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I hope I have not gone gaga over Nigeria, by Seth Akintoye

I don’t know if I have entered into any stage of dementia or just going gaga! But at the end of this article readers should be able to help seek appropriate treatment if you think so. I woke up early on the morning of Sunday, June 12, 2022, musing seriously upon life and my country, Nigeria. A popular American preacher, Robert H. Schuller, titled one of his best sellers: “Life May not be Fair, but God is Good!” The same Schuller has titled another best seller: “Tough Times Never Last, But tough People Do!”

What an encouragement and message from a man of God who knows and feels where the shoe pinches!

Quite unusual, I have travelled twice this year to my place of birth, Ikare-Akoko in Ondo State: first in February to attend the 75th anniversary of my Alma Mater, Victory College, Ikare, a great citadel of knowledge in the 60s and 70s. The other time was in May to see the little inheritance left behind by my father. There is a Yoruba adage that says when a person is growing old he should be close to his roots to avoid any unforeseen circumstances! Ile labo isinmi oko! Throughout my working life I could count the number of times I travelled home. But agba ti nde o!

During my visit in February to the VCI, I was nearly in tears on seeing the dilapidation and total abandonment the great citadel of learning that trained people like the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi, the Olukare of Ikare, Oba Momoh III, the late Owa Ale, Oba Adedoyin and Prof Michael Faborode, has become. The school that was a mixed and boarding has become a day-school and boys only! More than half of the large expanse of land had been sold and taken over by people and activities that have no relevance to education. The four hostels – Philip House, Olukare House, School House and Lennon House (the pride of the college) – are a caricature of their old selves, with falling or leaking roofs, dilapidated walls, windows and doors. The principal’s residence, a mosaic architecture built with burnt bricks of colonial era, and many other buildings which used to house the teachers are in total abandonment for reptiles and rodents to occupy. What I saw was worse than an eyesore! You wonder if there has been any government in place! But thanks be to God for old students like Prof Michael Faborode, who led the immediate past executive of VICOSA for the great work that has been done.  Dr Michael Abraham, an old boy and classmate has thrown his weight around with the setting up of a digital classroom.

The primary school I attended, St Joseph’s CAC Primary School, Okela, Ikare, is another eyesore that requires immediate rehabilitation. I might tell its story later, if God permits. St Joseph’s was the best in Akoko in the 60s. Its orchestra headed by Mr Okoro, a multi-talented artiste – composer, trumpeter, drummer, drum maker and singer – had no equals.

Usually, when I travel home I don’t stay in hotels for obvious reasons: One, I might not be able to afford the cost. Two, my father has a house. So, I find it extremely odd to abandon my father’s house. If I don’t stay there, who will stay there? Three, these days hotels are becoming slaughter houses! You stay there at your own peril. During my last visit in May, I woke up one morning to stand in front of the house to look at the environment around me. Truly, there is poverty in the land! Old men and women loitering about with no idea of where to get the day’s meal! There is a canteen in front of my father’s house operated by a young woman. But her major patrons are Okada riders who are the real guys that make things happen in town because of their regular daily incomes. As I stood watching the scene around me, an old woman perhaps in her 70s with a plate in hand approached me and we exchanged pleasantries, though I never knew her from Adam. But the way she greeted me I knew she was heading somewhere. So, I waited with bated breath! Then the expected came: “Please give me N100 to buy rice to eat. I am hungry.” You wonder how N100 bill rice would feed an old woman! But I didn’t want to be too forward. If you are in Rome you must behave as a Roman. I have learnt that it is very dangerous to behave like a rich man in your village. You might not return to your base in peace and one piece! The witches will deal with you and your money. So, I gave the food vendor a N100 bill to give the woman some rice to eat. But after selling the rice, the vendor gave the old man a N50 note as change! It was obvious the rice in her plate was more than N50. It is not impossible the woman had also tricked some people into giving her money before I came out.

Well, the other issue that bemused me this Sunday morning is the just concluded primaries of the two major political parties, the PDP and the APC. Close to 23 aspirants obtained nomination and expression of interest forms of the APC to become the party’s presidential candidate with N100m each, when more than three-quarters of them knew they would chicken out or lose at the close of day. In the PDP, the forms went for around N50m. In the lot is a pastor of a church whose church owes a bank millions of naira in loans obtained to build the church’s new edifice.

There is also Dr Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State in the list; Prof Ajayi Borofice, a senator representing my constituency, the Ondo North Senatorial District; a former governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun; Mr Rotimi Ameachi, immediate past minister of transportation, etc. By any measure, N100 million is a huge sum in this economy, especially when you realize that over 80 per cent of Nigerians live below US$2 per day; and the government has been living on borrowed funds to pay salaries and run the budget.  Where then did this humongous money come from? It has been said that some Nigerians are richer than this country, which is true anyway. But where did their wealth come from? This is where the EFCC and the ICPC need to come in, if they still have any statutory role to play.

In Oka-Akoko, where Boroface comes from, the poverty level has no known description. People are literally living from hand to mouth; healthcare facilities are inadequate and ill-equipped. N100m could turn around the whole Oka-Akoko for good. Now the money is gone down the drain, and the Oka people will be the worse for it.

Notwithstanding the level of infrastructure in Amosun’s Abeokuta community, N100 million can still feed quite a huge number of the poor folks for many weeks. Now Amosun has not only lost the money, his people will grumble till the next election on such a flippant misuse of fund. Ditto others who have embarked on this foolery. In all my over three decades of work I never saw N100m, and I don’t have such a humongous amount. Perhaps my case was far better than that of a former Federal Electoral Commission’s Chairman, Justice Ovie Whiskey, who said he never saw N1m in his life! He said if he saw N1m, he would collapse. Well, where would Ovie Whiskey have seen N1m? In 1973 when I started work in the federal civil service, my salary was N45 per month. In 1974 when the Udoji award came, my salary went up to around N95 per month, as a clerical officer then. The highest paid officer then in the civil service did not earn N200, 000 per month!

In Nigeria, politics has become a huge investment, and politicians are the richest people in town. Tell me what would be first priority of a person who spent N100m to obtain a nomination form. Obviously, it is to recoup the money and other funds spent on electioneering. This is why this country will never develop! It is time to return to parliamentary democracy and make politics unattractive by turning it to a part-time venture.

I hope I have not gone gaga!

Sourced From Nigerian Music

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