Haruna Mohammed Salisu
If you are not a criminal in Nigeria you are stupid. If you are a patriot in Nigeria, you are a bastard. If you did not take up arms against the Nigerian government, you are an idiot, stupid and a bastard. You will certainly die in poverty for being obedient, and a patriot. Your unborn children will forever remain slaves and your entire generation will never forgive you.
All patriots, dedicated, humble and obedient Nigerians are still poor and will certainly die in poverty for chosen to be patriots. All criminals in Nigeria are rewarded with National honors, given chieftaincy titles, they cruise on luxury cars, own mansions, send their children to expensive schools and travel abroad with government support and estacode.
In 2014, I had an exclusive interview with Barr. Solomon Dalung, the current Minister of Youths and Sports which was broadcast on the waves of Radio Nigeria Globe FM Bauchi where I was an attaché at the time. Dalung, like many lawyers conceded that the resolve of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party to pay militants in the oil rich-Niger-Delta N65, 000 in the name of Amnesty was unconstitutional, illegal and counterproductive.
Recently, I placed a call through his known mobile line to enquire why the government he is serving resolved to resume payment to militants despite their stiff opposition about the programme during the reign of the previous administration. Dalung who was probably busy with the Olympics at the time could not pick my call.
Any unbiased and reasonable Nigerian will agree that there are genuine grievances related to environmental degradation, resulting from decades of oil exploration which caused and is still causing untold hardship to the inhabitants in the Niger-Delta region.
Nobody will deny the fact that these people have suffered neglect from corrupt and incompetent governments who refused to heed their genuine grievances. These people have lost everything to oil exploration. Their lands are no longer crop-supportive; their water is no longer drinkable, oil spills made it practically impossible for them to cultivate farm produce including fishing. Life is horrible for these people. These are undisputable facts.
But then, it is equally illegal to reward criminals who take up arms against the government in the name of agitating for freedom or emancipation. These criminals that have committed treasonable offences don’t deserve to be rewarded with tax payers’ money. They should be arrested, tried and be jailed for their offences. Paying them money has no link whatsoever with addressing the Niger-Delta problems.
Their fight or agitation has nothing to do with problems of the common folks in the Niger-Delta. These are politically sponsored criminals working for their paymasters. Rewarding them with #65,000 is empowering criminality to thrive. Rewarding criminals with money is a call to every youth in Nigeria to be a criminal. Because that is the only language the Nigerian ill-fated, ill-informed and docile rulers understand.
Here is a country that is oozing cascadingly, and calamitously heading to a disastrous end. A country pervaded by corruption, with its leadership celebrated as ethnic champions and religious bigots. Its leadership anchored on blames and excuses. Its future doomed, not promising to the teaming youths. Criminals are rewarded with national honors, its talented brains discouraged and relegated to the background, at some points even punished.
Nigeria is a dark country, full of ills and evil people, rotten to the extent that its citizens shy away to be identified as Nigerians. A country that housed a wasted generation, with no education for its future leaders and its old, but corrupt rulers are sitting tight in position of authorities with the intention to rule for life.
One has many reasons to be angry. In my case for example, and like many youths in Nigeria, I struggled day and night with the help of my parents to pay my school fees from Primary school up to the university level, in a country that is richer than it was in the 60s.
With all the industrial actions that prolonged my academic career, I’m still wandering on the street waiting for more than eight months since I graduated for a dead scheme called NYSC to engage me to serve a country that deny me opportunities and refused to help me build and display my God-given talents.
I’m waiting for over eight months for a scheme that is hated by many students for wasting their time in the name of serving their country. Why do we have to wait for eight months to serve a country that rewards criminals at the detriment of patriots? Who will compensate our eight wasted months? Don’t you know time is money? If the government doesn’t have money to sustain the program, why retaining it, after all, students hate NYSC. Has the program not derailed from its main objectives? This is democracy, why won’t the government listen to us since the youths have unanimously at different points in time express their dissatisfaction with the scheme?
Please look around you, even in your immediate community, well known criminals are feared, respected and celebrated. Two examples in my state will suffice: firstly, during Governor Isa Yuguda’s administration, a politically well armed thug called O’C Kwano, a very immoral name to begin with is a millionaire. Ask anybody in Bauchi, O’C Kwano was made a millionaire by the administration for being a criminal. Secondly, Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar after being sworn-in as governor of Bauchi state immediately distributed cars to the political thugs that facilitated his election. He did that in the name of youth empowerment. Again, ask anybody in Bauchi, the beneficiaries were his political thugs. The governor did that at a time when only one primary school is housed with furniture in the whole of Bauchi metropolis. Yes, you heard me well; ONLY ONE PRIMARY SCHOOL and workers are owed nine months salary. What was that if not rewarding illegality?
My dear patriots, please look around you again, all the Dokubos, Henry OKahs, Tompolos, all the Area boys, Sara-sukas, yan-kalares, and the rest of them are billionaires. What are the sources of their wealth? Are they not criminals that are rewarded by the Nigerian government? The government is still paying them billions of naira for their crimes. What is that if not rewarding criminality?
Please look around you, our best brains that graduated with fantastic results in our tertiary institutions are still wandering around with no jobs because they choose to be patriots and law abiding citizens. The government through ill-informed policies has failed to provide a conducive environment for our innovative youths to take their positions in reactivating the economy.
Our nepotistic and despotic flippants at the national level are secretly recruiting their relatives and cronies to occupy positions at the CBN, Prison services, Customs and all the other ministries and parastatals. Our offence for not being employed is not because we don’t deserve to be there, but because we choose to be law abiding citizens who shylockly refused to take their destiny into their own hands and fire the despots.
Those who are brave enough among us and who chose to be criminals are now billionaires. The government is compensating them with our money since we prefer to remain fools and idiots. Just come to think of it, our budget “padders” who also double as “blackmailers-in-chief” even after confessing that they are criminals are still walking free, with state protection. What is that if not rewarding illegality?
I will end this piece by telling the Nigerian Government that, I Haruna Mohammed Salisu will soon be a criminal, if something urgent is not done to address our predicament. We are tired of watching stupidity, criminals and illegality being rewarded. Mark my words, if we start our illegality, the Nigerian army cannot contain it, and it will be worse than Boko Haram.
My fellow youths, since the only language our government understands is violence, then mark my words, patience has limit, we are running out of patience, we will soon be violent, and we will soon terrorize this country if our grievances are not addressed. We will not sit and watch idiots siphon our God-given wealth at the detriment of the majority and our unborn generation. If we didn’t take up arms and fight these crops of recalcitrant petulants, we shall remain in poverty throughout our stay on this planet; our unborn children and our entire generation will never forgive us.
In a society where talent is murdered, opportunity denied, and illegality appreciated and rewarded, refusing to be a criminal will define you as the worst human being to ever live on earth. I don’t want to be one, let me have a good reason to die for.
Haruna Mohammed Salisu writes from Bauchi. He can be reach at 08063180608, @haruna_babale or [email protected]
