“A failing country” by Tunde Odesola
My people, when would we stop walking on our heads? Our heads are turned backwards while our hands thrash forward in rapid, cyclic motion as we attempt, like cartoon characters, to zoom forward.
The servant we employed has taken over our house; he now doles out crumbs to us while he sleeps with our wives and daughters in our very presence, yet some says we should be thankful to God for giving the servant the virility to plunder our wives. This is how best I think I can explain the praises we are showering on Prof. Mojeed Alabi for ‘graciously donating’ three transformers to some communities.
As a reporter in Osun, I was at loggerheads with the Olagunsoye Oyinlola administration over constituency projects because I know it was, in the main, a means to hoodwink the people and line the pockets of our politicians.
As a reporter, I did a survey on the constituency projects done by ‘Lagun, especially the schools and water projects. None of the schools built by our ‘honourables’ had a toilet! The borehole water project constructed by ‘Honourable’ Adelakun at Oja Oba, Osogbo, came down a few minutes after Oyinlola inaugurated it.
The governor had not reached Ola Iya Junction when the suspended tanks, pipes and all tumbled down. I think the headline we used then was ‘Oyinlola escapes death as water project crashes.’ I took pictures, too.
Constitutionally, lawmakers ought not to embark on the construction of constituency projects. Even when they do, as we have in our peculiar Nigerian situation, do they do it with their own money? Prof.Alabi is an academic of no mean repute. But were he not aiming for a bigger political prize, would he have brought this ‘transformer trouble’ upon himself? Before he joined politics, was there a record of this type of philanthropy in his name?
Some people may say, ‘at least he has done something, he should be praised; what about others who didn’t do anything?’ I think this assumption is gibberish. Some didn’t do at all, right? Ok. But is it right for those ‘doing’ to do so for selfish reasons and to further mire the citizenry in the mud of poverty, lack and want? When you set out to do good, please, do good with all your heart. You don’t set out to do good once in every four years! For me, the two sets of politicians (‘dos’ and don’ts) are different sides of the same bad coin. This little musing is not particularly about our esteemed prof, who’s also my name sake, nor about my friend, ‘Lagun. It’s about us, the common people of Nigeria.
It’s high time we began to look at ourselves in the mirror and told our politicians the naked truth.
Prof. Alabi’s transformer projects don’t deserve hero-worshipping or chest-beating because our politicians are living in heaven while we, the masses, are living in hell. We need an urgent overhaul of our political system.
