This Crazy Country Nigeria

THIS CRAZY COUNTRY NIGERIA

There are times like this when I so like the fact that we are a crazy nation. There is always something to laugh about. So crazy from the head to the foot is this great nation. Not too long ago, our president went AWOL only to sneak into the country, remained latent, a lot of political games were played on his health board and his wife captained one of the teams until his demise. On the other side of the world, I remember Hilary Clinton only played the role of a dear wife and mother during the Lewisky scandal.

Recently, our national football team, the Super Eagles were preyed upon in South Africa despite given a mandate of semi finals target by the president. I think the president forgot that we qualified through the gap of our teeth; the squad just got a gaffer two months to the tournament also, the squad consists of flamboyant club side bench warmers. But come to think of it, President Jonathan and the Super Eagles are in the same shoes. Does he think winning the FIFA world cup under such Nigerian factors is easier than accomplishing his inherited eleven point’s agenda in just over a year to the next general election?

This country is always on the verge of doing something, things we never achieved. It’s so sad nothing works in this country: the standard of education is nothing to talk about. The few elite send their wards abroad even to neighbouring Benin Republic to get an education. Such is the story of Mutallab, who spent live outside the fatherland; got brainwashed in foreign lands; failed a suicide attempt to bomb an American Airline plane. He practically failed to get the education his family intended for him. Ironically, he only succeeded in denting the already dented image of the nation. He got the country’s name on America’s terrorists list. Another of his kind is the just dethroned Deji of Akure. He flew back to the country to hold the highest traditional title among his people. He is to be the custodian of a culture he didn’t grow up to understand. Today he is involved in public feuds, lots of court cases and to crown it all, wife battering. What a mess we have turned our tradition to.

In Nigeria, our rulers acknowledge the deteriorating state of the nation only on two instances: during election campaigns and whenever one of them dies. Recently, a controversial politician of the 70s died of a heart attack after an encounter with armed robbers. As usual, the directors of the public hospitals in which he died were questioned, the security agency were not left behind. A lot of probing took place, some sack letters flew around and new appointments were made.  On a daily basis, the good people of this great nation die as result of police stray bullets; ghastly road accidents as a result of the poor state of our roads; armed robbery attack is a common thing on our roads; strikes embarked upon by medical practitioners leave millions of us at the mercy of exploitative private clinics and their quack nurses and the government turn blind eyes on these. Rather, members of parliaments would go into rounds of bout over their allowance increment in the mist of all these which befall the majority of the population.