There is something wrong somewhere in our State and the nation as well, and perhaps nobody is able to see it nor demands to know why we are still suffering years of solitude.
The oil boom came and gone in phases but hunger, poverty, diseases, high rate of unemployment and gross under-development remain recurring decimals in a State and a nation where the black gold means a curse rather than a blessing.
It doesn’t need only a prophet to see that there is something wrong somewhere, but perhaps we expect a prophet to tell us that there is a divine curse that follows the sardonic policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul, which has long been the character of our state and federal governments.
There is something wrong somewhere, following the contemptuous attitude of robbing Peter to pay Paul -the practice our State and the nation have embraced as discreet policy in manpower, resources and infrastructural distributions.
Robbing Peter to pay Paul is an act that attracts certain measures of curses even from the gods of all lands, and worst still from the God of justice.
Such curses have the potency of afflicting a people and the leadership with certain incurable syndromes ranging from insomnia, inertia, schizophrenia, frenetica and psychic disorder.
Of course, these are some of the ailments that have rendered our leaders psychopathic and therefore make them steal the public funds with frenzy, without shame, sense of guilt and to the extent that they lose touch with human realities, being empty inside but with bold faces that often depict them as macho-men.
Have we ever pondered to think why crude oil is a curse to our State, the nation and every other society where men lack the strength to resist the temptation of robbing Peter to pay Paul? The exploration and exploitation of crude oil come with serious ecological effects which pollute the environments, destroy the aquatic lives, vegetation and habitats of the people whose communities the oil is found.
The emitted carbon from oil installations and operations pollute the air and the land with green gas, leaving enduring marks on the housetop roofs, plantations, streams, rivers, seas, and even the soils, thereby leaving the farmers and fishermen in communities whose only sources of income and livelihood are from such environments helpless and in want of alternative means of livelihood hard to secure.
The outcome is enormous –ranging from lack, hunger, frustration, helplessness –all of which culminate in their inability to meet up with emerging home challenges like feeding and training of their children in schools.
But the irony of it all is that, while the people of the oil bearing and producing communities who suffer the untold devastating effects of the crude oil exploration and exploitation are undergoing the harmful effects of the operations of the oil companies right within their environments, just a negligible number of strangers engage them in politics of the tortoise –feeding fat and at the same time squandering the crude oil benefits and money from the sales of the oil.
This cannot go on without the ire of the gods of the lands and the wrath and curses from the God of justice! However we care to dress the truth with coats of many colours, this is the reason the state refuses growth, and the nation rejects development, because the gods are angry, and our God is provoked to vent His anger in justification of the biblical theory that the glory of the land is to profit withal.
How would they not squander the crude oil money and bring darkness and more curses upon the State and the nation, and specifically upon themselves, when they have been afflicted with curses that follow the subtle policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul! How would one suffering from insomnia, inertia, schizophrenia, frenetica and psychic disorder have ideas on how to build a State or a nation? Such cursed and afflicted individuals in leadership positions can only help to create chaos to advance their looting spree.
They have the tendencies of destroying age-long ties and communal affinities to secure their holds and grips on power –the coercive instrument of manipulations and control.
The forging gives the idea on why we cannot grow and develop beyond the bounds of human avarice, in spite of several phases of oil boom.
Despite the huge sums of money budget annually for growth and developmental purposes, all we can see is resurfacing of existing roads.
No new industries that can absorb unemployed youths roaming the streets. No more even the scholarship schemes nor educational incentives from which most of them in power benefited to become what they are today.
No funds for institutional or academic research to aid growth and development. Everything and everywhere is afflicted with curses, because of the singular sin of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Any responsible government that begins by going back to the base from which the wealth of the state and nation grow to enhance the center, it will first and foremost witness peace and acceptance, then the confidence and co-operation from which will evolve stability for the needed growth and development.
Every state and nation require peace and acceptance to enhance the unity which would boost the confidence and co-operation of the people to boost the stability needed for growth and development.
But when any government begins by showcasing itself as representing some interests and a group or groups, peace is murdered on the altar of nepotism; acceptance is muffled with the chains of injustice; confidence is destroyed by the sword of myopia; and the needed co-operation is scuttled on the strength of mismanagement of goodwill.
What then follows is the general disillusionment that give rise to discordant voices echoing for justice and equity, hence the instability that gives rise to confusion and policy somersault and stunted growth and development. And this is where things go wrong in our state and nation.
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