State of the Nation

In Nigeria today We have become immuned  to the news of
death. Life has become cheap and death, even of
the most gruesome kind, has
become “one of those things”
we have to live with. Just the
other day, an electricity pole
collapsed in Ibadan, Oyo
State, and killed seven
people. Nigerians have died
in their hundreds scooping
kerosene and fuel from
petrol tankers and damaged
pipelines. Every day, scores
of Nigerians die in bomb
blasts and road accidents.
Women die in their
thousands every year from
child birth. For millions of
Nigerian children “the future
is a child-size coffin because
they lack access to basic
vaccine”.
According to experts,  47
years, is the life expectancy in
Nigeria,the lowest among
West African countries. One out of
every five children dies
before the age of five years
due to polio and other sundry diseases like malaria,sentry and
infections. Nigeria is one of the
four countries where polio is
still an on-going epidemic in the world. No matter the amount of money you have no hospital (both private and public) can boast of world class healthcare. To make matters  worse,seventy persent of the drugs imported into the country are fake or substandard.
All these are symptoms of
a very deep malaise, which
like cancer in metastasis has
spread through every aspect
of our national life. The
trouble in Nigeria is living
in denial and pretending that all is well. We
only need to look at our
everyday life to appreciate
this breakdown of law and
order.
Nigeria, on the other hand is
a major oil producer, yet it
imports refined petroleum
products because the
county’s four refineries are
comatose.Our president says he
doesn’t give a damn about
publicly declaring his asset or
the right of Nigerians to
know his worth even if such
harmless gesture can
enhance transparency and
transform the way we deal
with corruption.If
there are fake hospitals and
fake doctors parading our
streets without hindrance, it
follows therefore that there
are fake lawmakers, teachers,
policemen, judges,
contractors, civil servants,
etc. The bottom line is that
there is no governance going
on and there is no institution,
from the presidency to the
local government, that
functions in Nigeria.

*excerpts from-
Murder Incorporated By Chido
Onumah

#CONSENSUS 2015