Nigerians: The Happiest People And The Most Stupid-Dr. Olusola Osineye
funmi tofowomo
| Nigerians: The Happiest People And The Most Stupid. |  |  |  |
| Written by Dr. Olusola Osineye | |
| Saturday, 27 June 2009 | |
Nigerians: The Happiest People And The Most Stupid The festival of life (FOL) is London’s equivalent of Holy Ghost night - the monthly gathering of Christians in Nigeria, irrespective of denominations, at the redeemed Christian church camp to offer prayers and praises to God. Although the FOL is held twice a year at the Excel centre in East London, it is already turning into a ritual similar to the one at home. The turnout is always massive and the passion generated at the event is just typical of any gathering of devoted Nigerian Christians. Politicians, clergymen from the Church of England, and other non-governmental organizations have started to associate very closely with this event. This somehow underscores the socio-political significance of the gathering. The former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, once used the occasion to campaign during an election period and was given a tacit endorsement by the Nigerian churches but still lost anyway. Yes, he lost, partly because the Nigerian population in London is hardly significant to guarantee him any success at the polls. Besides that, the British electorate are not as dumb as those in Nigeria. That statement is actually my own hypothesis. According to official statistics released in US, Nigerians are rated amongst the most highly educated foreigners. It is likely to be the same in the United Kingdom. But we are easily one of the most stupid also. We might be one of the most educated but the level of ignorance on display by even the educated lot is so amazing that I don’t think anything can salvage the country from her destined self-destruction. The horrible smell of our collective stupidity has reached high heavens and I think God can no longer stand the stench and that probably explains the type of leadership in every sphere of our lives. I know I have a lot of explanations to give for this generalization. Wait! I don’t think I need to go far before getting evidence to back up my hypothesis on our collective stupidity. For example, if less than one million rogues are able to suppress the will and aspirations of over one hundred and forty-nine million people, what better explanation can one give for such a scenario? Well, I trust Nigerians they will give loads of reasons. But, I don’t really care about the reasons. I am only stating a fact. For a start, my intention is not to discuss why the few stupid rogues are able to overwhelm the huge majority and push them into a state of unbelievable docility. Other people can talk about that. I am more concerned about the stupid one hundred and forty–nine million who believed that it is God’s will for the majority to live in abject poverty in the midst of plenty. There was even a poll conducted not too long ago that gave justification to our stupidity, which gave further credence to my hypothesis. The poll claimed that we are the happiest people on earth. Jesus Christ! There is nothing more sinister than such ridicule. How could any group of people stay happy when they are in pitch darkness for twenty out of twenty-four hours in a day? Infant and maternal mortality rate is continuously one of the highest in the world. And of course life expectancy is about forty-five years for male. This means that if you are forty five, male and reading this article, you are one of the lucky few who are still alive because most of your mates who could not leave the country are already dead, and you are likely to be dead before the end of the week either through a ghastly motor accident on those death-traps called roads, or through ingestion of fake drugs or one equally stupid and mad police man would simply blow your brains out and nothing will happen. Anyway, never mind; just be happy, you are just another stupid Nigerian. As I mentioned briefly earlier, one of the most compelling evidence of our level of stupidity can be seen in our attitude to religion. It is always God’s will. If Ya’Ardua suddenly drops dead tomorrow, as he likely would eventually anyway, (renal failure is a terminal ailment, and only transplant and not his stupid faith in some miracle can save him) and a few morons decided that Good-luck Jonathan is not from the North and therefore cannot become the next president, it would simply be God’s will. We would all write articles and scream on the pages of newspaper about the unconstitutionality of the decision but nothing would happen. We are clowns in Nigeria and the whole world is laughing at us. We all know that clowns act stupidly to make children laugh. So you can see that my hypothesis will eventually take shape. Therefore, I daresay that religion will remain one of the greatest impediments to our greatness in Nigeria. Alternatively, if the influence of religion is effectively utilized it can actually be a useful tool for development. Take a look at the North where Islam is the dominant religion. The wretched religious clerics in that part of the country can easily mobilize more than five million street urchins to wreck havoc on all Igbo traders because an unidentified person used a torn page from the Quran to wipe his bum after defecating. Has anyone ever wondered why it was always the Igbos? Meanwhile, they have never ever organised a peaceful rally to express their displeasure at the lack of development in the area. The North is probably only second to the Stone Age in terms of human capital development. Even those in that age used their brains to fabricate sophisticated tools for hunting purposes. And then the joke of the century is when Forbes magazine suddenly came up with the story that the only billionaire from Nigeria is actually from that part of the country. Well, he is not the government so what is he supposed to do? I beg to differ. This guy has one of the most potent clouts in any government in Nigeria. He can advocate and strive to see that something is done. Bill Gates has used billions of dollars of his money to fight malaria. There is no malaria in America but it kills millions of children in Africa every year. Christianity is the fastest growing industry in the southern part of the country. The pastors are growing fat while the congregation are burdened by the harsh economic conditions. All the rogues in government are elders in one church or the other. The churches are like second homes to looters of the treasury. They are chairmen or chairpersons of one church building committee or the other. The pastors are always saying special prayers for them and have no scruples about taking their stolen money. The churches now buy private jets for their chief executive officers (oh sorry, pastor) and are shameless enough to claim that it is for evangelism. Meanwhile, half the congregation of those churches live on less than $1,000 in a year while most of the youth are jobless. Yes, the pastors are not the ones to provide jobs; but how many times have they criticised the government for not creating those jobs? How many times have they told them that they cannot continue to loot the treasuries and then come around to the house of God to make some bogus claims of God’s blessings in their lives? During the last American election, religious leaders were very vocal in their criticism of one government policy or the other. They do not keep quiet and say it is God’s will. Barack Obama’s pastor, Reverend Wright, was so vocal about his criticism of America’s racial divide that he became a big threat to his election prospect. That is the job of a pastor- saying the truth as it is, and not only collecting tithes and junketing about in private jets in the name of evangelism. Pastor Tunde Bakare is the only pastor that I respect in Nigeria. He told Obasanjo to his face that he is evil. That is a real man of God. I worship with RCCG but not impressed that all manner of past and present rogue governors and ministers tend to associate with the overseer. They are always present at the Holy Ghost nights. They have probably repented and God has forgiven them and they are free to enjoy the loot till they die. A thief is a thief. I don’t care if God has forgiven them. What manner of forgiveness is that anyway? How about the thousands that died on the roads that he refused to tar? How about the thousands of kids that died because there was no free Medicare? The Yorubas of South-West are the most pathetic. They are quick to boast of their education and sophistication. Meanwhile, Adedibu and Obasanjo were the best they could come up with as national leaders. The former was the head of street urchins while the latter has a reputation for sleeping with his children’s wives. I am actually fed up discussing and writing articles about our thieving leaders. They will never change anyway, at least not through our lengthy articles or criticism. If you believed that Ya’Ardua and his PDP cohorts will not rig 2011 election, then you are even more stupid than an average Nigerian. Your own stupidity is extra-terrestrial. If you believed that the electoral reform would lead anywhere, I despise your sense of reasoning. If anyone believes that Nigeria will wobble and fumble (a la Fanny Amun!) into greatness, then I leave you alone to perish as a nonentity who only came to this world to look at Eko Bridge. (Or London bridge) The Igbos and the Ijaws are probably the ones that have been most rebellious, the least religious and hence the least stupid. Maybe that is where the hopes of Nigeria lie. They would never accept that something is the will of God simply because somebody said so. They are difficult to subjugate and that is one of the reasons there was a civil war in the first place. Ojukwu remains a true hero. Why would some group of murderers continue to kill your people over some flimsy excuses? If I was an Igbo, I would be a low-life not to fight under those circumstances. He fought for what he believed in and the Igbo people followed him because they are not stupid like my people, the Yorubas. Although they lost the war and millions of lives were lost, but I know that they live to fight another day as long as some people continue to deter the progress of others. The Ijaws have taken over the struggle and though there have been some criminality in the struggle, that is not unexpected, but by and large they have shown that people’s destiny is in their own hands and God’s will has nothing to do with it. Yar’Adua and the looters of the treasury, both at the federal and state level, have started to panic as MEND cripples the oil industry. MEND, a ragtag bunch of militias have exposed the weakness of the Nigerian government. They quickly and with lightening speed offered them amnesty. They knew if there is no more oil, there wouldn’t be any Nigeria. They planned to kill twenty million Ijaws to satisfy the lust and cravings of those vampires in Abuja. Nigeria cannot continue to be the butt of jokes in the world. We cannot continue to believe that everything is the will of God. It is not God’s will to lack the basic things of life, and certainly not his will that our children should still be dying from malaria because there are no good hospitals. Untimely death from accident on death traps called road is not the will of God. All these things are the creations of the rogues amongst us and we have aided and abetted their actions because we have kept silent and didn’t act. Our lack of action is construed as acceptability; we are therefore very stupid collectively. |
Baba Peace
This is a good write-up. Let’s look at some areas that need correction
so that we have a well balanced information.
1. About forgiveness of the rouges by God. If they genuinely repented,
God will forgive them. After the forgiveness, their behaviours will
confirm that they have met God. One of their behaviours will involve
what happened to Zaccheus in Luke 19:8. He returned the loot.
Repentance is NOT a clearance to keep loot, but an avenue to do the
right things.
Pastor Adeboye in my own opinion (I am not a member of RCCG – so I am
not defending him) is only giving the rogues an avenue to meet with
God. Take it or leave it, there is no gathering – either religious or
otherwise that these people will attend in Nigeria and they will not
be recognised as former this or former that. It is their duty to
respond to the word they heard from the man of God. You can force the
horse to the river ........
2. You started the letter brilliantly by identifying that very few
people had succeeded in harassing the vast majority of us to silence.
It is now funny when you now decide to debase your own people to get
cheap accolade from others. It is on record that the Yorubas rejected
Obasanjo in 1999. The other part of the country voted for him. If they
had listened to the Yorubas, maybe it would have been different. In
1999 also Adedibu with his “power” could NOT deliver Oyo state. When
OBJ became the Lord Mayor and then turned Ibadan to a cantonment,
Adedibu became very powerful. Ladoja that stood in his way was crushed
by less than one-third instead of two-third needed to impeach governor
in Nigeria. OBJ became lawless. (The blame of OBJ is from the others
and not the Yorubas because the Yorubas know that he is a bastard)
3. It is strange that you just waved the Yorubas as nonentities just
like that as if they do not have history of gallantry! Have you
suddenly forgotten that in the sisties, when the Yorubas also felt
cheated that they defended themselves and fought the powers that be
then? Have you suddenly forgotten the Agbekoyas and the Wild Wild
West? Have you forgotten that in the 1983 elections only the states in
the Western state fought the thieves that stole their mandate? I was
surprised when you felt that June 12 fight could just be pushed over
board suddenly. If others had joined the Yorubas in fighting for June
12, I am sure the occupiers today will be different. All other areas
then saw June 12 as a Yoruba affair and deserted. Remember the role of
the following active participants - Baba Gana Kingibe, Prof Nwosu (he
released election result after 16 years), Anenih the Chairman of SDP
and Tom Ikimi of NRC! Equally remember the role of Arthur “the
bastard” Nzeribe of the ABN fame.
When Abacha came into the frame, remember the role of Bola Ige in
“siddon and look” attitude and the devastating effect then and how he
successfully described the political parties as the finger of leprous
hand. Can you still remember NADECO (constituted by more that 60%
Yorubas)
Dr, you probably forget a lot of things so soon.
4. The Ijaws (time will tell if your assertion about their gallantry
is correct), the sound of amnesty had greatly divided them leading
most of us to believe that the militants are doing what they are doing
not to fight for any ideology but to look for ways of making sure that
their god-father became the governors, and also for them to make so
much money for themselves so that they can be liberated from the
poverty in the land. As for the Igbos, (though you praised them while
you debase your own tribe), can’t you see that they had been cowed by
the same power that be as of now. Don’t be deceived by what you read
on the internet. They have their fighting spirit quite al right but
have largely been cowed because of the same reason you identified
earlier in your write-up. They are also part of the happy Nigerians.
Finally, I will conclude that the problem with Nigerians affect all
Nigerians. The northerners had all along cowed their people. It
extended southwards when poverty became biting very hard and also when
IBB came with settlement regime. Looking for a solution should not
start by blaming any region but looking at how we the common people
can wrangle our ways out of our present predicament.
On Jun 28, 9:45 pm, funmi tofowomo <cafeafrica...@aol.com> wrote:
> Nigerians: The Happiest People And The Most Stupid.
Samuel Amadi
slight correction. It was not only the Yorubas who fought for June 12. An Hausa-Fulani soldier, Col. Umar spoke out powerfully. In the north, Bala Usman, Baralaba Musa all stood up to be counted. In the east, Mbakwe, Ebitu Ikuiwe, Ndubuizi Kalu, Olisa Agbakoba, Chima Ubani, Nnana Ukegbu, Eme Awa all stood up to be counted. In fact, Mbakwe rode with Abiola on the day the court declared the INC illegal. But, of course, the South West inescapably became the site of the greatest and bravest push against Abacha and his militarists. NADECO- composed predominantly of people of Yoruba ethnic descent escalated the struggle. But, Ndubuizi Kalu and other Nigerians of non-Yoruba descent were also NADECO..
Small me and Uche Onyeagucha and Odion Sylverster were almost killed struggling for June 12. I defended some members of NADECO when Marwa government and Abacha prosecuted them for phantom bombing in Lagos.
Anyway, your correction of the author's excessive putdown of the Yoruba is unchallengeable. The Yorubas have been as heroic as any other Nigerian ethnic group. Some of them have also been cowardly as some other Nigerians of non-Yoruba ethnic descent.
Sam
Dr. Sam Amadi
Director, (Research& Programs)
Ken Nnamani Center for Leadership & Development
Abuja, Nigeria
234-803-329-9879
Gemini
all over the world expressed their outrage. Was it Le Monde or Le Figaro
which carried the headline: "We are all Americans"? Iranians demonstrated
against the attacks and offered their support to the US. The world was
ready to share the victimhood with America. But George Bush decided to
monopolise it. The Iranians were pushed aside as part of an 'axis of evil'.
The French later became 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys' who were part of
'Old Europe'. So the world felt that if that was the case, then they'd
better leave the Americans to it. They were certainly ready to help in the
battle against the terrorists, and in no way condemned the crime that had
been committed. But since the US was adopting a "my way or the highway"
attitude, and not everybody felt that they should simply join the 'War On
Terror' without being allowed to contribute to decisions about tactics or
how the battle should be waged, they found that they couldn't do more than
adopt a 'to your tents o Israel' response. Many did hang on in there with
the US. But it's understandable that some did not.
Something similar happened with the June 12th struggle. The crime was
against all Nigerians, not just against the Yoruba - all Nigerians shared
the victimhood. But some who were Yorubas, did a kind of George Bush, if
one can be so anachronistic. Many non-Yoruba Nigerians did hang on in
there - did more than hang on in there as Sam has pointed out. But ...
Ayo
Qansy Salako
shared the victimhood. But some who were Yorubas, did a kind of George
I personally didn’t regard the fight for our own June 12 as Yoruba playing a
George Bush on Nigeria.
June 12 was not fought simplistically on the axes of good versus evil.
The Yoruba didn’t do a cocky cowboy swagger across the terrain of civil
disobedience in a join-us-on-our-own-terms-or-get-out-of-the-way dare to
other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria.
It was fought to defend the rights of the people to vote and be counted,
regardless of whether the elected candidate was a model citizen or not. In
fact, many in the struggle did not vote for MKO Abiola.
In a way, the struggle was also executed as a protest against any delusion
that may exist in any one section of the country with a claim of birthright
to accept or reject who leads Nigeria.
The description of the course of the Nigeria’s June 12th electoral imbroglio
as rendered above by Ayo has actually become helplessly putative,
particularly as the history of Nigeria democracy ages away from 2003.
It is astonishing how this version of interpretation of the June 12th
watershed gradually picked up a heartbeat and eventually became so popular
and believable by so many.
But the bane of the June 12 cause was the same as the one bedeviling all
social struggles in Nigeria from time Imo river (immemorial). I call it
ethnic desensitization to national pain (EDP) inflicting ethnic groups other
than our own. EDP is responsible for the same group attitude that is making
the rest of Nigeria continue to look at the fine mess ongoing in our Delta
region from a "spectator" position.
It makes the South look at every flare of religious violence in the North as
a "North thing," despite most of the fatal victims being Southerners
resident in the North.
It made brethrens in Kwara only flinch sympathetically when neighbors in
Zaki Biam were mowed down by federal soldiers, and it made folks in Akwa
Ibom only whimper in frustration when nearby Odi was razed to the ground by
the central government.
Indeed, Abiola probably had the best electoral victory in Nigeria as
electorates across all regions decidedly voted for him against opposite
candidate Bashir Tofa. But barely weeks after the crazy annulment by
Banbagida and the military cabal from the North, dishonorable Nigerian
politicians started rationalizing their usual principle of opportunism under
the guise of moving Nigeria forward in the name of peace. Then Abiola's
initially confused handling of the cancelled mandate, his questionable
checkered history with the corrupt military leadership, his naïve reliance
on international community for intervention, etc were all used as tools by
the feckless political class to betray a cause in defense of the only
commodity they live on, vote. Before anyone could say "June," Kingibe,
Abiola's VP elect had turned coat and all political parties including
Abiola's SDP practically broke up voluntarily into a reconfiguration that
lined up in an odious solidarity with the military, allowing members to
jostle for positions and favors. It's like a game of soccer where one team
deliberately uses the off-side technique as a strategy to delimit the
advance of the opposite team, boxing its players into a half field play.
The electorates were the last to snivel out of the battlefield of June 12,
after they realized that all of the leadership supports had dissolved away.
This oddity about us in Nigeria is as weird as it is disastrous. If no one
or group took ownership of the June 12 struggle, that was how it would have
disappeared without a trace into the labyrinth of history. Should that
happen, Abiola's SW Yoruba region would have been ridiculed by other regions
who had, though, voted for him. But that didn't happen. The Yoruba
galvanized themselves along with few other principled Nigerians and they
played the most daring chess game that soon checkmated the half-literate
military into the most dangerous and scary corner in the history of Nigeria.
But the SW Yoruba are still vilified for "ethnicizing" an almost abandoned
and dying June 12 cause.
It is truly a bizarre culture with us.
Almost everything about our existence in that country is warped today.
So twisted, sanity and insanity have become indistinguishable in our brand
of reality.
Twenty years ago, the struggles in our impoverished and environmentally
destroyed Delta region were carried by the 500,000 strong Ogonis.
Initially, it was all just noisy demonstrations against the state which
later degenerated into intra-ethnic/inter-ethnic killings of kith and kin
that were regarded as sell-outs.
The rest of us in Nigeria simply glanced over in sympathy and tuned out.
It's their problem over there.
A few years later, the Ijaw ethnic nationality came into the fray.
Then, the various ethnic groups coalesced into one really violent MEND front
out of the Delta.
First, the MEND militancy group simply scared foreign oil companies, then
they started abducting, then carrying guns, then detonating cars with remote
bombs.
Today, the aggrieved Nigerians of Delta extraction are 4 million strong and
waging full scale wars against the central government.
Yet, the rest of us in Nigeria are still simply glancing over in sympathy
and tuning out.
We are still viewing the Delta fire on the roof of Nigeria as a sectional
issue.
It's their problem over there.
They must be tribalists.
But are they really?
Qansy Salako
simi
only mean one is equally 'STUPID' and the saying goes when a 'stupid'
man is arguing with anyone...nobody will be able to tell the
difference!