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What does it take to believe in
Nigeria
? Well, not much. Find your way out of the country as a result of the harsh economic situation, settle down legally in a country where things are much better or at least a little better than they are in Nigeria, sweat under the cold or heat for ten years, pay the high taxes you could avoid paying in Nigeria and remember with nostalgia that things were not like this back home.
On the other hand, you could refuse to run abroad because you are one of the few favoured by the brutal policies of the government. At least, irrespective of the number of people whose businesses have gone under since this government came to power, you have one way or the other benefited from its largesse. Your brother or grand uncle is the personal assistant to the junior personal assistant to the senior personal adviser to a governor, commissioner, minister, president or even a local government chairman. In other words, you are highly connected; you are one of those who are privileged to have access, directly or indirectly, to government treasury.
If you fall into the second category, there is no reason why you would believe that more people are poorer today than they were in 1999. You will never believe that thousands of small, medium and large scale industries have gone under as a result of the good policies and excellent performance of this government. You will not believe that our educational institutions that have been starved and deprived of adequate funds over the years are now comatose.
How on earth would you believe? After all, your cheeks which were sunken in 1999 have become excessively fat. Your rickety 504 Peugeot car has be replaced with a fleet of SUVs and state-of-the-art cars. And by the grace of God, you can now boast of a Hummer Jeep or two in your fleet. Haba! Those who do not believe in
Nigeria
must be joking or are daydreaming. In fact, they are envious of your current status and the successes of those whom God in His infinite mercy has decided to wipe away their tears under the present democratic dispensation. How better can things be in
Nigeria
?
I have been asked several times by my wife why those who claim to believe so much in
Nigeria
send all their children to school abroad. Our bishops, imams, business moguls and top government officials. Why do they not take advantage of the excellent facilities in our universities and give their children the best education in the world locally? After all, our lecturers operate under the most conducive environments you can find anywhere. My only answer is that they believe too much in
Nigeria
to make a demand on local facilities. In a sense, they are too humble to exercise their fundamental human right to good education here. They would rather spare this country the trouble of giving their children good and affordable education. If half the money currently being spent by Nigerians to get good education abroad is used to improve the facilities in local schools and universities, I am sure half the problems in our educational sector will be solved.
Now tell me, how do they believe so much in
Nigeria
yet stash away their wealth in foreign accounts? And there is not one of them who does not have a house or two in the
United Kingdom
,
United States of America
and even
South Africa
. I read in the papers recently that my state governor who is presiding over a state that cannot boast of one functional industry has a chain of them in a neighbouring West African country. The painful part is that he personally supervised the death and burial of the few industries in the state since assuming office in 1999. That is how much they believe in
Nigeria
.
By the way our government officials rule (or milk) this country, they give the impression that they know that sooner or later there will be nothing left of this entity called
Nigeria
. So they are busy trying to garner as much of the national wealth as possible so that when the worst happens they would not have lost anything.
I am convinced that if half the money stashed away in foreign accounts by public officials were put to productive use in
Nigeria
, more foreigners will find this country attractive enough to invest in. If only they will steal and put it to productive use here, millions of graduates will not be walking the streets of
Lagos
in search of non-existent jobs. Stealing and taking abroad is twice impoverishing this nation. I am not in any way justifying stealing, but if they must steal they should at least be kind enough to ensure that
Nigeria
does not die.
The truth is, many foreign governments know how much money have been siphoned from
Nigeria
and kept in their own banks. To some extent, the economies of these foreign countries run smoothly on these stolen funds. That is why they pay only lip service to stopping corruption in
Nigeria
. If you stop corruption in
Nigeria
, I am very sure the economies of some of these countries will crumble in no time.
I am not saying that other countries owe us a responsibility to help us stop the decay in our domain. It is only proper that if they are insisting that we adopt their system of government, then they should wholeheartedly assist us to make it work. After all, they know too well what our public officials have done with western democracy and the rule of law. Otherwise, I am tempted to assume that they too believe in
Nigeria
only as long as it plays the role of the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg. This goose must not be allowed to die!
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Authors 
Posted by Robot| 13.02.2007 08:04