Why I won’t be celebrating Nigerian independence

Why I won’t be celebrating Nigerian independence

'When you toast to independence, you are toasting ignorance and a culture of impunity,' writes Ade Onibada

Written by Ade Onibada
01/10/2014 01:33 PM

THIS YEAR I’ve made the decision that I will not be participating in any Nigerian Independence Day celebrations.
And before you raise your glasses and toast to 54 years since we shook off our colonial oppressors, you may want to ask yourself: ‘is there really much to celebrate?’
In April, approximately 276 girls were kidnapped from a boarding school in the area of Chibok, Nigeria – an event that without a grassroots movement would have been silenced and swept under a proverbial rug. Five months later, they are yet to be returned.
When you toast to independence, you are toasting ignorance and a culture of impunity. Your celebration inadvertently implies that you are applauding a nation where, more recently, the failings surpass its successes.
RESOURCES
The Nigeria population has been let down when resources as basic as consistent electricity current remain a rarity.
It is a nation sitting in the shadow cast by corrupt and self-serving political figures that pillage its resources like an all-you-can-eat buffet with a two-hour seating time.
The girls of Chibok were failed again when the hashtag #bringbackourgirls was hijacked and revamped as #BringBackJonathan2015 on posters hanging audaciously over the side of buildings to promote President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential campaign. They were only removed once international criticism began to mount; prompting Jonathan to make a statement that he had never endorsed them in the first place.
Rather than making toasts, throwing parties and tying gaudy geles, what this Independence Day should do is prompt critical thought about what 54 years of self-determination has produced.
In an article on the subject by acclaimed Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka, he wrote: “If a people must survive, the reign of impunity must end.” This isn’t a critique on terrorism or on corruption; but a critique on ignorance.
Political figures control public resources and are in no genuine manner accountable. Under the fallacy of democracy, continued cultural conflicts have been allowed to divide a nation already historically fragile.
Nigeria is riddled with many inconvenient truths often blanketed by the cloak of patriotism.
The inconvenient truths would identify the number of public figures who manoeuvre and manipulate political circles for personal gain, including an investigation that unearthed and confirmed suspicions of Boko Haram financiers.
Among them, allegedly, is an individual working at the Nigerian Central Bank and another former governor and recent presidential travel companion.
I wonder how the girls of Chibok would have typically celebrated Independence Day; certainly this year would be starkly different to what they’re accustomed to.
If we are toast to anything this year, then let’s celebrate ourselves. Let’s celebrate the enduring nature of the Nigerian people but let’s stop enabling those who are failing the nation with complicit behaviour and premature celebrations.
The next time I celebrate Nigerian independence it will be when the girls of Chibok can celebrate alongside the rest of us and no longer facing a life in captivity, slavery or worse.
Ade Onibada is a freelance journalist, feminist and politics graduate. She is also a proud British Nigerian.

Posted on: 01/10/2014 01:33 PM

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/why-i-won%E2%80%99t-be-celebrating-nigerian-independence

How does the election in Nigeria affect us in the Diaspora?

How does the election in Nigeria affect us in the Diaspora?

Since 1999, the People’s Democratic Party has controlled Nigeria but more than half the country’s youth are out of work

Written by Juliana Lucas
24/01/2015 12:00 PM

Image Text: IN THE RUNNING: Goodluck Jonathan is expecting another victory in this tight Presidential race

LIKE MANY Nigerian families living abroad, I send money back home at least once every month.
Why? Because, unfortunately, many of these relatives – even those who are graduates and can decorate entire walls with their qualifications – are out of work.
They are unable to work because they cannot find a job.
Who else can we blame but the political party that has ruled Nigeria for 16 years: the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), otherwise known as the ‘People’s Destroying Party’ by many of the country’s citizens.
The World Bank put the unemployment rate in Nigeria at 22 per cent in 2013, while the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has youth unemployment at an unacceptable 54 per cent in 2014.
When translated to an actual human figure, the latter statistic means that at least 64 million out of 170 million Nigerians are unemployed. It’s ridiculous!
ISSUE
Believe me, unemployment has always been an issue in Africa’s most populous country, but it is now at a record high.
Take a moment to think about the sheer amount of people who are unable to sustain themselves. It is no wonder that they depend so much on their relatives living abroad.
As many of us know, Nigeria is a resource-rich country. Why then, can’t its people find jobs? The answer is down to corruption.
Remember Governor James Ibori of the country’s oil-rich Delta state who in 2012 was sentenced by a London court after pleading guilty to fraud and money laundering?
His daughter Erhiatake Ibori will be running as a PDP candidate in the same state as her disgraced father who, according to a judge, acquired his riches “at the expense of some of the poorest people in the world”.
Ibori is one of those people who have participated in the decimation of Nigeria’s economy.
Yet he is currently being considered for extradition under the prisoners transfer programme which the UK government signed with Nigeria.
If this goes ahead, Ibori – perhaps like Diepreye Alamieyeseigha in 2013 (you know, the governor who jumped bail in the UK by allegedly dressing as a woman) – will get to Nigeria and be pardoned by the president.
It leaves many ordinary Nigerians wondering when favours for those with powerful friends will end and a pathway to prosperity for all citizens will begin.

ANTI-CORRUPTION: General Muhammadu Buhari with Professor Yemi Osinbanjo
President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to create two million jobs each year – a pledge I think is unachievable considering his record.
Figures released by the at National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that 500,224 jobs were created across the country in the first six months of 2014.
TARGET
President Jonathan will fall very short of his target if things follow the same path this year.
For his critics, it is too late.
Two million jobs a year do not solve the backlog of 64 million jobless youth at present and the additional 1.8 million graduates who join them every year.
I’ve done the maths and the numbers don’t add up.
The image of our beloved country is in tatters abroad.
We, who proudly claim to be the giant of Africa, have become the laughing stock of our continent.
The presidential candidate for the opposition party, Muhammadu Buhari, has promised to fix the many problems Nigerians face both at home and abroad.
As an ex-military man who has dealt with insurgents in the past, he and his vice-president, a professor of the law and a former Attorney General of Lagos state, Yemi Osinbajo, pledge to deal with Boko Haram.
They have pledged to eliminate corruption and will also do the same with unemployment by making us less dependent on oil as an income. Oil prices, as the financial markets show, are tumbling.
All things considered, better governance, more transparent and with greater accountability in Nigeria, is beneficial to us in the diaspora.
A safe Nigeria might mean some of us might want to invest in Nigeria. We might want to return back home.
Where there is labour, there will be need for manpower and that means jobs.
If Nigerians want things to change, we cannot do what we have always done. We cannot stay loyal to a political party that since 1999 has held on with little progress to show for it.
Perhaps a change of government is the change Nigeria needs. Maybe, we will see a reverse in fortunes. Instead of us sending remittances back home, our relatives can be in a position to help us here in the UK.

Posted on: 24/01/2015 12:00 PM

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/how-does-election-nigeria-affect-us-diaspora