Nigeria has lost its Soul! There is nothing here remotely alive!


It is said that every generalization is always wrong. However in this case, I think the reverse is true. Nigeria as a nation, state or country is presently only an empty shell of whatever its founders conceived or envisioned. A befitting analogy that fits accurately to any description you can give it is that of its President, Yar’Adua ; critically ill and on life support, incapable of any mental, spiritual or physical exertion. Nigeria is on life support and the vitals signs aren’t looking up!


Yet, the termites keep munching away on the remaining part of its foundation. The cancer have spread to every part of its body and all around it, the vultures are ripping the flesh off even as it gasp for its last breath. How long it has, I’m not sure! But what I surely know as a fact is that these pillars, [among them are the stubborn resiliency, the ignorance and easily forgiving spirit of its populace] will soon be unable to continue propping up what have already rotten to its core.


There is no government presence as one understands it in this place. There is nothing here except the menacing presence of the rich and mighty, Police and the Military who have given up long ago their traditional and sworn duty of protecting the weak and the vulnerable from the clutches of those that seeks to exploit their brethren and instead have become the protectors of the predators, the vultures and worms that have taken their own into slavery. Individuals who with their family should be hang on lamp-posts [which have fallen into disuse and gives no light whatever] from the traffic lights [which have suffered same fate as everything else in this country] in the roads and allow no-one to bring them forever. Individuals who their names and families should be blotted out forever in the annals of our history and made to become an example of what happens to those to feeds from the blood, tears and sufferings of their own kind.



There is no type of government here; it has become a failed state, a place where every man looks after only for his own and seeks to take away by force even the crumbs on the beggar,s lips. Where there is no common goal, effort or dream. This place has become a jungle where only the most brutal and greedy survives. Yet, even the jungle itself has invisible rules that govern it. Here, the rules, the laws have been dumped over-board and it is the shadows that have come out to play in the darkness [figuratively and literally speaking].



My heart breaks for this country! I’m speechless and words alone suffice not to express what any discerning sees in it. Death has become this nation! Every inch of every kilometer is fraught with danger, over-flowing with stench and decay and blocked by apathy. Ignorance and corruption have enthroned themselves as the patron Gods of this land. When you look at what is happening around you in Nigeria, you lose faith in humanity. We have lost our right, we have lost our claim; we have lost our portion in the community of humans. I really don’t know if we can redeem ourselves ever again.


It is not the standing still, the inability to grow that brings one to tears; it is that from every practical viewpoint, from every perspective, there seem to be an unstoppable march to regression. It seems that everybody is doing everything they can to hasten its demise by making sure through their actions, words and even the spoken thoughts that everything remains same. People here have given on any hope for growth; for any semblance to normality!


The nagging question on my mind is this: can we from the carcass of this terminally-ill nation build something else? Can we as a race organize ourselves in order to build a successful thriving society that can last? Is there anyway we can stoke a fire from its ashes and giving hope in the process to the hundred of millions in the Diaspora and to a continent that is marching towards an abyss?

That's thoughtful.