GAINT OF AFRICA

My godfather is a nigerian born canadian citizen who is based in canada and has lived there almost all his life.Lets call him “my eze”.Everytime we meet physically or we chat online we have heated debates about Nigeria,her problems and the way out.My eze always used harsh words that I find offensive to describe the state of Nigeria and this would eventually make me feel uncomfortable and ashamed to be called a Nigerian.My eze would say something like “It’s a jungle out there in Nigeria” “How do you guys cope?” “I always feel sad and reluctant when I have to come to Nigeria” “Nothing works!” “I’m frustrated about Nigeria” “The people in Nigeria are chickens,they ought to have rebelled against their egocentric government,take a cue from Kenya,odinga is sticking to his guns against the incumbent president” “You have no leadership,your leaders are all rogues” e.t.c….

It may sound to you my eze doesn’t give a damn about Nigeria(that’s the way I used to feel but I realized he is saying the undiluted acidic truth) far from it!He is passionate about this country.He was in charge of the campaign team of the present prime minister of Canada,he is an international trade broker and consultant to Canadian government and has connections worldwide(he once told me he was on the phone with Clinton) and he has used his connections to set up a multinational NGO africawecare they ship relief materials and freebies to African countries except Nigeria because the nigerian customs never allowed their containers out of the port for funny and flimsy excuses but they have built a borehole in Imo state.

I always thought my eze’s statements were harsh and gave us(Nigeria) a mark of 40% because of the level of “development and civilization” in Lagos and some parts of Abuja but some weeks back I traveled by road to Oyo,Osun and Yobe state,it was during this experience I realised my eze’s harsh statements are the true picture of things!Yeah,I know driving on Lagos overstretched roads with all its pot holes is like playing Mario kart or crash bandicot racing but traveling on those roads outside Lagos was a “badder” experience.I know you know most of nigeria’s problems but we in Lagos,Abuja and port harcort don’t know how alarming it is!Its more catastrophic in other states As we our convoy moved through Oyo,all I saw were 19^th century structures,illiterates,dirty surroundings.We have no infrastructures in place at all in this country,Nepa offices are using generators,fire fighters don’t have water,police officers lend weapons and ammunitions to criminals,criminals even have superior firepowers to our police’s e.t.c.Do u know Yobe is so bad the governor doesn’t reside there?He comes all the way from Abuja!Those guys in Yobe are “mallams”,so illiterate,ignorant and superstitious and the wealthy northerners are feeding on their ignorance.I’m so tired of talking about Nigeria’s problems they are so numerous,where do I start where do I stop?It already wears my heart down as I type and I’m dejected cos I’m passionate about her.I feel helpless,I’m like a romeo while she is a drug addicted mentally retarded beautiful Juliet with cancer of the lungs!

I prefer to discuss the solutions and take actions!If you were president of Nigeria what would u do?Alot of people say our major problem is corruption but I say its bad leadership.Corruption is just a fallout of bad leadership.Alot of people talk in Nigeria but no actions.My questions are what have u done or doing to help build Nigeria and what are your solutions?What would you do if u were president?