Rape of a Nation

By Msonter Anzaa

"Bittterly she weeps at night, tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies" (Lamentations 1:2).

The times are hard for Nigerians. Economically, majority cannot foot their bills anymore as a people. Some state governments cannot pay workers' salaries. Meanwhile, in the news every now and then, we hear of how much was stolen from which sector of the economy by which official of government. The numbers are so great that many of us have lost the ability to imagine their actual sizes. In Nigeria, the currency for stealing is millions. We are used to hearing of the quantum of theft that attends our public life. Corruption is a familiar word here, so much that some people have made an industry out of "fighting" it and have quite curiously become wealthy as a result. However, never was there a time when our nation witnessed such scale of theft of public funds as we saw in the last four years of the PDP-led federal government. Individuals literally shared bags of public money without regard for the public good or personal morality.

Consequently, whole families are feeding from hand to mouth. In some states, workers are not being paid regularly and retirees are not getting their benefits. This needless man-inflicted poverty is biting very hard in every sector of our life as a people. Some of us on the campus have to make do with thin erratic pocket money. Others cannot even afford to continue their education because there is no money for school fees. We are suffering. Some terminally ill citizens have had their treatment compromised because of lack of funds. They are not beggars. They are individuals who have worked for our nation and deserve to be paid. It is an insult to them for their wages not to be paid promptly just because of the untamed greed of an irresponsible few.

However, it is not only the people who are suffering. The land of Nigeria itself is also suffering. It is groaning under our exploitation. It is a pity that majority of the people of Nigeria do not care about the land of Nigeria. Many of us love Nigeria's money but we don't love Nigeria. We want to use Nigeria as a means to achieve our personal goals. We don't care about Nigeria. We want to use her maximally to satisfy our desires at every opportunity. We only want to get something from her every time, but we don't want to give anything to her. Notwithstanding the state of the nation, we are only after our interests – how we can get our names on the payroll as employees even though our "job" does not contribute anything to the economy, how we can get the government to approve our extravagant proposals, how we can grant outrageous bonuses to our in-laws even though the economy itself is breathing its last, etc. The desperation to exploit the nation is so great that we often employ spiritual aid. We ask our pastors to prophesy favour to us so that whatever happens and notwithstanding how unworkable our proposals are, they should be approved. And the pastors too go ahead to prophesy such favours. After all, if members of their congregations prosper, why should they bother if the rest of the nation collapses? Others engage spiritualists for services such as "do as I say" in order to manipulate their way to where they can milk the nation dry. Isn't it pitiable that while we are scrambling for an opportunity to exploit the nation – even exploring destructive ethnic sentiments – we are not bothered about the nation itself?

This is the attitude that has caused great harm to our nation. People who knew that oil prices were dwindling and the national economy was sinking nonetheless went ahead to share among themselves the remaining proceeds of the oil sales. They probably reasoned that if the nation's future was not certain economically, being in government at the time was their opportunity to steal enough to guarantee economic stability for they and their families, not minding that this further worsened the woes of the rest of the nation.

However, it is not the big men alone who are responsible for this callous rape of our nation. All of us are guilty. Some people use public toilets and leave behind them horrible mess. They know how they ought to take care of the toilets after use, but they probably reason that they are not going to use the particular toilets again. And if they aren't going to be the ones to use those toilets, what do they care about the state of the toilets? They love to use clean toilets but they don't care enough to leave the toilets clean after they have used them. Other people eat snacks and discard the refuse right in the middle of the road. They want smooth roads on which to drive, but they don't care enough to keep the roads smooth and clean. Unless we change this attitude of selfishness, we are doomed as a people. God is not heartless. He will not bless people who greedily exploit their land while refusing to take care of it. When He placed man in the Garden of Eden, He instructed man to "work it and take care of it"(Gen.2:15).

If we take care of the land – to defend it as our own and preserve it from abuse – the land in its turn will take care of us. But if we continue with the attitude of outsiders whose main aim of engaging with the land is to exploit it and abandon it, the land will wear out and in the course of time, our lives will also wear out with it. Nigeria is the pot in which God has prepared our feeding. All of us can do something to defend, preserve and sustain – rather than sink – her in this mad rush of selfish scrambling.

See also Conspiracy of the Rich