Monday 24 September 2018

Nigeria: A fake nation or a nation of fakes?

The Guardian

Nigeria map. PHOTO: nigeriamap.facts.co

Nigeria is an intriguing nation.
A 58- year adult nation that is still crawling like a toddler, while most of its mates are running on sure feet.
Many people including political, traditional and religious leaders have expressed their bewilderment with Nigeria’s chronic inability to truly rise.
Never mind that a tiny minority including some who earn 12 billion Naira as annual dividend will argue differently that Nigeria is rising.
Many ordinary folks in Nigeria have raised their hands in desperation as they find themselves daily pushed into poverty despite their best efforts.
This is evidenced by the fact that Nigeria the seventh most populous nation with a ‘tiny’ population of about 198 million People has become the global poverty headquarters, beating India (with a population of over 1.2 billion) according to the Brookings Institution.
Nigeria is said to have 87 million of its citizens in extreme poverty as today and according to Melinda Gates foundation, this number may grow to 152 million in 2050 and we say Nigeria is rising.
Yes Africa may be rising but not Nigeria and if anything, Nigeria is dragging Africa down!

What is the trouble with Nigeria? Chinua Achebe tried to answer this question in his book.
Many other authors have posed this question and some have proffered answers.
Many have blamed the leadership, others the followership, and some both.
Majority have rightly blamed corruption but we have failed to reach a national agreement on what constitutes corruption and how to identify corruption and how to prevent or punish corrupt acts.
Even the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) seem to have a limited view of what constitutes a corrupt practice.
For example appointing a serving Minister who is maintained by tax payers to serve as DG of a partisan campaign organization is a corrupt practice in my view.
Indeed using official time or resources to serve private or partisan interests spells corrupt practice in my dictionary.
But those who claim to be fighting corruption are actually only fighting stealing money in Nigeria.
They seem to think that stealing or frank financial crimes constitute the total essence of corruption.
I fully accept that stealing is a corrupt act but it is not all.
In my opinion it is not the most weighty act of corruption.
Indeed for me, it is one aspect of corruption that is easiest to fight or even to prevent.

There are more insidious and damaging corrupt acts than straight forward thieving.
Which was the point I believe President Goodluck Jonathan was trying to make, but his detractors refused and failed to understand his point, preferring to confuse issues in order to mock him.
One of such corrupt acts which has become so pervasive in Nigeria is faking.
Fake educational certificates, fake NYSC certificates, fake drugs, fake doctors, fake motor parts, fake identity cards, fake Naira notes, fake letters of employment, fake policemen, fake soldiers, fake election results, fake politicians, fake news etc. Some thing tells me that the problem of faking in Nigeria is perhaps at the root of our national malaise.
Who knows how many of our political leaders in the executive and legislative arms of government are in office with fake or forged certificates.
If people can forge a mere NYSC exemption certificate which ordinarily is not difficult to get in the right way, imagine the number of our so called leaders at local, state and Federal governments parading fake secondary and university certificates, diplomas and degrees.
We can not easily forget the story of the House of Representative speaker Busari who came to power with a fake University degree.
That incident quickly opened a can of worms which threatened to cause a lot of damage to the 1999 class of our political leaders at all tiers of government.
That was when we became aware of the difference between Chicago University and University of Chicago.
Can we possibly estimate the damage such fake leaders have caused in our polity and economy? 
In the private sector where we operate, the matter is worse.
Everything is being faked. I once employed a staff who promised to be faithful, dutiful and honest.
When I tried to check on his references, I found that the referees knew him by different first name from the one on his papers.
Subsequently I discovered that this “ honest” employee was impersonating his deceased elder brother.
At another occasion I interviewed a candidate for a job.
The guy showed Master’s degree certificate but could not string together one grammatically correct sentence.
We all know that many Nigerians have been despatched to untimely death by fake drugs.
Many have been involved in preventable auto accidents because of fake brake pads or brake fluid. And then we say we are fighting corruption!

As I was completing this article, my friend, the one that was with me when we ran into the interminable traffic gridlock caused by the overloading of the Lagos ports to the utter neglect of the Eastern ports.
Those who read this column regularly will remember that this my friend knows how to stoke trouble. He asked me what I was writing about this week.
I announced to him that I was writing on a ‘Nation of fakes’
He quickly jumped in and asserted that the real reason that there is so much faking in Nigeria is that the Nation itself is a fake Nation.
I remonstrated and asked why he would say such a thing.
He looked at me and said “ Mazi, it is only logical that a Nation of fakes can not but be a fake Nation” I asked him for evidence.
He referred to the preamble of the 1999 constitution.
He said that General Abdulsalami Abubukar sat with a few of his friends and put up the 1999 constitution but ended up saying that it was done by” we the people of Nigeria”.
He concluded that this is master faking and said that if we wanted to change his assertion that Nigeria is a fake Nation, then we should abandon the fake constitution and get the true people of Nigeria to draw up a true constitution for the good and peaceful governance of Nigeria.
Truth is that I could not help but agree with my friend. 





Saturday 22 September 2018

Letter from Africa: The link between earth tremors, God and Nigeria's elections

Abuja skyline at sunset
Image captionNigeria's capital. Abuja, was disturbed by earth tremors earlier this month
In our series of letters from Africa, Nigerian writer and novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani considers why some earth tremors in Nigeria's capital caused such a stir.
Sometime in the early hours of 6 September, I was tucked in bed at home in Abuja when, suddenly, a slight trembling seemed to sway the building from side to side.
My first thought was that a jihadist bomb had struck.
I still remember the exact moment in August 2011 when a Boko Haram militant drove a vehicle through two security barriers, crashed into the reception area of the UN headquarters in Abuja, then detonated a bomb, which left more than 20 people dead and more than 60 wounded.
I was in a nearby building, the offices of the now defunct Next newspapers, which rattled and quaked while we all flung ourselves to the ground.
Security officers at the UN headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria - August 2011Image copyrightAFP
Image captionIn 2011, the vehicle carrying the bomb broke through two security barriers at the UN HQ in Abuja
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But, when I didn't hear the wailing sirens that always followed bombings in Abuja, I relaxed.
Perhaps the trembling was simply an after-effect of the quarrying that sometimes takes place near my Asokoro neighbourhood and in other parts of Abuja, a city known for its imposing rocks.

A day of trembling

Later that day, frantic phone calls from friends checking to make sure that I was fine made me realise that what had simply been a mild trembling in my area was more tremulous in certain parts of the city, such as the Gwarinpa District, the location of a housing estate that is believed to be the largest in West Africa, and the Mpape suburb where residents, mostly-low income families, panicked and fled their homes in terror.
The tremors in Mpape began on the afternoon of the previous day and continued till around midnight, according to newspaper reports.
Residents described goods toppling off the shelves in their shops and fearing that the ceilings in their homes would cave in.
Many assumed that their buildings were about to collapse.
Barely two weeks earlier, the collapse of an incomplete building in the Jabi area of Abuja made news headlines. The scene of the disaster, in a modern neighbourhood with some upmarket estates, attracted a visit from Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
Rescue workers at the scene of a collapsed mall in Abuja, Nigeria - August 2018Image copyrightAFP
Image captionProtests followed the collapse of a half-finished multi-storey building in August
At the time, the government and residents disagreed over the number of dead, and there were protests when government rescue efforts ended barely 24 hours after the incident, with a number of victims still believed to be buried in the rubble.
A few days after the earth tremors, which were felt in different parts of Abuja between 5 September and 8 September, the government released a statement to reassure residents that there was nothing to worry about.
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"We are carrying out adequate steps to determine what happened last week," said Idris Abass, head of the city's emergency management agency.
"Maybe it is a natural cause, but we want to assure the public that Nigeria is not on the zone of earthquakes."
Famous last words.
Back in June 2011, before the UN attack, a Boko Haram militant drove a car into the premises of the police headquarters in Abuja and exploded a bomb that took his life and that of a policeman.
Newspaper columns were taken up with analysing how the militant must have killed himself in error - probably a failed attempt to assassinate the police chief whose convoy the militant had tailed as it drove into the premises - as Nigeria was not a place known for suicide bombers.
A fire engine at the scene of a bomb at the police HQ in Abuja, NigeriaImage copyrightAFP
Image captionThe bombing of the police headquarters in 2011 is thought to be Nigeria's first suicide attack
Of course, we all know better now, what with the carnage the country has since witnessed over the past few years as Boko Haram attacks have intensified in northern Nigeria.
The police headquarters bombing is now regarded as Nigeria's first suicide bomb attack.

Quarrying activities banned

A day after Mr Abass' statement, another government agency published fresh information on the tremors.
The National Space and Research Development Agency (NASRDA) assured Abuja residents that there was no cause for alarm, although confirming that an earthquake had indeed occurred.
Agency head Seidu Mohammed said the magnitude was low and not worrying enough to warrant residents of the affected areas panicking and relocating elsewhere.
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Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani:
Adaobi Tricia NwaubaniImage copyrightADAOBI TRICIA NWAUBANI
"While government agencies have aired conflicting conjectures, many Nigerians, who tend to be deeply religious, have drawn their own conclusions"
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Measures would be put in place to monitor the earth's movements so as to predict and prepare for any forthcoming disasters, he added.
Not long afterwards, yet another government official widened speculation by announcing the suspension of mining and quarrying activities in Abuja.
But Abubakar Bawa, minister of state for mines and steel development. emphasised that he was not concluding that "the tremors experienced may have anything to do with excavations around affected areas... until investigations are completed".
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More Letters from Africa

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While government agencies have aired conflicting conjectures, many Nigerians, who tend to be deeply religious, have drawn their own conclusions.
Some believe it is a sign that God is angry with our country about something.
Some believe that it is a warning to President Muhammadu Buhari; perhaps against his style of leadership or his intention to run for re-election in 2019 despite his lacklustre performance over the past three-and-a-half years.
Yet others believe that the earth tremors are simply a call to more fervent prayer for our nation, lest earthquakes soon join an already long list of headline-stealing tribulations that includes: Farmer-herdsmen clashes, the Boko Haram insurgency, ethnic agitations and the battered economy.
One can hardly imagine how Nigeria might handle earthquakes when the government is still battling to cope with these other disasters that have left millions displaced and in dire need.
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