How long before the day dawns?

I sit in my little corner and watch the parade of madness, and wonder how long before the day dawns.

How much more of this madness can I take?

Why in God’s name are we poor as a people?

Why is there so much INJUSTICE and suffering?

Why are our roads mostly death traps?

Why are our hospitals deplorable, undermanaged, ill-equipped and manned by under motivated unhappy medical personnel?

Why are we constantly in the dark and hounded by generators with noise constantly emitting poisonous fumes?

Why can’t 70% of our populace afford a decent three square meals per day?

Why is the plight of the common man huge with no job, no livelihood, no comfortable shelter if any at all, and hardly able to mansion a healthy lifestyle not to talk of been able to afford the killer expensive medical bill?

Why are our leaders, thugs, illiterates, drop outs, corrupt die hard politicians who combine politics with criminality and unimaginable and unequalled diabolism?

Why are we governed by the blind and lame, men and women who cannot see and who have no understanding of service, tolerance and integrity?

Why have we remained myopic, and self seeking and unprogressive?

Why have we had the same set of leaders leading us for over 4 decades?

Why does a tiny, but obviously powerful cabal hold us bound, gagged for so long?

Why has our politics become a prize for the highest bidder, a politics of looting, bribery, corruption and for the rich by the rich through the rich?

Why are so blessed but also so backward short of been blessed and cursed at the same time?
Why is there so much pervading darkness?

Why are we down and out without, the inspiration and compassion of a visionary leader?

Why do we keep killing our good men, while evil men thrive and prosper in the land?

Why are our pen robbers, celebrated even though they are no better than the armed robbers that hold our cities hostage, these pen robbers are celebrated and never questioned about their obvious stolen wealth, going around in the best suits spotting the Gucci’s and the Armani’s of this world, even though they are common criminals?

Why do we allow our leaders dominate, delude and demoralize and demonize us for so long?

Why are we impoverished by every government and left to supply our own; water, electricity, and shelter?

Why do we get so little and have to pay so much for the little we get?

Why do we allow our politicians who obviously have no good intentions towards its citizenry continue to destroy our nation and marginalize our dreams?

Why are we so poor, so depraved and so blind?

When are going to say NO to the STATUS QUO?

When are we going to say NO to the madness, the melee and the moribund depraved form of government we call democracy?

When are we going to rise up and take back control from the cabal made up of retired generals, ex-governors, and the so called old time senators and aged long director generals?

When are we going to chase out incompetent, visionless, corrupt and sick politicians from our polity.

When are we going to ask the so called old and tired brains and feet to exit the stage and ask our vibrant, dynamic and versatile and courageous young men to take the stage and move us to our promised land?

Is the trend not clear all over the world? How old is Obama? How old is Gordon Brown? How old is the President of France?

The world is changing, why should the old sets of hands and brains continue to rule us?

Especially when they have not been able to give us the basic amenities and infrastructure that helps for sustainable growth and development in our Nation.

How long will we remain paralyzed, completely dazed in a state of stupor ,unchanging and unmoved by the madness that pervades the Nigerian polity?

Why should the percentage of the rich and the affluent and the privileged be so tiny compared to the large mass of the uneducated, underprivileged and disadvantaged?

We demand true democracy in our Nation, because what we have practiced up till now is not democracy but MONEYCRAZY!

Our souls and consciences are for the highest bidders!

We demand a level playing field, where people will not be afraid to stand up and be counted for what they believe.

We demand true justice and equitable distribution of the Nigerian Wealth!

Why should the North be developed by the South and the South left to beg and carry arms to agitate for what rightfully belongs to them?

Why should we create the Niger Delta situation because of greed and neglect, and wonder why there would be no youth restiveness and violence amongst the depraved and the disadvantaged?

Why should our leaders sleep on amazing beds exported from exotic countries, furnish their palatial mansions with the best of the best and enjoy constant supply of electricity while been driven in exotic state of the art air-conditioned cars and flown around in the most expensive jets while the ordinary Nigerian who you are supposed to be representing is broke, busted and disgusted with no house of his own, paying rent he can hardly afford, and eating once a day if he is so lucky.

Why should the divide be so wide? Why should the government officials not suffer what the average Nigerian is suffering so that he can work at quickly alleviating the pain and the poverty of the common man?

Our leaders live a life of delusion, and illusion, they are too far removed from reality and cannot understand the plight of the common Nigerian.

Why should our leaders use government monies to host stupid grandiose personal parties?
Why should they be allowed to use our resources to celebrate national weddings of the president`s daughters?

Why should our leaders resort to state of the art hospitals abroad the very minute they feel feverish and have a cough?

Why should they use the state funds to send their wards and extended families to the best school abroad?

Why are we allowing all these madness to thrive and multiply in our midst?

Why should councilors earn more than college professors?

Why should our senators earn more than our doctors?

Why are we crawling when we should be soaring?

Where is tomorrow`s legacy and today`s gain of democracy?

Why do governments keep reinventing the wheel?

Why do we see no light at the end of the tunnel?

Why should there be a clamour for second term when there has been NO PERFORMANCE recorded for the first term?

Why do we keep digging holes of death instead of giving life and transforming destines?
Why after over 45 years of independence all we have to show is the boom in the telecommunication and banking systems?

What is happening to our Educational system? What is happening to our Health care system?
Why are we so poor with infrastructural development?

Is there a vision for Nigeria to move forward?

Who is the visionary?

Is there a plan to transform Nigeria for the plan SMART in its orientation i.e. S.M.A. R.T
Why are we not deploying our best brains to the best spots or are we merely parading no good politicians whose only infection is to loot our treasure?

Is there real hope for our father land?

Is there light at the end of this dark tunnel?

Is there medicine for all our national pains and calamities?

Are we ever going to see the dawn after such a long night?

Is there an Obama , somewhere been groomed, been prepared, been packaged to deliver us from our present madness?

As followers we have failed our leaders?

You might ask how?

We have refused to:
1) Question them
2) Criticize them
3) Make them accountable
4) Correct them
5) Check them
6) Tell them the truth.
7) Properly advise them.
8) Celebrate and honor them when they do right.

As followers we are:
Self seeking, myopic, tribalistic, gullible and unprogressive

The Nigerian problem Is always the I! Me! I! syndrome.
We always think of self, self is king, we never think of the collective good of all. In all that we do and say, it`s always about the bottom line, what is in it for ME?

As follower we must help our leader at governance by becoming progressive, productive and we must not elect the wrong men because of their wealth and then expect them not to play on our intelligence.

We must stop seeing Nigeria in terms of tribes and states. We must realize that we are the first one before we are many. We must understand that we must always seek out the best men for the job rather than allowing myopic, sentimental feelings to move us.
Regardless of where he is from so long as he can deliver and the cap fits, we must choose men wisely into elective offices.

In Nigeria today, bad men vie for political offices because good men refuse to stand up and face the music of change. We cannot make progress as a reaction if we confuse to put on a icing on a bad cake, all our foundations are wrong!

Why are we Nigeria?

Do we like been Nigeria?

What do we need to put in place to become the Nigeria we dream and hope for?

Is the field we are all playing on a level playing field?

How long will our status quo remain?

If is only a mad man who keeps doing the same thing and the then expects a different set of results! You cannot plant corn and expect to harvest rice?

We must over haul the system we must result our foundation, we must return to true democracy government by the people for the people.

What we have now is a rape by a few against the majority of our peoples both leaders and followers should take the blame because both leaders and followers have failed and in their responsibilities.

Our leaders are a product of our environment and it is said that a people get the leader they deserve. So as followers if you get tired of these money bags visionless power mining politicians governing you then learn to say NO when they entice you with money they stole from you any way.

What we need is a collective will to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH! We are tired of the darkness, the madness, the melee, the lack of good governance, the corruption that has eaten deep into the fabric of every sphere of our polity the lack of progress and change in our nation, the stagnation and the spiral downward turn in all our systems, educational, health care and housing to mention a few.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!
We demand for change, we ask for it!
We do not beg for it, we demand for it!
We do not pray for it, we demand for it!
We do not plead for it, we demand for it!
Change is our right. We are tired of the tyranny, injustice, the inequitable distribution of Nigeria’s collective wealth!

We are tired of the CABAL and their death stranglehold upon our nation!

We are tired of the complete deterioration and neglect of our public schools?

We are tired of living in darkness in the 21st century.

We are tired of roads that are death traps.

We are tired of our monies and our resources been converted to personal use by our leaders?
We are tired of a few of the king’s men monopolizing our industries and holding the rest of us hostages.

We are tired of the fact that good men with great intentions never make it to the top of the echelon of our governments.

We are tired of the recycled men in our governments. We are tired of the same old! Same old!
We are tired of waiting, hoping and trusting that one day things will change?

We are tired of the few rich men getting richer while the vast majority of our people languish in poverty and penury.

We are tired of deaths that can be avoided, wasted lives that could have been saved and hopeless situations that could have been avoided.

We are tired of status quo?

We demand for change within our governments both at the federal and state levels.

Government must give its citizenry basic amenities that help make life bearable and livable, good roads, electricity, water, affordable health, education, and communication.

We are not asking for heaven on earth, just help take the hell from earth!

We demand equal justice for all and equitable distribution of wealth among the federating states.

We demand a Nigeria that WORKS!

We demand a progressive and peaceful Nation for all.

We demand that the divide between the governors and the governed be greatly reduced so that governance can be what it was meant to be servant hood, service and humility not tyranny, arrogance and looting.

We demand CHANGE! WE demand CHANGE THAT WE CAN SEE, not one that we merely talk about!

We are tired of promises, broken hopes, wasted lives, and abandoned generations.

As a government, you can make history by delivering on your promises; you do not have to drum up a bogus unrealistic 7Point Agenda into our subconscious just tackle Nigeria’s biggest and worst problem, POWER, ENERGY!

Focus on just ensuring that every home in Nigeria has constant power supply and the entirety of Nigerians will remain grateful including the myriads of companies and every sector of the economy.

Many dead businesses will spring up, many new ones will be born? Lives will be greatly improved, Hospital bills will come down, cost of living will drop, and manufacturers will concentrate on creativity and productivity, rather than worrying their brains about how to power their generators and all, also cost of communicating will drop and the general morale of the people will improve!

People will be happy because they can watch their favourite TV and Radio programmes , families will be united to stay together and play together, because they are glued to their TV sets which is powered by electricity.

Stress levels will be reduced, noise levels will be reduced all the terrible emissions that are released as a result of the use of generating sets, anger, irritation levels will be reduced.
It will be new NIGERIA, where everything WORKS! It will b; A NEW day! A NEW ERA! A GREAT DAY! In Nigeria!

We know that Nigeria is bedeviled by many problems; I believe if we tackle them one by one with focus and determination, Nigeria can become one of the best places to live in the world and one of the greatest nations on planet earth.

How long before the day dawns?

COPYRIGHT @ VICTORIA FADEYI AUGUST 2009!