NIGERIA AS A FAILED STATE: WHY CHIEF HOPE UZODINMA MISSES THE POINT

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NIGERIA AS A FAILED STATE: WHY CHIEF HOPE UZODINMA MISSES THE POINT By Vctor Abayomi






This ranking does not come as a surprise to me, nor should it surprise all discerning Nigerians. I just hope someone would nudge High Chief Hope Uzodimma, the professed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s Board of Trustees (BOT) member, who recently claimed that Nigeria remains the Giant of Africa (Thisday, 15th July 2009).

Whilst it is obvious that Chief Uzodimma blabbed a day too early, before the release of this ranking, I sincerely doubt if an inkling of the result would have made any difference to the Chief and his ilk of corrupt and thieving Nigerian politicians.

It beats my imagination and all moral decorum, why a professed trustee member of Nigeria's ruling party would stare a poverty-ridden nation and citizens in the eye and proclaim Nigeria as the Giant of Africa.

Is it not preposterous to be both the jury and judge in your own case? Why would we not wait for other nations of the world to confer the title Giant of Africa on us? The High Chief probably reckons that it is a case of who lays claim to it first. His grand standing is the height of being conceited.

The released ranking has further buttressed the reasons proffered by the Obama led U.S government's visit to Ghana recently. Whilst Nigeria had been busy throwing her weight around like a drunken sailor – in a cheap one-night-stand brothel, and laying false claims to imaginary titles, Ghana on the other hand, had been slowly and steadily laying the foundation for, and building a strong and virile economic and political state.

Nigeria's corrupt and inept political leaders ably demonstrate the popular saying that "Politicians shake your hands before elections; but shake your confidence once elected". It is politicians like Chief Uzodimma that has succeeded in keeping Nigeria in the quagmire she presently finds herself. I would wager that his Giant of Africa claim was solely premised on the bursting seams of his looted bank accounts.

With the size of her land mass, population, the quality of her manpower, and richness of her natural resources, Nigeria has no business sitting on the 15th position of the Failed States Index. I am however afraid that the country might be stuck in this unenviable position for a long, long time (or even slide further down the ladder). This stark possibility would be the case if the country's ruling class does not stop hallucinating as regards the actual mess Nigeria is in. It would amount to a rework on my part if I try to bore you with a list of what is broken. We can all reel it off even while asleep.

The most troubling and worrying however is the recent high spate of kidnapping in the country. This was aptly described in www.letsgist.com, a Dublin based social network site that listed cogent tips to Nigerians travelling home for the summer holidays. A contributor on the site pasted tips on how to appear "unfresh" and thus blend with the environment in order not to be kidnappeded for ransom.

There is an urgent need for a critical, thorough, and unbiased assessment of the failed Nigeria state, with an aim to identifying what is broken and how to fix it. I would not however be deluded that the Nigerian ruling class would take this advice – coming from a supposed "nobody" like me. Moreover, it is apt to ask what happened to all the previous reports submitted by various panels that had been set up to investigate and give recommendations to past governments.

I bet those reports, with their supposed laudable recommendations, have been confined to some dark and dingy dungeons in the basement of Aso Rock – never to see the light of day.
ALL HAIL THE FALLEN GIANT OF AFRICA!
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