PEOPLE'S VIEW ABOUT THE COUNTRY CALLED NIGERIA (PART 1)
To some persons, Nigeria appears to be a nation, a country and a giant of Africa. Most of the time, her company of worthless, weak and unproductive politicians describe her as a great nation. All these stem from opinionated descriptions of people but to you as an individual, does Nigeria really qualify fitting into any of those? Nigeria with her unrepentant crude and hydra-faceted regressive antecedents, can best be described as an enclave of death, pain, misery, denial, suppression, insanity, despondency, corruption, poverty, terror, destruction, penury, deception and delusion.
Professor Chinua Achebe of blessed memory aptly stated: "Listen to Nigerian leaders and you will frequently hear the phrase THIS GREAT COUNTRY OF OURS". Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that gives least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth. It is a measure of our self-delusion that we can talk about development tourism in Nigeria. Only a masochist with an exuberant taste for self-violence that will pick Nigeria for a holiday; only a character of a Tutuola seeking for punishment and poverty at first hand. No, Nigeria may be a paradise for adventurers and pirates but not tourists", he concluded.
In his mystification regarding what Nigeria meant, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode sometime in 2014 asked: "Are we really a nation or we are nothing more than a meeting pot squabbling and bickering ethnic and cultural incompatibles? Was late Chief Obafemi Awolowo not right when he described Nigeria "as not being a nation" but mere "geographical expression"? Hugh Clifford said: "Nigeria is a collection of independent native states, separated from one another by great distances, by differences of history and traditions and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers".
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's question seemed to have been answered by the late jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa when in an interview conducted in 2014, proclaimed that: "Nigeria is not homogeneous. We are many nationalities called Nigeria, so many nationalities. An Igboman thinks like an Igboman; a Yorubaman should think like a Yorubaman, not like an Igboman. Is there anybody called a Nigerian? The answer is no. What effort are we making to create a Nigeria? England, France, Germany, they all had this problem of creating one country out of heterogeneous mass of sectional interests".
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in one of his articles titled: "Nigeria, A Hell Hole For Christians" said, "A so-called nation where eighty (80) people are killed by Islamic Fulani militias on Christmas eve and on Christmas day in Southern Kaduna simply because they are non-Fulanis and they are Christians, is not a nation; it is an abattoir".
In the view of General Haruna Ibrahim in the year 2009, he stated: "The country Nigeria started from being divided. We are never one. It was the process of history that brought us together. The British did not meet us as one. The country Nigeria started from being divided". Consequently, as expressed by Remi Oyeyemi: "The silent majorities are angling to extricate themselves from the contraption called Nigeria. It is obvious that every ethnic group wants deliverance from the bondage called Nigeria. It is evident that no one believes in the quagmire called Nigeria. None of us has any emotional connection to the country called Nigeria. It is not ours. It is not our making. It does not belong to us. No one wants it. Nigeria is not a nation. It is a country of nations". Continuing, Oyeyemi voiced out: "We are all dissatisfied with Nigeria. Nigeria has betrayed us. Our hopes are dashed. Our dreams are unrealizable within the Nigerian structure. Those who work hard are in penury. Those whose lands are producing the resources are in poverty. Nigeria deprives those who value education. Nigeria constrains those who want to be international businessmen. Nigeria is holding us back from jumping into the age of technology. Nigeria is depriving us of secularity that has been part of our cultural heritage. Nigeria is impeding those who want merit. Nigeria is humiliating those who value integrity. Nigeria is disgracing those who want self-respect and dignity.
Written by Obulose Chidiebere N.
Edited by Peter Oshagwu
For Family Writers Press International
To some persons, Nigeria appears to be a nation, a country and a giant of Africa. Most of the time, her company of worthless, weak and unproductive politicians describe her as a great nation. All these stem from opinionated descriptions of people but to you as an individual, does Nigeria really qualify fitting into any of those? Nigeria with her unrepentant crude and hydra-faceted regressive antecedents, can best be described as an enclave of death, pain, misery, denial, suppression, insanity, despondency, corruption, poverty, terror, destruction, penury, deception and delusion.
Professor Chinua Achebe of blessed memory aptly stated: "Listen to Nigerian leaders and you will frequently hear the phrase THIS GREAT COUNTRY OF OURS". Nigeria is not a great country. It is one of the most disorderly nations in the world. It is one of the most corrupt, insensitive, inefficient places under the sun. It is one of the most expensive countries and one of those that gives least value for money. It is dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short, it is among the most unpleasant places on earth. It is a measure of our self-delusion that we can talk about development tourism in Nigeria. Only a masochist with an exuberant taste for self-violence that will pick Nigeria for a holiday; only a character of a Tutuola seeking for punishment and poverty at first hand. No, Nigeria may be a paradise for adventurers and pirates but not tourists", he concluded.
In his mystification regarding what Nigeria meant, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode sometime in 2014 asked: "Are we really a nation or we are nothing more than a meeting pot squabbling and bickering ethnic and cultural incompatibles? Was late Chief Obafemi Awolowo not right when he described Nigeria "as not being a nation" but mere "geographical expression"? Hugh Clifford said: "Nigeria is a collection of independent native states, separated from one another by great distances, by differences of history and traditions and by ethnological, racial, tribal, political, social and religious barriers".
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode's question seemed to have been answered by the late jurist, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa when in an interview conducted in 2014, proclaimed that: "Nigeria is not homogeneous. We are many nationalities called Nigeria, so many nationalities. An Igboman thinks like an Igboman; a Yorubaman should think like a Yorubaman, not like an Igboman. Is there anybody called a Nigerian? The answer is no. What effort are we making to create a Nigeria? England, France, Germany, they all had this problem of creating one country out of heterogeneous mass of sectional interests".
Chief Femi Fani-Kayode in one of his articles titled: "Nigeria, A Hell Hole For Christians" said, "A so-called nation where eighty (80) people are killed by Islamic Fulani militias on Christmas eve and on Christmas day in Southern Kaduna simply because they are non-Fulanis and they are Christians, is not a nation; it is an abattoir".
In the view of General Haruna Ibrahim in the year 2009, he stated: "The country Nigeria started from being divided. We are never one. It was the process of history that brought us together. The British did not meet us as one. The country Nigeria started from being divided". Consequently, as expressed by Remi Oyeyemi: "The silent majorities are angling to extricate themselves from the contraption called Nigeria. It is obvious that every ethnic group wants deliverance from the bondage called Nigeria. It is evident that no one believes in the quagmire called Nigeria. None of us has any emotional connection to the country called Nigeria. It is not ours. It is not our making. It does not belong to us. No one wants it. Nigeria is not a nation. It is a country of nations". Continuing, Oyeyemi voiced out: "We are all dissatisfied with Nigeria. Nigeria has betrayed us. Our hopes are dashed. Our dreams are unrealizable within the Nigerian structure. Those who work hard are in penury. Those whose lands are producing the resources are in poverty. Nigeria deprives those who value education. Nigeria constrains those who want to be international businessmen. Nigeria is holding us back from jumping into the age of technology. Nigeria is depriving us of secularity that has been part of our cultural heritage. Nigeria is impeding those who want merit. Nigeria is humiliating those who value integrity. Nigeria is disgracing those who want self-respect and dignity.
Written by Obulose Chidiebere N.
Edited by Peter Oshagwu
For Family Writers Press International
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