I have been told that the Imo State governor, Mr. Ikedi Ohakim has written some books on Marketing. Jolly well, I’d say! No wonder he is busy selling snake oil in Imo state. Marketing and advertising proposed sites as the great achievements of his three-years in Imo state requires a certain kind of talent for obfuscation.

He reminds us why Nigeria has no reason to celebrate a 50th Independence celebration. That Nigeria is, afterall, still not free. That its political freedom is an illusion created to deceive, and that its lack of political freedom is the cause of its terrible underdevelopment, which demands from us to raise this question: “who governs Nigeria?” and that the answer to this question should naturally compel Nigerians to begin the second phase of the anticolonial nationalist movement. We have wasted half a century.

The legislature is the weakest link in Nigeria’s current democratic experiment. Its weakness derives in part from the many years of military rule which disorganized the rules of conduct as well as the values of debate necessary for a robust parliamentary culture.

Close to One Trillion Dollars worth of oil profits later, the Niger Delta is in the end an ecological Armageddon. It fits perfectly into what the Canadian journalist and author, Naomi Klein, would describe as evidence of the consequences of “disaster capitalism.”

Eastern Nigeria is endowed greatly with human and material resources. The energy and dynamism of its population could propel it, given right conditions, to tremendous economic and social growth that could rival India, China, Brazil, and have implications for the Central West African corridor, right down to the Congo.