BY AYO OPADOKUN

Perhaps it is not an idle talk again to engage in wishful thinking or indulge in gymnastic pastimes as to whether or not the state of the nation is imminently close to explosion or that the current state of the nation is unsustainable.

Whichever is the case, the following stark realities are indisputable; even though they are repetitive, they are an eye opener method considered to be necessary in order to lay  a basis for my yet to be expounded views.

Polytechnic authorities pacifying protesting students of the institution.

1. Since the emergence of the 4th Republic, the Nigerian state has daily exported between 1.5 to 2million barrels of crude oil at an averagely 75-100 U.S dollar per barrel. There is an unbelievable irreconciliation between the huge petroleum dollar the Nigerian state has  earned and the statistically verifiable fact that about 70% of Nigerian population live below the poverty level.

In the last 14years of civilian governance in Nigeria, social services have become an embarrassment. Basic infrastructures have worsened inspite of the gigantic petrol dollars earned by the Nigerian state.

2. The Nigerian state’s skewed consideration for continuing with a prohibitive executive presidential system government has led to a situation whereby about 70-75% of its earnings is spent on recurrent expenditure leaving just meager resources for development.

3.The Nigerian  state irresponsiveness to the glaring acute poverty level of the people has led to the discomfiting human welfare index status which has consistently, located Nigeria within the war ravaged countries bracket in recent times.

Furthermore, the stark reality that the more petroleum dollar the Nigerian state earns, the poorer her citizens become is sufficiently indicative of the missing link. In jurisprudence, there is always the need to understand what the law is (the laga lata) as opposed to what the law is supposed to be (de laga faranda)

4. In the Nigerian state, partisan politics is permanent all year round and expensive, thereby making politics, apart from religion, to be the most lucrative business in town. Therefore, majority of political office holders are devoted to the pursuit of political power which, in turn, grants the ”victorious politician” an unrestricted access to public funding from which they regularly steal.

In other climes, the normal occurrence is that close to election seasons, partisan politics dominate the polity, but when candidates have been pronounced as winners, governance begins in earnest whereby the elected people’s preoccupation is how they can utilize government powers and authority to actualize and or execute the promised programs.

5  The Nigerian state has been constructed primarily on falsehood, and arbitrariness by the British colonial masters and the politicians in the Nigerian  military. Through many insurrections against civilian and military regimes they usually serve the interests and prejudices of the ”owners”while the significant majority of the people are programmed to be outsiders, spectators and dispensable elements in the distribution and usage of the commonwealth.

6. From January 15, 1966 when politicians in the Nigerian  army uniform staged their first insurrection against the civilian rulers, the significant members of the military dynasty and their civilian collaborators, confederates, sympathizers, and conduit pipes have turned out to be the main actors in the political process of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Republics  along with their sponsored surrogates.

Thus, they are always two steps ahead of the few rightly-headed members of the dwindling political class because they have acquired ill gotten wealth in their relationship with the military personnelwho held political offices.

7. The Nigerian state has criminally and irresponsively carry on governance that has failed and/or neglected to provide social services (education, health, water, food, housing, etc) not to talk of providing basic infrastructure (efficient transportation system, modern  road network, adequate power supply etc). What the Nigerian state offers today as education is immoral and deceptive.

They practically destroyed public education services through inadequate funding from which a significant part is stolen and demonstrablyfrustrated supervision in the public school while their own children are educated in very expensive private schools in Nigeria or in foreign schools. Since Obasanjo’s administration’s emergence in this 4th  Republic, less than five percent of the ritual annual budget is devoted to education as opposed to the UNESCO’s well thought-out 26% recommendation.

8. I am not sure as to whether or not anybody can tell Nigerians how much of the state resources (8,12,16,24 billion USD) has been spent on power supply since 1999. Yet, all manners of irresponsible excuses are dished out as reasons for the continuation of epileptic power supply. The fact that the Obasanjo’s government planned

10 Independent Power Projects  but  did not reasonably provide nor guaranteed adequate gas supply to power the IPP will forever remain part of an everlasting negative legacy of his unproductive tenure.

9. The present political office holders have deliberately stunted the growth and expansion of democracy and its culture in the last 14-15years of the 4th  Republic. In the public and private activities, they have exhibited their unbelief in deepening democracy, and democratization of the polity.  Former President Obasanjo’s regular anti-democracy stunt, for instance,  using  security agencies to harass, intimidate and dehumanize political opponents including some of  the  PDP founders was unbelievable.

Former President Obasanjo’s most ingenious but more of political gerrymandering was how he imposed and removed PDP Chairmen at will.

‘Life is c heap’
The state of insecurity in Nigeria today is unbelievably scary because life is cheaply eliminated either by state sponsored violence, Islamic fundamentalism, or indescribable human rights violations and also through the violent criminal activities of armed robbers.

Nothing tells the unpleasant story more than the fact that even though the Nigerian state declared a state of emergency  in three  North-East states in the last one year signifying the highest operational alertness, Boko Haram successfully and audaciously carted away over 250 young school girls and we are all still licking our wounds.

The Nigerian state has worsened the plight of the parents, guardians of the young girls and the general public by contradictory and uncertain pronouncements. First Lady, Dame Patient Jonathan, embarrassed the Nigerian state and the international public with her unsolicited theaterical crocodile tears  over the agony of the mothers of the abducted children. She is ever too bossy and garrulous.

Amnesty International andthe London Economist have exposed the unfortunate tardiness of the Jonathan government on the ungodly abduction of the school girls from Chibok. Now that the entire global community is singing the same song and refrain – Bring back our girls now”, the Jonathan  government will have to accept that fact that because the world is now a global community through technology, no ruler can continue to misrule and misgovern  without being exposed.

I think  majority of Nigerians will be  surprised and in consternation to know that Western Europe and the United States had offered assistance to the Nigerian state within 24hours after the reportage of the abduction, yet the Nigerian government did not respond to the various offers for almost three weeks for reasons best known to our government. To run for the next election on this chain of misrule and obviously incompetent leadership is a misadventure of ambition in all ramifications.

Dangerous signal
Having regard to the on-going National  Conference, the media reports and private discussion sessions with some delegates, the reality that some delegates have been mandated  to ensure that genuine agitations and campaign issues like true federalism, devolution of powers to the component parts, fiscal federalism are vehemently rejected is regrettable.

Furthermore, the media reporting their opposition to the return to parliamentary system of government, wanting a retention of the unreasonably prohibitive executive presidential system is equally discomfiting. Matters relating to boundary adjustment to guarantee that the rights of ethnic nationalities like the Ijaws, Yoruba, Nupe, Gwari/Gbayi, who are currently balkanized into two three states or zones thereby making them permanently disadvantaged, are also being misguidedly opposed.

This is a dangerous signal. There is no doubt that self determination is the anthem of this millennium. Every insensitive efforts to further the use of government coercive apparatus to enforce the dominance of one group over the others will be difficult to maintain and or sustained henceforth.

If the right wing elements and representatives of those who have held Nigerian down till date succeeded in ensuring that the status quo on these vital matters are maintained, they probably would soon realize that the permanently disadvantaged will never again throw red carpet for them.

All geographical expressions that were held together by forces of arms globally like the old USSR, Czechoslovakia,eventually distingerated.  Even the master imperialist, Great Britain, has been forced to concede law making powers to the Irish Republic, and Scotland. In addition, Jamaica has given Great Britain forwarding notice of her intention to turn its nation state into a republic pretty soon.

The leadership of the National Assembly is seeing to be doing something as the executive seems to be irresponsive to the genuine feeling of most Nigerians over the unprecedented abduction of over 250 young girls from Chibok College.

The singular motion by the House of Representatives that the Service Chiefs must return the ladies to their parents within seven days or resign their appointments orcommission is consistent with desperate and abnormal situation we are faced with.In fact, the executive, if it were to be sensitive should have virtually halt all routinegovernment activities until this young Nigerians are safely returned to their parents.

A wrongly headed Aba Moro that cannot emphathise with what the parents of the girls and most Nigerians are going through should stop his ministerial embarrassment by keeping silent. Afterall, through his ungodly scheme, unemployed youth who showed up for the ministry of Internal Affairsrecruitment announcement were rather dispatched to heaven in their youthful vibrant times instead of being employed.

The most important reason citizens surrender certain personal rights to the collective as a government is that the collective strength of the people can be used by government to provide adequate security of lives and property. We all as citizens are in deepest agony with the unchallenged media reports on how BOKO HARAM easily ransacked both the Nigerian Army Barrack and the Air ForceBase in Maiduguri environ in February and March 2014.

Nigerians have genuine reasons to believe that our military and Intelligence cadres have been sufficiently trained and empowered to protect us. But if our own human protectors have turned out to be easy catch for the insurgents, then we are in a quandary and we must acttimeously to refix our security and intelligence.

That an insurgent group can abduct over 250 Nigerian girls and was so daring as to issue a videotape of a dramatic footage on how the Christian girls were being forced to recite Koran would remain a humiliation and unpardonable dent on the Nigerian state, its intelligence and security apparatus.

But we know that resignation is not an option for them as they cannot ever contemplate what the Prime Minister of South Korean did just last week when he tendered his resignation over the maritime mishap which claimed about 200 young South Korean pupils. The Prime Minister did not come up with ingenius excuses, perhaps that the accident was not in his round of duty.

The Nigerian state cannot do better until the significant majority of our people are ready to take their destinies in their own hands. Nigerians must stop the unprofitable and opportunistic collaboration with each succeeding set of wrongly headed rulers. Grumbling silently remains a pastime of those who relish in misguided lamentations over their plight when they can take concrete steps to change their fortune.

We must be ready to organize and mobilize ourselves for street actions thereby forcing to step down many of the pretenders in our public offices.
The Tunisian trader who immolated himself to kick start the Arab spring will forever remain a matyr.

No progress can be made when the pre-occupations ofthose elements who constitute the middle class are mundane desires, eg. to bury their old parents, send their wards into the unreasonably expensive schools to announce their status symbols, how to build their new mansion in Ikoyi, Lekki or high brow Matama in Abuja, how to buy a customized new car or their intention either to marry the next wife or acquire a much more glamorous new girl friend.

In other words they are pleasure lovers and fun seekers. (apology to the immortal Fela Anikulapo Kuti in VIP, Vagabonds in power, Suffering and Smiling etc).

Unsustainable status quo
This unworkable and unsustainable status quo of the Nigerian state can only be sustained by the collective pretentious and inactions of us all. The cheaters and slave masters are adept at divide and rule strategy. If we continue with our usual lamentations, the leadership of the Nigerian state will continue to be pleased with our agonizing pastimes because they will remain in office to serve themselves as they are used to doing from time immemorial.

*Opadokun, a lawyer, was the Secretary of the defunct National Democratic Coalition (NADECO)