Nigeria Content Online

Dazzled by the
costumes and jewellery of presidential candidates and their wives,
Nigerians seem to have forgotten how things have steadily worsened
since the New Year. Fresh jobs have not been created; doctors are on
strike, and the condition of the Benin-Ore road has infuriated no less
a citizen than the Oba of Benin. Desert encroachment, deforestation and
coastal erosion are squeezing Nigerians into the Middle Belt where
internecine conflict has erupted in the cold hills of Jos. Food is
insecure, sanitation nonexistent and, of course, Shell and Chevron have
not switched off the gas flares in the Niger Delta.

None of these
issues is of any importance in the campaigns to elect or select what
should be a democratic government in Nigeria this year. Nothing, apart
from zoning, succession, future ministerial appointments and contracts
are vital in the run-up to this election. This probably explains why
bombs are popping like champagne corks to emphasise the bitterness of a
fight to the finish.

Innocent civilians,
hypnotised by the delusion of choreographed rallies, have died in bomb
blasts and stampedes. Over 75 million people are now registered to vote
for men and women of questionable competence and integrity.

Speaking in the
erosion-scarred south-east, Goodluck Jonathan was all smiles,
eulogising and flattering the Igbo. He challenged their prodigal sons
in the United States of America to “come home and assist in the task of
nation-building.” But Mr Jonathan was not explicit on what
opportunities the economy would present to any returnee professionals;
nor did he give an insight into how his government would address those
inequities at home that might have contributed to their migration.

Jonathan’s beloved
Igbo are not only in the US and the UK. Some are adamantly making their
way across the hot Sahara, searching for a better life in North Africa,
ultimately hoping to cross the Mediterranean. Many are largely unaware
of the implosions that await them in the Maghreb.

By contrast, the
children of Nigerian leaders sit comfortably in the expensive,
air-conditioned American School in Abuja. Apparently, the kids are
being prepared for an adult life abroad. These are the reasons, apart
from facilitation of money laundering, for the interest by wealthy
Nigerians in dual citizenship. Meanwhile, the majority of registered
voters have no passports, no ID cards, and no birth certificates.

If Nigerian schools
and hospitals are unfit for our lawmakers and their families, it is
testimony to the institutional decay of a nation they misrule. In which
case, such leaders have no moral right to request Nigerians already in
America or elsewhere to return. Any lunatic can construct that logic.

Whether Irish or
Scotsmen, Dutch or Huguenots, Jews or Igbo, people never leave their
place of birth, friends and family, or cultural environment, just for
the hell of it. Social biology and social geography will assist the
more scholarly minded in comprehending the nature of human or even
animal migration. Those much-romanticised “explorers” in history,
including the heroes who “discovered” and colonised Africa and America,
were actually responding to economic hardship, xenophobia, political
and religious persecution To the Diaspora: don’t come home—especially
if you’re not a man or woman for the trenches, or not well-connected.
Nigeria is hard work! Let your head guide your heart. In case you
ignore my advice and decide to make the great leap across the Atlantic,
remember to leave an escape valve. If possible, complete a postgraduate
diploma in Coping with Corrupt and Insensitive Leadership before your
adventurous voyage to the Gulf of Guinea.