They say that every great man has a great woman behind him. It could be his mother, or it could be his wife. If you ask a Nigerian man about this, he would rather choose his mother over his wife, that is, if he accepts that there is any kind of woman behind him.

For a country where for a long time women had no voice, and they still have no voice in large areas of the country, this will shed some light into why Boko Haram went for the voiceless. They really hoped that no one will be interested in the fate of 276 girls if they took them, as if they belonged to no one, and used them, as if it is their right to do so. Those girls may not have a voice, but the world is speaking out for them.

The plans of Boko Haram where those girls are concerned have failed, and will continue to fail. Those girls have become today like fish bones stuck in their throats. They cannot swallow it, and they cannot eject it. One way or the other, they will have to end up sticking their own fingers in their throats and eject those girls, or it will be their early end. I say early end because their final end will surely come. The abduction of those girls is just the beginning of that end.
(We will continue)

Just yesterday another country, a developing country for that matter, fired their top military personnel for allowing the towns they were supposed to protect to be overrun and taken over by rebels. We haven’t heard that any top military officer in Nigeria, especially the ones in those towns where Boko Haram reigns supreme, have been admonished, not to talk of being fired. Instead the Nigerian government seems to exonerate the military’s indolence or refusal in doing their duty. One would say, like military, like government… birds of the same feather…both afraid to stick out their necks to do what they are paid to do.

Woe betides any Nigerian who waits to be bailed out by the Nigerian Embassy abroad, if that person finds himself/herself in any kind of trouble. The first thing the Embassy will do is to deny the person, and without much qualm, the Embassy will help the foreign country to fish out and deport the person, as simple as that. I sometimes wonder whether protecting the interest of their citizens abroad is not part of their agenda.

But this is Nigeria for you, everyone looking out for themselves, everyone in the struggle for survival, everyone stepping on top of the other person, like the crabs do. It is the survival of the fittest.
(To be continued)

Many people are already beginning to think that the abducted girl’s case is a lost one. Even high ranking members of the Nigerian society seem to think likewise. This is like losing hope, and this is one thing we must not do. Book Haram members want us to forget that the incident of those girls ever happened. But we are talking about 276 souls. No, their fate will not be a lost one, and they will never be forgotten.

These girls have families, parents, mothers and fathers. Even if the whole world forgets, the families of these girls will never forget. Book Haram owe these families the return of their daughters, or at least an account of what happened to them. The world wants to know too how this will end. This drama will not continue to hang in the air, it will land one day. It must not fizzle out as if it never happened, it will surely come to an end.

My advice to all peace loving people, all people of goodwill, is to continue to pray for the return of those girls. They will return no matter in what shape or condition, they will return, as a whole or in pieces, it doesn’t matter. All I know is that they will return.

Well, I checked and I did not get the suggestions I requested. I take it that everybody is busy minding their own businesses and problems because the world is full of them right now. This is beginning to look like I am talking to myself. Whatever it looks like, I still believe that someone should be standing in the gap for those girls. We have to continue nudging the Nigerian government to hurry up and act. It is too late already. We do not want those girls to start losing hope, and accepting whatever life their abductors may be offering them.

They must know that we are keeping the light on their abduction burning. They must know that we have not given up hope on them, and they must know that we will not stop holding them up in our prayers until they return.

To think that America and Britain are in Nigeria searching for these girls, and that their search is yielding no results. I don’t believe that members of Boko Haram are so smart as to outsmart America and Britain. I just believe that America and Britain have not given the search the seriousness that it deserves. The world is waiting and watching for better and faster results. I do not want to accept that these girls are a lost case.

Every day we watch events in Nigeria go from bad to worse and from worse to worst. Right now, the governing body is so overwhelmed by how mangled the situation is that they do not know where to start untangling things. Or perhaps they know, starting with themselves. But they do not want to, or cannot, or simply are incapable of doing anything to untangle not only things, but themselves. Any way one looks at the situation in Nigeria; one sees that the country had reached a point of no return.

When a country reaches this kind of cross-road, what is that country supposed to do? I have my own theory, but I will like to know and hear what other people think or say. If you are reading this, write in and propose a way out, a solution for salvaging a country that cannot salvage herself. Give suggestions, constructive suggestions on how to solve the numerous ailments of a country that does not know how to dig herself out of the quagmire in which she has buried herself.

My numerous blogs on this subject will give an idea of where I stand on the matter, but I still have a theory as I said before and will wait to expose it only when I have heard from others.
(To be continued)

It is sad to see a country like Nigeria, a once giant of Africa tottering under the weight of so much corruption. And the saddest part is that she seems helpless under this weight. How can we explain the fact that 276 young, helpless, unarmed school girls were abducted from their school 61 days ago and there is still no light at the end of the tunnel indicating that they will soon be released?

A cousin of mine was telling me the other day that things are so bad that if one tried to be good in the midst of all this corruption, one runs the risk of being killed. Even businesses, small and big are built with corruption at their base. For a simple supply of material to the government, the cost will be blown up so much out of proportion that the project for which the material is intended is either cancelled or postponed indefinitely. This is why our roads are in constant dis-repair; water does not flow, and electricity, a rare commodity. It is a popular knowledge that we Nigerians do not have a maintenance culture. We would rather let a commodity rot than repair it. New allows the contractors and everyone connected to the project to make more money. Repair can do the same thing for them but not as much as New can.

When people are there looking out only for themselves, how can they think of anyone else?
(To be continued)

While the Nigerian education was slipping out of control down into the pit, the universities kept on churning out half-baked graduates. The situation today is so bad that education which was once the pride of the Nigerian nation has become the shame of the nation. Our graduates today are made to take qualifying examination into foreign universities for the same courses they graduated in, in Nigeria. Our certificates are not worth the papers on which they are printed.

Un-employment also hit the baulk of these graduates, so hard that a good number of them are now self-employed as kidnappers, and organized criminals. The few that were lucky to be employed joined the gang of pen robbers that fill the rank and file of our civil service. It is everyone to their own device, and everyone is at it with such vigor that they do not look back to see who is gored. Even the ordinary Clerk is not so ordinary anymore. If you want anything done for you in double quick time, things like finding a missing file, or putting your file ahead of all the others, talk to the Clerk, and grease his palms as we say over here in Nigeria.

If you want the file of your competition to disappear, find the Clarke in charge, and grease his palms, and the file is gone. Corruption that started from the top has rotted down to the root, hence my blog titled: The Rotting Iroko.
(To Be Continued).

This is the question that struck me today. How did we get here? How did it happen that a once peaceful country like Nigeria has lost sleep? This didn’t happen suddenly, nor did we see it coming. It quietly crept in on us. Why was it not nipped at the bud? Because the authorities thought that it was just a passing phase, something that did not deserve their attention, and so it grew, and grew, until it is now out of control.

It is indeed true that when a country like America sneezes, countries like Nigeria will develop diarrhea. When America went into recession starting from the events of 911, America found herself in a hole she is still crawling out of; the whole world suffered the repercussions of this recession. Nigeria was worse of, being a developing country. The events in Nigeria took a nasty turn with the degradation of education at all levels, but especially at the tertiary level. The saying that when the head is affected, the whole body suffers ran true here. Education in Nigeria is still at a cross-road.

With education going downhill, every other aspect of the society followed suite. People with little or no education, and people with dubious qualifications were vying and getting positions for which they were not qualified through what is known as the “who know who” syndrome ….
(To be continued).

The more vulnerable villages in those areas where Boko Haram operates have set up vigilante groups to wade off Boko Haram attacks, but they are the ones who are truly out-armed by Boko Haram. In the latest reported attack, they were the victims. Boko Haram now combs remote villages to extort food and supplies by kidnapping in exchange for food. These remote villages are complying and not reporting these attacks for fear of reprisal.

Long before the abduction of the Chibok girls, these attacks for food had gone on un-noticed even by the authorities who sometimes feigned ignorance of the attacks. The Chibok girls abduction would have gone the same way were it not for the outrage of it all. The government of Nigeria has always skimmed over these reports, and either swept them under the carpet, and hoped that things will die down, or simply delegated the Military to take care of it. And we know how much the Military have done in recent times to quell Boko Haram, not much.

If the Chibok girl’s case had not gone international, it would have been suppressed or the government would have simply denied it ever happened. It took the international out-cry, three weeks after the abduction took place for the government to react. The non-stop ravages of Boko Haram have continued, and the government is still helpless to contain it.

The Nigerian government should understand that their damaged image is irreparable no matter how the abduction of these girls goes. When a plane crashes or a ship sinks, rescuers rush to salvage what they could from the disaster. However, a few days after the crash, the rescue team will become the recovery team. After 57 days of captivity for these girls, their situation is now almost turning into a rescue case. The thought of those girls never ever coming back is unthinkable. I, for one continue to pray and hope that they return. For this reason, I continue to hold them up with my daily reminders that they must not be forgotten.

These reminders are also to let the government of Nigeria know that they cannot brush the predicament of these girls under the carpet. With their image as damaged as it is today, they should do the right thing and step down so that perhaps another group, a new group of administrators may try where they failed. This is the right thing to do. If someone who is in charge fails to perform, that person must have the decency to step down and allow someone else to try. If this present administration fails to return these girls, they should all step down.