By VICTOR IKHATALOR

Professor Attahiru Jega, a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), while speaking in Abuja at the 2022 Workers Political conference organised by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), which held during the past week, called on Nigerian workers to, as a matter of great urgency, quickly wake up and rescue the country from "a few reckless elites in control of the governance process who are running the country aground."Jega's postulations on "a few reckless elites," are historical facts that have plagued our country in the past, continues to do so in the present, while threatening to subsist into the future. The "blight" of these "reckless elites" on our country is manifest in our everyday existential realities.

Realities of Nigerians in Ukraine

Nigerians in the Ukraine, unassisted in any way by a fiddling government, have been left to fend for themselves and get out of the country as best they can (those who would leave that is).

Exposed to virulent racism – some Nigerians have managed to cross into neighbouring countries from where the fiddling Nigerian government apparatus has come in to play its part. Ultimately, it will get a fraction of beleaguered Nigerians back to our shores – at least to justify how appropriated funds will be appropriated!

From the optics we have seen, there are those who would rather stay behind in Ukraine (falling bombs and all) hoping to hold out until normalcy returns. These Nigerian youths have made a very hard choice to hang on in a place where days into the rain of Russian bombs, they and their compatriots back home, could still see that the electricity was on!

They would rather stay and put their lives in harm's way in such a place than return to a Nigeria where even for the lucky minority that may have electricity at any given time, at the clap of thunder or signs of threatening rain – electricity power will abruptly take cover!

They will rather stay put in Ukraine, hopeful that the war will end sooner, rather than latter, as against returning to a Nigeria, where there are undeclared wars raging all over the place without a seeming end in sight!

Yes, they will rather brave a short war and pick up their lives again than brave a Nigeria, where the larger population of fellow youths are unemployed and in daily danger of succumbing to the hopelessness brought about by dehumanizing deprivation – the enabler in the molding and unleashing of hordes of depraved deviants on society!

One of such Nigerians, 32-year-old Nnamdi Okafor, while speaking to TheNiche in an exclusive chat on phone said, he would rather die in the Ukraine than return to Nigeria.

Nnamdi queried : "What am I coming back to Nigeria to do? Has anything changed in our country?"

Some who have gotten out into neighbouring countries, would also rather brave all manner of hardships than return home.

Lukman Ibrahim, a student and artist who was able to flee Ukraine into Poland, while speaking on a channelstv.com Zoom interview, said : "As war has broken out, we are supposed to run to our country for safety. But I'll rather stay here. We are all here risking our lives, but going back to our country is more risky."

That, in spite of the danger, even a single Nigerian youth would choose to stay put in Ukraine is an indictment on the rudderless and thieving band of misleaders that has bestrode the Nigerian landscape. All Nigerians should and must be assisted (and there are still many stuck in Ukraine not through choice) to get out as the situation assumes more terrifying proportions by the day.

Realities of incessant ASUU strike actions

At a time the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is again on strike, highlighting the state of muddle our educational sector is presently mired – the Minister of Education (who should have given clarity) allegedly walked out of a meeting with representatives of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) following an allusion that while the Minister had his child schooling abroad, the education sector has been left to rot!

The omissions and commissions of successive administrations in Nigeria that has culminated in interminable strike actions by academic staff unions, health care unions, etc, to eke out minimum commitments from government, is illustrative of the singular fraternity of debauched misleaders that has plagued Nigeria.

That a couple of tame Bill’s (considering the abject rot) seeking the curtailing of medical tourism by public officials and the prohibition of public officials from sending their wards and children abroad to school, sponsored by Hon. Sergius Ogun, which very reasonably sought to engender a paradigm shift in our health and education sectors were shut down harshly and abruptly by a parliament largely constituted by self-centered grasping elites, highlights the near hopelessness in any dreams of ever seeing a thriving nation.

Realities of intermittent fuel scarcity

It’s been over a month that Nigerians have had to bear extra doses of excruciating hardships brought on by the lingering fuel scarcity across Nigeria. We, of course, are already used to hardships of all kinds in this country, as we were reminded just recently, hence my allowance of “extra doses” (I’ll get to that).

However long the scarcity will last, is anyone’s guess. One will do well, however, not to hazard any guesses on the back of “assurances” from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd., whose officials keep changing the goal post from week to week.

What we do know with certainty, is that both Ministers of Petroleum ( Senior and Junior ), the GMD of NNPC and the top players tasked with the running of “or is it riding” (since the sector embodies the characteristics of an untamed horse) our Petroleum Industry are still in the saddle.

God forbid anyone has fallen off or been shoved off the horse! After all, it appears the vessels that brought in the adulterated petrol, which precipitated the present scarcity, somehow magicked the product directly from their tanks straight into the underground tanks of our petrol stations. Absolutely no one in Nigeria can be responsible for such magic!

Anyway, Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, no less, to the President, has told Nigerians to put up and get on with it. It was he, who kindly, certainly very clearly, as I referenced earlier, reminded us all of how used we are to “shuffering and shmiling” ( he referenced Fela Anikulapo-Kuti ).

Mr Adesina, writing in his latest weekly article titled "KNOCK, KNOCK. WHO'S THERE?" buttressed his views by saying : "There were cases of bad fuel before in this country. We slept for days, weeks on end at petrol stations, queuing for fuel. We survived. We will survive again. Las las."

This, after all, is Nigeria, so why are we getting uppity? Haven't we seen this all before and are likely to occur again in the future! Nigerians, like Adesina pointed out, should be used to our perennial sufferings and accept it as the normal.

Mr Adesina admonishes us further : "The Heavens won't fall and sanity would be restored. The present situation is called SNAFU: Situation Normal All Fouled Up."

Realities of Cosmetic Constitutional Amendments

Make no mistake! The 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended) was very deliberately booby trapped and made virtually impossible to holistically effect changes.

And, for so long as we persevere with a case of self-serving politrickcians, willing to continually uphold a dysfunctional constitution, so long will Nigeria continue to trudge along in despair with at best cosmetic reviews that will never threaten the parasitic leeching of our commonwealth by a few, while engendering mis-governance.

As direct beneficiaries of the imbalances and inadequacies of a constitution that announces itself fraudulently by "we the people...', egocentric parliamentarians that mostly roam the corridors of the National Assembly would never dare set our nation aright by addressing fundamental flaws that threaten the continued sustenance of our country.

These legislators will always seek to uphold their privileges – not the welfare of the people! They have looked askance at foundational cracks inherent in a so called federal constitution that is hallmarked by unitary tendencies, security and fiscal malformations, etc.

The elitist Nigerian mercantile political class is dominated by male-supremacists – overt adherents to the principles of the "other room" dichotomy, so the failure of all gender-related amendments to pass muster in the National Assembly is in tune with a very backward, unpleasant reality.

A poignant reality, however, is that, in toto, male and female – kleptocratic aficionados in our parliament shut down a couple of amendments, that had curiously gotten thus far (understanding their proclivities).

The Bill to "Strengthen the Judiciary for timely dispensation of justice and the Bill providing for "Timelines for the determination of civil and criminal cases" both got short shrift.

Their avowed unity, in protecting inherent privileges in the status quo, that allows unending trials going into decades, with wide ranging opportunities, in collaboration with crooked members of the Judiciary, for the deployment of all manner of “dark arts” to subvert justice, in a nutshell, joins them, in all their different parts, in one word – misleaders!

The Reality by Professor Jega

At the NLC’s Workers Political Conference, Professor Attahiru Jega went to the heart of Nigeria’s malaise.

Jega said : “The sorry state of the socioeconomic conditions under which the Nigerian working people, indeed the overwhelming majority of all citizens live and work , the reckless misrule and mis-governance by a tiny, rabid and reckless band of elite and the manner by which these myopic ‘elected’ so-called ‘leaders’ and their collaborators, have devastated the Nigerian economy, heightened insecurity, and virtually destroyed the basis for national cohesion and integration, Nigeria, as a potentially great nation, is crying for a rescue mission, before it is too late.”

•Victor Ikhatalor is of the Human Rights Defender and Good Governance Advocate. He could be reached though: Twitter: @MyTribeNigeria; Email: kingjvic7@gmail.com

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