By Ebele Orakpo

There’s more to this Boko Haram menace than meets the eye,” said Sani, a commuter in the Abuja-bound bus. “I suspect the West. These people  sit down and plan for the next 20 years, what they will want to see happen around the world and then go and plot how to achieve the projections.”

“I see! So this is like the hand of Esau but the voice of Jacob!” exclaimed Biola.

“Exactly! Unfortu-nately, we have very willing tools in the North due to poverty and illiteracy,” noted Sani.

“The Oyibos have never meant well for the Black man. They feel they are superior to us in every way so when they see us rising, they do everything to suppress us,” said Ibrahim.

“No, I don’t agree with you. Just look at governance in Nigeria since independence? What have we achieved? We are busy killing ourselves, stealing the nation blind and yet comfortably playing the blame game. Whatever anybody says, the buck stops here. After all, God gave us the same brain and same 24 hours in a day, so what are we talking about?

How did China become great? The West never liked them too. What about Japan and South Korea? Japan had to halt their production of Toyota to enable Kia penetrate the market. China is among the great because they looked inwards. So what stops Nigeria from using her abundant resources to become great?” asked Joshua.

“It’s like God’s apprentices made us,” replied Biola. This elicited laughter.

Said Ibrahim: “Ajaokuta Steel Company is an example. It was meant to be the largest in  Africa.“

“Then corruption happened!” interjected Joshua.

“Well, it was a conspiracy by the West. ASL was to enable us become makers and exporters of steel. The Russians were awarded the contract because the West did not like the idea. They started the project and suddenly, the West became interested and was awarded the civil engineering work and then the cold war started.

The West used their civil engineering companies to frustrate the project. Africa is the largest market for Western automobiles, so if Nigeria begins to produce steel, they will lose the market and that was why they conspired to retard the growth of the project,” said Ibrahim.

“Ah, your school fees were not in vain. You’re making sense,” joked Biola.

“So you now see why the Boko Haram thing can as well be a conspiracy? Nigeria is blessed in every sense of the word and if it is allowed to develop, will become a big threat to the West and so the best thing is to destabilize her, not from outside but from within; set them up against themselves and fragment the nation.

“Kano, Jos and Kaduna would have been a strong business corridor but look at what has happened! An average Nigerian will prefer to get N1million even if the nation will lose N10million in the process. It is that bad. I know of a Lebanese businessman  owing PHCN N50,000 but was willing to bribe them with N40,000 instead of paying the N50,000 and getting a receipt. This is  aiding a foreigner to defraud us. Will a  White guy allow a Black man to defraud his government?” asked Sani.

“Impossible!” replied Joshua.