OP-ED Opinions 

Is Nigeria A Country Of Morons, Imbeciles, Idiots Or All Of The Above? By Bayo Oluwasanmi

It is no secret that Nigeria’s ruling elite are cruel, amoral, unfit for the office they hold. They are all fucking morons. Ironically, this hasn’t stopped them from becoming presidents, governors, ministers, and what have you.

Though the citizens are aware of their leaders’ flaws, they choose to be willfully blind, dumbed down and misinformed. Both citizens and leaders are deficient in self-respect and courage. The oppressed are afraid to rattle the cage of their oppressors.

There’s no accountability for the thieves. Kleptocracy is the hallmark of the president, governors, and other elected officials. They see their positions as personal ATM. The country has been so demeaned and the people so deranged enough to keep electing sickos into office time and time again. What a buffoonish country!

Rotten from inside and desiccated, the country is staggering into oblivion. At every given opportunity, the people keep voting for the worst legislators in the history of the world. Each group of legislators proves dilatory and more irresponsible. Never have we a National Assembly more vicious, and less capable of seeing forests for trees. 


There is a relationship between power and madness. History is replete with rulers driven insane by overreaching themselves. The Nigeria case proves this to be true. We are governed by a government controlled by a band of cabal of vandals, a nihilistic brigade who sees the government as their property. Nigeria is where the oppressed joyfully handed themselves over to thieves and lunatics to preside over their affairs.

Strange and scary things happen on a daily basis. A soldier is being detained for complaining for fighting terrorists without weapons, without being paid, and without being fed. 356 soldiers fighting terrorists resigned due to the government’s failure to take care of them and their families.

Billions of money meant for citizens to cushion the economic impact of COVID-19 were pocketed by those in charge of the fund. Attorney-General, Malami, flouted the country’s CDC’s COVID-19 guideline on public gathering by holding a society wedding party for his son with six private jets ferrying guests from near and far. He gave two multi million naira mansions as wedding gifts to his son.

Legislators took delivery of a brand new SUV fleet costing billions during COVID-19 pandemic while their citizens are dying of hunger, disease, and being ravaged by COVID-19. State governors convert civil servants salaries into their personal money while workers are unpaid for months. Legislators donate electricity poles, wheelbarrows, loaves of bread, bore holes, ropes, wires, buckets, blankets, pillows, soaps, and other bizarre things as “empowerment tools” to their constituents.

Fourteen million or so school age children roam the streets. Education has been totally destroyed. Students learn in dilapidated buildings and in the most hostile learning environment. University graduates are unemployed as ‘Danfo’ drivers and ‘Okada’ commercial bike riders. Workers are unpaid for months and even years. Chinese factory owners in Nigeria treat Nigerian workers at best as indentured slaves and at worst as disposable diapers.

Moribund hospitals, contaminated drinking water, death trap roads, epileptic electricity supply, shanty public housing, and non-existent social safety net are some of the problems citizens contend with every day. Lawlessness, injustice, and other wild life characteristics form the new civilization. Armed robbers, Fulani herdsmen terrorists, abductors, kidnappers, roam freely for prey. In short, there’s no one in charge. You’ll expect all these to ignite mass unrest. Instead, citizens continue to defend, plead, appease, praise, and are ready to die for the same people that destroyed them. President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana sums it beautifully: “Nigerians are still in love with their oppressors.”

The Nigerian situation defies all logic. Are we a country of morons, imbeciles, or idiots or all of the above?

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