Writing is a gift.
Only the initiated gets to feel the pulse of the muse.
Like adrenaline pumping up your spine
So is the flow of a new story in your guts.

Do not stop the pen.
It must discharge its points.
Let that message flow.
Out of your soul.

I just concluded all the burial rites for my parents in February 2021.

I just noticed that my last blog post was in November last year.

My mom died literally in my arms on 15 November, 2020. Since then, it appeared my pen ink too dried up. I am however glad with all the long preparations, the whole process was finally concluded on the 2nd of March. Sincerely, I understand if you did not share a condolence message with me, I totally forgot to post an invitation to the funeral here. Imagine that!

Nonetheless, I will be sharing my thoughts and experiences during the whole period with you as we go along. It was a totally new thing for me. I will also share my mom’s story with you. You will love it. My tribute to her is also something you will find inspiring as relates to parenting.

In all, being the daughter of Mrs Florence Ebun Authe had been both a wonderful experience and a privilege. What you may also find inspiring is the fact that she went exactly the same age her husband did. Who says there is no love beyond the grave! Anyway, watch out for all the juicy details.

I am not one given to much gossip but my parents’ story is waking up that muse in me and I will want to go on this ride with you! Let’s do this! You are the reason I love to do this.

#omolaranwabueze alias #longrichprof

Writing is a gift.
Only the initiated gets to feel the pulse of the muse.
Like adrenaline pumping up your spine
So is the flow of a new story in your guts.

Do not stop the pen.
It must discharge its points.
Let that message flow.
Out of your soul.

Nigeria is a wonderful country to live in. We are drama kings and queens. The top prize is taken by our ‘rulers’. They are the real deal when it comes to true drama.

Or how will you describe a government that budgets a huge amount of money to repair the same roads year in year out? Drama team, may sound more fitting, I am sure.

I was reading that the Federal Executive Council has approved NGN20.925 billion for road repairs and maintenance The Guardian (Thursday, 26 November, 2020, page 4). The question any sane person should be asking is that is it impossible to construct these roads and make them good enough that you may not need to worry about them for an upward of 40 years? What is wrong with our roads needing only surface and not heavy repairs every year or even every other year?

The Nigerian roads are appropriately named death traps. I remember that after Mr Adams Oshiomole persuaded Okpe people of Edo State to change to his party in order to do their road and they listened to him, the next time he was visiting Okpe for Okpe Day celebration, he came with his helicopter due to the deplorable state of the road rather than repair/reconstruct it. Nigerian politicians take the cup in deceiving people! At least, that road lasted for some years since Ogbemudia constructed it in the 70s before it was destroyed by heavy trailers when they found it the shortest way to go to Lagos from Akoko Edo in northern Edo State.

I wondered a lot about this situation of the roads not being well constructed when I used to be a lot on the road during the time I was undergoing my MA degree. At the time, it was the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) that was in charge of building the roads under Sanni Abacha; and of course, our current President was in charge of that agency. The funniest thing about it all was that as the Borini Prono company was doing the road, it was getting bad after them. I could not understand what the issue was. Is it that they don’t know their job or that the certifying agency was blind and could not see the bad portions following the road construction process? Were these contractors being paid for this job or they were just doing it gratias? At least, that would explain their modus operandi. I had the effrontery to stop to ask one of the staff of the company one day as I could not bear it any more. He was gracious to answer that they would still be maintaining the road. My amateurish question was: why not just do a solid job once and for all rather than do the road in a manner that will require heavy maintenance that will never allow you leave the construction site? Anyway, that road in question has remained perpetually under repair. Someone must eat, sha (as we say in my country)

A country that will rather be budgeting for repairs rather than calling to order its own workforce and make people account for their irresponsibility in the performance of their duties gets what it deserves. I think it is time that people be asked to do their jobs. And those not ready to be shown the way out. Some people celebrate mediocrity and this becomes an albatross to the system.

I was passing the Ibillo-Lagos Road recently when I went to visit my mom just before she passed on and found that the repairs of less than two years ago were already gone to hell. I did not pass there last year so I could not say whether it was repaired last year. The Okpella road captured in the article referred to above had been ‘dying’ for years. It is being avoided by motorists now as they have changed their route into Akoko Edo. This Akoko Edo Road too was an ATM for an ‘honourable’ member for years because it was always due for repairs annually. It appears the current honourable does not even have the time for the Auchi-Ibillo Road in Akoko Edo this time around – the depth of the craters on that road are car swallowing deep! Mind you, thismis also a federal road! That is an alternative road; so, let’s not imagine what the Okpella-Okene Road will be like at all. All I know is that people used to sleep on these roads due to traffic gridlock caused by very bad roads. Between Benin and Sapele, swimming oceans for cars delight fill the Edo side of the road. The manageable side is that of the Delta ‘roadmaster’ Governor territory. It is so saddening for the southern part of the country that road continues to remain a means of lining the pockets of our political actors rather than tools for development.

So, another cycle of pocket lining with billions of Naira. I forgot to let you know that the chunk (NGN14.528 billion) of the money above is going to Yobe State; and the governors of the North East just cried out about the unfair treatment meted out to the NE in the 2021 budget! What a world of irony we live in. For the records, for the Okpekpe road in Edo State, the amount is NGN991.851 million while the rest goes to Taraba. You can do your math, please.

However, the major concern beyond the equitability of the distribution is the seriousness of the money going to where it is meant to. A country with so much problems should be prudent. But that is not seen in the way we turn our road construction activities into the anticipation of their annual failure so we can turn them to a yearly means of milking our country dry of her meagre resources.

I feared this country the day I learnt that a contract to construct a simple tent to give shelter to students while they wait to take exams will be constructed in three phases. That day, I knew that except by divine intervention, there is not much hope for the country. Even the first phase was badly done. And I was told I could not complain as the contractor said he was not answerable to me but those that awarded him the contract. But complained vociferously I did because I felt that was not just right! So, dear people in government, is it not time we start holding our contractors and approving officers to account so they can construct roads that can last a minimum of 20 years for us in order to reduce the amount of human sacrifice we have to make yearly on our roads so our people can live long and our pockets will stop being lined with blood money!

Let’s hear your thoughts on this, folks!

#omolaranwabueze #beingreal #endbadgovernancenow

Writing is a gift.
Only the initiated gets to feel the pulse of the muse.
Like adrenaline pumping up your spine
So is the flow of a new story in your guts.

Do not stop the pen.
It must discharge its points.
Let that message flow.
Out of your soul.

What happened to a legitimate protest becoming a flood of criminality is still surprising to me. I am watching right now on Channels Television the litany of the terrible aftermath of the protests across Nigeria. The looting seemed coordinated; or it was a mere mob action that just continued unabated. The manner in which the looting was done seemed more like criminals taking advantage of a situation that was meant for good.

What would one say is the connection between stripping a shopping mall of its goods in Lagos and a medical store of its medicines and equipment in Kogi State. What of tractors in Adamawa State? I just continued to find it all shocking.

It all started with breaking into so called palliative warehouses after the Lekki shootings. Then it became an orgy of stealing and pillaging in a frenzy across Nigeria. The truth is that no matter the reason given, WHAT IS BAD IS BAD. Under whatever guise, looting is a criminal act. Let us assume that truly the palliative food stuffs were hoarded, the right thing to do is to call out the government and bring it into the court of public opinion until it does the right thing. But going and looting the food stuffs by the mob is STEALING and daylight robbery. This does not do the cause of the #EndSARS protests any good.

This is the critical moment that the #EndSARS protesters would have shined forth, by coming out to disown this armed robbers hiding under the guise of a peaceful and well organised protests to steal and commit divers crimes. What this exposes is the fact that the protest appears to be a spur of the moment thing and does not have an organised leadership.

Be this as it may, those organising the youths through the social media appeared to have dissolved into nothingness in the face of the looting. If this same group of leaders have also come out to speak strongly against the looters, I am sure they probably would have been able to halt this shameful activities of armed robbers pretending to be #EndSARS protesters.

It is still not too late. Let the leaders that coordinated the first two weeks of the protests also come out to disown these people spoiling all the good works they did in the first two weeks and use the same social media to organise and get all the youths organise against the looters. This is because I will not like to believe that they support the shameful acts going on round the country right now.

In the same vein, I will like to call on all the people that have gone to loot people’s things, please, have some shame and return the goods you stole. Remember that some of these people you stole their goods are also struggling Nigerians trying to make ends meet. What point are you making if you end the business of someone that just want to start in order to cater for their families? What help are you rendering to the protest of the youths if you are giving them bad public image as looters? This nonsense must stop if there is still any shred of shame in you.

And as a citizen of this country, I do not expect that you will buy looted goods from these armed robbers. I am sure you are decent enough to not want to be a party to this looting by buying stolen goods. Seeing the pains of those whose shops were looted, some still paying bank loans, I am sure you will rather report to the police anyone trying to sell to you stolen goods. Indeed, this is the time to stand up and be counted by discouraging them from continuing stealing by refusing to buy their stolen goods and reporting anyone that you suspect is trying to sell to you stolen goods.

What these looters have succeeded in doing is to show that the government officials that have been looting government treasury are just like them. They are shameless and have no conscience; neither do they respect decency. The truth is that two wrongs do not make a right. Looting and destroying public or private property does not amount to the right way to fight the ills in the Nigerian system. Indeed, showing a better example is the way to shame the looting government officials and their apologists.

Now, let everyone of us take a side with the truth and decency by condemning the looting and at the same time encouraging the organisers of the protests against the ills in the Nigerian society to use that same structure to bring under control this hijack of its good intentions and taking a stand to continue to enjoy the public support it had at the beginning.

On a final note, I will say that no matter how long we try to run away from it, we must speak as a people and confront our fears as a country. What is bad does not have another name but that IT IS BAD. The way Nigeria is structured now is bad and breeds injustice. We must address these issues and confront them so that we do not end up losing control as a people one day. The recent sustained protests and the aftermath showed us that.

There had been different documents over time prepared to show our cracks. Let us be true to ourselves and face them and take far reaching decisions to tackle them. The 2014 National Conference is the latest and it is still gathering dust on the shelf. As long as we refuse to give a level playing ground to everyone in this country and walk in true justice, our cry for peace may remain in self deception.

If Chile 🇨🇱 could do it by taking a referendum to do away with their constitution full of inequality, so can we. We need to decide that we want to now write our own constitution and not an imposed constitution where our ‘We the people …’ will truly be by WE the people. Any Nigerian government true to itself and sincere in wanting to serve this great nation will allow the Nigerian people create a constitution for themselves that will give everyone equality. It is only then we can move from potentially great nation to a great nation!

God bless Nigeria 🇳🇬

#EndSARS #longrichprof #omolaranwabueze #readywriter01 #PPP #endbadgovernanceinnigeria

Writing is a gift.
Only the initiated gets to feel the pulse of the muse.
Like adrenaline pumping up your spine
So is the flow of a new story in your guts.

Do not stop the pen.
It must discharge its points.
Let that message flow.
Out of your soul.

Nigeria becomes 60 today since it got its ‘independence’ from Britain. The question is: Is there anything to celebrate in a giant that has remained on the ground? Some may say yes and thus roll out the drums. After all, the low key celebrations by the Federal Government of Nigeria led to the drums and match past at the Eagle Square in Abuja today. If it were not low keyed, we would be flying high in the sky.

Those that feel otherwise said Nigeria today attained retirement age and should thus retire and become ashes so a new nation or nations could emerge that would be active, vibrant and successful without the albatross called Nigeria today and the over-centralised federal system that holds diverse nations in its forceful grip.

The question I will like our citizens of Nigeria to provide answers to is: what do they want? A nation created for them by the British or one that they created on their own. Indeed, an answer to this question is at the heart of all the struggles for secession by parts of the country almost from the inception of Nigeria’s statehood.

How long can we continue to pretend we don’t know what are the true issues? Is it not possible to actually sit down, talk like civilised people and decide where and how we want to go in this country? Can we continue to hide our heads in the sound like the ostrich and claim all is well? It is time we tell our selves the truth and face our realities.

Our solution may not be what others have done; we may have to cook it and serve it all by our selves – we have to become true philosophers and think through our situation and find our own answers. We may have to become our own prayer warriors and pursue on our knees the needed answers from God. We may have to become true artists and paint and craft our own future. We may have to become our own scientists and become the specimen to experiment our truth with. We may have to become our own technologists and construct our future as we want it to be. The yam and knife is in our hands – what do we intend to do with the two?

Comment and let us have your views.

It may be just the answer Nigeria needs to move forward.

I take no sides but I crave practical answers to our national questions.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, my country wo(men) and fellow citizens.

Indeed, TOGETHER, we can find the answers – whatever those may be.

#readywriter01 #princeofpeacepublications @laranwabueze