When oh when will my pride be justified?

I have been going through a rather unusual battle within myself. As weird as it sounds, it is not unusual for most introspective people. What with all the personal issues one needs to handle, having to deal with an extra battle for the sake of the land of your birth can be uniquely tiring. Some millions (or even billions) of people are lucky enough to be able to exist without thinking twice about these issues and sometimes I wish I was one of those.

What am I ranting about, well; it’s that place... that land... that government... NIGERIA.

I have resisted the urge to write about the crisis in Jos, the State of affairs in the Niger-Delta, the ex governors on the run after their reckless and shameless squandering of resources then of course the President’s health and how the whole issue was treated... But someone in the BBC will not let me be. They started with the film (or docufilm as I choose to see it) Blood and Oil. A part of me was in pains just watching it. My roots are in the Niger Delta and to see what happens and how those resources disappear and never get to the people... Well, I bit my lip and went back to my ‘ostrich mode’. I thought to myself, “What will my comments mean”? Saying or writing something would not change anything... the demon of corruption is so entrenched in Nigeria’s oil that it might mean nothing short of full blown war to stop it. But who will wish war on its worst enemy? But what do we do, keep ignoring these criminals in charge of Nigeria?

I ignored the programme! God knows I have too much going on in my own personal space at the moment to start thinking about such twisted evil. Did the BBC stop tormenting me? Not unless I could resist watching its next series of documentaries on BBC 2 called Welcome to Lagos. I cracked! I watched the first part and even recorded it. But oh, was that not just a big mistake? I watched it again; my people, determined, strong, not afraid to work hard, existing without the help of their own government. My heart broke especially when the young Agricultural College graduate Gabriel was interviewed. Who in their right mind goes through the stress of Nigeria’s education system just to end up in that kind of place? He never in his wildest dream had seen himself doing that for a living. He said he loved his job. I very much doubt it. But that is the fate of millions of young strong and bright Nigerian youths who do not happen to come from the handful of wealthy families we have in Nigeria.

What can I do? What can we do? What will our efforts come to? Who will listen? What can we change? My questions go on and on.

Nigeria is very sick. It needs help. There are a lot of people and unfortunately countries in the western civilisation gaining from leaving Nigeria in the state it is in. Almost every G8 country directly or indirectly has a stake in our oil. A country fully succumbed to the system of structural economic imperialism that condemns millions of its own people to lives of squalor in the midst of plenty. The oil will not last forever! What will happen when the wells run dry? How long will our young men and women have to resort to hustling to survive?

All the hope in the midst of so much injustice!

I run out of words....

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Watch the full programme on BBC iPlayer