I am Hungry, Please Re-brand me *
* **
*I am *Nigeria*. I have millions of acres of *arable land* and billions
of cubic liters of water, but I cannot feed myself. So I spend $1
billion to import rice and another $2 billion to import milk. I produce
rice, but don't eat it. I have 60 million cattle but no milk. I am
hungry, please re-brand me. *
* **
I drive the latest cars in the world but have no roads. I lose family
and friends everyday on roads for which funds have been looted. I lose
my young, my old, and my most brainy and productive people to the
potholes, craters and crevasses they travel on everyday. I am in
permanent mourning, please re-brand me. *
* **
Nigerians subsist at the edge of one of the greatest record of poverty in human history, amidst a national wealth and prosperity from proceed from oil, but shared by microscopic lucky few in Nigerians
My school has no teacher and my classroom has no roof. I take lecture
notes through the window and live with 15 others in a single room. All
my professors have gone abroad, and the rest are awaiting visas. I am a
university graduate, but I am illiterate. I want a future, please
re-brand me. *
* **
.
***
Malaria, typhoid and many other preventable diseases send me to
hospitals which have no doctors, no medicines and no power.. So my wife
gives birth with candle light and surgery is performed by quacks. All
the nurses have gone abroad and the rest are waiting to go also. I have
the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in the world and future
generations are dying before me. I am hopeless, hapless and helpless,
please re-brand me. *
* **
A musical maestro, Fela once dubbed Nigerians as ‘Suffering and smiling’…There can be no better appendage to attach to the Nigerian people. Despite the groaning hardship and poverty…the worst epidemic ever bestowed on mankind ,Nigerian still have the ability to smile and smile-‘The happiest people on earth’ cant do any better.'One of the legacies of the British to Nigerians was ,the more populations ,the more you have the well withal to rule the nation'.Hence in the midst of poverty,the population skyrockets to beat the odds .
I wanted change so I stood all day long to cast my vote. But even
before I could vote, the results had been announced. When I dared to
speak out, silence was enthroned by bullets. My rulers are my
oppressors, and my policemen are my terrors. I am ruled by men in mufti,
but I am not a democracy. I have no verve, no vote, no voice, please
re-brand me. *
* **
A mass protest in Nigeria.
***
I have 50 million youths with no jobs, no present and no future. So my
sons in the North have become street urchins and his brothers in the
South have become militants. My nephews die of thirst in the Sahara and
his cousins drown in the waters of the Mediterranean. My daughters walk
the streets of *Lagos*, *Abuja* and *Port Harcourt*, while her sisters
parade the streets of Rome and *Amsterdam*. I am inconsolable, please
re-brand me. *
* **
.This is Nigeria in the 21st century,the common folks must help themselves to eke out a living in a nation where nobody cares-no good road,no drinking water etc.Suffering in the midst of abundance.Nigeria is like a living hell to more than 80% of its inhabitant.
My people cannot sleep at night and cannot relax by day. They cannot
use ATM machines, nor use cheques. My children sleep through staccato of
AK 47s see through the mist of tear gas. The leaders have looted
everything on the ground and below. They walk the land with haughty
strides and fly the skies with private jets. They have stolen the future
of generations yet unborn and have money they cannot spend in several
lifetimes, but their brothers die of hunger. I want justice, please
re-brand me.. *
* **
I can produce anything, but import everything. So my toothpick is made
in *China*; my toothpaste is made in *South Africa*; my salt is made in
*Ghana*; my butter is made in *Ireland*; my milk is made in Holland; my
shoe is made in *Italy*; my *vegetable oil* is made in *Malaysia*; my
biscuit is made in *Indonesia*; my chocolate is made in Turkey and my
table water made in *France*. My taste is far-flung and foreign, please
re-brand me. *
* **
This abandoned aircraft, captures succinctly, the general picture of the Nigeria nation, where most infrastructures that could have better the lot of an average Nigerian, have been abandoned.
***
My people are cancerous from the greed of their friends who bleach palm
oil with chemicals; my children died because they drank 'My Pikin' with
NAFDAC numbers; my poor die because kerosene explodes in their faces; my
land is dead because all the trees have been cut down; flood kills my
people yearly because the drainages are clogged; my fishes are dead
because the oil companies dump waste in my rivers; my communities are
vanishing into the huge yawns of *gully erosion*, and nothing is being
done. My livelihood is in jeopardy, and I am in the uttermost depths of
despondence, please re-brand me. *
* **
Jungle Justice; When a people are pushed to the walls, they tend to build up an hegemony of self-mutilation, in Nigeria it is transfer aggression. Anything, anyone that ‘moves’ against the tide of the common people even among the common people is severely punished-the judge, the executioner is tied together on the chest of a single man. No court, no judge. Nigeria is like a jungle, where every animal is an enemy and every man a judge unto itself. WIDE WIDE WILD NIGERIA.You aint looking at ‘The gods must be crazy’ …This is Nigeria in the 21st century.
***
I have genuine leather but choose to eat it. So I spend a billion
dollars to import fake leather. I have four refineries, but prefer to
import fuel, so I waste more billions to import petrol. I have no
security in my country, but would rather send troops to keep the peace
in another man's land. I have 160 dams, but can not get water to drink,
so I buy 'pure' water that roils my innards. I have a million children
waiting to enter universities, but my ivory dungeons can only take a
tenth. I have no power, but choose to flare gas, so my people have
learnt to see in the dark and stare at the glare of naked flares. I have
no direction, please re-brand me. *
* **
The Nigerian House of Representative.
***
My people pray to God every morning and every night, but commit every
crime known to man because re-branded identities will never alter the
tunes of inbred rhythms. Just as the drums of heritage heralds the
frenzied jingles, remember - the Nigerian soul can only be Nigerian -
fighting free from the cold embrace of a government that has no spring,
no sense, no shame. So we watch the possessed, frenzied dance, drenched
in silent tears as freedom is locked up in democracy's empty cellars.. I
need guidance, please re-brand me. *
* **
Militancy in the creeks of Nigeria.Many years of neglected promted the aborigines of the Niger Delta to pick up arms against the Nigeria State,with destruction of pipe lines,kidnapping and bombing of federal institution that are synonymous with oil production.
***
***
But then, why can I not simply be me, without being re-branded? Or does
my complexion cloud the color of my character? Does my location limit
the lengths my liberty? Does the spirit of my conviction shackle my
soul? Does my mien maim the mine of my mind? And is this life worth
re-branding? I am not yet born, please re-brand me**
•
National Assembly
***
By Stanley E.Ogboru
