Another letter to my fellow countryman

Aliyu Musa

Dear Compatriot,

In January last year I wrote you a letter wishing you luck in the New Year and reminded you of your plight, which I suggested only you could change. Whether you took those pieces of advice on board or binned them almost immediately is what I am not able to confirm. But judging by what I saw and still see, your situation has only worsened; you watch hopelessly as your sapped remains are evacuated to the mortuary, from where a grandiose funeral procession (all at your expense) is organized to sign you off to your grave. You obviously don’t learn and may never learn any lessons. You are, indeed, the earth’s wretched.

Pardon my uncouthness though, but I must remind you that you are solely responsible for your plight. Like I reminded you last year those villains you have endlessly hobnobbed with are your perpetual scourge and opium. Now their conspiracies have broken new grounds in terms of sophistication. In the past they stole to the tune of millions of naira and then advanced to billions of naira. But the naira has since lost its appeal as the medium of theft, so they now steal to the tune of billions of dollars.

Stealing in dollars is not new to our sullied system. Recall the small number of civil thieves (sorry, civil servants) that connived to sweep the police pension funds clean of $200 million and how it meant nothing to you. You certainly don’t remember that, probably, because it was one of many of such larcenies perpetuated in recent times. I don’t fully blame you; thievery is now a too familiar order.

Again, I will refresh your memory of the disaster 2013 was to you, with very few recent examples. Stella Uduah, our ‘esteemed’ minister of aviation, was embroiled in a N255 million-naira bulletproof cars scandal. But, she has successfully evaded formal indictment because you have shown clear disinterest in the matter and our listening president doesn’t appear to have a choice but to go by your ‘wish’. And now a proud Uduah tells the world the NCAA did not buy the cars but ‘merely’ leased them (whatever she meant?). Fair enough, at what cost were the cars leased? Forget about the answer because the matter is as good as forgotten.

Another empress, Diezani Allison-Madueke, our petroleum minister has been emboldened by your utter show of apathy to allow an ‘insignificant’ sum of $12 billion to evaporate into thin air under her watch. When the once maverick Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi announced in December 2013 the disappearance of about $49.8 billion, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was supposed to remit to the federation account, you were taken aback by the huge amount. But your shock and anger soon gave way to indifference after Sanusi came back to admit inflating the figure. Mind you, he did not retract the whole allegation. He insisted $12 billion were unaccounted for, while Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala countered with a lower figure of $10.8 billion. Again, it was not a denial of theft or missing or stolen money.

As I write you have must have counted your 2013 eggs, saved in a porous basket against reason. How many actually survived the blustery journey? I bet none. And this year, the president came back to elate your emotion and activate your daydream by awarding himself a pass mark in 2013, and promising to do even more in 2014. Amazingly, you believe him.

Does it matter to you that his 2014 budget, already presented to the National Assembly, is fraught with fraudulent projects on which millions of your money would be squandered? Did you ask yourself whether anyone considered you in the ‘national cake’ sharing formula? What has Mr. President earmarked for security, roads, healthcare, education, electricity and many other essentials that would directly make your life better? You don’t know and don’t care. Period!

This is why I say you are your fundamental problem. Your detachment is nauseating and explains why you are endlessly taken for granted. The way politicians switch tents would make even chameleons green with envy, but you don’t read any meanings. For them you are a massive field to play any game in and succeed.

But would anything in 2014 animate you to action? Only time will tell. Again, let me sign off like I did in 2013 by wishing you happy dreaming in 2014 and more coziness to your comfy sofa. May your dreams materialize.

Yours fraternally,

A. Musa