By O. B. Ajayi
This is Nigeria as we know it today, where there’s no equity, fairness, and justice for all, where the lives of too many have been kept stagnant. Where elites seem to be so comfortable and affluent that they live with no soul, no conscience, but they still get red-carpet receptions at places of worship in exchange for large offerings and big deep pocket donations.
A nation where we see elected officials display effrontery as they flaunt wealth and walk around with govt-paid police escorts, acting like gods and goddesses in the presence of helpless and hopeless people, with no humility or reverence to God Almighty whatsoever.
I recently watched a 2-yr old YouTube video by Dr. Sunday Adelaja (one of my revered favorite outstanding Nigerians, aka DSA, or Pastor Sunday, Ukraine). In the video, he talked about diverse ways that he plans to rebuild Nigeria, while doing so he shared some depressing statistics, some of which I’d also share here, and my heart bled all over again. Yes, I love Nigeria too. But if we can’t rebuild or take it back from the grips of the nation’s narrowminded, shortsighted, and soulless leaders, and from the stronghold of dangerous devilish strongmen and gatekeepers of Nigeria at the helms of affairs, at least let’s make concerted efforts towards the Self-Determination of a Yoruba Nation.
I prefer we hit a reset button on critical issues and chart our own destiny so we can stand tall among civilized and developed committee of nations, with one language, and one nation, under the watchful eyes of the Almighty God. Since we’ve done it before we can do it again. This is where I stand!
Right now, this is a country where only 15% of people have toilets in their houses. If this was the case in 1914, and even in 1960, why on earth is it still the same damn case in 2014 and 2022?
A country where 50% of the entire people have only pit latrines to use in their houses.
A country where even the remaining 35% defecate at will, whenever, wherever, at any location, especially the bushes, gutters, and such.
A country where less than 1% of the ground we daily walk is paved to work, trade, and pass-through, while the rest remains in its primordial form, full of dirt, sand, and clay soil ground, blowing bad air all over, still causing health hazards since independence.
Did you know that 164.8 million Nigerians are living on less than $2 a day as of 2020? According to the African Development Bank, this represents a whopping 80% of the country’s estimated 206 million population. World Bank puts our Annual Change at 2.5% (2020).
CIA Factbook puts Nigeria’s population at 219,463,862 (as of July 2021 est.)
UNICEF has a plan for Nigeria. But Nigeria seems to have NO plan for herself. What a shame!
Even the United Nations has a plan for Nigeria, but its as if though Nigeria has NONE for herself, we can tell going by decades of piled up decay we still see regularly touching all fabrics of the nation.
We also see that approximately 20% of Children under the age of 5 years in Nigeria are underweight. Because they don’t feed well. How do you begin to fix this to restore dignity to our people and the land that’s blessed with great potentials and natural resources?
Did you know that the average daily dietary energy consumption per capita of Nigeria that directly affects the brain function is 2810 kilocalories? Whereas in America, it is 3800 kilocalories, and in Canada, it is 3530 kilocalories. Imagine how that translates to production and human development?
Around 103 babies out of 1000 live births die in Nigeria. UNICEF says one in 34 babies born in Nigeria die before their first birthdays.
Nigeria has the 4th highest maternal mortality rate in the world with 814 deaths of mothers in 100,000 live births, yet there’s no freaking agenda to improve our healthcare system to avoid stupid cases of untimely avoidable deaths, every day.
According to NigerianStat™️, “Lagos State has the highest Internally Generated Revenue with N204. 51bn recorded in H1 2020, closely followed by Rivers State with N64.59bn, while Jigawa State recorded the least Internally Generated Revenue.” (NigerianStat.gov.ng, 2020) Yet, we don’t see the effect of the treasure syphoned.
Respect, honor and dignity for women is almost nonexistent.
Child-Bride culture remains normalized in Nigeria, though this is a human right’s issue in the civilized world, our stupid soulless leaders don’t give a damn as long as their pockets are lined with dollars and pounds, and their children are fine and secure, living large while studying in developed diaspora.
Child-Labor is also normalized in Nigeria, or how else do we explain hawking, and street-hustling by 5–16-year-old kids on the streets hustling road-users and passers-by? Even though we can all agree that during school hours and days, no child should be seen on the streets hawking and hustling.
Mentally derailed citizens walk up and down with no planned care or concern for them. This is a strange thing to see in modern-day society of the 21st century.
A nation that has created and normalized second-class citizens value systems, maltreating household workers like housemaids, gatemen, drivers, cooks, caregivers, etc. as inconsequential trash, with low pay, no dignity, and no respect for their crafts and labor, like worthless assets and slaves. Some are even abused and raped with no repercussions.
We now have a modern day slave trade, it’s called international business development using sovereign guarantees in collaboration with friendly nations, through this cool-sounding initiative, our leaders are now selling our land for a pot of porridge, collateralizing more assets for senseless loan sharks. They do all these while good men sleep in the land.
As earlier mentioned, Nigeria has an estimated population of 206 million, making it the 7th most populous country in the world. Nigeria’s population is projected to increase to 263 million by 2030 and over 401 million by 2050 when it will become the 3rd most populous country in the world. Guess what? If things remain on this trajectory, as expressed by former Emir, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, by the Year 2050, the size of the youth demographics will be 60%, i.e., ages 18-35yr old. Which is upwards of 240-million youths, a whopping 40% of those youths, i.e., 96million+ will be unemployed, unemployable, and unwilling to retrain to become productive members of society. What does that tell us all? – A disaster waiting to happen!!!
Those who make it impossible to have peaceful coexistence, decent value system, equity, and justice in a developed society for all, will make unrest inevitable by breeding a violent disastrous idle bunch of people.
All these stats are known facts that don’t dignify us as a people. Yet our elected officials still want more power at the center, out of the hands of the few that feed the nation. A nation that institutionalized a counterproductive, ridiculous, and stupid century-long educational quota system that has successfully turned scholars into slaves and make idiots into lawmakers.
How much longer?
What a shame!!
How much longer must this failed cycle continue?
This is Nigeria!! …smh
Ain’t that some arrant nonsense?
The time to change course and try something else is NOW jareee, my people.
This ain’t working!
The TIME TO ACT is NOW!!!
Whatever it is that you are doing right now, I urge you to pause for just a moment, help SHARE the link below, chat with others, speak-out in public, encourage friends and families to go online, and sign the petition, only if you’re 18 years or older.
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO SPEAK FOR A SOVEREIGN YORUBA NATION.
It’s time to chart a new course and take ownership over a better and more prosperous future for all Yoruba people right there on our ancestral land, FOR THE PEOPLE, and by “WE, THE PEOPLE.”
To sign this petition, please go to:
https://Ominirayoruba2022.org
Yoruba Nation NOW!!!
Thank you for your attention.
Ire ooo…
