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On October 1, Nigerians will surely
wake up to the pounding of marching boots and martial music,
complemented by a rumble of armoured vehicles, the flight display of
combat aircraft. What else? The inspection of a guard-of-honour and, in
the evening, a state banquet, valedictory speeches, laughter and music,
cultural dances, comedians and clowns spewing banalities and filthy
jokes.

None of these activities will suggest
when or where young school-leavers will get jobs, and in some cases,
even scrape out their next meals. We are obsessed with conviviality and
love partying against all odds. Nigerians transform into a celebration
frenzy at the slightest excuse. Culture or phobia? A propensity for
hedonism could also be interpreted as symptomatic of a suffering
people, an analgesic to kill the pain of poverty instantly, but only
temporarily.

One day Nigerians woke up to find a
foreign poll electing them as the “Happiest people on Earth.” How
farcical! Peripherally, it could be true. If you’ve been to a night
party in Lagos and Sunny Ade is on the bandstand, the sheer amounts of
raw cash sprayed, the quantity and colour of textiles worn, the food,
the sensuous dancing and womanizing will convince you of what Rome
looked like the week before the Barbarians destroyed it. Will Nigeria
meet the same fate? Rome had at least reached a pinnacle of excellence
before it fell.

Nation building is unknown here.
Rather, Nigerian leaders and captains of industry are preoccupied with
acquiring dual citizenship to flee their country. The process
facilitates health care in advanced countries, siphoning of stolen
money out of Nigeria and the children’s education in primary schools,
colleges, and universities abroad. Some of these kids are on federal
and state government scholarships, but will remain in foreign lands;
they will work, pay taxes and become citizens there. These are huge
financial and managerial losses to Nigeria.

Target countries of Nigerian emigration
and capital flight are unconcerned and sometimes happy over our plight.
Your brain drain is their gain. The monies embezzled in Nigeria and
deposited in their banks are never returned because they enrich their
economies.

If leaders of an independent nation are
not interested in building institutions and an environment that will
make life worth living for their people, the United Nations should
request such countries to rescind the instruments of sovereignty and
revert to colonial status.

October 1, 2010, must be marked, not
celebrated. The day should serve as a serious warning that time is
running out for this nation. A bugler is already sounding “The Last
Post”; vultures are hovering above in expectation of a putrescent
cadaver, when a very sick Nigeria is finally strangled to death by its
corrupt elite. The British are sending out the Duke of Gloucester, a
junior royal, not the Duke of Edinburgh, for our Golden Jubilee. It may
be tactical. Prince Philip, like many old men, often speaks his mind
anywhere, at anytime and within earshot of anybody. I could well
imagine him bullying Goodluck Jonathan, telling our president that
Nigeria has not fulfilled the potential he saw during his first visit
in 1956. But if I were the Duke of Gloucester, I’d enquire from
President Jonathan about the health of Alamieyeseigha and the
whereabouts of Ibori, wishing them well and expressing gratitude in
respect of so much money donated to the UK economy.

Our leaders are fiddling while Nigeria
decays and burns. The masses don’t care about anything, anymore. This
jubilee will be anything but golden.

The thrill is gone.