, security of life and property, a reasonably fair electoral process has failed enough to be classified a failed state. The nation is presently beset with rickety death traps as roads, perpetual darkness and thirst as a result of near total absence of electricity and potable drinking water, dilapidated, dysfunctional schools and hospitals, over 50% unemployment, hordes of violent armed robbers, sponsored unending ethnic cleansing riots in Northern Nigeria, routinely rigged elections, guerrilla conflicts in the East and Niger-Delta amongst numerous other social vices and attributes of a failed state. Throwing more money into these institutions will not solve the problems, until the salary of the average work is raised to living standard. The is just one of the many problems with our institutions. The scenario in acknowledged failed states like Somalia is hardly any different from the Nigerian predicament. In the years ahead, Nigeria predictably faces more strife and dysfunction going by her consistent progressive decline in all critical sectors of national life. Any keen watcher would have observed that a comparison between the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s etc would indicate that Nigeria has progressively gotten worse with time. The schools, hospitals, electricity supply that functioned in the 60’s and 70’s began a steep decline in the 80’s. The roads that were largely motor able in the 70’s are now death traps. 419 and money rituals was very rare and largely unknown in the 60’s and 70’s, but by the 90’s it had become a way of life. Election rigging was minimal in the 60’s and 70’s; by 2003-2007 it had become a perfected ritual. The menace of armed robbery used to be quite rare, these days they operate in battalions. We are rated few marks higher than somalia for real. Our universities are graduating thieves and murders every year. Churches are 419 grooming grounds which multiplies every year with their born again philosophy, constantly deceiving the masses. No doubt, the trend of progressive decline is not likely to change anytime soon. If anything, it is more likely to worsen. Factors like uncontrolled population growth, increasingly decrepit infrastructure, poverty, unemployment, an abracadabra democracy and its attendant instability will ensure that Nigeria remains destined for a future of strife, conflicts and uncertainties. It is interesting to note, that after 8 years of an unprecedented oil boom, Nigeria is still as bad and indeed even worse than she has ever been, it is therefore certain that nothing short of a revolution can possibly bring any change to our unfortunate (maybe cursed) nation. The creature is sure set to remain ugly for a long time to come. The only way they can control the ethnic nationalities is to keep the divide and rule game. They need to create 50 states in the south, and 50 states in the north for this country to survive. That is the only way to minimize the agitation, and buy some time to decide what to do. Posted by NWANZA| 23.12.2007 23:28

Dr. S Adetunji  Villager

# 3 Part of the failings of Nigeria! Lagos has more doctors than 10 Northern states By Victor Sam, Abuja Published: Monday, 24 Dec 2007 The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and the Nigerian Medical Association have said that the distribution of medical doctors is impacting negatively on health care delivery in the country,. It said Lagos State alone has more doctors than 10 states in the Northern part of the country. They said the uneven distribution of healthcare professionals had opened doors for quacks to thrive in the rural areas, where more than 70 per cent of the disease burden occurred. The Chairman, MDCN, Dr Shima Gyoh, and the National President, NMA, Dr Abba Gana, both disclosed this to our correspondent in separated interviews on Saturday in Abuja. Gyoh said the poor distribution of medical personnel in the country was a big source of worry for the council, as most rural people were left at the mercy of unskilled professionals and quacks. He said the situation was at the centre for the high incidence of maternal and child mortality in the rural areas than in the urban areas. He said, “One of the biggest worry of the MDCN is the poor distribution of medical doctors in the country. Lagos alone has more than doctors than ten states in the northern part of Nigeria. “There are more doctors in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Abuja, than in other parts of the country. We have a concentration of doctors in urban areas and none or little in the local government areas.“Even in Benue State, where I am now, three quarters of the doctors here are resident only in Markurdi and Gboko. This situation has contributed significantly to why we cannot tackle some of the common diseases in the rural areas.” Gana, while corroborating Gyoh’s stance, said the situation was caused by disparities in the remuneration of medical doctors working in tertiary and secondary hospitals and those working at the primary healthcare centres. Gana said, “Yes, the situation is very worrisome. We have a major problem where there are more doctors in Southern Nigeria than in Northern Nigeria. About 30-40 per cent of all doctors in Nigeria are practising in Lagos alone. “The problem is solely the responsibility of government. As long as there continue to be disparities in the payment of emoluments to doctors that work in teaching and federal government institutions with those that work at the states and local government establishments, we will continue to have the uneven distribution. “There is a need to establish a medical salary scheme which will be a uniform salary scheme for doctors working anywhere in the country, whether at the local government or the National hospital. This would motivate most doctors to stay at home and work.” Posted by Dr. S Adetunji| 24.12.2007 09:42