Desperation

We do not need to do the math to appreciate that the nation we claim to love is ailing and we do nothing about it.  Without this realization, no healing process can commence. A recent report by a UK-based think tank, Chatham House, indicates the extent to which Nigeria is being raped of its crude oil resources. The crude oil stolen is estimated at 100,000 barrels per day. That is approximately 5% of total output, enough to fund education. The report states: “Proceeds are laundered through world financial centers and used to buy assets in and outside Nigeria, polluting markets and financial institutions overseas, and creating reputational, political and legal hazards. It could also compromise parts of the legitimate oil business.”

Societal ills and deviant behavior can only be corrected by the inhabitants of that society. We need to be able to make sacrifices either of our time or resources to effect a change that will bring about a corrective administration. We are more often inclined to take the easy option of either ignoring or electing to emigrate. We retort with pride that we are NOT politicians, as if the consequences of the actions of those who occupy our political space will not affect us. If we are not contesting for political positions, we must at least be interested in those who do. It CANNOT be a passive interest, otherwise why should others who take an active interest not dictate and appropriate our collective wealth for themselves?

When we look around at other countries, almost every country in the world have people making sacrifices to fine-tune accountability, transparency and democracy in order to enable the evolution of a more stable, safer, supportive polity. We need to all collectively take ownership of our country. There is no other country in which those of us who are privileged have the opportunity to do this. God has put us all here for a reason. Let us use our diverse talents and gifts to collectively make a difference. We cannot abandon our space to charlatans and walk away. The destruction will affect us. We will be taken over by warlords and the cost to our children and us will not be quantifiable. Above all, God will not forgive us.

The report continues: “Nigeria's dynamic, overcrowded political economy drives competition for looted resources. Poor governance has encouraged violent opportunism around oil and opened doors for organized crime. Because Nigeria is the world's 13th largest oil producer – exports often topped two million barrels per day in 2012 – high rents are up for grabs.”  

We live in beautiful homes costing millions to construct, whilst over 80% of our graduates roam the streets unemployed.  Of the nearly 400,000 churned out yearly, strike willing, about 40,000 secure some form of employment. With no industries to keep our youths engaged, their desperation and ours will continue unabated and will turn them against us. Already, there are kidnappers, oil thieves, militants and terrorists amongst us. The frustrated but law-abiding still outnumber those who have gone to the dark side, but each day we fail to provide for them we increase their desperation and reduce their choices. We also do not trust each other and have started to point fingers. Our unity crumbles – the first steps to the destruction of our own making.

Fake NYSC members have flooded our organizations because it is the only way to secure the closest thing to employment and survival. They are young people forging certificates and NYSC call-up letters. The NYSC now carries out regular raids to premises where NYSC graduates have been employed to check that they are genuine corpers. If the imposters are caught they are arrested for impersonation. But what is their crime, doing whatever it takes to get a job?  Desperation drives parents to pay for job application forms and touts forge CVs.  Then again who are these people that infiltrate our offices? Are they the kidnappers or the advance fee fraudsters who seem to have intimate details of our lives and contacts? I speak with authority having just discovered that 3 of the 4 corpers sent to my organization were imposters. Before we had a chance to question them, having verified their status from the NYSC, they had vanished; another inside job like the bunkered oil that leaves our shores.

We need to break free from this. The future of our children is at stake. Our future is uncertain. It is enlightened self-interest for us all to invest in a process that will bring sanity into the polity. As similarly envisioned by John Dalberg-Acton, this liberty will in turn abolish the reign of tribe over tribe, of faith over faith and of class over class. It is not the realization of a political ideal but the discharge of a moral obligation. Let’s get involved.