"In the Abundance of Water, the Fool is Thirsty"

It defies all reasonable explanations why we cannot feed ourselves with the abundance of fertile land such as the Sahel rolling grass land to the north and the rain forest in the south. We have incredible amount of natural and manpower resources, why is it we can not put these rare combinations together and translate them into abundant food production where modern civilization could thrive? Drop any seed on the ground; before you know it, it germinates! This does not happen everywhere in the world particularly where the majority of food stuffs we import come from.

It is shocking that we import billions of naira worth of rice and other grains from countries where they have only about four months of growing season, isn't that telling us about our cavalier attitudes towards championing our course and making our country independent?

The trend should be the other way round. We have the whole year as a growing season, what else do we want the Mother Nature to indulge us with? Gone are those beautiful days of groundnut pyramids in the north and the cocoa production in the south. No thanks to government's direction less agricultural policy and no thanks to the paradoxical oil doom! The oil boom has given us capricious leaders with acute sense of what is right for the country; it has made us to be indolent, insolent, plan-less, visionless, dependent and vulnerable through the evil of economic penetration.

The road net-works in Nigeria are in the worst shape ever, after so many billions of naira had gone down the drain. Actually, one of the worst in Africa! It is now a common knowledge that road accidents are the highest killer of Nigerians, probably killing more people than HIV/AIDS. Yet, Nigeria can boast of an extensive deposit of bitumen which is the major material for road pavement somewhere in Ondo state, one of the largest in the world. What an oxymoron! How many governments will it take to make things right in our country? My grand father died hoping for a better Nigeria, so my father, and now even my own generation is still hopeless and the next generation may also leave in despair.

Read the full story...

A Nigerian living in Canada reflects on the irony that prevails in his home country. Though they have fertile land, there are people starving. Though they have billions of dollars worth of oil reserves, the people are predominantly poor. Though they devote millions of dollars annually to fixing the roads, car accidents are the leading cause of death. Though they have rich supplies of bitumen, the major material for road pavement, the roads go unpaved. The country has been turned backwards due to a history of government corruption. The author of this article is saddened by the state the Nigeria has come to.

GRADE THIS POST