In Defense of Money laundering : Aunty Florence Goes To London By Prince Charles Dickson

“Nothing in the world is
more dangerous than
sincere ignorance and
conscientious stupidity” ~
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
I do not want to court
controversy, I will try so
hard in my admonition to
keep sane. Sadly the
operational word is ‘try’, so
if I don’t, its not for lack of
trying. It only is a case of
how does one keep sane in
a nation that in itself has
chosen to exist on its head.
So enter scene one; “…Took
my daughter to school in
London…”
“I visit my 14-year-old
daughter in the UK every
three weeks. I won’t say
because I am the first lady,
stop playing my role as a
mother. I have to care for
my daughter. As a minor,
she has to come home every
three weeks. And I don’t
have any other child there
that can look after her”.
“My son is in Birmingham,
which is far away from
where my daughter stays.
So, I am going to keep
performing my role as a
mother to my daughter. If I
have to go back tomorrow, I
will, as long as I am not
using government funds”.
“I went on an official visit to
Taiwan with my husband and
we did not go to London
from Lagos as reported”.
“We went to Dubai, Hong
Kong,Taipei, Dubai and
London, back to Lagos”
Those were the words of
Alhaja Florence Ajimobi, JP
(Jerusalem Prigrim), Oyo
state First lady as one report
addressed her. For the
fashion designer wife of the
Oyo state governor I
honestly see nothing wrong
with her comments
regarding an alledged arrest
over ‘money laundering’ in
the UK.
While I see nothing wrong in
her comments, I see
everything that is wrong with
the Nigerian state and those
that parade themselves as
leaders or wives of leaders.
An Aunty Florence, who has
only displayed sincere
ignorance and conscientious
stupidity.
For a fact, starting from the
so inconsequential to the
very serious, what is the
testimony for a first family
whose barely 14year old
child cannot get a Nigerian
education from even a
primary level.
Is it surprising why we have
conducted a funeral mass
for our education? Do we
still find it surprising when
teachers are not paid, while
quality and standards are left
to the dogs?
The answer is simply, at 14
our kids are in London and
with ‘public-private funds’,
aunty Alhaja can visit every
three weeks or less, in-fact
by her words, if need be, she
would visit London everyday.
I did a poor man’s analysis,
if a return ticket was just
100k, and 52wks made a
year, divide that by 3wks and
multiply by a 100k. Add
mummy buy biscuits, and
tuition etc. We have
approximately a well-
equipped local
pharmaceutical dispensary in
any local gov’t area of
Nigeria.
Conscientious stupidity,
really must aunty talk, yes o,
they must…our leaders talk
before they think because
followership equally has a
battered thought process. So
we are in not too many
words told to ‘go to hell’.
I have no problem with
elected officials that decide
to school their wards
abroad, if they so wish, they
can go to Alaska or Iceland. I
have no problem if a
government decides to go to
Somalia to seek investors,
after all, isn’t Germany not
the 37th state where all is
taught about Nigeria?
Sadly for all the 14-year olds
that go to UK, what do we
get in return?
For example according to
the Medical and Dental
Council of Nigeria, barely 53
percent of Foreign-Schooled
Doctors failed Induction
Tests, it says
only 94 doctors and dentists
who schooled abroad passed
assessment tests to enable
them practise in Nigeria,
after 200 of them sat for the
tests.
What do we really lack, that
makes a UK education any
better, why is an Indian
health system any better?
The answer is simply,
sincere ignorance and
conscientious stupidity, the
type that makes a state
spend some $45M on an
aircraft and can’t spend $20
on educating pilots at home
or build a hospital to cater
for crash victims.
The money for the new toys
(planes) being purchased by
Rivers and Akwa Ibom states
is from a Trust account,
shaking my head sadly, such
a display of sincere
ignorance and conscientious
stupidity. Like our aunty JP,
no one has asked you not to
be a mother, no one has
stopped a governor from
buying a kite or jet but we
have asked, provide
responsible governance at
home.
If Oyo state were
experiencing rapid
infrastructural development,
a educational and health
turnaround, who would care
about who goes where and
at what interval.
Aunty Florence, for all we
care, can go to Afghanistan-
Rwanda-Syria before
London, na her sabi, if the
Amaechis and Godswills
want to buy airports or like a
governor whose son is
currently studying ‘how to
milk a cow’ in siberia, na
dem sabi.
The end of the story is while
in Anambra state, at some
flood camp, kids have not
been to school for a six
weeks, while aunty Florence
has gone to UK twice just to
visit her little daughter.
Sad economic fortunes, lack
of initiatives, and failed
government promises all
have combined to make
living so hard, yet our
governors are buying jets
because really we can’t do
nothing more than watch.
Aunty Florence and her ilk
need to know that some
families can’t send kids to
public universities at 30k per
year. Our public officials go
to the UK for everything; we
sit at home for nothing.
Time will tell.

#CONSENSUS 2015