Why I Criticize Nigeria

Nigerians are more united than they can ever imagine.
We all suffer from abject,and criminal,neglect,by those
 who govern us.They do not govern us for our good,
it is to our ruin,and destruction.We all need to speak.

"I love America more than any
other country in this world,and,
exactly for this reason, I insist
on the right to criticize her
perpetually".

James Arthur Baldwin
American Essayist,Playwright, and Novelist
This is my consolation every time I criticize Nigeria.

I do not do so because some foreign power is paying me.

I do not, because I want us to fail;I am like one standing in a vantage position,watching a loved one in a race. I can see obstacles he is too busy to see.

It is my duty to inform him,of the obstacles in the way. His loss would be my loss too!

It costs me a lot to criticize Nigeria. My time,my money,and incalculable measure of intellectual  exertions.

If you think it is easy to write,try.

Those who refuse to speak out against the blinding injustice,and inept policies,are complicit in their silence. You abdicate your right to complain about your personal suffering,when you support the general injustice.

We deserve better,we are worth more than we are getting from our leaders.
Malaysia attained independence in 1957,three years before Nigeria; given the level of sustained development in that country,it might as well have been thirty years before.

Like Nigeria,they were also colonized by the British, and they are not ethnically monolithic,but that has not stopped them from developing light years ahead of us.

Today,Nigeria is in total darkness. I mean this literally. Electricity workers are on strike,they are demanding the payment of five billion naira;being arrears and other emoluments, owed them by the government.

This has become a refrain in our national life. People going on strike to demand that government fulfill an obligation it entered into, in supposed good faith, with them.

We have become a nation,that has a government that cannot be trusted to keep it's word.

Successive governments,have entered into agreements they knew they had no intention of keeping. They only agree,and concede, in order to get the workers back to work.

Every now,and then,a new broken promise crawls out of the swamp to torment us all.

When the institution,charged with keeping the country on an even keel,adopts infidelity as it's raison d'etre,then we really are in trouble.

And you want me to keep quiet.

Many Nigerians,are four years behind where they ought to betoday,because the government failed to honour agreements with unions in our higher institutions.

The punitive strikes,resulted in some people spending seven years in the university to study a four year course!

Sometimes, I imagine Nigeria,as one big playground filled with riotous ,rambunctious, raucous children without adults;the bullies rule here.They rule with a big stick called government.

They have no interest in progress,it would not favour them. They see change as a loss of power,privilege,prestige.

So they fight it, and I them!

I fight because across the fence,I can see other playgrounds without adults too, but the children there are well behaved.

The older,stronger,smarter ones,take care of the week.

They work together for the comfort of all.They too wield a  big stick,it is called "order,and equity"

This is why I criticize Nigeria.

I know that what I am demanding of her,is not something that is yet to be done.

No!

It is actually the norm.

We are actually the exception.

And a laughing stock!

This is why I speak out.

What we are asking for,is not rocket science. One does not need a doctorate from Harvard ,or Yale, to do it.

The only qualification necessary,is sincerity of purpose,and equity of conduct.

Nigeria is adrift!

We have been drifting for fifty years in a fog filled sea;unfortunately, the supposed pilots,have been reading the map upside down!

All around us, reefs,and rocks,threaten.

Yet they scream "Full steam ahead!

Because they have not hear a crash a loud crash,they are encouraged in their idiocy,and asinine conduct.

The crash,has already happened.

But we seem to be oblivious.

It is the whimper, of the lives lost from lead poisoning in Zamfara, the  last gasp of over three hundred lost to cholera so far, the death struggle of innocent people that die from police bullets,and inhumane checkpoints.

Can one forget lives lost during strikes by medical personnel,and numerous women and children who die at childbirth.

Our fifty years as a nation are 


signposted by the blood of the innocents 


shed by criminal negligence.

And you want me to keep quiet.


The people who claim to be incharge,have no idea.





They are clueless!

And they will always be. Because their 


motives are wrong.

Their sole pursuit is gain,personal gain.

Our political office holders are among 

the 

highest paid in the world today.

This would not have been criminal,if our 

standard of living,had been

the highest in the world.

But that is not the case.

While our country is one of the richest 

in 

the world,our people,are among

the poorest. It does not make sense,and 

it 

does not seem fair!

Either way,anyhow,this must end.


It must end with my generation.


Stand Up Nigeria!


Arise


It is Time!


Change Must Come Now!


My name is Julius Umogbai, I believe in 


the vision of of the Kakatawaga 


Progressives,we believe in the vision of a 


new Nigeria.


A place where our diverse ethnic 


groups,would be our greatest asset,and 


our people our biggest treasure.


Join Us To Change Nigeria Now!


GOD BLESS NIGERIA,OUR CHANGING 


NIGERIA,FOREVER!





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