Constitutional lawyer and human
rights activist, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has noted that at 59 years of age,
Nigerians now live like walking corpses due to the poverty and hunger in the land.
He stated this while lamenting
the sorry state of affairs in Nigeria, adding that Nigeria was once the biggest
economy in Africa and the 3rd fastest growing in the world.
According to the lawyer, “Parents
now sell their children to survive and the children do likewise. Husbands
kidnap wives and wives kidnap husbands’ for cheap ransom.”
This was contained in a statement
he titled, “Tears, Sorrow, Blood, Lamentation for Nigeria at 59,” and made
available to journalists.
Ozekhome said, “Tears. Sorrow.
Blood. Pains. Pangs. Anger. Hunger. Melancholy. Dejection. Hopelessness.
Haplessness. Disillusionment. Poverty. Ignorance.
“Termites and maggots eat up the
national edifice.
“Chaos and anarchy reign supreme.
Impunity triumphs.
“Irredentism, cronyism,
clannishness and nepotism strut around like a proud peacock.
“Corruption multiplies
geometrically, ravaging the land.
“Nigeria is now the second most
corrupt country in West Africa and one of the 148 most corrupt in the world.
“Rule of law is subsumed, human
rights crushed, Democracy is vanquished.
“Even basic civil liberties are
suppressed and subjugated. Judges are brutalised, humiliated and denigrated,
for doing their jobs.
“The Judiciary is weakened,
traumatised, pauperised.
“The legislators haemourrage the
national purse with fantastic and indefensible out-of-the-world pay packets.
“The Executive acts imperiously,
untramelled, uncontrolled, like Louis X14 of France.
“The cabal holds the nation down
by the jugular. Less than 20 people dictate the fate of 200 million Nigerians.
There are no checks and balances.
“Absolutism, dictatorship,
fascism, brutality, bestride our democratic space like a collosus.
“Yet, the people, the Civil
Society, remain docile, complicit, frightened and cowed.
“Mediocrity is enthroned in place
of meritocracy.
“Hypocrisy, lies, revisionism,
propaganda are elevated, celebrated and dressed in the false garb of truth and
patriotism.
“Genuine criticism, dissent,
opposition, plurality of views, are treated as treason, and at best as
treasonable felony. Nigerians now murmur, rather than discuss freely.
“Soliloquy and monologue take the
place of robust dialogue. Nigerians now live like walking corpses, like the
living dead.
“The common man and woman
languish in abject penury.
“The middle class diminishes.
Industries relocate to neighbouring countries. Massive disinvestment becomes
the order of the day.
“Nigeria, once upon a time the biggest
economy in Africa and the 3rd fastest growing in the world, is today the
poverty capital of the world.
“Parents now sell their children
to survive and the children do like wise. Husbands kidnap wives and wives
husbands for cheap ransom.
“Insecurity becomes the order of
the day. Boko Haram, herdsmen, kidnappers, armed robbers, hired assassins,
control our highways, pathways and forest routes.
“Nigeria has been turned into a
gruesome crimson field of bloodbath.
“There is mass suicide and
homicide. Mass unemployment is the order of the day. Retrenchment becomes a
norm.
“Education and certificates are
racketeered.
“Children learn under uncovered
roofs in rain, storm and sun, sitting on bare floor.
“Graduates roam the streets
without jobs.
“Our beautiful daughters and
sisters are sold into second slavery as sex objects.
“Young able-bodied men take to
kidnapping, armed robbery, internet scams and Otokoto rituals.
“Money bags are celebrated, no
matter the illicit sources of their wealth.
“The church and the mosque are
complicit in this societal degeneration.
“Morals, ethics, values, recede
into the abyss of historical oblivion.
“Prices of food have gone out of
the of the roofs, leaving the poor prostrate and defeated.
“The tail now wags the dog, the
leaders molest the people whose mandate they utilise.
“They laugh the people to scorn,
exploit them, beat them, scourge them, impoverish them and misuse them.
“God, where, when, how and why
did we find ourselves in this scandalous state of nadir, doldrums and national
calamity?
“Nigeria at 59!!! A woman still
crawling, misused, dehumanised and degraded.
“There will still be sunshine at
the end of the storm.
“Yes, a silver lining on a dark
cloudy sky.
“God help us.”
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