As if we don’t have enough problems

In the meantime, Nigerians are on each other’s throats again.  A section of Igbo and Yoruba people on the internet are calling Muslims names and threatening secession, and the northern Muslims are fighting back, calling the ‘Bantu’ people of southern Nigeria unprintable names also and asking them to go to hell. On the foreign scene, […]

In the meantime, Nigerians are on each other’s throats again.  A section of Igbo and Yoruba people on the internet are calling Muslims names and threatening secession, and the northern Muslims are fighting back, calling the ‘Bantu’ people of southern Nigeria unprintable names also and asking them to go to hell. On the foreign scene, Nigeria has become a swear word.  Angola, which is currently experiencing tremendous growth due to the recent spike in crude oil prices, and through immense help from China, while Nigeria under Obasanjo squandered its own unprecedented crude oil windfall, now dithers before granting Nigerians visas.  Same goes for China.  Ghana and other ECOWAS countries treat Nigerians as criminals. Every country wants to get rid of the ubiquitous Nigerians.  Can we really afford to add ‘terrorist’ to the many uncomplimentary prefixes and suffixes that is silently attached to every Nigerian name?  Criminal, embezzler, drug pusher, 419, prostitutes, illegal immigrant, credit card scammers etc.

Still I do not despair.  And I will personally hold my head up high no matter the harassment one begins to face afresh from foreign immigration agents.  And every Nigerian should do the same.  As I conclude this, another Nigerian was harassed and called a terrorist for going to the toilet in a Northwest flight to Detroit, USA.  Nigerians cannot even ‘shit’ in-flight again!!! Really, Farouk Mutallab is just a demented rich kid.  And he is a symptom of the stupidity with which Nigerians have conducted themselves over time.  We have turned out to be an easily divisible, myopic and selfish people. Farouk was sent to school abroad, right from secondary.  To his father, Togo must be better than Nigeria.  Most rich Nigerians send their children, from an early age, to schools that have some international affiliation or the other, even in Nigeria (anything foreign will do – British, American, Turkish etc).  There, they get taught how Nigeria is ‘rubbish’, and how those countries are the best. A friend of mine whose children attend one of the most expensive (not necessarily best) school in Lagos was shocked when his daughter of six years old returned home to commence her first holiday and informed her parents that she and her friends planned a meeting for New Jersey that summer.  He was forced to organise visas and tickets for the entire family, which put a huge hole in his pocket.

But perhaps, Farouk is the collateral damage that western countries must bear for enjoying the ill-gotten wealth of Nigerian ‘big men’.  This is akin to the West’s problem with another spoilt brat which it created – Osama Bin Laden.  Osama has not been captured or killed eight years after, and people are saying the USA really do not want to touch the guy, whose Saudi family is their main business ally.  Thousands, perhaps millions of Iraqi and Afghan women and children have had to die as the game plays on though.  

Back to Farouk.  From Togo, he obtained admission to one of the best universities in the world (UCLondon).  One is almost tempted to think that he is one of the lucky few children of Nigeria’s rich people who even bother to think; only that he took a suicidal turn.  He lives in a £4million apartment in London, has access to all the best cars in the world, the best girls if he wanted, would have flown first class when he was under his father’s wings, and like most rich Nigerian kids, was extremely bored with life.

What else will a youth of 16 years, a child has been exposed to all the luxuries in the world, aspire to?  Is it not then obvious that money does not solve every problem, yet we chase money day and night?  Most of Farouk’s peers drive from one night club to another in the high brow areas of Abuja, Lagos, London and New York, sniffing cocaine and shooting heroin at ‘VIP lounges’.  Having seen every earthly luxury, the only option open to them is to seek the out-of-the-world experiences offered by narcotics.   A proper analysis of the pros and cons of the case will point us back towards resuscitating public schools and universities as against the fraudulent approach of the Obasanjo government which effectively seeks to destroy whatever is left of public education in favour of their profit maximising private universities.  Imagine, they are even trying to fund themselves with the Education Tax that companies like mine pay???  Despicable!!!  

Regarding religion, I make haste to observe that China is trumping the world today without embarking on killing sprees, without bombing innocents in the western world for real and perceived sins of yesteryears.  Truly, the West led by the USA has been extremely callous.  Someone on the CNN blog observed that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan was mounted on a platform of religion too.  George W. Bush said he was asked by God to bomb those countries.  Again, that is why I don’t do religion.  I believe that a good heart is what God demands of us.  Africans should abstain from the age-long wars between Israel/Palestinians and USA and Iraq/Afghanistan.  We have a different set of problems.  First of all, we need to seek to unite, and this kind of event only splits us apart.  We should come together and make our country great.  Even corruption cannot stop us, for it is now evident that corruption money only lasts for one generation.  

All I can see is a turnaround of Nigeria.  This case presents us with justification to promote family values (parents should get involved and know their children the more), and we should stop this nonsense of training our children abroad while all our schools die.  It also provides another platform for UNITY…  Again, Nigeria’s ‘big man/ big boy’ model has totally failed.  Farouk’s case shows the folly of Nigeria’s ‘big men’, the banking meltdown shows the stupidity of Nigeria’s ‘big boys’.

But Nigerians must not be made to lose the little that is left of their self esteem by increasing the harassment we presently face at foreign airports and embassies.  Nigerian government should insist.  All cases should be treated on individual merit. And Nigerians should stop seeking for and blowing every bad news about their country out of proportion.  If we knew the problems other countries are facing, we would know just how lucky we are as a people.  Anyhow, if Farouk had been made aware of what his country had to offer him if only he could serve, he would not have attempted mass murder/suicide. Happy New 2010 to all. Nigeria’s emancipation is around the corner!