Do They Know That People Are Suffering

Written by Imohimi Uduigwome A Saturday, 14 August 2010 07:11

DO THEY KNOW PEOPLE ARE SUFFERING? In 1984 Bob Geldof and some of his friends came out with the hit song ‘Do they know it’s Christmas’ to draw attention and raise fund for the famine stricken people of the horn of Africa. While people in other countries were having a merry Christmas the people of Ethiopia could only think of where their next meal would come from and the celebration of Christmas was far from their thoughts. In Nigeria the hit track now is ‘Do they know we are suffering? Who are ‘they?’ ‘They’ are all those who told us they want to serve us, ‘they’ are those who swore to uphold the constitution of our land and work for the betterment of the people, ‘they’ are the people who go abroad in search of the elusive foreign investors while stashing money pilfered from government coffers into their foreign bank accounts. A senator in this present government recently discovered what millions of Nigerians already know; he said that Nigerians were impoverished! Yet he and his colleagues do not only illegally take home over N200 million per annum, they approved over N21 billion naira for three aircraft for the presidential fleet which Senators usually use for their junkets, and over N90 million for a government agency to sponsor staff marriages! Either the Senator was misquoted or he was making jest of Nigerians. Since I have not come across any news item where he said he was misquoted, then we are to assume he was laughing at (not with) the people he promised to serve. We can also presuppose that since his colleagues in the house did not bring up his ‘Nigerians are impoverished’ statement under ‘issue of urgent national importance’ (a Senatorial euphemism that someone has insulted or omitted to accord them their due respect) we can presume that they are in agreement with his statement and therefore are also in on the game of deriding Nigerians. In the same period when ‘Nigerians are impoverished’ another lawmaker lost over N100 million to a fraudster and nobody is asking where he got that kind of money. The Czarina of the anti corruption agency has pounced on the fraudster while she conveniently omitted to bring in the lawmaker to explain the source of the money. Now that her husband has been selected by the ruling party as a gubernatorial candidate, members of the ruling party with sticky fingers will now have a field day. It was a notable Nigerian Politician who, many years ago said that ‘whether it’s a pen rogue or an armed rogue, a rogue is a rogue!” The lawmaker and the person that swindled him should be made to face the law. Nigeria is the only country with a set of laws for the poor and a different set for politicians and their cronies. In a period when Nigerians are impoverished and traumatized their leader is busy unveiling the ‘The Nigeria at Fifty Count Down Clock’ as if that was not bad enough he has in his wisdom directed that the clock be installed nation wide to ostensibly allow Nigerians count down (in misery) to Fifty years of government ineptitude, wasted resources, gross corruption, insecurity, underdevelopment and general despondency with no hope or solution to the myriad of challenges in sight. While hundred days in office is too short to properly evaluate any government in office, but with a retinue of special, senior, ‘junior’ advisers and other political appointees people ought to by now conveniently pin point the direction of this government. Alas, this is not so. Any government that intends to steer the Nigerian ship for the next four years come 2011 should by now be putting in place policies that will foster development for the people but issues that currently warrant the attention of our leaders are zoning and golden jubilee celebration! While the people were hoping that there will be an improvement in the generation and distribution of electrical power supply what they were given was a drastic increase in the tariff payable by consumers. The health care system is a sham, federal roads are death traps because nobody knows what happened and continues to happen to billions of naira announced for road projects. The people asked for bread, they were given stones! The people cried for water they were provided with vinegar! The average Nigerian has lost all hope in Nigeria. Nigerian adults and teenagers are scrambling for visas to travel out of Nigeria to get jobs abroad to enable them send money back home to take care of loved ones. Thousand risk all by traveling through the desert to neighbouring African nations and hopefully find there way to any European countries with many sadly ending their journey through life in the desert with no one to grieve for them. On the flip side the children of our political leaders travel abroad for vacation and shopping spree without stress. Is it not time our leaders ask themselves why Nigerians prefer to live outside their country and why multinational companies are moving their operational base to neighbouring African countries? Many do not know that two categories of Police exist in Nigeria today. The well equipped police that guard our political leaders and their cronies while their ill equipped counterpart patrol the streets in ramshackle vehicles and outdated guns to confront political thugs cum armed bandits who tot sophisticated guns supplied by political leaders. The police hierarchy has informed (or is it misinformed) us that they have withdrawn all policemen acting as personal body guards to various politicians to enable us have more personnel to do the actual work of policing. If they think we are blind, we are not and that is why we are able to see that this order or request is balderdash! In reality since the announcement the number of politicians with police body guards increased thereby ensuring that the people have fewer policemen to protect them. I know of many Nigerians who have vowed not to bother to cast their vote come 2011 because of the notion that their vote will not make a difference. Nigerians have complained and our leaders have refused to listen, they have also failed to use their eyes to see the despair etched on the faces of Nigerians and general despondency that pervades the nation. If we refuse to cast our vote then we will continue to recycle the same people as leaders and with the growing trend now, their children will continue from where they stopped. We will continue to rant, curse and complain while they continue to pillage and waste our resources. If we can’t fight, we can vote, if they will not serve us appropriately we will not vote for them, if they wish to rig as usual we will gather incontrovertible evidence to prosecute in them in court, if they offer us money we will take and still not vote for them, when we complained they refused to listen so when they come to campaign we will also refuse to listen. We must make our votes count. How long will we continue to watch inept leaders take our money and use it to insult us? Is there any Nigeria born to be a slave to a politician? If for any reason you are unable to vote it is your duty to educate those who you know will vote. We are tired of voting for PPPs (Political Promises Politicians) who will always promise heaven and earth and neglect us the moment they are sworn into office. Let’s vote for people with pedigree, people who are honest and who have a track record of performance, be it in the private or public sector. If we fail to vote in capable and credible leaders come 2011 then we should be prepared to usher in a period of tears, wailing and torment. We cannot permit parasitic politicians continue to inflict pain on our nation beyond 2011. Imohimi Uduigwome Airenevboise airemoheme@yahoo.com