The Lumine News

Category: Opinion

  • Project Abandonment: Stalling The Shovels And The Pans BY AGBA JALINGO 

    Project Abandonment: Stalling The Shovels And The Pans BY AGBA JALINGO 

     

    The Guardian Newspaper reported recently that more than 56,000 projects worth 12 trillion Naira have been abandoned in Nigeria since 1999, citing the Institute of Quantity Surveyors. These projects include the N18bn National Library, NIPOST headquarters construction, N39bn FIRS headquarters construction, N69bn Millennium Tower and Cultural Center construction, N7bn Ministry of Agric headquarters construction, World Trade Centre, N700bn Abuja City Centre, N4.3bn 220-Bed Utako General Hospital, $18billion Centenary City in Abuja, amongst many others scattered across the country.

    It is nerve wracking to imagine that, year in year out, these huge sums are appropriated and in many cases, disbursed either in part or in full, and the projects are jilted without consequences. How this sort of financial rascality has seemingly become a matter of numb indifference to the population is even more appalling. We just keep moving on as if nothing happened.

    But in this same country, when Third Mainland Bridge was built, it was the longest bridge in Africa until 1996 when the 6th October Bridge in Cairo was completed. The National Theatre, NITEL, NEPA, Nigerian Ports Authority, Military and Police barracks, East West Road, Kano-Maiduguri road, functional airports, Federal Secretariat, National Assembly Complex, Aso Rock Villa, Eagle Square, Courts, Stadia, were all built by jack boot regimes that we agree are unconstitutional and corrupt.

    At the regional levels, Premiers of the various regions also left some iconic infrastructure that are still surviving till date and we talk about them with relish and nostalgia. And I have been asking myself what memorable functional projects have these set of democratic leaders started and completed since 1999 when democracy returned to Nigeria?

    I really wish those who do these things will realize that our economic development is tied to these abandoned infrastructure. They should realize also that if we don’t develop, none of us, no matter how much you have amassed, will be safe from those who don’t have. The rich will continue to axle themselves within the city centers or ride perpetually in armoured automobiles with a bevy of armed security guards.

    Our contemporary nations that have attained this realization are tying their future to infrastructure development and taking deliberate steps. The Indian ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) for instance, has internally set a goal to construct at least 45km of highways a day in 2023 totalling 16,000km of roads. The ministry achieved a record 13,298km in the COVID pandemic-stricken year of 2020-21, at a rate of 36.4km per day. The road building target has helped to reduce travel time, connected new areas, stimulated commercial activities, and accelerated India’s growth story.

    Someone should deliberately take the gauntlet and vow to leave us some legacy projects. It is not luxury. It is what we just have to do so we don’t perish. The stealing just has to be reduced at least. Massive infrastructure development will create a chance for young people to dust their pans and their shovels, and reduce crime. It will give our population the clefts of succour and sustained hope and provide us all some roads out of this national malaise.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • It’s Time We Realize That God Is Not Our Business Partner; He Is Not An Accountant To Record Our Deeds In Order To Pay Us According To Our Merits BY FR PETER OBELE ABUE

    It’s Time We Realize That God Is Not Our Business Partner; He Is Not An Accountant To Record Our Deeds In Order To Pay Us According To Our Merits BY FR PETER OBELE ABUE

    THE GOD OF LOVE

    Some people prefer the god of revenge and punishment than the God of Love. They believe other people who are not as good as them are destined to receive no reward from ‘their’ god. But was Abraham our father in faith not called while still a pagan? Was David not forgiven while he was at his worst sin of adultery and murder? Was Moses who murdered an Egyptian while ‘defending’ his people not still called to lead his people? If you read this and think I am taking God for granted, encouraging tolerance for evil, laziness, or sloth, then think again.

    Jesus addressed his disciples in the gospels, saying: “Friend, I am doing you no wrong … take what belongs to you and go…Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Why are you envious because I am generous? “ (Matt. 20: 1-16). Our God is a generous God, even when we know he has zero-tolerance for sin. He lavishes his love on both saint and sinner
    alike. He forgives sinners unconditionally so that they may find it in their hearts to repent or even forgive those who sin against them. All so we may understand his true nature and seek to be like him; a God of love.

    The Babylonians, in exile, had this false image of God; only as a punisher of evil, and Isaiah tells them in very plain language that they were wrong and needed conversion of heart. This time, it was not a conversion from sin and corruption, but a radical change from their myopic way of thinking ( and looking at God): “Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thought … I will abundantly pardon you, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord” (Isaiah 55:8).

    It’s time we realize that God is not our business partner; He is not an accountant to record our deeds in order to pay us according to our merits. Seriously, we merit nothing from God; we can only receive …forgiveness, generosity, love, and indeed salvation from him. A DOG is the only creature you can train to obey you and work in accordance with your dictates, not GOD. It’s time we begin to change our mentality of the God we serve and relate to him like a G-O-D, not a D-O-G

  • Witchcraft Is Not Africanized BY AGBA JALINGO 

    Witchcraft Is Not Africanized BY AGBA JALINGO 

     

    In Old English, “Wicce” means “witch.” The word, “Wicce” further has its roots in the old German word, “Wicken.” While the word, cræft, is equally an Old English word originally meaning “power or physical strength.” Cræft could also be interpreted to signify possession of inexplicable knowledge, wisdom, and resourcefulness. The term is as well derived from the Old High German word, “kraft.”

    So “Wicce-Cræft”, or witchcraft is not Africanized. It is not an African word. It did not originate from Africa. Rather, it has generic meaning not just to the Anglo-Germans, but the entire Europe and in fact, all civilizations. It is a cultural phenomena with evidential history cutting across all civilizations and epochs. All civilizations have their pre-religous ethos and practices. Europe has a pre-Christian era. The Arabs have a pre-Islam era. China has a pre-Bhuddist era. India has a pre-Hindu era. Every culture on Earth contains some aspect of symbolic gestures or ritualized behavior performed either by an entire group or by a select few individuals, before adopting their current religions.

    In Europe for instance, the practice of witchcraft was the dominant culture until it was overtaken by global consensus on the belief in One God, as well as the burgeoning influence of the Catholic Church, which led to a craze fuelled wave of witch hunting and trials across the continent during the middle ages. For two millennia, European folklore and ritual have been imbued with the belief in witchcraft and till date, witchcraft continues to play a role in European societies and imaginations.

    It was the Malleus Maleficarum, (Hammer of Witches), a 1486 treatise written by Austrian priest, Heinrich Kramer and German priest Jakob Sprenger, at the request of Pope Innocent VIII, which reigned as the second-best-selling book in Europe for more than two centuries, that united the Church and the State, in providing a framework for identifying, capturing, prosecuting, and punishing witches.

    But since the 1940s, new witchcraft movements have emerged in Europe, seeking to revive and reinterpret the continents’ pre-Christian practices in a search for spiritual authenticity in a rapidly changing world. Wicca, an English neo witchcraft group, pioneered by Gerald Gardner, stands out as one of the most influential of those movements. Stregheria is an Italian sect that celebrates early Italian witchcraft. Its adherents say that their tradition has pre-Christian roots, and refer to it as La Vecchia Religione, the Old Religion.

    Religio Romana, is a modern reconstructionist religion based upon the ancient faith of pre-Christian Rome. The Asatru tradition is also a reconstructionist path that focuses on pre-Christian Norse spirituality. The movement began in the 1970s as part of a revival of Germanic witchcraft culture. Many Asatruar say their practices are very similar in its modern form to those that existed hundreds of years before the Christianization of the Norse cultures. Hellenic Polytheism, rooted in the traditions and philosophies of the ancient Greeks, is another path that has begun a resurgence following the Greek pantheon, and often adopting the religious practices of their ancestors.

    It is in the light of this global resurgence in the search for cultural authenticity, and its imminence in Africa, that I will like to end by quoting, theologian, Dr. Mary Nyangweso Wangila, a J. Woolard and Helen Peel Distinguished Professor in Religious Studies at East Carolina University, from her book: “Witches” of the Twenty-First Century: Invoking the Relevance and Resilient Character of African Spirituality in Changing Times”, where she argues that, “the resurgence of practitioners of African spirituality in Africa and the African diaspora, commonly known to some as “witches” in the twenty-first century, as demonstrated in practices and lyrics of the millennials such as Beyonce, Banks and Nokia is not only illustrative of the ability of African spirituality to evolve and adapt, it speaks to the centrality of African identity in the African experience.

    “Drawing from experiences of Africans in the sub-Saharan region and those in the African diaspora, I argue that the general assumption that relegating African religious beliefs and practices as “savage,” “primitive” and “uncivilized” and therefore destined to decline is disproven by resilient manifestations of African spirituality in modern society.”

    She further concludes by acknowledging the, “disadvantage that these religions experience due to their lack of the proselytizing instinct that their monotheistic peer religions like Christianity and Islam possess, their persistence not only speaks to an Afrocentric character that is central to Africans everywhere, it is also an illustration of the basic fact that all social phenomena is bound to evolve and adapt. Resilient vestiges of African spirituality are indicative of how irreplaceable and un-erasable core African values are and how they speak to an identity that cannot be traded for another.”

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • The Travails Of Ben Ayade BY PHYLO MODLIN ODU

    The Travails Of Ben Ayade BY PHYLO MODLIN ODU

    The Travails Of Ben Ayade

    Upon the release of the ministerial list, many Cross Riverians were ecstatic not so much at who was appointed, but at who was not appointed. The jubilation at the absence of Ben Ayade’s name on the list has not been so subtle. People are happy that Ayade did not make the list. His demagoguery only held sway in Cross River, he couldn’t cry his way to the ministerial list. Reality should have dawned on him, for a man who left office as governor just yesterday to have earned such disdain and ignominy with which he is being held today.

    His administration was a catastrophic disaster, characterized by dubious incompetence and greed that will take several years of deliberate governance to recover from. It is not that people hate Ayade but if they do, he earned it like a medal in Olympics. For 8 years, he abused the sensibilities of the people. Given an opportunity to be governor virtually on a platter, he blew it in a frenzy of high grammar, ridiculous budget nomenclature, bogus and dubious projects that were never completed. They were not aligned with the immediate priorities of the people, even if completed.

    He must be a sad man if he has a sense of introspection. He didn’t know that all through the 8 years he held sway and surrounded himself with cheerers and aiders of ineptitude, the real people saw through his sophistry. I hope he gets to now see clearly the condition of the State’s capital, the Ranch, Tinapa, the State’s library, the charade of an Airport in Obudu of which he snatched farm lands, demolished houses and rendered hapless villagers homeless without any means of livelihood and ended up doing nothing. He should introspect on these and all others that he brought to ruin in 8 years and see for himself that, he doesn’t deserve to get any position of service in the name of the State.

    Ayade only realized on the morning of his handing over that, his two wasteful terms as Governor had ended. It triggered a vibrating laughter when during his speech, he asked the sworn governor to escort him for commissioning of projects the next day, what he never did in 8 years. Completely hilarious!. Ayade displayed reluctance in the handing over process to Prince Otu; he seemed to have been hustled out of office in the end. If Prince Otu wasn’t pauciloquent, he would have said plenty by now. Even at that, there is little or nothing to be said about Ayade’s prima-donna government that the people of Cross River State do not already know.

    To Ayade’s ardent supporters who may want to contest the extent of his decadence, let me help you. Ayade himself set the yardstick or indices for the evaluation of his administration when, in his first inaugural speech, he announced the Super Highway and Deep Sea Port as his signature projects which his administration wants to be remembered for; the flagship achievement. Eight years and several billions of naira after, the Super Highway remained a fictitious project used for jokes, and the Deep Seaport swallowed all the billions allegedly poured into the Bakassi swamps without a sign of any difference from the swamp it has always been. It became tempting to commend his food on the table initiative but barely 3 months after his government and with Prince Otu’s resolve to stem the tide of adorning just anyone, the title of government official, an entitled army of people accustomed to receiving salaries for no work done have started grumbling.

    Prince Otu is taking too much time to kickstart a people-centered administration and time is of the essence considering that, it is a misfortune for anyone to have taken over from Ayade. Otu needs to show some enthusiasm in these early days. It is expected that he expeditiously sweetens the State with the common services the people have missed these past years.
    1) Waterboard should have been effectively restored and already supplying portable water to residents even if it’s within a stipulated timeframe.
    2) People should no longer have to grumble about Waste evacuation. Calabar should return to the days where it is a way of life for residents to awake to a neat environment.
    3) House of Assembly should have been sent proposals for road Reconstruction/Rehabilitation in Calabar metropolis so that this raining season can be used to evaluate and consider the proposals and by the short dry season period of Calabar, work can commence.

    If Otu prioritizes these key areas for now, the State will be bubbling with the euphoria of a new government and Cross Riverians will support the administration, not the 5 billion naira loan for the renovation of government house I heard he has submitted to House of Assembly for approval.

    I am sharing my thoughts not to castigate Ayade as I have done many times while he was still Governor; it’s not necessary, the harm’s already done. But to draw the attention of those in power now; as governor or National Assembly members to learn from Ayade’s present travails so that they understand that, four or eight years is not enough time for incompetence, this opportunity they have should not be abused. The lesson is to act now, intentionally and consistently to the end, in the interest of the people so that at a time you have an interest, the people will stand by you too.

    PHYLO MODLIN ODU, is a Cross River journalist. She also sells all kinds of foodstuffs.

  • Your Position Is To Enable You Serve Others, Not Lord It Over Them. You Have Become A Father To Those In Your Care. Yours is a Privileged Position To Make Life Meaningful For Others And Not To Cause Them Pain BY FR PETER OBELE ABUE

    Your Position Is To Enable You Serve Others, Not Lord It Over Them. You Have Become A Father To Those In Your Care. Yours is a Privileged Position To Make Life Meaningful For Others And Not To Cause Them Pain BY FR PETER OBELE ABUE

    THE KEYS

    In ancient times, keys were very heavy and had to be carried on the shoulder. When a prime minister, for example, was to be crowned, the king would take the mantle and belt and put on him and then would place on his shoulder the key of his palace. To receive the keys meant to have full powers in the palace of the king and authority from him to administer his property, to decide who was to be received and who would be kept outside the palace. Such was the authority that was given to Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, as we read in Isaiah 22; 19-23.

    Worthy to note here is verse 21, which described Eliakim the new appointee in these words: “He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah”. These same words were applied to Peter in the gospel of Mathew 16: 13-20, especially verses 18 and 19 where Jesus hands over the keys to him saying: “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church…I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.

    The lesson(s) to be learnt here about leadership, power, and authority are very simple and instructive; to be in power is to possess keys from God. These keys are heavy; they are a burden, not a joy. You are burdened with other people’s problems, and so there is no reason for you as a leader to celebrate and call a party because you have been selected to a position. It is service, not an elevation, and you are appointed by a higher power (the king) to serve in his palace. It is not your palace. Whatever your position, IT IS NOT YOUR PALACE. It’s the kings palace.

    Secondly, your position is to enable you to serve others, not lord it over them. You have become a father to those in your care, not a Lord. Yours is a privileged position to make life meaningful for others and not to cause them pain and separation.

    At this stage in our history, we are looking for leaders at various levels; community leaders, church leaders, youth leaders, constituency leaders, ward leaders, etc. Recently, keys were handed to certain people. What would they make of their positions of authority? Whichever direction they may want to go, remember the words of Jesus to Peter: It is not flesh and blood that gave you that power, but my father in heaven” (Matt. 16: 17).

  • Mummy Eiler, The Lone Resident Who Is Mayor And Every Other Thing.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    Mummy Eiler, The Lone Resident Who Is Mayor And Every Other Thing.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    Five miles from the South Dakota border in the remote northern reaches of the US state of Nebraska, there is a small town called, Monowi, with only one resident and an abandoned church, whose empty pews are now filled with tractor tyres.

    84 years old, Elsie Eiler, became the only resident of Monowi, after her husband Rudy, passed away in 2004. Today, according to the US Census, Monowi is the only incorporated place in the US with just one resident, and Eiler is the mayor, clerk, treasurer, librarian, bartender and only person left in the US’ tiniest town.

    She pays taxes to herself, grants her own alcohol licence and runs a tavern where people come from neighbouring towns to patronize. As mayor, each year, she hangs up a notice in Monowi’s only business (her bar) advertising mayoral elections, and then votes for herself.

    She’s required to produce a municipal road plan every year to secure state funding, and then raises about $500 worth of taxes from herself annually to keep the town’s three lampposts flickering and its water flowing.

    Eiler explained to the BBC in 2020 that: “When I apply to the state for my liquor and tobacco licenses each year, they send them to the secretary of the village, which is me. So, I get them as the secretary, sign them as the clerk and give them to myself as the bar owner.”

    She walks a few feet from her home to the tavern each morning at 9am to open the bar, except Mondays, when she gives herself a day off. She sells alcohol and also cooks hamburgers ($3.50), hot dogs ($1.25) and gizzards ($4). Most of her regular customers live within 20 to 30 miles but others drive 200 miles from Lincoln and Omaha to patronize her and Eiler doesn’t usually close up until after 21:30 when things quieten down.

    Monowi is one of three incorporated towns in Boyd County, Nebraska, that has fewer than 10 residents. Monowi surpassed nearby Gross, Nebraska, with a population of 2 residents to become the only incorporated town in the US with just one resident.

    Do you have the resilience of Mummy Eiler Rudy? Can you live in a ghost town and make sense of it and derive all the happiness you wish for? Can you run even your street residents association and maintain the legendary orderliness of Mummy Eiler? Ponder!!!

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.

  • APC NWL Vs Cross River : When The Voice Of Reason Is Ignored BY INYALI PETER

    APC NWL Vs Cross River : When The Voice Of Reason Is Ignored BY INYALI PETER

     

    Yesterday, August 23rd, 2023 the long awaited replacement of vacant National and Zonal Working Committee offices in the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC was filled and Cross River State which is the only South-South state governed by the APC is the biggest loser. Some of us had warned against the process and unevenness that depicted the choice of whom the leadership of the party in the state favoured to replace Dr. Betta Edu, the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation as National Woman Leader (NWL) but our good counsel as in many cases, hit the bricks wall. The consequences is starring at us all, today.

    It is traditional and constitutional in the APC that when a position becomes vacant, a replacement always comes from where the former occupant hails from. However, this time around, the National Executive Council of the party which has the power of the convention nullified the existing zoning and directed re-arrangement of positions.

    This meant that all vacant positions were thrown open for the best lobbiest to take. Unfortunately, Cross River State leadership didn’t take this into account because if it did, it wouldn’t have assumed erroneously that they can throw any name devoid of equity and simple logic and still retain the position simply because the last occupant hails from the state. Instead of deploying all its arsenals to lobby and negotiate to retain the position or least, press for higher or equivalent alternatives, some vested interests hijacked the process and decided to go about it surreptitiously.

    The right thing would have been to call an Extraordinary Stakeholders meeting where critical stakeholders of the party across the state would meet, discuss and agree on who to project. But this was thrown to the abyss and a certain powerful woman from Cross River South was allowed to impress her inordinate personal interest on the leadership who secretly forwarded her name to the national secretariat without proper consultation or consent of majority of the Stakeholders.

    But that wasn’t all. God created a second chance for them to correct their wrong when some overzealous page boys released the information and party members of good conscience protested. In limpid display of impunity, the leadership of the party in the state refused to listen to the voice of reason by pressing on with their plots. And now, the state has lost out completely. No Woman Leader. No alternative!

    Imagine for a moment the influence the candidate that had the support of majority of the stakeholders would have had in the national secretariat had they listened to the voice of reason! The truth is that majority of APC stalwarts in the state were unsatisfied with the choice of the candidate that was forwarded and the process that produced her but decided to maintain unholy silence to see how much influence those who brought her have in Abuja.

    When her name got to Abuja, the leadership of the party in South South consulted some leaders that were sidelined and they bluntly said she was not a product of collective decision. This empowered leaders from other states to unite against her interest and in the end, Edo won. Akwa Ibom even came closer at some point than Cross River because those with influence in the national that would have synergized with the state leadership to pursue her course decided to allow “them do their thing”.

    The bitter truth is that Governor Bassey Otu needs to re-consider those he listens to. It’s not normal that the only South-South Governor had failed to directly produce a Minister even when his state had two. He has failed again to retain the National Working Committee position he inherited or secured alternative to the state. These failures are largely due to pushing for candidates who emerge through a skewed process and with little acceptability amongst stakeholders. It’s still early but the signs we’re seeing are very dangerous for the State and the Governor. He needs to expand his team and consult more.

    As my friend Richie Romanus stated in his expository piece two days ago, the state has been so favoured in this administration. There’s need for urgent extraordinary stakeholders that should aim to achieve synergy and collaboration. Without mincing words, if all hands were on deck, Cross River wouldn’t have lost the National Woman Leader to another State. There are more to come, our leaders need collaboration to attract things to the state if not their advantage would amount to nothing.

    It’s hoped that going forward, this would serve as a lesson that would catalyst the needed adjustments in the interest of the party and state.

    Congratulations to Dr. Mary Alile Idele, the new National Woman Leader of APC. May her reign bring prosperity to our great party.

  • Betta Edu: The Meteoric Rise Of The Unexpected BY AGBA JALINGO

    Betta Edu: The Meteoric Rise Of The Unexpected BY AGBA JALINGO

     

    This life remains a mystery and no one can lay claim to knowing all, except God. But every culture has developed an acceptable method of societal organization that suits their nuances and attempts to settle their incongruities.

    Where I come from, in Obudu, “uñwå ushîé”, meaning (a child from the mother’s village), can never be rejected in the mother’s village. It’s a taboo. The child even has preferential rights than others in the village. The child is usually granted land ownership rights and communal protection. If that child even commits murder in another land, the only place he or she can be banished to, is the mother’s village. If any animal is killed in that village, the child is traditionally entitled to the ‘neck’ of the animal, be it chicken, pig, ram, goat, cow or even bush meat. The neck is reserved for the “bébūâ úshîé.” (Plural).

    However, one evident pent-up in this cool sounding narrative is the subtle discomfort and manifest bitterness that starts to mushroom once the “unwa-ushie” begins to rise and amass authority and power beyond expectations. That is when hush conspiracies coalesce to recall your nativity and sundry dust. Rising from grass threatens lower rungs naturally. It purveys the entrenched audacity of lower floors that never thought a high rise could emerge beside them. It is not their fault. It is a natural reaction to every such action.

    Rising, particularly at a meteoric speed, inherently attracts attention and publicity. You will be talked about in leaps and bounds. Many things will be said about you that are true and false. A lot will be attributed to you and much more will be detracted from you. In that light, I dare say that so much has been said about the new Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu.

    At 37, over a period of just eight years, from being a youth corper in government house, she has been Special Adviser on Health to governor, DG of Health Agency, Commissioner for Health, National Woman Leader, and now Minister of the Federal Republic. This couldn’t have come without a dent of competence and self drive. In my humble opinion, I think Dr Betta Edu is a young Cross Riverian that has presented herself as a handy example for other young women in our State and country wide, to understand that women have space at the top, if they can strive.

    I will rather stand with her and watch her get to work than vilify her. What can Betta do? How can Betta better the lives of poor Nigerians? How can she positively take the bull by the horn and maximize the space she has been given, no matter how little, to impact a good number of Nigerians? How can Betta create a reliable national social register and maximize technology that will ensure intervention programs get to the targeted sections of indigents?

    These are the parameters that will inform my judgment of her and not the cacophony of pelting has not been able to impede her velocity.

     

  • The Nigerian State Has Wiped Away The Middle Class BY DOMINIC KIDZU

    The Nigerian State Has Wiped Away The Middle Class BY DOMINIC KIDZU

     

    “The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice, Politics without principles.”
    ~ Mahatma Gandhi

    For many years after I began working, some friends, family and community members regularly came to me for financial assistance and I obliged the ones I could, gladly, while appealing for more time to those whose requests I couldn’t handle immediately. In the end I was always able to touch elbows with most without necessarily undermining my own affairs.There was no money transfer by telephone then, so my personal assistant maintained a notebook of account details of many, many people. He was for a long time a regular visitor at many banks as a result of that.

    Today, whenever someone sends me their account details requesting for assistance, I find myself promptly irritated and even sad, because I am also looking for someone to send my account details to in the hope of getting a lifeline. And I know that I am not alone, because my colleagues, peer group and friends are going through the same pangs of want and social relegation to a lower, shameful class. Mid-level civil servants, assistants/advisers in state and local governments, lecturers, senior teachers, accomplished journalists and entrepreneurs were all members of the middle class who could take care of their immediate families and a few others besides.

    But the middle class has at last been wiped away by brainless politicians, unbridled corruption and the wrong headed advice from Breton woods institutions, the apostles of globalization whose eternal diagnosis, year in year out, is the devaluation of currency, removal of subsidies and slavish acceptance of foreign loans. The living conditions of Nigeria have plummeted in such a way that it has become a grim task for members of the deceased middle class to buy fuel for their second-hand cars and electric generators or feed their families adequately without requesting for help from the few big men and sending them their account details.

    In Nigeria today, there are two socio-economic classes – the very rich, who number about 1℅ and the very poor, about 99℅ and the two classes of people are mutually irreconcilable. They do not live on the same streets. Don’t drive the same type of vehicles. Don’t eat at the same restaurants. Don’t go to the same hospitals. Don’t share the same drinks. Ironically, most of the super rich have neither conscience, character, morality, nor principles or humanity. Mahatma Gandhi might indeed have been postulating about these ones, because they lack industry or high education and are quite simply pests on the nation’s life spring.

    In every state you have the minister, the governor, some members of the National Assembly, one or two federal appointees, a judge or two in courts of appellate jurisdiction and one or two “connected” portfolio businessmen. They are the nouveau riche, the new authors and givers of life itself, feasting on the patrimony of the people, government provides them free houses and cars, the Central Bank gives them differential foreign currency rates. Their children study overseas and they themselves treat their malaria overseas as well. Lazy, unintelligent, bereft of conscience and foresight, beholden only unto the god of money and power. They represent only themselves and their families and look at the miling 99℅ with disdain and scorn, while scoffing at the studious and brilliant who ‘waste’ so much time in school studying how to be poor and beggarly men.

    It’s a new world, a strange country, where intelligent people are silenced so that the stupid ones won’t be offended. Where those who attempted GCE without “winning” are presidents, governors and ministers while professors beg for their meagre earned income. And people who were in the middle class are only too happy to run errands for the stuffed turkeys with large torsos and little heads, and violent gang members who have ‘transformed’ into political leaders, driving the nation safely down to its knees. The bank executives rebuff creative ideas and innovations and the preachers cross the social Rubicon with their families in tow. Here is George Orwell all over again as ” the creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again, and already, it was impossible to say which was which. ”

    The middle class, that great engine of production and growth has been replaced by “our party” and it’s jaded flock is perhaps too smitten even to say a word in protest. That is why I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. That vital buffer between the people and the wealthy has been demolished and one day, just one day, they will meet and the grapes of wrath may be unleashed.

    .

  • When Angels Descend, They Shall Build Us A Country.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    When Angels Descend, They Shall Build Us A Country.. BY AGBA JALINGO

    When Angels Descend, They Shall Build Us A Country…

    Amongst all the 13 member States of the, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC, Nigeria remains the only member that imports more than 90 to 95 percent of refined petroleum products to meet its domestic consumption. No other OPEC member, including other African members like Gabon and war torn Libya, are in the same mess.

    But workers at the three government-owned refineries were paid a total of N127bn in year 2021 and 2022 in salaries and wages, even as the plants generated zero revenue as they did not process a single barrel of crude oil.

    The plants, which are located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day but have been in a state of disrepair for many years. Yet, they talk very little about how to fix the refineries. Even when they budget money for turn around maintenance, they still share it amongst themselves without retribution.

    The national oil company NNPC, in its monthly presentation to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2023, said they made zero contribution to the federation revenue account in the month under review. But the audited accounts of the company shows that they spent N788.7 billion in 2021 and N648.6bn the previous year on salaries, entertainment and other costs.

    And for so long as our refineries remain comatose and we continue to import petrol, nurse no hope that the pump price of fuel will ever come down. As the Dollar exchange rate continues to escalate, so shall the cost of petrol continue to rise and I predict N1000 per liter before year end.

    And as the cost of petrol continues to rise to the relish of the intrepid exploiters, rents, food prices, school fees, medicals, clothing, transport cost and all others will also sky rocket. So learn how to manage your finances.

    Nothing is about to change. Those who run our country have no interest whatsoever in building this country. If any one of them say they do, then they have lied to you. This set of politicians cannot even maintain the infrastructure that the military that we vilify so much, managed to build, not to talk of building new ones. They can’t even build their party headquarters in decades. Their interest is not nation building. They are rogues. Very mean rogues without any iota of goodness.

    So manage your meagre finances with frugality. Nothing is about to change. Since Nigerians have decided to only pray instead of fighting those who are making their lives miserable everyday, let us all keep praying for that elusive country that angels will come and build for us someday.

    Yours sincerely,
    Citizen Agba Jalingo.