The Educated Illiterates of Nigerian Politics

I am writing this publication to provoke Nigerians to begin to think positively regarding their individual contribution to the down fall of Nigeria as a country of one hundred and eighty (180) million people. This number is without over thirty (30) to fifty (50) million Nigerians living in diaspora. Please note that the daspora’s figure quoted is speculative, and it is incumbent on the government of Nigeria to tell the world exactly the population of Nigerian home and abroad.

Every Nigerian, including thosee in government has blamed the government in power for not doing well in managing the affairs of Nigeria. The complaint has echoed to the international community, hence there is non-stopping accusations from foreign dignitaries that Nigeria is fantastically corrupt. Every Nigerian hates corruption but swims in it. One hears stories of looting of national funds by those in government. The looting is without conscience. The looting is open, bold and with disregard for the people and the consequence of corruption. The mind-buggling looting or should I say stealing from National treasury is alarming, no one cares and with boldness the official and political looting becomes a competition, though songs of tribalism and sectionalism are the mantra. The added song of “my-people” becomes the chorus. Your people indeed. ninety nine (99) percent of your people are hungry yet praise singers joined in the euphoria. Everyone is happy in the sharing of corruption, though they clap and sing yet they hate the consequence.

Who cares? Not those in government, not those in politics, not the people; who then cares? Business as usual. One always hears the government searching for missing $billions of dollars, traced it to an account either in Nigeria or abroad and all of a sudden the talk and trace of the money go completely cold. No mention of it again, neither in government nor the press. Actually money is missing, money is found and money is not returned. Only a mad man can accept this as normal. However, the people of Nigeria accept it as normal, the government accept it as normal, the security agents accept it as normal and the almighty judiciary accept it as normal. No one is prosecuted, no one is jailed and no one is blamed. Just business as usual. It is only in Nigerian can abnormality becomes normal. The sounds of $millions, £billions and NGNtrillions coming out of Nigeria is scary to Nigerians and to the entire world in general. No individual in any where in the world has acquired such wealth, not in business and certainly not in politics.

This begs the question, accepting abnormality as normal is abnormality in toto. Then, what is abnormality? Oxford dictionary describes it as a feature or an event which is not normal. It carried on to state that it is a state of being abnormal. Abnormality has mental connotation. What is mental then? The same Oxford dictionary describes mental as relating to the mind. It continued to state that mental is relating to disorders or illnesses of the mind. It sums it up as the state of being mental, as informal madness. Now then, if this is the meaning of abnormality and it is acceeptable in Nigeria, that means that the general populace of Nigeria is “mad” or should I say mental.

Let us get our facts right. How did “mad or madness” come into this? Well, it is from abnormality to mental and mental to madness. Well, what then is mad or madness? It is being insane. Very foolish, not sensible. Do something without thought or control. The interpretation of abnormality is taking us too far, and each explanation tells us that we are foolish, we are mental, we are not normal, that we are insane. How? Why? Well, that is the state of an average Nigerian, be it politician, government official, electorate, civil servants, etc. Nigerians are like one who ruins where he lives and prefers to live outside, or should I say that Nigerians are like sheep that renders its habitat soggy and prefers to stand instead of lying down restfully. I am not really trying to disregard Nigerians, or insult Nigeerians, however I am trying to understand their mentality. Put yourself in my shoes and imagine the state of one who sells his vote, one who steals $1billion, one who owns five mansions as his home, one who puts dead people or imaginary people on his wages list, one who goes to the central bank and ask them to fill his truck with dollar, one who embezzles the workers’ salary, and so on. Can you imagine where I am coming from or where I am going to? How can you describe one who does any of these? Can you say that he is mad? Mental? Abnormal? or What?

Anyway, let me stop beating about the bush. Now can we say that any one found wanting of all the above abnormalities is educated? By the way, what is education? It is the process of teaching and learning. Teaching itself is the process of showing someone how to do something. If teaching is to show someone how to do something, does that mean that there is something wrong with Nigerian teaching and education as it seems that we did not learn anything good. To understand this write-up, we have to know how teaching has led to learning and how learning has led to abnormality. Now then, what is learning? It is knowledge or skills gained through studies or by being taught. This means that through education we acquire habit, which is one’s way of doing something. The question now is, how did we acquire our corrupt practices? Is it through Nigerian education? Are we being taught the wrong thing or the wrong way? It seems that there is something fundamentally flawed about Nigerian education or is it akin to Nigerian mentality? Remember in the 1990s the world was referring it as Nigerian character, have you forgotton? The world was indirectly saying that there is something wrong with Nigeria. How did Nigerians acquire the habit of corruption? A mad man is one who does abnormal things over and over again. If that is the case, does that mean that Nigerians, especially those in government and positions of power are mad? Nigerians, it looks like we are in it for a long haul. Whence a man is diagnosed to be mentally ill, it takes a long and prolonged treatment to cure any person that is suffering from mental illness. Some times, that person may not be normal again. May God forbid that this is Nigerian portion. However, let us be realistic. Nigeria is in a big mess.

Whosoever, engaged himself in the stealing from national treasury is mad and with what we have known now that person needs treatment and often times, whence diagnosed mentally ill, that person is insane and may not recover from it. Now my readers, tell me the mindset of someone who steals $1billion, £10billion, $34billion, $500million. Can we say that that person is normal? Remember Justice Ovio Whisky, the chairman of electoral commission in the 1980s? He said that he would colapse at the sight of NGN1million. The man was right. The old brigades of the 1960s trained were not as bad as the present day Nigerians, full of evil in every way. Well, it is said that Heaven helps those who help themselves.

To understand the situation of Nigerian, can anyone tell me the mindset of someone who sells his or her vote for NGN5,000 or a bag of rice? Is that person normal? Is this the meaning of trade by barter in Nigeria? Exchange something valuable which you do not need for something valuable that you need? Every Nigerian condemns corruption yet every Nigerian is corrupt. Who drew the first blood? The voters or the politicians? If you want to know why a politician steals government money, simply muliply NGN5,000 by  one million people. It is mind buggling NGN5,000,000,000. The rule of wholesale permits a wholesaler to multiply the purchase price by two so that output should be greater than input. Then why are we complaining when a politician boldly, happily and authoritatively steals NGN10,000,000,000? Afterall, he has paid for it by buying votes from the electorates. Remember that there are layers of negotiations and purchases (Abuja godfathers, state godfathers, constituency godfathers, delegates, ward chairmen, and then the masses. Let us be fair to the politicians, we lead them on to steal from our money. How on earth can they get the amount of money that we demand for them. Somewhere in Owerri in January this year, I told my friends that I was interested in the governorship of Imo State come 2019. They all laughed and could not help themselves laughing. While I was trying to give them the reason why I am suitable for the job, the more they laughed their eyes out. That is Nigeria for you. It is not the best man, the experience and skilful man, or the most educated; it is the money that counts and in my case or indeed any other person who earns a genuine living, we simply do not have such money unless it is stolen from the purse of the nation.

My friends in Owerri laughed at me because they have not seen how anyone, without stealing government money, can occupy the post of governorship. This means that we lack education and sincerity. We are now shameless as crime is now normal in the minds of Nigerians, and it is glorified. No one cares any more. Official stealing is Nigerian character, hence Nigeria is fantastically corrupt. Nigeria, corruption has rendered us useless. Nigeria is not lacking in any departments of human resources but lack of understanding and greed have ruined a blessed country. Nigerians, how can we redesign our mindset and education so that we can teach people good practice?

Education is a good thing and without it there is no development. Education without value is a curse. Education without conscience is illness, madness, abnormal. However, why is Nigerian education flawed? It means that we have taught the people wrong values. We have misled our people. All we have now in Nigeria are politicians without value. Government without value. Electorates without value. We are in it together, corrupt. It seems that we have acquired the wrong education. We have acquired the wrong mindset. This service without values has led the wrong people to be in power. Service without values in Nigeria is cyclical and has resulted to endless corruption. This is why we are in for a long haul.The downfall of Nigeria is a collective responsibility. We have erred and we have to rally round together to get Nigeria out of this mess.

I am not in no way referring this corrupt practices to President Buhari, Jonathan or the Obasanjo government. I am referring to all Nigerians as we are in it together. Storries of missing $billion dollars started from the 1970s and continued till date. So the military governments are in it also, including the government of President Shagari. How can we stop this abnormalities going round and round in Nigeria? As at today, there is no solution in sight. If I were President Buhari, I will simply draw a line and continue with the management of the country. Drawing a line means that as from henceforth, any corrupt practices will be punished. If I were President Buhari, I will re-establish all the arms of government and make them effective and productive. Pursuing corruption now is a good thing, though it is sapping the energy and resources of the government. The best thing to do is simply establish good practice and with time, it will eventually correct the imbalance of governance in Nigeria. Lack of education and a good mindset is responsible for corruption in Nigeria. Looking at the levels of corruption, the mind buggling looting of national treasury, the ghost workers syndrome of public service, and forgive me if you may, I simply blame lack of education and good mindset of Nigerians, don’t you?  God save Nigeria.

By: Oguchi Martins Egbujor