Final Destinations

A few years ago, I noticed that an unusually high number of well-placed Nigerians were being reported in the media as having passed on in different hospitals and clinics outside the country. Once I started keeping tabs, two patterns clearly stood out. One was the sheer number of people expiring from various forms of cancer—breast, colon, lung, prostate, ovarian, etc. The second was the choice of—you get the point—final destination. From a totally random list I drew up of twenty-five people who had died within a ten-year period leading up to January 2014, I discovered that eleven had drawn their final breath in various medical establishments across the United States, followed by the United Kingdom with ten. India, then Spain and South Africa rounded out the list with two and one respectively.

In short order, I published an opinion article on the phenomenon. In writing the article, I had wished to accomplish three things. I wanted to underscore the fact that, for various reasons, “exit” had become compulsory both for young Nigerians seeking to make any kind of headway in life and members of the older generation who needed treatment for an assortment of ailments. In linking this imperative to travel to the crisis of citizenship in the country, I endorsed the perspective of another Nigerian commentator, Yemisi Ogbe, who, in an essay titled “Birthing the American,” lamented that, in the collective psyche of the younger Nigerian generation, “American was the most desirable thing to be, British was second, and Nigerian completely unpalatable.”

GavelSlam:
Nigerians have failed Nigeria.

Nobody is absolved of blame.

Cjrane2:


They are plotting a coup and just testing the waters.

Which Nigerian has blamed Buhari's incompetence on democracy? Everyone puts the blame squarely at the doorstep of the dullard.

Now instead of them to allow Nigerians to kick out Buhari in a vote, they are plotting how to bring another Burutai sorry Buhari in army uniform.