Nigeria is said to be Africa’s first or second largest economy. Yet, about 35% of Nigerians are unemployed; about 40% are uneducated and a higher number can only read or write at the 10th grade level. In addition, 50% or more do not have access to modern medicine and dental care. And for many, many basic human needs are a mirage. That’s Nigeria, the giant of Africa!
About 60% of the rich and wealthy in Nigeria are thieves and conmen. These are men and women who came about their wealth by way of stealing and contract manipulation and by exploiting the weak and the poor. These are not industrialists, inventors or investors, scientists, bankers, realtors or provable merchants. The vast majority do not even add value to the society or to the market. They are what they are: thieves and tricksters!
In the case of Bayelsa State, the statistics are even grimmer. So, grim the conditions exceed biblical sins. The irony is that many of the indigenes do not know or understand how terrible their conditions are. They are not aware of the shortage of basic human needs; and how appalling their living conditions are. For many, poverty and insufficiency has become an acceptable way of life.
Sadder is the fact that many of the educated – the educated class that should be championing noble causes and pricking the governor’s conscience – either support whoever is the governor or makes excuses for him and his government. This has been the case since 1999. The intellectual class is thinner now than at any time in the young history of the state. Even so, many have been beaten to pulp or broken. Many more have been compromised. And others have simply lost their cojones.
Somewhere along the way, they forgot that there is a price to be paid for silence. And so I beseech them to “speak your mind even if your voice shakes.” The educated and enlightened class cannot and must NOT be silent in the face of lawlessness, tyranny, theft and financial mismanagement. They cannot be indifferent to political and personal hooliganism and the personalization of the rule of law. They must not look the other way when their brethren, family members and neighbors are being subjected to bad leadership and poor governance.
In the twenty-first century a sizeable number of Ijaw people continue to drink from the same river they defecate and wash in. This is the same river and waterways their great-great-grand parents bathed, defecated and drank from two to three centuries ago.
Anyone who is interested in witnessing or understanding what “man’s inhumanity to man” looks like should pay a visit to Ijaw land – especially to the riverine areas.
Since the beginning of the Fourth Nigerian Republic in 1999, the state has received more than $15B from the federal government; yet, there is almost nothing to indicate that that much money has been spent. There is not a single quality hospital in the state. There is not a single primary or secondary school that meet basic universal standard. Where have all the money gone? Billions and billions of naira is said to have been wasted and stolen since 1999.
Mr. Diepreye Alamieyeseigha was the governor from May 1999 to December 2005. He was succeeded by Mr. Goodluck Jonathan and Mr. Timipre Sylva. And Mr. Henry Seriake Dickson has been at the helms of affairs since February 2012.
The Ijaw, at home and abroad, cannot continue to lay all the blames on the shoulders of the Nigerian government. They cannot continue to shout “political exclusion and lack of federal presence…lack of development…environmental degradation…etc.” The people and successive governments must take personal responsibility for their failures and shortcomings.
Alamieyeseigha and Sylva were governors. Dickson has been in charge now for three long years. And Goodluck Jonathan was the deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president and president. What are their achievements; what would be their legacy?
Although this is mid-2015; but really, the 2016 election in Bayelsa State is just around the corner. The people must decide which way they want to go.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other political parties in the state must conduct a sound primary election. In addition, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must conduct a credible election that reflects the wishes and aspiration of the people. Both processes must allow for the best and brightest and most visionary candidate to emerge as the governor of the state.
Bayelsa State is the Mecca for all Ijaw people. It is time to do away with short-sightedness in terms of governance and in terms of how the people’s resources are managed. The people and the times demand a man or woman who is well trained and has global perspective. The people and the times need a man or woman who has no need to steal from the public purse; someone who has no penchant for breaking the rules and the law.
After 15 long years of roaming aimlessly in the economic, political and social wilderness, the time has come for the Ijaw of Bayelsa State to make a clean and swift break from the past – a past that was mostly dominated by a former president and his wife.
The state needs a man or woman with disdain for mediocrity, political rascality, wastefulness and mismanagement. Who then is the man or woman with the quality and character and vision to move the Ijaw people forward? Who is that man or woman?
