A Forgiving Nation, a Deceived Nation!

I am a citizen of my nation, a nation always eager to forgive. This is a nation that offers forgiveness even when it is not asked. Mine is a deceived nation, sold the counterfeit religion in which it gloats. The messages coming from the pulpits of many religious congregations are adulterated. Nigeria is made drunk from spiked religious wine. Wrong theology has made us inured to evil and hateful of reason. Many of my people believe that reason is antithetical to true religion. But reasoning is the path to true knowledge of true religion. “Come and let us reason together” is a phrase common in true religion. I call on Nigerians and friends of Nigeria to come along with me on this journey of reason.

If right living follows right knowledge, why is it that in spite of so many churches on our streets and many Islamic sects in Nigeria this nation has known neither peace nor purity in either private or public conduct? The reason is that what is taught in churches and mosques is not right knowledge. If traditional religion was the repository of pure knowledge, why is it that the custodians of culture, Nigeria’s traditional rulers, have not shown a better example than politicians do?

Religious, traditional, and political leaders in Nigeria always call for forgiveness, unity, and peace. The louder those calls are becoming, much worse have killings, kidnappings, public corruption, and private corruptions become. Religious leaders live like kings and queens while the majority of their congregation lives in abject poverty. They promise prosperity and “breakthroughs” to their congregations, but extreme poverty is the sad result. They make merchandize of the people, but the people worship and revere them. When you attempt to point out the wrong of either religious or political leaders, you are warned of the destructive fate that awaits those that dare—“Touch not the Lord’s anointed!” There is hypnotism of religion, complemented by quasi-democratic fraud.

If the primary purpose of government is security and welfare of the people, then we should not “just forgive” offenders of the state whose actions have impoverished the people, reduced the life expectancy, brought people to untimely deaths, and worsened all human development indices. Religious people parrot that we should “forgive”, that “to err is human, but to forgive is divine.” So we have cheapened forgiveness, and engaged in public distribution of “forgiveness” even to those who neither appreciate nor deserve it. But there is a fact about forgiveness that Nigerians often overlook. Political leaders are “Avengers” for God, “sword-bearers” for God, and “ministers” of God, who must reward those that do good, and punish those that do evil. They cannot forgive on behalf of the people except this serves public interest. Furthermore, restitution must follow. For instance, if a road project was paid for, and yet the road was not built, it would be a public offence for the leader, the avenger, the sword-bearer, and minister, to “forgive” without first recovering all embezzled public funds and resulting fines from the contractors and conniving thieving public officials. Even at that, as a deterrent, those criminals must be punished.

Many religious Nigerians would call for accountability from public officials, but when you ask their religious leaders to give annual account of the offerings and “tithes” that they collect, you would be branded badly by the same religious folks. They hold their pastors, overseers, and bishops like some demigods who are beyond reproach and questioning. Why do we hold different standards for different people? A Nigerian pastor would warn his congregation against “politics” and claim that “politics is a dirty game.” The next moment, you see him hobnobbing with those “dirty politicians” and collecting gifts from them. They also “bless” the same “dirty politicians” who visit them to “collect blessing”. What a contradiction! Furthermore, when you get close to their churches, you would witness first-hand the deadly politics for power among pastors and church leaders.

Politics is not a dirty game anymore than church governance is. Some players may be corrupt, but that does not make the game so. Can you imagine a world without political leaders to whom God refers as his “ministers”? Every man and woman has their calling from God, and this is a private matter. Our religious leaders have done a poor job on Nigerians, many of whom are members of their congregation. Those are left uneducated about holding their leaders accountable. Rather, they are told blandly to “pray” for their leaders. “The Pharisees sit in the seat of Moses. Don’t do what they do, for they say and do not.” These are the words of Jesus Christ who took time to teach his disciples about the position and responsibilities of leaders. A religious leader must be well-informed about the constitutional provisions (the responsibilities, rights, and privileges of citizens and leaders) of his country in addition to his professed knowledge of the scriptures. The same goes to Islamic leaders, and leaders of other religions.

Many Nigeria scholars and professors have equally failed the young that sit under their tutoring. A professor of Chemistry, for instance, can hardly comment intelligently about public issues such as budgeting, democratic governance, constitutional rights, privileges, and responsibilities of citizens and leaders, etc. They only write “research papers” for either promotion or to keep down their jobs. They are not ashamed to say, “I am not interested in politics.” Is it any wonder that Nigerian students pass through their academic care and cannot discuss intelligently their nation, but react only by spewing out vulgarities when they lack the intellectual dexterity to engage in discourses? I believe, and I have written that Nigerians must give themselves to reading for national renewal. Nigerians, thieves won’t steal your books; so why don’t you invest your money in buying books that will expand the quality of your thought? We seem not to have faith in the power of knowledge. We believe rather that with plenty of money we can buy just anything in Nigeria, including votes and public offices. This is also a deception. When the light of proper knowledge lights up Nigerians, this cannot happen anymore. The probability of lies winning in an oasis of knowledge approaches zero!

We don’t need mega parties to win elections. Every election is won locally. Have you heard of Operation 774? A Nigerian patriot told me about this idea, and I would like to share with you. Concentrate your political capital on your local government. If that is too much to start with, I suggest you start with your clan. Call for a meeting of the youths in your clan. Teach them what you know about Nigeria (Please, take time to acquaint yourself with the Nigerian constitution). Let them see the difference between reality and the ideal, and then ask how committed they are to bringing about the ideal. Take a look at the second chapter of the constitution, Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. Explain to them those wonderful privileges of citizenship. As they begin to enjoy the possibilities, open to section six and show them how their hopes cannot be guaranteed by the current arrangement except they get into the national assembly and state houses of assembly the people that would fight for them. Show them in the Fourth schedule of the constitution how it is the responsibility of local governments to build and maintain homes for the homeless and infirm. Then let them know how their governor is an enemy to this objective. Let them know that the allocations for their local government are being kept by the governor for himself and maybe for his village and family members. Paint a graphic picture of how they are being robbed by their governor while they watch like cowards. Make it clear to them that local government chairmen cannot fight the governor because they are appointees of the governor who has forced them on the people; that they (the youths) must embark on public pressure and awareness to halt the continual impoverishment of their local government and villages. More importantly, tell them that it is their responsibility to spread the information you give them.

If you need help with implementing this in your village or local government, we can help you. I am willing to travelling across this nation to help. Don’t be in a hurry; but be hopeful as you start meeting with your people, your children’s people. They may be 50 here, 100 tomorrow. But know this; one convert makes two of you. Remember, elections are a local affair.

Because there is no independent candidacy in Nigeria, you would need a political party. Don’t choose any of the parties that have destroyed your village and local government for the past decade. This is because all the neglect of the people that you will show in plain narratives before the people happened under the ruling party. Find a virgin party. People make parties; parties don’t make people. Build integrity for at least two years, and then run or sponsor people to run. Make the people understand that it is their duty to contribute to any campaign fund they believe in, and that it is the responsibility of candidates to give monthly account of how much money they have raised and how the money has been spent.

We must not forgive the misrule of the ruling parties in our various states and local governments. We shall punish it. All contractors (Enemies-In-Chief of Nigerians) who have assisted to deceive and rob us for years shall give account. All the trillions of naira that they and politicians have collected since 1999 for public projects, which have not been completed, must be recovered and not forgiven. Let us get to work. Let us reject deception. Let us arise without any more distractions.

Read More

WATER AND WASTE MANAGEMENT

 

My project supervisor is a renown icon of Political Economy who nurture World Trade Organization into the soul of bukites, he initiate the Mock Ministerial WTO Summit in BUK since 2007 everybody like to associate with him, because of his hospitably and fatherly behavior even due he has a policy that for you to be his student, you have to be above average student. He always to me that ‘the road to success is hard work’ in person of M M YUSIF to know much about him visit www.mmyusif.blogspot.com

Aristotle seen Political Science as a Master Science and he also personify Political Science as a ‘mad man with stick in the market’. I only agree with him, when am doing my pre-project readings as instructed by Mallam to read 50 text books on INTERNATATIONAL TRADE ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT. I realist that as Political Scientist now fully reading books on Chemistry, Biology, Geography, Agriculture and so on. Especially as I narrowed my topic to Trade Environmental service: the implication of water and waste management under GATs for development in Nigeria. it seen as having three degree apart from Political Science, as in Environmental Management Resources, Water Resource Management and Waste Management. These make me special among my fellow Scientist whose written are on Democracy, Federalism, Military, Rule of Law and so on. Because those concept is common to everybody. Here is little knowledge on my project.

I have no doubt that water is life, because water is a fundamental input for agriculture, energy production, manufacturing and tourism, and vital for achieving public-health goal and it constitutes 75% of earth crust.  Safe water has been described as water that meets the National Standard for Drinking Water Quality for Nigeria (FMWR, 2004). However, abnormally low levels of access to clean water by a large proportion of humanity have been reported. Worldwide, about 2 billion people struggle daily for access to clean and sufficient water (Smith and Marin, 2005). Africa is the region that suffers most from inadequate access to water supply. Yahaya (2004) reported that in Africa, only 62% of the populations have access to potable water supply (compared with 82 % Worldwide, 81% in Asia and 85% in Latin America). Furthermore, of 55 countries in the world whose domestic water use is below 50 litres per capita per day, 35 are in Africa. In Nigeria, 52% of the population does not have access to safe drinking water (UNDP 2006; UNICEF 2007).

 Worldwide, some 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation and 1.2 billion, or one in five, lacks safe drinking water. The rapidly increasing urban population in developing countries has generated a mounting demand for drinking water that has outstripped its supply (UNCED, 1998). Inadequate solid waste disposal is the second most pressing problem facing city residents after unemployment in Nigeria. According to United Nation Statistic Division (UNSD, 2009) Nigeria has a population of about 140 million with an annual urban growth of 3.8%. It is a developing country that has persistent solid waste management problems in addition to her growing population (George, 2008). An average Nigerian generates about 0.49 kg of solid waste per day with households and commercial centers contributing almost 90% of total urban waste burden (Onwukwe, 1993). NEST (1999) estimated that of the 4.5 million tons of waste generated in Nigeria in 1999, a little below 1.5 million tons was generated by each of Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Kano. In another study, NEST estimated that about 40 million tons of waste would be generated in Nigeria between 2005 and 2010.

The growth in energy consumption worldwide has significantly increased greenhouse gas emissions. Excess nitrogen emissions have resulted from increased use of fertilizers and the burning of fossil fuels. Continued deforestation and increasing levels of pollution have been affecting biodiversity. Other activities, such as over-fishing, result in deterioration of the marine environment (OECD, 2001). In 20 years, if current trends continue, three and a half billion people will live in countries facing “water stress”—having less than 1,000 liters of water per person a year. Each day 6,000 people, mostly children, die from diseases caused by lack of access to clean water and sanitation (UNEP, 2001).

Improved access to safe drinking water is a prerequisite to poverty reduction as outlined by the MDGs. Access to safe drinking water prevents the spread of water-borne and related diseases. The government invested heavily in the water sector in an effort to provide potable water at close proximity to every Nigerian but do to low productivity, financial mismanagement (including poor economic governance), low cost recovery and the use of the revenue for unrelated activities, especially by local authorities (Mabogunje, 2002). Serve as a bottleneck for Nigerians to have access to water and sanitation with net rural-urban migration overwhelming Nigeria’s cities, over half the urban population lives in informal settlements with no direct connection to municipal water or sewage service. About 60% of the urban population has access to safe drinking water, and the corresponding figure for rural Nigerians is 34%. Access and cost of access to piped drinking water are tilted against the poor, who must buy their water from vendors at very high prices. ( world bank 2003).

Despite Nigeria’s open trade policy and its commitment to GATs rules and legislation, yet 65% of Nigerian populous lack accesses to safe drinking water and sanitation due to rapid urbanization, rural-urban migration, little or no town planning efforts coupled with attitudinal irresponsibility, lack of political will, ineptitude and graft have independently and collectively created environmental challenge in Nigeria. Consequently, water-borne disease such as diarrhea kills thousands of children annually (Akingbade, 1991).

Poor disposal of solid waste is associated with spread of vector borne-diseases like malaria and dengue fever (ibid 1991). Infrequently disposed refuse tend to become breeding sites for mosquitoes, as pools of rain water collect in discarded cans, bottles and car tires. Uncollected waste left to accumulate or dumped in the streets can block water drains and channels which can cause flooding, posing significant environmental and public health risks (Nubi et al, 2006). Example can be citing during 2012 raining season in Plateau, Kano and other States which claims lives and properties of Nigerians.

 

In a recent online survey by the Sahara Reporters, an online news media focusing on Nigeria, Ibadan and Lagos were described as the filth centers of the world. While Ibadan ranked as the number one dirtiest city in the world, Lagos, despite being the economic hub of Nigeria, was ranked fourth dirtiest city in the world.

 

Read More