By Dele Sobowale
“Love and business and family and religion and art and patriotism are nothing but shadows of words when a man is starving.” O. Henry, 1862-1910, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, P 233. Nigeria is descending to a new low in barbarism, which if left unchecked will define the new era of politics. Parents, presumed to be sane, but obviously callous and distressed, now sell their kids to procure food for the rest of the family. Whether the evil is perpetrated with a heavy heart is difficult to say until we conduct a study into the motivations of the few known examples to date. And, the sooner the better, because this trend might gain momentum and become irreversible for a long time to come. It is difficult to imagine how parents would determine which of their kids to be sold. That they don’t particularly care what fate befalls that child is obvious. That they don’t consider that the sale of one child for a pittance will not solve their problems permanently is also clear. They certainly don’t ask themselves what will happen when the food purchased with their own kids’ blood money is exhausted. Will they sell another one? Just as obvious to anybody who can think deeply is the fact that those who can willingly sell their own kids would think nothing about trading other people’s children for cash. Perhaps some are already into that business. We will never know until somebody conducts a study to find out if cases of missing children had risen in the communities where parents have been caught selling their own. However, before proceeding with this column, a diversion is necessary.


Mr Femi Adesina, Presidential Adviser for Media, was once reported to have stated that he does not believe that Nigerians are suffering now. I sincerely hope he was misquoted. But, in the event he was not, that statement will go down in my own memory as one of the most callous and insensitive ever by an official of the Federal Government. It would also have gone a long way to prove my pet theory that there is a medical and mental phenomenon called ASO ROCK DISEASE. This is defined as an affliction experienced by some individuals who are appointed to great office in Aso Rock and who shortly after reaching there start to make pronouncements that are totally out of character with what they once pretended was their belief.


Late Professor Herbert Marcuse, in 1967, in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, had delivered a lecture in which he declare d that “Existence determines consciousness; where you stand determines what you see”. People entering the world of power at Abuja from relative powerlessness can be forgiven if they suddenly talk and behave as part of the power elite. Late Chief Bola Ige became Minister under Obasanjo and quickly declared that there was no need for a Sovereign National Conference – something he had championed all his life. That led to a two-part column from me titled ET TU CHIEF IGE. I asked Uncle Ige if he had not contracted the Aso Rock disease. I certainly hope that Adesina had not contracted that disease which had consumed the reputations of ALL the journalists and columnists who served Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan before him. None returned from Abuja with their reputations intact – although financially wealthy. Invariably, they have forgotten that “The true measure of your wealth is how much you will be worth when you have lost all your money”. Who now listens to Femi’s last three predecessors in the Rock? They have become the living-dead.


[b]It is a fact that it is almost impossible for someone who eats “free lunch”, at the Aso Rock cafeteria, to understand the problems of millions of his fellow Nigerians who have to pay for their own lunch and increasingly cannot find it. Tucked in the comfort Nigerian money can buy, it requires a lot of insight and deep wisdom to sympathise and empathise with those who are not sure of any meal for weeks to come. Empathy is here defined as “standing in somebody else’s shoes”; feeling the pinches. In fact, if Adesina wants to know if Nigerians are suffering, he should ask his former colleagues in the print media who have not received salaries for over four months. They will be the first to ask him to go and wash his mouth with soap. Enough said for now on that. Those not privileged to eat free food at the Rock know that these are the toughest times millions have known in a long, long, long, time. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come. If people are now selling kids, will they start eating them when things get worse as they will inevitably do in 2016 and 2017? Yet, the signs of imminent famine and mass starvation are there for all to see. Two inescapable factors will serve to illustrate the point – imported and manufactured food items on the one hand and locally produced food items on the other. Floating exchange rate which had effectively devalued the naira had correspondingly set in motion a series of escalating price increases on imported food items and manufactured food items which rely on imports of raw materials. Price of bread will certainly soon go up and one hopes that somebody inside the Rock will not announce “Let them eat cake”, Queen Maries-Antoinette, 1755-1793). That stupid joke by an insensitive woman precipitated a revolution. Even local food production had been devastated by drought. [/b]


We are in July and the rainfall this year had been the least in over fifty years. Crops are failing everywhere. New yam, which serve as proxy for harvest in general, is not yet out and a quick visit to some farms indicate that a disaster is underway with respect to yam harvest. Only the rich and wealthy will escape the consequences of poor harvests. The most urgent question now confronting us is: what will happen to the kids as the calamity unfolds? Will they be served for lunch? Buhari has a whale of a problem on his hands – even if he doesn’t know it yet.

SeverusSnape:
Oh no

if Adesina wants to know if Nigerians are suffering, he should ask his former colleagues in the print media who have not received salaries for over four months. They will be the first to ask him to go and wash his mouth with soap

ivandragon:
the words of adeshina are a direct reflection of the mind of buhari & his kitchen cabinet. what happened to the dry season farming programme introduced by the last government? how was the food in the grain silos left by the last administration shared? ( we had sufficient grains to last 3 famine cycles), Boko Haram ravaged the north for 3 years, but we never food scarcity... in one year, we are already pushing the panic buttons, but our leaders say ' we are not suffering'.. yet.

anonimi:


You sef. Where have you been?
Did you not hear that the previous federal administration did nothing except share money among themselves without sharing to those in the opposition All ProgreTHIEF Criminals, APC according to John Oyegun?


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RZArecta:
Oyegun has unfortunately always been a charlatan, he's a major reason why the APC lost in Bayelsa state where the APC had a good chance of defeating the governor only if they had presented Timi Alaibe but Oyegun's greed made him collect bribes from governor Dickson in order for Sylva to "win" the primaries there. Give Oyegun some money and he'll sing like Beyoncé for you

It is a fact that it is almost impossible for someone who eats “free lunch”, at the Aso Rock cafeteria, to understand the problems of millions of his fellow Nigerians who have to pay for their own lunch and increasingly cannot find it.

brownlord:


Now I understand the reason for berems, omenka passingshot, cleverly and egift sycophancy. Those Aisha rice eaters are yet to come to terms with the suffering of ordinary Nigerians who don't join them in eating their birth right in the name of supporting APC.

PassingShot:

Brownshit, go get a life and stop the obsession with my mention. The foolish ineffectual buffoon and his thieving gang brought whatever mess the country is passing through on her. Suck it up ur asss.

joseph1832:
Well to be frank and sincere, the sufferings of nigerians didn't start today, it started in 1960, when tribalism, nepotism and all manner of religious sentiment was made the order of the day.

Things only got worse, because all any seed (corruption) need to germinate, is fertile land. And the fertile land is Nigeria.

The episodic decadence that has befallen this country since 1960 knows no bounds, as everyday, we see new form of pervasive and adverse behavior, from we the masses.

I'll like to tell whoever wrote that article that, he should rest his pen, and know that the time where people sell their kids just to survive, might never come. For how can it, when every 4 years, people like Ayo Fayose distribute 2 cups of rice to the masses to buy their votes.

And you see politicians becoming humble, sharing money and promising heaven and earth. So, all the nigerian masses have to do is 'tough it out' for 4 years, for that is what the nigerian masses are very good at, excelling in the most abysmal condition and situations, they find themselves. E.G. Even in our decayed and flawed educational system, people still graduate with 1st class, to further prove how dogged and touch they are, they still go abroad and graduate with the same 1st class.

So, suffering is what the nigerian masses are use to, as when you take away suffering from them, it might be hard for them to survive. All the more reason why you see them hailing and celebrating the very people, who stole, looted and placed them in the very misery they so revel in.

So, there's no cause for alarm. As they say "no be today yansh dey back" and "no be today yansh get parting".

SeverusSnape:

Like Buhari, like Zombies.

Always blaming another person for their failures, even after promising heaven on earth.

I can imagine some zombies stealing their fellow zombies pot of food. Thanks to Bubu the Mumu.

SeverusSnape:


See long epistle

Some months back, you were singing Buhari's praise like he was God himself

Eye don clear finally. Finally o o o

PassingShot:

The absurd thing with mourning, wailing, idiotic brainwashed docile nincompoops is that they don't even deny that their Ineffectual Buffoon and his thieving gang caused the mess. Their only defense is that we should not blame them.

To their dull brain, the thieving of their lord Ineffectual Buffoon and his fellow thieves should have no effect on the economy. There shouldn't be any bearing whatsoever! What a group of cursed, confused, brainwashed people!

joseph1832:
LOL. I'll sing the praise of whoever I deem worthy to lead this country to the promise land. Don't get me wrong, Jonathan is still a failure, and I'm proud to be among the people who sent him back to his village, but, be that as it may, that don't mean I'll sit back and relax and watch the person (PMB) I voted for make a mess of things.

That's what we owe our leaders, to correct / criticize them when they err, and not give them lip service. I tell you bro, should PMB prove he's no better than Jonathan, then, I'll vote against him, no sentiment!.

joseph1832:
LOL. I'll sing the praise of whoever I deem worthy to lead this country to the promise land. Don't get me wrong, Jonathan is still a failure, and I'm proud to be among the people who sent him back to his village, but, be that as it may, that don't mean I'll sit back and relax and watch the person (PMB) I voted for make a mess of things.

That's what we owe our leaders, to correct / criticize them when they err, and not give them lip service. I tell you bro, should PMB prove he's no better than Jonathan, then, I'll vote against him, no sentiment!.

PassingShot:

The absurd thing with mourning, wailing, idiotic brainwashed docile nincompoops is that they don't even deny that their Ineffectual Buffoon and his thieving gang caused the mess. Their only defense is that we should not blame them.

To their dull brain, the thieving of their lord Ineffectual Buffoon and his fellow thieves should have no effect on the economy. There shouldn't be any bearing whatsoever! What a group of cursed, confused, brainwashed people!